THE REPUBLICAN NEWS TERRARIUM
The one little number that — so far — is all the protection Donald Trump needs
By Philip Bump May 12
Excerpt:
And once you start wandering into the territory of crimes or misdemeanors, others will rapidly venture one step further and start speculating about impeachment. Those engaging in such speculation, though, are warned: There’s one little number that makes such a move unlikely. That number is 84 percent, Trump’s job approval rating among Republicans in the most recent weekly average from Gallup.
The reason Trump manages to maintain his 84% hold on Republicans is explained by the graph below. It shows that Republicans, and especially Trump supporters, get their news and commentary almost exclusively from Fox News and essentially ignore what is said in other news venues. MSNBC, the most vocal critic of the Trump administration, barely registers. Therein lies the problem. Fed a steady diet of right wing propaganda, Republicans live in the alternate reality terrarium created by Fox News, oblivious to the existence of the dangers Trump’s shenanigans pose to the nation and the world.
Most nights I tune into Hannity, Fox News’ lead cheerleader for Trump, until my BS meter goes off the charts, forcing me to switch channels. Every night he opens with a breathless, 3-alarm-fire “Breaking News!!!” (usually about how the “destroy-Trump alt-left media” is going bananas over the latest Trump action). He then gives a blistering “opening monologue” and concludes by trotting out the same old tired hacks -- Newt Gingrich, Laura Ingraham, Geraldo Rivera, Michelle Malkin, etc. -- to flog the party line. Speaking forcefully, with complete confidence and authority, Hannity presents his news and views with a bias that would make Goebbels blush, but which his viewers take to be gospel truth. He loves to pose as the heroic quarterback, throwing a toy football complete with bent-wrist flourish on the follow-through.
His viewers eat it up. Hannity possesses a scary degree of control over the minds of his viewers: he regularly presents a collage of clips from other news outlets lambasting Trump, fully confident that his viewers will see it as he characterizes it as “hysterical rants from the ‘destroy-Trump left’” rather than legitimate, fact-based criticism of the latest Trump outrage.
The net result of Republican addiction to Fox is unwavering support (84%) of a dangerously delusional, loose-cannon of a president. It is as Ted Koppel famously said when interviewing Hannity on CBS Sunday Morning : “[You are bad for America] because you’re very good at what you do. You have attracted people who are determined that ideology is more important than facts.” Koppel’s calm and deliberate demolition elicited a tantrum from Hannity lasting for several days.
David L. Smith
Author: The Predicament
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