You might have seen a headline, proclaiming that Fox News is the most trusted news network. The media coverage of the poll was pretty consistent on this point.
However, if you look into the actual Quinnipiac poll, you'll realize that the headline could just as easily be: "Poll: Fox News the least trusted network." Both headlines are, technically, true, although more people strongly distrust Fox than trust it. To interpret this a bit, you could argue that a share of the population knows that Fox is a highly partisan station. Fox partisans trust it, while others distrust it.
Still, Fox has a great media business strategy, since the goal is to attract viewers, regardless of how many people distrust them. However, Rupert Mordoch's ambitions clearly go beyond making money; he wants to impact policy while also making boatloads of money. At first blush, it might look like Fox has a good business strategy and a bad political strategy, since it is giving itself higher negatives than positives. But is Foxification a bad political strategy? I don't think so.
First, it is a great strategy for impacting Republican primaries, which depend on mobilizing a highly motivated bloc of partisan voters. It's also a pretty good legislative and political strategy, in a world of safe, gerrymandered districts, where a Republican primary is the main thing that an incumbent politician has to fear from voters. Just like the headlines that ignored the distrust of Fox, for the most part, our political system doesn't really care if more people distrust you. What matters is that some people really love you.
So the real story here is that Fox News is simultaneously the least trusted network and the most trusted one. And that is part of a good strategy for making money while also impacting American politics and the laws the govern us.
However, if you look into the actual Quinnipiac poll, you'll realize that the headline could just as easily be: "Poll: Fox News the least trusted network." Both headlines are, technically, true, although more people strongly distrust Fox than trust it. To interpret this a bit, you could argue that a share of the population knows that Fox is a highly partisan station. Fox partisans trust it, while others distrust it.
Still, Fox has a great media business strategy, since the goal is to attract viewers, regardless of how many people distrust them. However, Rupert Mordoch's ambitions clearly go beyond making money; he wants to impact policy while also making boatloads of money. At first blush, it might look like Fox has a good business strategy and a bad political strategy, since it is giving itself higher negatives than positives. But is Foxification a bad political strategy? I don't think so.
First, it is a great strategy for impacting Republican primaries, which depend on mobilizing a highly motivated bloc of partisan voters. It's also a pretty good legislative and political strategy, in a world of safe, gerrymandered districts, where a Republican primary is the main thing that an incumbent politician has to fear from voters. Just like the headlines that ignored the distrust of Fox, for the most part, our political system doesn't really care if more people distrust you. What matters is that some people really love you.
So the real story here is that Fox News is simultaneously the least trusted network and the most trusted one. And that is part of a good strategy for making money while also impacting American politics and the laws the govern us.
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