paulitician
Platinum Member
- Oct 7, 2011
- 38,401
- 4,162
Is a vote against a political party also a vote against the network that supports it?
The Democrats' sinking fortunes have been pretty accurately charted in the declining ratings at MSNBC, the party's house network, which culminated, on election night, in a 22% fall from the last midterm election in the all-important 25-to-54 age group.
MSNBC's problem is almost exactly the same as the Democrats' problem: It built its future around a vivid and dramatic hero who, unfortunately, turned out to be both opaque and conflict averse. MSNBC now has a lineup of ever-righteous and often sulky defenders of President Barack Obama, who seem, not just to conservatives but to many liberals, too, bizarrely tone deaf and lost in time.
This is just the sort of bad zeitgeist bet that can so often happen in television programming.
The network, seeking to imitate Fox's success in building a loyal audience of politically motivated viewers, first managed to boost its low ratings by aligning itself with the widespread anti-Bush feeling. Then, thinking it had hit something of a jackpot with the Obama election, it became the voice of Obama's anticipated remaking of the nation.
But at Fox, Roger Ailes, the chief, has deep roots in conservative thinking. Fox's alignment against all things liberal, which first began in President Bill Clinton's Lewinsky years, has had a remarkably successful run because of Ailes' fine antennae as to the subtle changes in conservative aspirations and temperament...
Read More:
Wolff MSNBC loses election
DRUDGE REPORT 2014
The Democrats' sinking fortunes have been pretty accurately charted in the declining ratings at MSNBC, the party's house network, which culminated, on election night, in a 22% fall from the last midterm election in the all-important 25-to-54 age group.
MSNBC's problem is almost exactly the same as the Democrats' problem: It built its future around a vivid and dramatic hero who, unfortunately, turned out to be both opaque and conflict averse. MSNBC now has a lineup of ever-righteous and often sulky defenders of President Barack Obama, who seem, not just to conservatives but to many liberals, too, bizarrely tone deaf and lost in time.
This is just the sort of bad zeitgeist bet that can so often happen in television programming.
The network, seeking to imitate Fox's success in building a loyal audience of politically motivated viewers, first managed to boost its low ratings by aligning itself with the widespread anti-Bush feeling. Then, thinking it had hit something of a jackpot with the Obama election, it became the voice of Obama's anticipated remaking of the nation.
But at Fox, Roger Ailes, the chief, has deep roots in conservative thinking. Fox's alignment against all things liberal, which first began in President Bill Clinton's Lewinsky years, has had a remarkably successful run because of Ailes' fine antennae as to the subtle changes in conservative aspirations and temperament...
Read More:
Wolff MSNBC loses election
DRUDGE REPORT 2014
