FOX NOISE: CRANK IT UP, IT’S NOT WORKING!
The Fox Noise machine quit pushing hydroxychloroquine since it turned out not to help against coronavirus, and also it kills people. And it’s been weeks since they claimed the pandemic was a hoax or a conspiracy to undermine Trump’s presidency. Call me a cock-eyed optimist, but is the right-wing commentariat buckling under the pressure of a harsh reality?
Right-wing punditry relies very largely on “tone” to get its message across. Rush Limbaugh just SAYS THINGS in a certain knowing, brash, cynical, “masculine” style that gives his followers a sense of confidence and camaraderie. Then they don’t look too closely at what he actually says, or whether it comports with what he said on some previous question, or whether it bears any resemblance even to their own lived experience. It’s all wink-wink-nudge-nudge, let’s crack open another brewski and agree that “those people” love the lockdown because they all get free money, right? His listeners (many of whom are living off government money in some form or another) snicker and look knowing and agree.
There are a lot of people who would rather do nothing and be paid for it than to go out, take risks, and work? And to have them taken advantage of and to have that group of people become the foundational building block of a political party?
Transcript, The Rush Limbaugh Show, April 23, 2020
Well, I have news for you. That happened long time ago. That is the foundational building block of the Democrat Party, the welfare state…
This pseudo-sophisticated, in-the-know routine works great when you’re fighting the culture wars. But it’s not very effective against a mindless, lifeless, remorseless little parasite that replicates and kills, and does not give even the tiniest shit what you think. Go ahead, call it a snowflake; see where that gets you.
But how we talk to each other, how we think about the virus collectively, does make a difference. The University of Chicago’s Becker Friedman Institute for Economics did a paper, “Misinformation During a Pandemic,” comparing the fates of Hannity and Tucker Carlson’s viewers. Carlson was a lone early voice sounding the alarm at Fox while his colleagues, including Sean Hannity, scoffed and jeered. The paper did a granular analysis of the dangers of listening to Hannity during this early phase of the pandemic:
Researchers analyzed county-by-county viewership data and COVID-19 infection and death numbers and found areas where more people watched Hannity relative to Carlson had higher local rates of infection and death.
Joseph Guzman, The Hill, April 22, 2020
Fox is feeling a little nervous about this. Vanity Fair’s Gabriel Sherman says, “…there’s a real concern inside the network that their early downplaying of the coronavirus actually exposes Fox News to potential legal action by viewers who maybe were misled and actually have died from this….” And in fact, a lawsuit has been filed against Fox for disseminating “false, erroneous, and incomplete information.”
Do I see a few tiny cracks in the mighty wall of propaganda? Do I hear uncertainty in those voices normally braying in unison from Fox TV? Are they feeling a little defensive? Not panicked, not yet — but a bit nervous that maybe the rubes aren’t buying it whole, like they used to?
Because: look at these numbers. And notice in particular the figures for the over-65 group, which is Fox’s chief demographic, by far their biggest audience:
Older voters generally vote conservative and Fox has a lock on their attention, and yet… Biden’s doing pretty well. Trump has lost the women’s vote and the men are beginning to wise up a bit, too.
Hannity, Rush, Ingraham et al. basically have only one string to their bow, which is attitude: being defiantly against “political correctness” and contemptuous towards “them” — science nerds, Democrats, doctors, economists, the lockdown mayors and governors, and of course anything that smells even faintly like social justice.
But attitude only takes you so far. The virus is a genuine threat and people want real leadership and real solutions. As they say, “reality has a well-known liberal bias” and right now, reality bites. Hard.
Yesterday’s presser and Trump’s suggestions of disinfectants and UV light as plague remedies was not the kind of thing to inspire confidence; even his fans just made excuses for that performance. For how it affected our electoral future, let’s go to today’s memes!
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