3. robotech – You posit that since Fox is centrist there is not room for another center/right Big Media entity. I respectfully disagree, because while Fox’s panels and hard news reporting strive for balance, the high profile prime time hosts like O’Reilly and Hannity are fairly consistently conservative. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
A more important bias on Fox is the tabloid hue which comes into clear focus whenever the opportunity to jump into the fray presents itself. They’re good at it, the audience knows it, and it’s as much a part of the business model as Fox’s openness to the conservative perspective.
I’m not suggesting they change, but that there is a gap because of the vast untapped audience, including many swing voters of an upper-middle socioeconomic profile, who have better things to think about than (this week’s references) Kanye West’s bad behavior, the specifics on Mackenzie Phillips, a Kardashian wedding, or another random murder.
A reformed CBS, ABC, or NBC News would not have to stain itself with tabloid drek to attract the middle class center. It would have to seek out stories like “When Work Doesn’t Pay For The Middle Class” from the new Forbes, which demonstrates in human terms how needs-based government programs and tax grab-backs are undermining the middle class work ethic.
More importantly, a new center-right entity could exert a larger cultural footprint. We need stories which extol job creators, celebrate our traditional national identity, and make a dynamic, amusing case for good behavior in everyday life. In a sense you could say we need to take back “the establishment” from the “counterculture.”
