I’ve been thinking more about why Donna Brazile’s decision to join Fox News as a contributor bothers me so much. The core problem is normalization. She was hired so that Fox News could pretend to be a mainstream media outlet that provides diverse viewpoints.
But you just have to watch a little bit of Fox to realize that it’s a purveyor of dangerous propaganda. This ran last night:
Here's Laura Ingraham displaying my face to 2.5 million viewers and calling me a "little journo-terrorist."
I am 29.
I have no full-time job.
I am teaching a single course, for $7k, as an adjunct.This is insane. And irresponsible. It is incitement. It is not okay. pic.twitter.com/4tyj9Bktr2
— Talia Lavin, партизанка (@chick_in_kiev) March 22, 2019
And this ran earlier in the week:
Laura Ingraham says the Democrats seek "to replace you. Slowly but surely, with new voters" pic.twitter.com/raVL2qlvdu
— Jason Campbell (@JasonSCampbell) March 20, 2019
The key thing here is that Fox isn’t just reporting on extremist ideology or reflecting it, but is in fact driving it. It’s pushing an emergent politics. In an interview with Vox, the media scholar Tom Rosenstiel gets at some of what is happening:
The most important conservative television news source in America is currently pandering to an extremist president. It’s distorting the Republican Party. It’s damaging the Republican Party. It’s changing conservatism. Fox is making the news, not covering it. It’s remaking the Republican Party, not informing its audience.
What we are seeing is a feedback loop: Trump is himself a product of television, owes his fame to television and got his ideology from watching Fox News. He became the Republican standard bearer in large part because he was the most Fox Newsy candidate. The network remains the prism through which he sees the world. As the GOP became Trumpized, Fox News itself became Trumpian. Trump and Fox News now egg each other on. Figures like Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham are now the ideological vanguard of Trumpian politics, pushing it in more extreme directions. Their popularity is a sign that these trends will continue long after Trump leaves the White House. This is a dangerous dynamic.
