Stating that Fox News is the least
trusted news source for Americans is generally accepted as “stating
the obvious” (even some conservatives must make up the 46% of
people who outright condemn the network). But a recent poll by the
New Public Policy Polling finds Fox News Network at a four year low
in approval rating; in addition to this, those who do not trust Fox
News Network are most likely to trust any alternatives to the network
for their news (even renowned liberally leaning networks such as
MSNBC).
We have to ask ourselves, though, why
are less and less people buying into the conservative bias? A liberal
might say “because people are becoming more enlightened” (a less
polite liberal may say “because people are becoming less and less
stupid”). In any case, the intelligence of Fox News viewers and
former viewers likely has nothing to do with this outcome.
Consider this: the Republican Party,
specifically, is changing— it is most likely breaking apart, at
best, or outright falling apart, at the worst. If we consider the
conservative-Republican favoring bias which Fox News Network
represents, we have to ask ourselves how is Fox breaking apart and/or
in which direction is Fox News heading?
Sparing ourselves the liberal
sentiment (“Fox News is going down”) and taking the question
seriously— as though bias is a neutral or good thing— we can see
that Fox News is becoming less and less popular amongst Republicans
and conservatives in general because it is only appealing to the
neo-liberals and ultra conservatives (remember, neo-liberal and ultra
conservative are essentially the same thing nowadays).
Now we ask why
Fox News is appealing to a specific grouping of conservatives rather
than the entire body of conservatives. The answer is actually quite
simple: an agenda must go to extremes in the hopes that falling short
may result in the desired outcome. When such a rift occurs in the
same movement, all that agenda can serve are the targets that have
clung to those extremes.
Therefore,
it's my prediction that as Republicans in the socio-political realm
separate themselves as “Tea Party” members or right leaning
libertarians (as well as some conservatives setting themselves apart
from those identities), Fox News will continue to crumble until the
bias it presents is so thickly riddled with the radical that it will
seem “Onion”-ish to Democrats and a majority of Republicans alike
(as it already appears to be doing).
On a
slightly separate note, I'd like to address the conservative concern
for liberally biased media. If we consider the number of folks who
prefer any other
network to Fox, what we have is not a plurality of news viewers who
prefer a liberal network, but a plurality of news viewers who prefer
not to watch a specific network for a specific reason. MSNBC may be
notoriously liberal, but that's not all people are watching. The only
people who seem to continue watching Fox News Network are those who
refuse to watch anything else because they deem nothing
conservatively appealing enough, and it is the pursuit of a bias
which should not matter in the face of receiving truthful and factual
information and that fact is ultimately the reason why the network is
failing. (As far as the reliability of American news in general—
only a separate article can address that concern).
~Joe
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