{"id":11352,"date":"2014-01-30T00:50:23","date_gmt":"2014-01-30T08:50:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=11352"},"modified":"2014-01-30T00:50:23","modified_gmt":"2014-01-30T08:50:23","slug":"frank-rich-fox-news-has-been-defeated-on-the-media-and-political-battlefield","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=11352","title":{"rendered":"Frank Rich: Fox News Has Been Defeated On The Media And Political Battlefield"},"content":{"rendered":"

New York Magazine columnist Frank Rich believes that the war on Fox News is over – and Fox News lost. His article published this week is titled “Stop Beating a Dead Fox,”<\/em><\/a> and counsels liberals and media critics to retreat from the battle against Roger Ailes & Company because we have already won.<\/p>\n

Rich is both right and wrong, but through it all he is clear-headed and thought provoking. But in the end his conclusion is faulty, and I will explain why along with some highlights from his article.<\/p>\n

\"Pray
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Be Sure To \u201cLIKE\u201d News Corpse On Facebook<\/a><\/center><\/p>\n

“The most interesting news about Fox News is that for some years now it has been damaging the right far more than the left. […] Democrats have won the popular vote five out of six times. You\u2019d think they\u2019d be well advised to leave Fox News to its own devices so that it can continue to shoot its own party in the foot.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The fact that Fox has been a dead, stinking albatross around the wrinkled neck of the GOP is a point I made more than four years ago in an article with the understated headline “Fox News Is Killing The Republican Party.”<\/em><\/a> Finally, the mainstream media is catching up with me. Rich continues…<\/p>\n

“The million or so viewers who remain fiercely loyal to the network are not, for the most part, and as some liberals still imagine, naive swing voters who stumble onto Fox News under the delusion it\u2019s a bona fide news channel and then are brainwashed by Ailes\u2019s talking points into becoming climate-change deniers. They arrive at the channel as proud, self-selected citizens of Fox Nation and are unlikely to defect from the channel or its politics until death do them part.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is another revelation I made when I exposed “The Cult Of Foxonality”<\/em><\/a> five years ago and observed that “Fox viewers are married to the channel and couldn\u2019t care less what\u2019s playing down the dial.”<\/em> The Fox audience are hardened partisans with a devotional attachment to their tele-church. And finally, Rich says that…<\/p>\n

“Rather than waste time bemoaning Fox\u2019s bogus journalism, liberals should encourage it. The more that Fox News viewers are duped into believing that the misinformation they are fed by Ailes is fair and balanced, the more easily they can be ambushed by reality as they were on Election Night 2012. […] we should start considering the possibility that it now works to the Democrats\u2019 advantage that Fox News does manufacture its own facts.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Here is where Rich and I part company. While there may be some entertainment value in watching floundering wingnuts desperately trying to make sense of a reality that contradicts their delusions, in the end it is bad for the nation to encourage ignorance. And even though the antics of Fox News have been proven to drive down the approval ratings of Republican politicos, we would still be better off if there weren’t a disinformation factory poisoning the minds of our friends and family and neighbors.<\/p>\n

That’s why the need to be vigilant in exposing the lies and bigotry of Fox News and other rightist propagandists is still vitally important. It is crucial that the record be set straight because an unanswered lie can too easily become a perverse version of the truth. It isn’t a mission embarked upon out of concern that the Republican Party is getting its ass whooped in national elections. It’s out of love for those who do not deserve to be exploited and abused by the mouthpieces of corporations and nationless plutocrats. So laugh, if you will, at the dunces who spew their hate-filled rhetoric of greed and bigotry, but never surrender to it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New York Magazine columnist Frank Rich believes that the war on Fox News is over – and Fox News lost. His article published this week is titled “Stop Beating a Dead Fox,” and counsels liberals and media critics to retreat from the battle against Roger Ailes & Company because we have already won. Rich is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10989,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Frank Rich: Fox News Has Been Defeated On The Media And Political Battlefield","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[33,478],"class_list":["post-11352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-fox-news","tag-frank-rich"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/pray-for-fox-jesus.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Ijg-2X6","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6176,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=6176","url_meta":{"origin":11352,"position":0},"title":"Occupy Reality: Americans Concern About Income Inequality Surges","author":"Mark NC","date":"1\/12\/2012","format":false,"excerpt":"The Pew Research Center has conducted an inquiry into the degree of divisions within American society and found that conflicts between rich and poor now outpace other sources of group tension. That result can only be interpreted as a success for the 99% and those who participated in the nationwide\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Economy"","block_context":{"text":"Economy","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=219"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":34740,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=34740","url_meta":{"origin":11352,"position":1},"title":"Fox News and Hannity Walk Back Fake Story Without Admitting Fault or Apologizing","author":"Mark NC","date":"5\/24\/2017","format":false,"excerpt":"For several weeks Fox News and other right-wing media outlets have been doing what they do best. They have been flogging a thoroughly debunked story that alleges some random impropriety on the part of Democrats or liberals. In this especially repulsive case the subject concerns a murdered former staffer of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"Sean Hannity Fox News","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/hannity-trump-twits.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/hannity-trump-twits.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/hannity-trump-twits.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":10540,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=10540","url_meta":{"origin":11352,"position":2},"title":"Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Poor Have It Way Too Good","author":"Mark NC","date":"9\/12\/2013","format":false,"excerpt":"When Fox News isn't bitching about how President Obama has fouled up the economy and caused severe hardship for the American people, they switch over to their completely contrary view that there isn't really any hardship and that the poor in America are luxuriating in a virtual paradise. To hear\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Economy"","block_context":{"text":"Economy","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=219"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8653,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=8653","url_meta":{"origin":11352,"position":3},"title":"Burying The ‘Tax The Rich’ Lede: Fox News Misrepresents Their Own Poll","author":"Mark NC","date":"12\/13\/2012","format":false,"excerpt":"You know that a \"news\" enterprise is desperately biased when they can't even report on their own polling honestly. In the case of Fox News, they have been relentlessly advocating the Republican position on the so-called \"fiscal cliff.\" They believe wholeheartedly that fighting for the wealthiest 2% to get another\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":42125,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=42125","url_meta":{"origin":11352,"position":4},"title":"The Fake Fox News Story About Seth Rich Was Planted By Russia and Promoted By Hannity","author":"Mark NC","date":"7\/9\/2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Michael Isikoff of Yahoo News has just published an extensive investigative report revealing that the bogus story about the murder of the Democratic National Committee staffer, Seth Rich, was originally planted by Russian intelligence. (Insert SHOCKED! face here). This was a completely fabricated piece of actual fake news that was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"Fox News, Sean Hannity, Vladimir Putin","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/foxnews-putin-hannity-puppet.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/foxnews-putin-hannity-puppet.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/foxnews-putin-hannity-puppet.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":6506,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=6506","url_meta":{"origin":11352,"position":5},"title":"Fox Nation vs. Reality: Taking Candy From Children","author":"Mark NC","date":"2\/28\/2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Fox Nation is reporting the results of a new study that reveals some of the character differentials between the rich and the poor. As reported in the Huffington Post: \"The report contradicts the notion that poor people are more likely to act unethically out of financial necessity. Instead, the researchers\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11352"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11352\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11354,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11352\/revisions\/11354"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}