LAMBRIGHT: It's time to take Fox News seriously
Fox News Channel exists almost exclusively as the fun-house mirror image portrayed by Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert and a slew of other satirists around college campuses.
The problem is that, while Fox News has become the media arm of neocons and the Tea Party, the distorted tapestry woven by satirists has become the intellectual rug many young liberals and Democrats have swept the entire Republican Party under.
The problem is that this creates the same polarizing effect that Fox News Channel has been consistently accused of producing in its 15 years on the air. I’m not advocating a shift to the ideologies espoused by Glenn Beck and his ilk, but I am saying it’s time to start paying serious attention to what goes on at Fox News.
Some of what is said on Fox News is fair; some of it is balanced. And if we leave them out of the discussion we risk dismissing Republicans such as Sen. Scott Brown of Massachusetts.
Brown is a rising star in the Republican Party and represents a positive direction for real bipartisanship. He is pro-choice, pro-universal healthcare and against federal “protection of marriage” legislation. Fox News supported him during his run for senate.
There are some red states which will be red for a very long time. And while politicians try to shift those states to one shade or the other, we are all distracted from a more important goal; getting men and women into office whose records and positions on the issues show enough compatibility that they might find a way to work together — in order to best represent the people.
Electing Republicans such as Scott Brown instead of old-guard incumbents is the first step toward the voting public constructing a bi-partisan legislative branch. After all, if we keep electing people with dramatically divergent viewpoints, we are in fact asking them to compromise themselves ethically in the name of cooperation.
Of course, there are other places to find out about Republican politicians and policy. But Fox News will be instrumental in shaping Republican Party policy and electing Republican politicians.
Don’t make the mistake of dismissing Fox News; not only do they have their fingers on the pulse of the Republican Party, they are pumping its blood.
