Day: 10/29/2008

The Fox Frame: October Surprise

Posted by on October 29, 2008 at 1:50 pm. NO Comments :

It is obvious to most honest observers that this is going to be a harsh year for Republicans. At the top of the list of victims, of course, is John McCain. His floundering campaign just gets more off track everyday. His aides are sending out resumes and looking to assign blame for their failure. Some have resorted to targeting Sarah Palin, who they have called a “diva” and a “whack job.”

But now they have adopted a more insidious strategic path that amounts to an “If you can’t beat ’em join ’em.” tactic. Talk about an October Surprise! With the help of Fox News, the McCain camp is now attempting to pass off their loser as a Democrat. They must believe that they can squeeze out a few extra votes by associating themselves with the party that is poised to sweep this year’s electoral contests.

It’s not really that surprising that McCain wants to realign himself with the Kool Kidz. From the beginning his campaign seemed jinxed. In the primary, he ran out of money and had to continue with a skeleton staff that worked for free. Then the Republican convention in St. Paul was delayed due to Hurricane Gustav. Then he announces Caribou Barbie as his running mate. Then he is blind-sided by an economic crisis after admitting that he doesn’t understand economics. Then he says he’ll suspend his campaign (which he doesn’t really do) to work on a resolution to the crisis (which he doesn’t resolve) and won’t participate in a debate with Barack Obama until the crisis is over (but he debates anyway).

Every issue with which McCain sought to identify fell flat. In the beginning it was his vaunted national security and foreign policy experience that would propel him to victory, but that never took hold. Then it was energy independence. This was anchored by a proposal for a gas tax holiday and the ubiquitous and ignorant chant of “Drill, baby drill.” But oil and gas prices have come down on their own, without his phony initiatives. Now he is desperately ranting about Bill Ayers, Joe the Plumber, false allegations of voter fraud, and Socialism – even Marxism!

These are the wails of an expiring beast in the wilderness. It’s almost sad. At least we all have the prospect of Obama’s victory next week to cheer us up.

The Race Tightens – For Cable News That Is

Posted by on October 29, 2008 at 1:44 am. 3 Comments :

The election season has been a boon to the cable TV biz. All three of the news networks have enjoyed higher ratings. But the distribution of the audience expansion has not been exactly equal.

Fox News, the long-time leader, retains its position and moves up from fourth to second. CNN has a respectable showing by bumping up four steps from ninth to fifth. But MSNBC pulls off the master stroke by leaping from twenty-third to ninth, marking its first appearance in the top ten.

Much of the strong performance of MSNBC has to be credited to their powerhouse prime time lineup grounded by Keith Olbermann’s Countdown. But the real difference was made by the launch of Rachel Maddow’s new program, which has burst onto the air to great acclaim and audience appreciation. Her program seems to have revitalized the whole prime time schedule. As a result MSNBC is more frequently having nights like last night where the three hour block from 7:00pm to 10:00pm was number one, beating both CNN and Fox.

It is because of performance like this that Bill O’Reilly is whining about the Nielsen ratings being fixed. He just can’t bring himself to accept that more people are tuning him out and Olbermann in. To O’Reilly, any evidence that he is not the popular icon he imagines himself to be, must have been forged by his enemies who conspire against him from their underground lairs. As for Maddow knocking out both Larry King and Hannity and Colmes, after just a few weeks on the air, there is little precedent for such instant success.

The writing is on the wall. With the three news networks all bunched much closer together, Fox News is becoming ever more hysterical as their agenda is being rejected by America. So they try harder to push ridiculous fabrications, but the result is they make themselves look even sillier and they lose more viewers. In the past few months they’ve gone from calling Barack Obama a Muslim to branding him a Socialist. Sometime between now and election day, look for Fox to reveal that Obama and the Boston Strangler were never photographed together. Hmmm…Coincidence?