KingOneEye (whom I'll call "K1ing"), whose efforts at "chronicling media decay" I respect, has a diary at the top of the Rec List reiterating his point from previous years that the way to fight Fox "News" is simply not to cooperate with it: Democrats and progressive should not go on as guests. His diary is now too large and I would be entering the discussion too late to really do much good there, so I'm writing a separate diary that spells out a larger partial counterargument than I would make in comments.
I think that K1ing's idea has some merit, but I don't think it's entirely realistic. In areas like the Democratic Party refusing to cooperate with FNC as a debate sponsor, I think that it's entirely right; one of the best early accomplishments of this site in this past election cycle was fomenting the drive to keep the Congressional Black Caucus's Democratic Primary Debate off of Fox "News."
In the long term, though, the problem we'll face is defectors. The worst Democrats -- Hello, Lanny Davis! -- will continue to go on Fox "News" to give a "Democratic" perspective, and they don't care what we think of them. Nor will their viewers know or care that they aren't, by our lights, "real Democrats" and that their positions aren't representative of the party as a while. Democrats less offensive than Lanny Davis, who want to connect with the fearful lower-information part of the older electorate that keeps Fox "News" on like all day like a constant reassuring Daddy presence, will go on their sometimes as well -- as Barack Obama did -- to neutralize some of the lies told about them. We have to face that the difference between us and the Republicans is that we are not a monolithic, command-economy party; we're the entrepreneurial party when it comes to actual politicas. There will always be too many defectors for a secondary boycott to work all of the time and putting our efforts into making a secondary boycott work is not a good use of our resources.
I think that K1ing's proposal, like Keith's proposal to turn off Fox in public places are useful, but they are merely tactical. They are ideas that may work, and may even be essential, at various times, and are worth holding up as a guide to how we should interact with this de facto arm of the Republican Party, but they are not a strategy.
So let's talk about our strategic objectives.
Our strategic objective with respect to Fox "News" are twofold:
(1) To delegitimize it as a news source among non-viewers, and
(2) To delegitimize it as a news source among viewers.
Refusing to have Fox "News" on in public (even if it doesn't affect the Nielsen ratings), refusing to appear there most of the time, refusing to let it do standard "news organization" things like be called on in press conferences and sponsore debates -- all of those tactics serve the first strategy. They don't, however, serve the second. We say that we shun Fox "News" out of contempt, but they tell their viewers that it's out of fear: "We are scared to be subjected to FNC's incisive questioning." That becomes the story -- and newspapers and commenters (even those from competitors of FNC, whose greater loyalty is to their movement), will trumpet it to non-viewers as well, incidentally. You may make fun of Chris Wallace's countdown clock, but it was effective -- and it was why Barack Obama eventually did have to sit down to an interview with Fox "News" -- mostly on his terms.
So what is our actual message to Fox "News" viewers? That's simple:
"YOU ARE BEING MANIPULATED BY THE REPUBLICAN PARTY"
I have no problem with a Democrat who goes onto Fox "News" and makes their task getting this simple message -- repeated often and held to without fail -- to their viewership. Do that, and their viewership will start to wonder if they're being fools -- and no one likes being a fool.
How do we do this? Here's a simple rule. Go meta.
My proposal is: any Democrat or progressive who goes onto Fox "News" should be armed with the GOP Talking Points regarding whatever issue is being discussed. Then, when they are called on, they should say:
"Here is what the Republican Party has told its agents, which unfortunately include this network, that they should say about this issue. Now, if given the chance, I will go down this list and rebut everyone one of them so that you viewers will know how the majority of the country that doesn't watch Fox "News" looks at these issues. You're not going to get that otherwise; all you'll get is these talking points, which I'm sure will sound familiar. So, if we're ready, let's go."
By driving home to viewers that they are watching propaganda -- and that if allowe to speak people can rebut it -- we really undermine the authority of Fox "News" with its viewership. But to make this work, we would have to act a bit more like Republicans. That means having speakers set up, trained, and ready to go on Fox "News" for the asking -- so that they can never say "we couldn't find a Democrat willing to answer these charges" -- and we need to tell everyone else that if Fox "News" approaches them they should tell them to call the good folks at 800-UNDO-FNC (or whatever number the DNC would have set up) to find a good speaker. And when those speakers show up, they should be as tenacious as the most doggedly on-point Republican. Pretty much every sentence should begin with:
"Well, you're just repeating what you've gotten from the Republican Party Talking Points, but ...."
When the apopleptic host breaks in to say that her or she never got anything from the RNC, they have to say:
"Well, I'm not saying that you spoke to them directly -- it might be two or three or four steps removed -- but whoever helped you form your misimpression of events was getting information that eventually traces back to the Republican Party Talking Points. But either way, let's get back to what we were discussing."
Maybe they'll want to continue the argument of whether they are really in the pocket of the Republican Party. Yeah, let's have that argument in front of their viewers. I'm sure that George Lakoff isn't reading this diary right now, but I expect that he nevertheless just got a tingle down his spine thinking about that!
Is the end result of this that Fox "News" just stops inviting Democrats on to speak? Maybe. And do you know what we say then? We say that they're chicken, afraid of real debate.
So, if we're disciplined and smart, we don't need a full-scale secondary boycott (which, I believe, won't work anyway.) We just need to take aim at the Fox "News" viewership and tell them, using FNC's own microphone, that they will have a better sense of what's happening in the world if they don't spend so much time listening to the Republican Party's Pravda.