Roger Ailes is as paranoid, hysterical and deluded as Jack Welch, but he does grasp that this is unsustainable. He fired Glenn Beck and replaced him with a dumb panel show because he knew Beck was going too far to be useful. “The Nightly Apocalyptic Death Cult Report” is decent for ratings and great for buzz but it doesn’t help Republicans win elections, or at least doesn’t help them remain able to win many elections in the long term.
Pundits and people with books to hawk spend a lot of time purporting to explain the wingnut mindset, which is a long way ’round of describing the way your dog can’t do math. Fox Republicans don’t have values, they have brand loyalties, which is why they’re so fact-free. You can make an objective argument to me about why your football team is better, you could make me watch while they win the Super Bowl in front of me, but you will never, ever convince me that the Bears don’t suck.
They’re Republicans because liberals blow, full stop, and that’s all you need to give them.
Trouble is, it’s not where the money is. The money is in being an effective thief, not in cheering on Willie Sutton from the sidelines. The pundits that helped build your brand by pretending you were one of them are working for dying media outlets publishing conventional wisdom that’s neither. A majority of the electorate is over your bullshit. So now what do you do?
A.
Hearing the news hype on the “fiscal cliff” the last couple of days makes me wonder if Faux et al. really have learned that constant hype and lying isn’t a good strategy. (And I’m thinking of what I’ve been exposed to not on Faux, but the less extreme CNN).
I’ve always wondered how Beck has escaped investigation of his gold-coin hyping as being a pump-n-dump. The only thing I can figure out is that the coins aren’t traded on the market and therefore not under the SEC.
And as quick as the conservatives are to dismiss/vilifay someone as being a felon, how come Faux seems to be the collective of repubs either disgraced or actually convicted. Not only did talk radio quickly pick up G Gordon Liddy and Oliver North after they left the administration, but I saw a few weeks ago that Faux has picked up Appalachian Trail Sanford.