Frank's Musings

The report in the 3/5/2023 NYT about the internal debate at Fox News about calling the 2020 Arizona election results for Joe Biden based on Fox’s sophisticated algorithm shows the confusion in today’s television news media over whether news is anything but entertainment.

Within the Murdoch media empire, the chief goal in selecting content is patently to keep viewership levels high. It has made the judgement that its targeted audience cares more how the narrative is told than whether the news is accurate or even timely.

Somebody in the organization apparently did not get that message. The guiding principle of the Fox News editors is “Tell them what they want to hear, not what they need to hear.”

In fact, that has become a common goal of political campaigning, too. What will it take to change people’s attitudes from the view that what happens in government is no more consequential than the latest plot twist in a favorite TV drama? Failing that, a small, determined minority can be enabled to dictate the candidacy of the opposition (Republican) party, and reawaken the disestablishmentarian leadership of the Trump years.

If enough citizens vote who are fed up with abdicating government to those who would rule in the general interest at the expense of individual self-interest, believers in an efficacious liberal democracy will not be forgiven for ignoring the danger of ambivalence that lost the 2016 presidential election. Even the news must be subjected to critical thinking and separated from entertainment.