Fox News: a modest proposal
Perhaps FOX News will do just fine in the age of Obama, its producers and talent boldly defying the cultural and political elite with a trademark, collective sneer. But I have a suggestion that might put the network on surer footing in case these treacherous liberal times last a while. What if FOX were to dispense with its commitment to “Fair & Balanced” and morph into a conservative news network? Surely there is room on the perpetually expanding dial for a conservative alternative to mainstream news.
I’m only half joking. FOX, of course, has been right from the start. And as a feisty, self-dramatizing outpost of conservative views, FOX actually does a pretty good job—it informs, entertains and rallies the troops. But even among its fans, few people take FOX’s “Fair & Balanced” slogan seriously. Which is exactly why FOX should shed the pretense and embrace its conservative identity: it has only its shackles—and a nagging reputation for hypocrisy—to lose.
When FOX first unveiled “Fair & Balanced,” the slogan was widely viewed as a barbed joke at the expense of FOX’s rival networks, especially CNN, which conservatives had taken to calling the “Clinton News Network” to highlight its purported spin. But more recently, the joke has turned on FOX itself. An industry of liberal media watchers, led by MediaMatters.org, has made FOX-watching a full-time job. No misstep is too minimal or mundane to avoid inclusion on Media Matters’ tally (1,800 and climbing) of the network’s real and alleged sins. FOX used to thrive on this kind of opprobrium. But FOX’s life under the microscope is also producing gobs of free content for Jon Stewart’s Daily Show and other laughmeisters. Unless the Obama administration proves as comically combustible as its predecessor, FOX is poised to replace the White House as the main engine of Comedy Central’s fun machine.
Rather than spend the Obama years as the butt of Stewart’s lethal humor (and as home base to a dwindling supply of cranky white guys), the network could replace “Fair & Balanced” with something more along the lines of “conservative and credible.” Both parts of that formula would take work. For the past eight years, at least, FOX has seemed more Republican than conservative, cheering the Bush administration without much regard for the ghosts of Edmund Burke or Barry Goldwater. With Republicans now out of power, FOX could replace partisan loyalty with ideological ferment, offering itself as a nexus for smart, principled conservatives (they can find some of the very best of them writing for theweek.com) to critique Democratic governance and chart a conservative rebirth.
Embracing a conservative label wouldn’t justify bogus reporting, like FOX’s claim that Obama attended an Islamic school in Indonesia. And it wouldn’t transform the crude malice of remarks like the infamous “terrorist fist jab” into anything resembling intelligence. But by declaring its ideological colors, Fox would claim a degree of honesty and authenticity that none of its rivals could match. MSNBC’s as yet unacknowledged move to become the anti-FOX network of the left would instantly appear in an awkward, less reputable light. With a little effort, FOX could even throw a philosophical monkey wrench into the whole notion of journalistic objectivity—putting every news organization on the defensive in a discussion in which a self-declared bias is the high ground. Most important, by coming out of the closet, FOX could remove the taint of hypocrisy that undermines its credibility and makes the network such a running gag. The Daily Show’s ratings hang in the balance.
Having lost an ally in the White House, whose official communications reinforced Fox’s own take on the news, and with no new Gingrich Revolution in sight, the network is arguably more of an outlier today than it has ever been. Sensing vulnerability, liberal critics, like The Washington Post’s Harold Meyerson, are hoping Fox continues to stake its destiny on the nation’s shrinking ranks of hard-core Republicans. In a recent column, Meyerson described FOX News as “tactically, for now, a great gift to liberals and Democrats” because the network encourages the most conservative Republicans to double down and resist change, thereby continuing the Republican Party’s marginalization.
Of course, FOX prides itself on not caring what whiny liberals in the polluted mainstream media think. Trouble is, the center for now has shifted—and it’s not clear how or when or where it will shift back. There’s a lot less whining among liberals these days and, when the subject comes round to FOX, a whole lot more belly laughs. For a news organization, even one as idiosyncratic as FOX News, comedy’s a killer.
