Posted on 02/08/2010 4:03:49 PM PST by opentalk
Yesterday's joint appearance with Arianna Huffington on CNN's "Reliable Sources," hosted by the estimable Howard Kurtz, gave me a chance to tell Arianna in person what most people think about her crusade against the Fox News Channel: It is silly.
Her focus on a word here and a phrase there is silly.
The warning that Glenn Beck or others are "inciting" the public and that this is dangerous is silly.
The program also gave me the opportunity to say on television what I often say on radio: If I had it in my power, I'd give Keith Olbermann a 24/7 cable channel because he does more good for the center-right than almost anyone in America.
His wild-eyed craziness combined with obvious lack of knowledge about so many things make him an advertisement for conservatism, and I really hope he survives his ratings plummet.
He's the perfect example of a prompter-dependant sports announcer-turned-political commentator who digs a hole for the Left every night. Long may he broadcast.
But what I really enjoyed saying the most was the obvious: The Beltway-Manhattan media elite still cannot figure out Fox for the same reason they can't figure out Rush or Sarah Palin.
They are elitists who long ago lost touch with the center of American opinion and who have no way of finding their way back again because they continue to staff up with a lethal (for ratings) combination of privileged execs, liberal-to-left-wing writers and producers, and know-nothing teleprompter readers.
What Roger Ailes has figured out that results in the cable ratings domination by Beck, "Special Report," Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly and Greta Van Susteren is not string theory.
It begins with respect for the audience as opposed to contempt, and then adds in good humor and balance. The "Special Report" panel is the best panel in the business because it always has at least one smart and well-read lefty on it. Hannity's Great American Panel is the same.
Rarely if ever will you find a Fox anchor using the term "tea bagger" because to do so is to insult the millions of activists involved in the past year of town halls, demonstrations and debates, but also those who know them and beyond that those who are interested in what they have to say.
And you will find Fox covering the president's stumbles and the stories about the administration's rising tide of failure. The MSM has an enormous double standard -- imagine if Palin had mispronounced the word corpsman twice in her address Saturday night or her interview with Chris Wallace on Sunday morning -- and that double standard first astonishes and then offends.
The refusal to cover comprehensively the president's year of serial pratfalls and his risible reflex to blame Bush confirmed for a vast segment of the American audience that the MSM remains just as in the tank for President Obama as it was for candidate Obama.
When the networks cease to be infomercials for the president, they might win over some of Fox's broad and growing audience.
There is no reason why MSMBC and CNN have to lag so far behind Fox. The audience is up for grabs every single night in America. There is no "brand loyalty" in the world of cable news.
But to compete, you have to at least try to be fair and balanced.
Or you at least have to be talented and smart.
-Examiner Columnist Hugh Hewitt is a law professor at Chapman University Law School.-
LOL....grow up ZSA ZSA!!
All hail fair Arianna,
Shout elitists of Obama.
Arianna makes big bugs being a silly shill. At least she is a capitalist in one way.
I should have said BUCKS. But maybe she has picked up a few bugs too
And this headline on Drudge: 3AM FOX NEWS SHOW TOPS CNN’S ENTIRE PRIMETIME LINEUP!
That’s an insult to Zsa Zsa.
I love the Cleveland Show but it sucks to have to hear Arianna’s stupid voice every time she is on TV. Hey Arianna, how does it feel playing the role of a bear..Is that the best you could do
Thank you Mr. Hewitt for a concise picture of what is going on in the so called “news.”
Arianna is still mad that her husband turned gay to escape her.
The same could be said for the Republican elite who look down their noses at the current populist movement while at the same time cynically plotting ways to coopt it for their own agenda.
He makes a great point about Olbermann...when idiots like him, Ed Schultz, and Chris Matthews become the public face and voice of the Left, it marginalizes them and makes us look all that much stronger.
The Special Report panel is the best 20 minutes on TV.
What does it say about Ms. Huffington’s relevance that the first Arianna I thought of was Scott Brown’s daughter?
You might also say that her income from this silliness is hugh.
Probably from her ex-husband's bath house buddies.
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