Wednesday, April 26, 2023

Newsmax Freak House: No Rules, Just Way, Way, Way Right

Gotta say, someone at Newsmax is on the hustle, because ten seconds after the news broke that Fox News was giving Mother Tucker the catapult, someone at Newsmax appears to have had the presence of mind to grab Madge from accounting and Maurice from the mailroom and someone's Aunt Tilly and hustle them down to the Dark Tower to film this (h/t Crooks & Liars) "spontaneous" man-on-the-street reactions of real Murricans such as yourself who just happened to be walking past Fox HQ and just happened to have formed very strong opinions about Fox and Tuckums and Newsmax, like...

...they'd stopped watching Fox long ago and now just watched Newsmax.  All.  Day.  Long.

...why wouldja fire your number one money-maker?  Dats juss stoopid.  Is this gonna be "a new Bud Lite commercial"?

...Fox got too woke.

...Tucker would make a great addition to Newsmax.

...Fox went "too Left".

For 50 years the Republican establishment worked hand-in-glove with Conservative media to build a voting base of reprogrammable, racist meatbags who would believe anything that Hate Radio and Fox News crapped into their skulls.  And then, almost overnight, Donald Trump took all that away from them simply because he was willing to say loud and proud all the horrible shit that the GOP political and media elites were only willing to whisper sotto voce, or job out to mercenary scumbags like Rick Wilson and Matthew Dowd.  

And then, with nary a backwards glance, the reprogrammable, racist base abandoned the  GOP political and media elite, because the  GOP political and media elites had trained them to crave a certain brand of madness that the GOP political and media elites were only willing to deliver in stingy, carefully measured doses.  Whereas Trump just threw open the doors of the Wingnut Wonka factory and said "Have at it kids!  Eat all you want and fuck the Oompa Loompas it that's your kink!"

97% of the GOP and Conservative media adapted fast enough to survive, and in the process the Fox News jungle suddenly found itself with a new, money-making apex fascist predator:Tucker Carlson.

Within Fox, Carlson created his own, deranged, authoritarian-friendly biome where every wormy proto-fascist media parasite could flourish --

-- and the Fox News audience sopped it up with a biscuit and asked for seconds,

Then, overnight, Woke Liberal Lefty Rupert Murdoch took that all away from them!  Robbed them!  Just like Fox had robbed them of Donald Trump when they called Arizona for Biden!

So remember four paragraphs ago when I reminded you what happened when the Republican base was given a choice between Jeb! and following Trump into the abyss? 

From CNN:

Why Fox News brass might be unnerved after seeing the ratings in the aftermath of Tucker Carlson’s firing

...What is most significant, however, about Monday’s ratings data is its revealing of a dramatic audience swell at Newsmax, unlike anything the channel has seen in recent memory outside of its broadcasts of a Donald Trump rally. The smaller right-wing television network, with a prime time helmed by the election denier Greg Kelly and ex-Fox News host Eric Bolling, saw its numbers explode in the hours following Carlson’s ouster

Last Monday, for instance, Newsmax averaged just 146,000 total viewers at 8pm. Last night, the audience was more than triple that, with an average of 531,000 total viewers.

The numbers suggest that some of Carlson’s audience migrated over to Newsmax to sample the competitor’s showing. Whether they stay at the channel and continue grazing is an open question. But on Monday, a not-so-insignificant chunk of Carlson’s fanbase appeared to wander outside the Murdoch-verse for their 8pm infotainment.

Looks like, once again, elite Converative power brokers are trying to get between the gluttons they created and the lunch they demand.



I Am The Liberal Media

4 comments:

Ian said...

You are on fire today, Mr. DG. Nice work, as always.

Jon Sitzman said...

Good afternoon fine folks.

>>> From CNN:

Why Fox News brass might be unnerved after seeing the ratings in the aftermath of Tucker Carlson’s firing


Hate to type this but: eh.

Fox kicked out Glenn Beck - Beck never regained his former popularity. Fox replaced him with a varying slate of liars until Carlson found a spotlight by playing to the worst of the GOP base. I fully expect this cycle to repeat. It'll take a little while, but they'll find another big-mouthed bigot.

Carlson, on the other hand, will likely be relegated to the Substack/Notes swamp. I don't know if Newsmax can afford him, unless he takes a significant pay cut (and he might). But IMO Carlson is unlikely to elevate Newsmax to Fox's coveted status at the pinnacle of wingnut propaganda masquerading as "respectable journalism." Looks to me like Fox has that market cornered.

All this said, I do dare to hope that things in the media universe are changing. In any rational world (which, I know, we don't live in), Fox would have lost any believable pretense of credibility. I have to hope our benighted timeline catches up to some semblance of reason soon. Certainly there's enough ruckus that nobody can ignore it, even if they attempt denial.

I'm not fool enough to believe that the Fox (and hate radio) addicts who've poisoned America and our political system for decades will ever apologize for their excesses and abuses. I'd be content if they crept back into the cracks and crevices, taking their overt bigotry and awfulness with them; knowing, beyond dispute, that good and kind Americans had rightly rejected them.

A guy can dream, anyway.

Have a great Wednesday, and thanks for all you do.

Neo Tuxedo said...

the GOP political and media elites had trained them to crave a certain brand of madness

Until, as I put it in a tweet a while back, "the debased base started crying for madder music and for redder meat." What happened then, I've summed up in another phrase, variations of my own variation on a theme by Adrian Bott, here expressed in its purest form a week after the Peaceful Tourist Visit:

We never thought leopards would eat OUR faces," sob men who spent decades breeding leopards and training them to eat people's faces for the Leopards Eating People's Faces Party.

Robt said...

I noticed in the video clip the hostess says,

"Lets go out and ask AMERICANS what they think about Tucker fired"

Every one of those interviewed Americans are FOX. N-Max zombies.
But they can exclude all the other Americans they wish in their reputing. They would not want to provide reporting on what NON Right wing zombies have to comment.

FOX can easily plug in a Lying Ted, The more masculine version of Encounter, Marjorie Greene, Lindsey Graham who can stumble into a truth while lying or even the smooth soothsayer Jim Jordan. They could even give Alex Jones a shot.

But here is what I want to know. many people I know are saying Tucker was caught operating a pedophile operation . Providing young kids to wealthy FOX execs and GOP donors and that Tucker was feting too sloppy and might have got caught. Exposing his elite right wing clients at risk of exposure.
I don't know myself for sure. I am just asking and reporting on what "many" people are saying. I have no proof but why doesn't Tucker come clean on it. Not even the George Soros media will report on this let alone the FOX. Because they don't want you to know.
Just asking a simple question . people want to know.

FOX viewers have to ask. Is Rupert Murdoch one of them there Jews who replaced Tucker.
Just asking?