Does anyone else find it strange and inappropriate that Fox News gets to choose the candidates that will appear in the first Republican Presidential debate? It doesn’t help that they have been less than transparent about how they are picking, and the results of who they picked surprised a few people.
Shouldn’t it be up to the Republican Party to choose who appears in their primary debates? Or has Fox News taken over that job for the GOP? Why not just let Fox pick the candidate. Sure would be more transparent.
After all, 40% of the Republican candidates have been regular guests on Fox, and a stunning 30% have been paid employees. That sounds like a revolving door to me!
And a huge conflict of interest.
12 Comments
Not strange at all. Television which I don’t have is for entertainment and propaganda. My sister says she wouldn’t miss this WWW (that was my word, not hers. And I don’t mean World Wide Web. ) for anything.
Which so called Presidential candidate is going to attract the biggest advertising watching audience, or doesn’t Fox News have advertising?
I just had someone on-line quote me NewMax as a real news source on Planned Parenthood. We are so gullible.
Hey Ebdoug, just curious, what does your “WWW” stand for? Sometimes I think a better acronym for the net would be WTF!
To be fair, they were pretty transparent about the process. Average of the last 5 national polls. Yes, they didn’t use NBC’s poll but they explained why, and it would not have changed anything anyway.
They are scum, but in this one decision they were pretty clear.
Sounds like “situation: Normal” to me. The media has been screening our possible candidates for decades.
World Wide Wrestling, right? Totally entertainment.
Except that they are now WWE, not WWF. They were never WWW.
https://www.facebook.com/worldwidewrestlingentertainment
Yeah, of course! BTW, it’s spelled Wrastlin’, in respect of the real thing…
Hulk Hogan ’16!
“You better believe it brother!”
FWIW,the second debate on CNN is using a same or similar selection method. If nothing else it’ll make the “happy hour” debate, aka kiddie’s table, a lot more interesting.
Uh oh, this could put a crimp in the old Hulkster’s campaign.
http://www.rollingstone.com/sports/news/hulk-hogan-fired-by-wwe-over-racial-tirade-20150724
Business as usual, maybe, and a majority of GOP voters apparently do not mind.
What we’re seeing is the ultimate consequence of the current state of journalism. Fox News was among the first to realize that they could make a bundle by marketing their product to a specific demographic and calling it news, objective truth be damned. Other cable news networks and websites soon followed. Outrage—even manufactured outrage—is big bucks. It has become far more profitable to throw red meat to a specific audience rather than just objectively report on the facts. Perhaps this is a consequence of over-saturation of sources of information.
Likewise, politics has no longer become about actions, but instead emotions, sound bites, and public opinion. Let’s say a state senator announces he is putting forth a bill to outlaw all abortion in his state. This bill has no chance of passing, but that doesn’t matter. The press pounces on this controversy, giving our senator all the media attention he could want. Now he’s on the radar of wealthy anti-abortion donors, and people are suddenly willing to pay him money to speak at their events. Never mind the fact that he didn’t actually do anything of substance, he’s greatly increased his social standing and made a profit just by manufacturing a controversy.
As this position is taken to its logical extreme, you wind up with someone like Donald Trump. Trump’s stance on the issues is irrelevant, because he doesn’t have any. He does not care about issues, only his own self-aggrandizement. His goal is to just continue to generate outrage and controversy for the attention and subsequent clout and money it gives him. The fourth estate, complicit in Trump’s continued bogus campaign, has no one to blame but themselves for this circus. The American public has become addicted to outrage journalism.
Many of the higher ups within the Republican party are only now just realizing that Trump’s continued presence in the presidential race is going to do long-term damage to their party. Will Fox News, the de facto kingmaker for the GOP, renounce the folly of their ways? Given the high ratings for the debate, probably not. We’re due for at least a few more months of this, at least until Trump makes good on his veiled threat to run as a third-party candidate or gets enough money thrown his way to pacify him.