Republicans Have Officially Fallen Out of Love with Fox News

[babylonsister]

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/politics/2013/10/republicans-have-officially-fallen-out-love-fox-news/71098/


Republicans Have Officially Fallen Out of Love with Fox News
Connor Simpson


"I'm all out of love, I'm so lost without you," Air Supply once sang about a romance beyond repair, but the same lyric applies to Republicans' current relationship with Fox News.

Yes, it seems the current GOP can no longer like their television channel after the tumultuous year Roger Ailes and co. have had. Fox News has fallen out of favor with Republicans after two years of untouched supremacy as the party's brand of choice across any and every medium, according to a recent YouGov survey. YouGov measures which brands are preferred by each party (Republicans, Democrats, Independents) by adding and subtracting negative feedback on a 100 to -100 scale. In 2011, Fox News led all brands with 68 support points, a full 5 points ahead of the rest. In 2012, Fox News led with 64.5 support points, 1.7 points above the rest. This year? In 2013, Fox News didn't even make the top 10.

So where did it all go wrong? Some trace the recent Republican-Fox divorce all the way back to last November, when poor Megyn Kelly roamed through the Fox hallways looking for an answer to Karl Rove's ridiculous question: why isn't Mitt Romney president? Fox viewers who spent the months preceding the election listening to Sean Hannity tell them how rosy things were going for the Romney campaign were just as incredulous on election night as Karl Rove. In that way, he was, however briefly, a man of the people.

Right after the election, Slate's Allison Benedikt argued Republicans should stop trusting the network because of its impossibly close ties with the Republican Party if they want honest news. "After Karl Rove’s on-air freakout and the aforementioned MegynCam challenge, Fox was forced to acknowledge that Obama had won the damn election. And now what are they left with?" Benedikt asked. "A whole lot of viewers who are quite surprised to find that they are once again outnumbered by Americans who actually like better access to health care and don’t all keep Carrie Mathison-style timelines of the Benghazi cables on their living room walls." A Public Policy Poll released in January showed a serious decline in trust during the months after the election. Only 52 percent of those who identify as "somewhat conservative," said they trust Fox News, down from 65 percent last year. Hardline conservatives trust Fox News less, too: 13 percent said they don't trust Fox News anymore, compared to 6 percent last year.

Interestingly, new research says Fox News, from 1997-2002, had a noticeable effect on the way Republicans voted in federal elections. (Hint: they voted Republican, but data shows Fox News guaranteed they voted within their party.) They probably wouldn't have the same influence today. The conservative juggernaut is swaying, falling, teetering on brink of self-parody and un-truthiness. One can only presume this is why they're remaking the anchor line-up with established conservative faces and bringing in giant iPads. Fox is asking what it is without Republicans, letting the party know it's not too late to say it was wrong.

[VanillaRhapsody]

1. They can become the TeaBilly Network News!

TNN! I like it!

[Bluenorthwest]

2. Their numbers suck, and this is all great, great news. Now, about that Homeland reference

[xfundy]

3. IMO, they're muddying the waters again.

Attempting to appear a little more "mainstream," especially as other big 'news' networks have gone out of their way to mimic them.

Of course, as the cancervatives are more and more unwilling to compromise within their own factions, I'm looking for the popcorn machine.

[freshwest]

4. Thought they were all going to the RonPaulTV network or some other sewer!

[ChisolmTrailDem]

5. "...don’t all keep Carrie Mathison-style timelines of the Benghazi

cables on their living room walls."

I don't know who Carrie Mathison is but I'm pretty sure I'm



for good reason.

[anneboleyn]

9. She is the main character on Homeland, played by actress Claire Danes.

Great show -- the acting is fantastic. Carrie is in the CIA.

[TlalocW]

6. The only pundit on FOX that I saw

Actually acknowledge that polls had Obama ahead of Romney was Dennis Miller, and he followed it with the caveat that he thought the numbers were wrong.

As much as republicans were shocked on election night, I was shocked at how many people were shocked. I never fully realized the bubble that conservatives willingly put themselves in.

TlalocW

[Ruby the Liberal]

14. Is it their bubble or ours?

I was on edge in 2008, but figured Obama would coast through 2012 given Mittens. I was dumbstruck to the reaction of (disbelief?) that Mitt lost. In my mind, it was a given and everyone knew that. Had NO CLUE that faux kept promoting a Rmoney win as inevitable until after the election. After the election, someone posted a video of some wingnut pontificator 'ensuring' an '86 Reagan landslide for Romney and I was just gobsmacked.

They never saw it coming...

Or did we underestimate the bubble these people live in?

[Sanity Claws]

7. Does this mean the impending end of The Colbert Report?

If Fox News disappears, Colbert won't have the know-all pundits to parody.

[progressoid]

8. But there are still a shitload of idiotic viewers watching them

October 2013 Ratings: Fox News #1 For 142 Consecutive Months

http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/category/ratings

[Gore1FL]

10. Kind of an odd comparison of things.

[dorkzilla]

13. Funny--we have PBS, they have The History Channel

Which no longer has squat to do with history. Betcha they think they're watching highbrow teevee.

[KansDem]

11. "But will you still respect me in the morning?"

"Yeah, sure. You know I will! Let's get-it-on now!!"

[William769]

12. A love hate relationship.

But to stupid to break it off.