{"id":1690,"date":"2010-03-26T14:46:54","date_gmt":"2010-03-26T18:46:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/000af36.netsolhost.com\/wordpress1\/2010\/03\/26\/does-the-gop-work-for-fox-news\/"},"modified":"2010-03-26T14:46:54","modified_gmt":"2010-03-26T18:46:54","slug":"does-the-gop-work-for-fox-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/2010\/03\/26\/does-the-gop-work-for-fox-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Does the GOP Work for Fox News?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>David Frum, the conservative speechwriter for W, who criticized Congressional Republicans for their healthcare strategy, has lost his job at the American Enterprise Institute due to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.politico.com\/playbook\/0310\/playbook998.html\" target=\"_blank\">AEI donor pressure<\/a>.&#160;&#160; In <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.abcnews.com\/nightlinedailyline\/2010\/03\/david-frum-on-gop-now-we-work-for-fox.html\" target=\"_blank\">an interview with ABC<\/a> (I can\u2019t get the embed to work), he makes an astute observation.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Republicans originally thought that Fox worked for us and now we&#8217;re discovering we work for Fox. And this balance here has been completely reversed. The thing that sustains a strong Fox network is the thing that undermines a strong Republican party.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Fox is the 800 lb. gorilla of the right.&#160; (Rush Limbaugh is the 700 lb. gorilla, though he looks like he\u2019s put on a few pounds lately.)&#160; I don\u2019t watch Fox enough to know if it ever criticizes the GOP Congressional leadership for being too extreme, but if its right-wing agenda is putting the GOP in a box with a padlock on it, the implications for both are intriguing.&#160; <\/p>\n<p>If some of the more moderate Republicans start to exert themselves, can they withstand the Fox assault?&#160; If they begin to boycott Fox because they would get pummeled, can the network sustain itself with only the most strident voices?&#160; I\u2019m told that Fox actually has a good following among independent voters.&#160; Will they desert the network if it is only the wing nuts?&#160; GOP leadership as guests must give it some seal of approval to independents, and if they leave, will a part of its audience?<\/p>\n<p>MSNBC, most notably Chris Matthews, has a few right-of-center guests.&#160; I\u2019m not sure if Rachel Maddow tries hard to get the other side and is shunned.&#160; I wouldn&#8217;t be surprised if Olbermann avoids them; he seems only capable of pandering questions to the left.&#160; Matthews and especially Maddow can hold their own, so it\u2019s a disappointment to me that she doesn\u2019t have more opponents on her show.&#160; But MSNBC has been critical of Democrats, especially the president and conservative Dems.&#160; (I\u2019ve rarely seen its hosts criticize the most liberal Dems, unless it was Rep. Kucinich for threatening to vote against the healthcare bill.)<\/p>\n<p>If the GOP leadership were smart, they\u2019d go on Fox and push back.&#160; If they were smart\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>David Frum, the conservative speechwriter for W, who criticized Congressional Republicans for their healthcare strategy, has lost his job at the American Enterprise Institute due to AEI donor pressure.&#160;&#160; In an interview with ABC (I can\u2019t get the embed to work), he makes an astute observation. Republicans originally thought that Fox worked for us and&hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/2010\/03\/26\/does-the-gop-work-for-fox-news\/\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[43,187,121,45],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1690"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1690"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1690\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}