I’ve noticed it, too, over the last couple of years. It seemed to turn Left (ok, to be sure, more centrist) as the TEA Party kept taking a pounding a couple of years ago. I’ve mentioned it to TMEW a number of times – Fox’s hard line has gone limp. More oft than I’d care to say, I’d say that the commentariat are retreating from the stances that made me want to watch it. And I’m not the only one that’s caught it, either (reformatted, emphasis mine):
On his daily radio program, Limbaugh said “he has found when talking to people, including media people, in the east coast” and places like Washington, Boston, and South Florida that “virtually everybody thinks of Fox News as a conservative network.” Limbaugh said he travels to Missouri for Christmas and the holidays and goes on golf trips all over the country and, “I’m here to tell you Fox News is not considered the conservative network that is used to be.”
He said he is “not trying to start anything up” and added that “when you hear the media” who “are all leftists” talk about Fox News, “it may as well be the John Birch Society as far as they’re concerned” or “whatever evil right-wing organization” and “that’s why they hate it.” “That’s what they think it is,” he said the day after Fox News mocked and taunted GOP presidential frontrunner Donald Trump in a press release and compelled him to skip Thursday’s debate.
But Limbaugh said that, “You go out to the heartland of this country, and it’s not so much.”“What would a conservative network be doing giving time to Michael Moore? Why would New York Times and Washington Post reporters be on the air to give opinions on a conservative network?” Limbaugh asked. “This is what people are saying out there… that I hear.”
Like David Gregory, former host of Meet The Press that famously waved a 30 round AR magazine making fun of 2nd Amendment supporters – and breaking the Washington DC law at the same time (those mags are illegal in the District)? Look, I think it is great that Fox does bring on the other side for the alternative view. However, that more Progressive view seems to be getting a bit longer and a bit stronger over the last couple of years – and it is a trending matter.
Remember, Fox became such a big success because they saw an underserved population in the news marketplace – like 50% of the US that had grown tired of the other news outlets making sport of them and their beliefs. Fox filled that niche quite well. But, like formerly conservative politicians and activists that lose their focus and start to drift aimlessly to the Establishment, is Fox doing the news equivalent?
Sure, it is far more to the Right than MSNBC and CNN, but that’s a very low bar over which to step. But is it where it was? And will people make the effort they once did to follow it? They still beat the pants off of all the other cable nets but…
(H/T: Big Journalism)
