Conservatives say: Fox News Is 'Most Powerful Republican Institution In Contemporary America

[UCmeNdc]

On my C&L Gmail email, (yes, it rhymes) I receive Republican strategist and TV pundit Alex Castellanos' notes and he gets really honest about the power Fox News has in conservative circles.

What is the most powerful Republican institution in contemporary American politics? Most of us would admit, “Fox News.” It’s the stage on which Republicans play. Fox is also a news network, of course, and a good one, providing needed balance. The evidence is their ratings. Millions of americans leave their sets turned to Fox as their news source throughout their day.

Primarily, however, Fox is a political platform. It is the Republican Party in the electronic world. National Review and William F. Buckley created the platform in the age of print, an ideological rolls royce for conservative elites. Since then, the world has been connected and democratized by new technologies. Now, Fox is the Republican Party for the masses, a gop hyundai with extra cup holders and synthetic leather. It’s conservatism for screens instead of pages.


http://crooksandliars.com/2016/01/alex-castellanos-fox-news-most-powerful

[randys1]

1. And what is funny is fox allegedly exists to counter liberal news entities, which do not

now or ever exist.

The only thing liberal was some or most of the reporters, because liberal translates to worldly , educated, intelligent, mature, etc

[pokerfan]

2. How Roger Ailes Built the Fox News Fear Factory

To watch even a day of Fox News – the anger, the bombast, the virulent paranoid streak, the unending appeals to white resentment, the reporting that’s held to the same standard of evidence as a late-­October attack ad – is to see a refraction of its founder, one of the most skilled and fearsome operatives in the history of the Republican Party. As a political consultant, Ailes repackaged Richard Nixon for television in 1968, papered over Ronald Reagan’s budding Alzheimer’s in 1984, shamelessly stoked racial fears to elect George H.W. Bush in 1988, and waged a secret campaign on behalf of Big Tobacco to derail health care reform in 1993. "He was the premier guy in the business," says former Reagan campaign manager Ed Rollins. "He was our Michelangelo."'

<...>

The result is one of the most powerful political machines in American history. One that plays a leading role in defining Republican talking points and advancing the agenda of the far right. Fox News tilted the electoral balance to George W. Bush in 2000, prematurely declaring him president in a move that prompted every other network to follow suit. It helped create the Tea Party, transforming it from the butt of late-night jokes into a nationwide insurgency capable of electing U.S. senators. Fox News turbocharged the Republican takeover of the House last fall, and even helped elect former Fox News host John Kasich as the union-busting governor of Ohio – with the help of $1.26 million in campaign contributions from News Corp. And by incubating a host of potential GOP contenders on the Fox News payroll– including Sarah Palin, Mike Huckabee, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum – Ailes seems determined to add a fifth presidential notch to his belt in 2012. "Everything Roger wanted to do when he started out in politics, he’s now doing 24/7 with his network," says a former News Corp. executive. "It’s come full circle."

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/how-roger-ailes-built-the-fox-news-fear-factory-20110525

[Octafish]

3. Admires authoritarian propaganda, not to put it NAZI.

According to the new biography (and a history going back a ways in GOP circles), The Loudest Voice In The Room: How The Brilliant, Bombastic Roger Ailes Built Fox News — And Divided A Country:

Ailes was “a big fan” of Leni Riefenstahl, Hitler’s notorious favorite filmmaker—not for her Nazi ideology but for her cinematic talent as a propagandist. “Ailes was especially taken by Riefenstahl’s use of camera angles.”

SOURCE: http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2014/01/extraordinary-revelations-about-roger.html

Terry Gross of Fresh Air interviewed Gabriel Sherman, the guy who wrote, the book today.

This is the kind of information that Fox viewers might appreciate knowing before watching their television screens.

Thank you for the great bio on the GOP stooge, pokerfan! Sorry to pile on, but there are things everyone should know: Roger Ailes and the Big Money has been in bed with Big NAZI for a long time.

[hifiguy]

4. "Institution" is a profoundly apt choice of terminology.

As in "mental institution" a/k/a funny farm, laughing academy, the place where the nuts hunt the squirrels.