I am relieved to say that maybe my head can stop doing 180s on my neck now, such is my confusion about the ways of Fox News. You see the same headlines that I do, how one day a Fox News head is screaming how Donald Trump is “insane” and “awful” and then the next day Trump is featured in a prime time interview.
We saw the New York Post go bonkers on Trump, the one who “can’t change” and so “can’t win.” Then we saw Sean Hannity embrace him with open arms three days later.
So, what oh what in the flaming world is going on? I have finally figured it out. This is their strategy.
If the Fox blueprint is to have Trump on (Hannity or Tucker) and then cut him to pieces on the rest of the programming, it might just work … @atrupar
— Robert Lusetich (@RobertLusetich) March 28, 2023
I think that’s it in a nutshell, what the tweeter just said. Fox is going to attempt to do its fair and balanced routine by doing precisely that, featuring him in interviews and then savaging him the rest of the time.
The rationale in this is that the GOP is going to nominate whomever they’re going to nominate. Fox will pretend to just sit there and watch. But of course what they’re really doing is hedging their bets. If/when Trump gets the nomination, great, they’ll cover every nanosecond of it.
And when he loses? Hey, Fox News and the New York Post told you so, and they told you so way back in the day. That will be a matter of record.
It’s a daring excursion into a spin on both siderism. Maybe we should call it cake and eat it too ism, because this is as close to that ideal as anybody is ever going to come.
And it makes perfect sense. Trump’s favorability is eroding. Evidently his base is eroding, except for the deadhead hard core. That being the case. Fox might hang onto a good portion of former Trumpers who have now decided to move on and that’s precisely what Fox News wants to do.
“It’s all about the dollars.” Joe Pesci in Casino
and since rupert will be losing billions of them he’s going to need an influx of benjamins.
Makes sense. I’d imagine the top brass at Fox is looking (and will continue doing so) really closely at reaction to both the fluffing and trashing of Trump on their air, especially the latter. Blowback is to be expected but how much and how intense is what the number crunchers and focus group types will be examining under their microscopes. They’ve got plenty of time to experiment with ratcheting up criticism and easing off. But if you’re correct (and I think you are) about the strategy by sometime this summer they will have had a chance to see how chipping away at Trump via personalities other than Hannity and Carlson will affect the evening ratings. If Trump’s ratings for appearances with those two fall off, and do so enough things could get real interesting and without warning. I keep saying the real key will be if Murdoch ORDERS full-on Trump trashing during the evening three hour white power hour. I truly believe that’s where Murdoch wants to go, but it’s a big risk. However, wouldn’t it be fun to see it happen? Or for one of the evening hosts to quit in protest rather than risk the wrath of MAGA goobers who might decide maybe lone wolf “justice” shouldn’t be limited to Democrats prosecuting Trump? Time will tell.
Idk, but you may have offended what’s left of the original “Deadheads” by using that term to describe the hard core fascists who will support trump till the bitter end, come what may. Just an observation, not critique. I may have dated myself by noticing haha!