BY DEAN ANTOS –
The late Roger Ailes, the former Chairman and CEO of Fox News, has long been credited as the news executive that essentially ran the Republican Party. Many recent film productions, including Showtime’s ‘The Loudest Voice’, have shone light on the rise and fall of the former media executive’s colourful and somewhat infamous career. Through Fox News, Roger Ailes pioneered a revolutionary method of delivering news to the American people by transforming politics into mass entertainment. Ailes helped polarise the American electorate by demonising the left and preaching against compromise. It is easy to see how Ailes became one of Donald Trump’s key advisers during the 2016 election debates. Under Ailes tutelage Fox News targeted viewers who did not want television news to tell them what they want to know but rather to show them how to feel; the news itself would be secondary.
This was a revolutionary method, treating viewers as people who want to feel informed rather than actually be informed has since turned the news channel into the most dominant subscription news network in the U.S for the past 18 years. With the thinking done for them, viewers of Fox have allowed a television channel to replace their political thought process and embrace the Republican political party. To an extent, it can be argued that in the US political parties have become television networks. 93% of those who watch Fox News as their primary news source identify as Republican voters, according to Pew Research.
This year’s Presidential election will see the Republican party be guided by a Fox company without Ailes at the helm. Fox News’ influence may be diminishing as the ‘TV President’ has hinted he is looking at alternatives to Fox TV. A string of anti-Trump ads which ran earlier this month on Fox News by anti-Trump Republicans, denigrating the President’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic, illustrates a potential fracturing in the rapport between Fox and Trump. An Ailes led Fox News would never allow such an advertisement campaign to run. This begs the question of whether Fox is, as the President suggests, being fed Democratic talking points.
Despite Trump’s insults, Fox News has remained largely supportive of his administration, evident by their depiction of him as a leader who stands up to the camera rather than focusing on how he stands on the issues facing the country. Fox has effectively used the oldest propaganda technique of repetition, emulating the favoured technique of the President himself, by advancing the “Obamagate” scandal over all other subjects. Trump’s elaborate distraction campaign turning viewers’ attention from coronavirus to conspiracy stories has seen his most recent Fox interview mention “coronavirus” or “Covid-19” at the same rate (22 times) as “Obama”. Fox News has also drastically decreased its coverage of the coronavirus crisis by more than 20% this past month.
The power of FOX News and the Trump campaign machine cannot and will not be underestimated this time around during this 2020 election year. Although President Trump’s recent twitter tantrum targeted the Fox Corporation, he knows all too well the power Fox has over the Republican voters. Fox News has exercised a longstanding culture of victimhood in relation to defending their viewers from the “mass media” that also attack their president.
In essence, Donald Trump depends on FOX News in order to win the 2020 election. He himself recently admitted as much in another public twitter tirade.
Trump’s frustration will inevitably simmer as November approaches. Once again he will need to rouse up the support of the “GREAT” people at Fox who alongside his campaign staff will be central to a successful 2020 campaign. Ultimately, this year’s Presidential election will be determined without the Republicans’ most formidable brainchild at the helm of the omnipotent Fox News media machine. A Fox News devoid of its longstanding-leader, coupled with the most unpredictable President in history will culminate in a must-watch Presidential election.
