Why Does Fox News Have More Power Than Any Progressive in the Country?

[Joanne98]

As we can all see now, when Fox says jump, the Obama administration asks how high? (Then jumps one inch less and considers it a progressive victory). Is there anyone Obama won't fire or throw under the bus if Fox asks him to? What if they ask Obama to fire himself? Would he do it? Or would he just fire Biden and say he met them halfway?

If the firing of Shirley Sherrod was the first time they had done this, then all of the criticism they have received might be a bit much. But as we have learned from this incident (which the rest of us already knew, with the apparent exception of Fox News and Andrew Breitbart), context matters. We've seen the rest of the tape on the Obama administration and it isn't pretty.

Van Jones, ACORN, Dawn Johnsen, Shirley Sherrod. First sign of trouble, throw someone overboard. When they fired Van Jones, I said they were only encouraging Fox. But that wasn't some genius prediction; it was only the most obvious thing in the world. Do you think the bully won't take your lunch money tomorrow if you give it to him today?

Since this seems so obvious, why can't the supposedly brilliant guys in the Obama administration figure it out? Why can't they see it's such a bad idea to keep giving in to Fox and bowing their heads? It's so bad now, they're bragging about their efficiency in genuflecting. Jim Messina, Deputy Chief of Staff, congratulated everyone the day after Sherrod was fired about the speed and agility with which they serviced Fox News. So, what's the strategy behind what appears to be pathetic cowardice to the rest of us?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cenk-uygur/why-does-fox-news-have-mo_b_655327.html

[Enrique]

1. Cenk!

:popcorn:

[msongs]

2. some people want to be loved by somebody who will NEVER love them ever nt

[tsuki]

3. Because they attack, attack, attack. They appeal to the worst in

each of us, the fears, the irrational, the bigotry.

[SalmonFritters]

4. Because they're looking for votes

Like it or not Fox has far and away the biggest viewership (which was news to me since I never watch it) and can sway opinion.

In all fairness though, they didn't ask for Sherrod to be fired, and didn't even cover it on their TV show. The administration was paranoid about backlash from the story they had been covering, the NAACP/Tea Party scrap, and was looking to show they weren't racists.

I think this is a byproduct of the hypersensitivy regarding race lately. The NAACP needs to stop calling everyone a racist, the Repubs need to shut their race baiters up and people just need to mellow out. Otherwise, this isn't the last scene like this we'll get to slog through.

Can you believe this knocked Obama's Financial Overhaul signing off the front page? That's just crazy.

[NJmaverick]

5. Because they have a highly rates TV Cable show that reaches millions of viewers 24X7

I am frustrated the the left has never developed a counter to it.

[Joanne98]

7. Plus, the average age of Bill O'Reilly's audience is 71 years old.

All their viewers will be dead in ten years!

[Frisbee]

24. I have (sadly) reached the conclusion that...

the average American is either an idiot or a racist (and frequently both) and loves FAUX news because it reinforces what they WANT to believe.

[ihavenobias]

23. My question is why Fox is included in all basic cable packages but MSNBC isn't.

Does Fox pay more and or take a lower cut (not sure how these agreements are structured) or? And if so, maybe MSNBC should consider stepping up to see if more exposure offsets the increased cost/decreased profit.

Assuming of course that's the issue.

[mwooldri]

28. You would be correct in stating that Fox News pays for access to basic cable.

Usually cable companies pay a "tv channel" for the rights to air that channel's content on their cable network.

That's why you will see now and again that a certain national affiliated station won't be aired on such-and-such a cable network because the station owners and the cable company didn't get an agreement together... sometimes it is just brinksmanship, sometimes the channel actually goes dark.

When you're selling a bundle of channels to a cable network, you can specify conditions. Without content, cable TV is erm... empty. Cable TV networks need content.

CNN gets carriage on every basic system because it was first on. Fox gets carriage cos Murdoch paid for it. MSNBC gets carried if there is viewer demand and if the right price is negotiated. btw here msnbc is on basic cable. I just think Comcast have something against GE.

[realisticphish]

6. My first thought

Is that, frankly, they have a lot of viewers. And not all wingnuts, either. Plus, as it was said, they influence other news sources.


On the other had, the author is 100% in saying that they will criticize Obama regardless. He could personally figure out a way to get every person in America a free, 80-mpg, high-powered sports car, and they would complain because it was the wrong shade of blue.

[Doctor_J]

20. Bullshit

O'Reilly has about 3M viewers. That is less than 1% of the populace. The admin is weak, and so are we for not forcibly taking the airwaves from the murderous traitors.

[Warpy]

8. Because it's not just Pox

Anybody who thinks the smear of Sherrod was just an out of control video editor feeding something to a jerk like Breitbart and there to Pox is a naive.

I understand the GOP talking heads on the Sunday gasbag shows were against the NAACP as a racist organization. Breitbart has said the whole thing was supposed to paint the NAACP as a racist organization. There is a hint that the original tape was handed to these people by one of Rove's aides.

Make no mistake, this stuff is all an orchestrated advertising campaign when it happens and just as the boobs go out and buy the latest new deodorant line or beer that promises to make them party animals, they fall hook, line and sinker for smear campaigns.

This one missed, for once, and the target became Sherrod, not the organization she was speaking to. It was also a lot easier to disprove and was done so more quickly.

However, the people who allude to the Mighty Wurlitzer of the far right know what they're talking about. These things are handled the way any massive advertising blitz is handled, at all levels from an obscure cable station to elected officials to the corporate nightly news. That's the usual progression and it usually works.

