First time for me, folks- but I have a fairly thick skin so critique away.
A recent piece at AlterNet got me thinking. The piece, about UNC Professor Emeritus Robert Brent Toplin, was titled A historian explains Fox News’ nefarious role in misinforming Trump voters. It basically does an autopsy of Fox News’s coverage (or rather lack thereof) of the major stories of December 20th. After the AlterNet piece reviews the Mattis resignation, the Syria withdrawal announcement and Trump’s new hardline position tying government shutdown avoidance to $5B for his wall, it goes on-
Fox News television viewers got almost no sense of this mounting crisis when watching prime-time programing on the night of December 20. Shows hosted by Martha MacCallum, Tucker Carlson, Dan Bongino (sitting in for Sean Hannity) and Laura Ingraham directed viewers’ attention to other matters. The programs focused on a subject that had already received extensive coverage on Fox in previous months and years: undocumented immigrants. Hosts and guests warned repeatedly that dangerous foreigners threatened to overrun American society.
The main point of the piece is that many Fox viewers were not at fault for sticking with the Orange One because their news station is not reporting on important news events. I was encouraged by this. I thought: Great! What if I built a web site called wudimiss.com, and assembled a wiki-like team to update it daily with the important news stories missed by Fox that day (paragraph from them plus links), and then to be impartial and have a prayer of attracting conservatives, do the same for the progressive cable outlets. Then the Foxies would have one-stop-shopping for filling in their informational holes! As a side benefit, we progressives would be able to keep up-to-date with shoplifting immigrants or whatever. Big dent in the echo chamber, no?
No, actually. I recalled a conversation with a Trump-loving friend of ours:
Me: So how’s life with Fox?
Friend: We’ve left Fox for the local station.
Me: Oh? A Sinclair station?
Friend: Yeah, I think so.
Me: Were there two reasons- named Shep Smith and Chris Wallace?
Friend: Uh- how did you know?
So at least a couple of Fox viewers, and probably many, many more, like the blindfold, and in fact if it’s not working well enough, they get a better one. Out, damn spotlight on truth! This would sort of invalidate Prof Toplin’s point. So much for wudimiss.com
But hold on. There must be some slice of Fox viewers - maybe 20%?- more like Toplin was suggesting- the innocent victims of the near-exclusive Fox focus on sanctuary cities… maybe someone else in the household controls the remote. Wouldn’t expanding their news horizons be a worthwhile effort? Suppose luring them to something like wudimiss.com, were it available, made a difference for all 20% in November, ‘16 (just suppose). In Michigan, where Trump won by 11,000 votes, those 20% Fox flippers would have amounted to around 17,000 votes (yes, my math could be screwed up- I’ll post it if there’s any interest). State to HRC (says right here).
So what say you all about this? I’ve thought up a bunch of hopelessly complex ideas about how to address political polarization, but maybe something simple like wudimiss could move the needle. One obvious challenge would be that of how to market the site into the Fox bubble and attract the right visitors- could there be a cash reward somehow for those who dig up the most missing Fox News pieces in a given month, supplied ultimately by ad revenue?
I’m seeking the collective wisdom of the Daily Kos community before buying the domain and doing the VC rounds! Thanks for reading-