Eric Boehlert: Fox News suffers another debate snub; bloggers take a bow

Fox News suffers another debate snub; bloggers take a bow

by Eric Boehlert

snip//

Unlike the primaries, Fox News this time won't be locked out entirely; all the networks will be able to broadcast the debates. But the snub means that once again Fox News will be denied the chance to leave its imprint on the all-important debates. It won't be able to build its brand on the back of Democrats who have injected extraordinary passion and interest into the White House run.

That passion and interest has helped boost ratings for Fox News' cable competitors, while Fox's numbers have remained stagnant. Meaning, the unfolding presidential campaign has been a ratings dud so far for Fox News and its unofficial year of woe.

Just as the 9-11 terrorist attacks catapulted Fox News' ratings into the patriotic stratosphere, the 2008 campaign season may be viewed as the news event that marked the news channel's fall from ratings dominance.

In turn, Fox News' ratings woes have opened the door to a much more frank and honest discussion about the news outlet. Like when New York Times media columnist David Carr recently called out Fox News flacks as thugs. And the way MSNBC chief Phil Griffin declared that when it comes to Fox News, "you can't trust a word they say." Sure, Griffin's a competitor. But before this year, that kind of blunt talk was not heard in polite Beltway media circles, and it certainly was not heard on the record.

Fox News has been taken down several notches, and the demotions can be traced back to the blogger-led debate boycott from 2007 and the repercussions it set off.

The point of that media pushback was to begin chipping away, in a serious, consistent method, at Fox News' reputation. The goal was to portray Fox News as illegitimate, to spell out that Fox News was nothing more than a Republican mouthpiece and that Democrats need not engage with the News Corp. giant, let alone be afraid of it.

In other words, bloggers wanted to badly dent the Fox News brand.

more...

http://mediamatters.org/columns/200808120001

reaping what you sow . . chickens coming home to roost. . all that stuff.

and regurgitating it as "news".

not even out of curiosity.

the REST of the corporate media are


is there ANY doubt at all where Gibson's or Williams' sympathies lie (Williams, who considers it 'his duty' to listen to Limbaug?!?!)

giving Couric a pass, though her editing of that McCain segment should put her right up there with the other two

just a starting point

media matters runs it down better than anyone else, and Boehlert is their leading light

Lapdogs, his book about the RW media, is a must read