Unfortunately, government by ad agency does not.

[time_has_come]

9. Because the Obama administration gives it to them. This has been a valuable lesson....will they

learn from it? We'll see.

[NorthCarolina]

10. Because DLC New Dems are more closely aligned politically with the right

and they despise Liberals and their populist politics as much as any proud GOPer does. I believe that many are assuming a reluctance to challenge the status quo, when in fact what we are seeing is complicity with the status quo.

[ihavenobias]

26. That's true too. n/t

[Demeter]

11. It's the Benjamins

They know how to get them, and how to spread them around for the biggest effect.

[yurbud]

12. Cenk should be Obama's press secretary and chief of staff

[roxiejules]

13. Saudi FOX ownership shouldn't be overlooked.....

from Think Progress:

http://thinkprogress.org/2010/02/10/right-rebels-foxnews/

Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal owns a 7 percent stake in News Corp — the parent company of Fox News — making him the largest shareholder outside the family of News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch. Alwaleed has grown close with the Murdoch enterprise, recently endorsing James Murdoch to succeed his father and creating a content-sharing agreement with Fox News for his own media conglomerate, Rotana.

Joseph Farah, publisher of the far right WorldNetDaily, blasted Fox News for its relationship with Alwaleed. Farah noted correctly that Alwaleed had boasted in the past about forcing Fox News to change its content relating to its coverage of riots in Paris, and warned that such foreign ownership of American media is “really dangerous.”

Indeed, in the “rare” interview Alwaleed gave last month, he reaffirmed his “alliance” with the Murdoch family and told Neil Cavuto why he has a personal stake in influencing American politics:

– On continuing America’s dependence on fossil fuels, Saudia Arabian oil: “Saudi Arabia’s strategic alliance with the United States will continue and as a derivative of that, the link with the oil between oil and dollars is there. The bulk of our GDP, the bulk of budget comes from oil and oil is still a dollar based commodity.” As Media Matters has documented, Fox News is a reliable source of misinformation on clean energy, and has aggressively attacked efforts to move America away from a fossil fuel dependent economy.

– On opposing financial reforms, bank responsibility fee: “In a way I’m conflicted because I’m invested in Citigroup but at the more global picture, I’m a big supporter of the United States. I believe taxing the banks right now is not the right thing at all. It’s like you have a patient coming out of an ICU.” Alwaleed owns a $4.3 billion dollars stake in Citigroup, a massive bank that spent millions lobbying against financial reform last year.

With the Citizens United Supreme Court decision essentially freeing corporations to spend unlimited amounts in campaigns, theoretically Alwaleed can pressure the American corporations he owns stock in to spend millions — or even billions — of dollars attacking candidates he opposes.

[tsuki]

15. In 2002, he told the Saudi Daily Arab News that Arabs should not

boycott the US, but rather use their leverage to obtain dominance of the US economy. He proposed not only lobbying congress and the WH, but the US society in general. He fights clean energy, global warming.

[roxiejules]

17. Bin Laden: Goal is to bankrupt U.S.

from 2004 -

"We are continuing this policy in bleeding America to the point of bankruptcy. Allah willing, and nothing is too great for Allah," bin Laden said in the transcript.

"All that we have to do is to send two mujahedeen to the furthest point east to raise a piece of cloth on which is written al Qaeda, in order to make generals race there to cause America to suffer human, economic and political losses without their achieving anything of note other than some benefits for their private corporations," bin Laden said.


http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/11/01/binladen.tape/

[ihavenobias]

14. K & R n/t

[20score]

16. K&R!

[laurel46]

18. Power? Popular? Where's the proof.

After the last few years, I don't believe much of anything anymore that comes from the media. It's good to be skeptical and ask for evidence or proof and I don't believe the nielson ratings system (or any, for that matter) is any more accurate then moody's. Moody's is now responsible for inaccurate ratings with the new financial bill reform and Moody's is hesitating to give ratings at the moment because of it's new liability. What a joke! Moody's was caught giving inaccurate ratings by the SEC and fined so why believe other ratings run by corporate America? So as far as fox goes, I say to give them a taste of their own medicine and claim that they are not a popular news show and watched by very few Americans. What is their proof? Ratings? Really, no one should fall for that line anymore so deny their reality in favor of a "progressive reality".

Fox is only popular on sites that run the show all day, like airports, corporate waiting rooms, and other places, but not on home television. Virtually no one chooses to watch fox but seniors and the mentally ill who are home when beck is on. It's all a scam with ratings systems.

[Citizen Worker]

19. This is why there will not be an alternative to fossil fuels until the last drop is squeezed from

the rocks. Oil is the only globally traded commodity denominated in dollars thus the dollar is the world's reserve currency. Without oil the excess dollars would not be sopped up by the energy consuming nations. Without oil the dollar is doomed and we'd all be broke.

– On continuing America’s dependence on fossil fuels, Saudia Arabian oil: “Saudi Arabia’s strategic alliance with the United States will continue and as a derivative of that, the link with the oil between oil and dollars is there. The bulk of our GDP, the bulk of budget comes from oil and oil is still a dollar based commodity.”

[Name removed]

21. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[ShamelessHussy]

22. lol

[CherylK]

25. K & R!

:banghead:

[Vidar]

27. Murdoch has more money than God & an almost controlling

interest in the media of two world powers & Australia.