Let’s be clear about something: The left smells blood in the case of Rupert Murdoch and the hacking scandal.
Why?
Because Murdoch and his American media entities — especially Fox News and the New York Post — have bedeviled the left for years. These right-of-center news sources have gone into hard-left territory, TV news and the New York news market, and dominated not only in market share but also in setting the news agenda.
And they have made tons of dough while the left-leaning media are all losing money (declining ratings and readers and thus ad revenue) hand over fist in the recession.
So we are witnessing professional jealousy coupled with a brief moment of hope on the left – hope that they can decapitate the leadership of the News Corporation. Indeed, if the Murdochs were no longer in charge of News Corporation, liberals would quickly permeate the entire organization, especially the politically vital Fox News Channel.
Fox News has become a home for the GOP, the tea party and the conservative movement as a whole. Find me one right-of-center person in the USA who doesn’t watch.
It drives Democrats mad that CNN and MSNBC, both egregiously left wing, have microscopic audiences and thus virtually no political clout whatsoever. And the three broadcast networks, CBS, NBC and ABC, have declined in audience share, too, although they all remain left-of-center.
No wonder the left is salivating at Murdoch’s present troubles. If they take him out, and then get rid of Roger Ailes as the head of Fox News, then in their minds, they can again dominate the political agenda.
And make no mistake about it: Roger is the man the left really wants to oust.
The “Fair and Balanced” slogan of Fox may not always be totally accurate; but it taps into something most news viewers have known for decades: Prior to Fox, there was nothing fair or balanced about the so-called mainstream media.
It was relentlessly liberal, unfair to conservatives, and warped to fit the left-wing political agenda that remains today way, way out of the American political mainstream.
So watch carefully in the next few days. If the FBI probe of News Corporation has legs then liberal senators and congressman are relentlessly going to savage Murdoch and Fox.
They see it as an opportunity to do what they have failed to do in the forum of public opinion and in most recent elections: win the hearts and minds of the American people.
They would prefer to rig the debate by depriving half of America of a voice for their views and opinions.
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