...that Tailgunner Joe only left the Senate feet first. He died midway through his second term, though is popularity waned after the Army-McCarthy hearings and subsequent censure by the Senate. Even the Senate didn't try to oust him.The Fox News texting scandal should be the biggest story in the country, but it's already fading. Why? Because we all know they won't lose a single viewer over this. 2-3 minute read this morning explaining why their audience doesn't feel betrayed. https://t.co/x2chlW0wCY
— Amanda Marcotte (@AmandaMarcotte) February 21, 2023
Scandal is not the powerful tool popular fiction tells you it is. Nixon only resigned because it was clear he was going to be the first President to be impeached AND removed from office. Trump was impeached twice, and is running for a second term a second time. Which would make him the first President to be a lame-duck the moment he was elected (not re-elected), in U.S. history.
The FoxNews story isn't a bigger story because it's about employees of a news organization. Where was the breathless coverage of Jeff Gerth or Judith Miller? Gene Lyons got two books out of Whitewater, but he remained a reporter from Arkansas, not a journalist for the NYT. The MSM doesn't cover stories about other news company's employees, except to note when Bill O'Reilly is forced out, or Loud Obbs is removed from his platform. And even then it's mostly the immediate event that gets any attention. I can think of a number of talking heads on CNN who've left under ignominious circumstances, but no one talked about it much, or for long.
It's the nature of the industry, not the nature of the scandal or the FoxNews audience.
Everything has to happen within half an hour with time out for commercials or it is meaningless. That is the legacy of modern media.
ReplyDeleteOh, and there has to be a satisfying denouement at the end of the show.
ReplyDelete