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Thursday, January 9, 2014

George Will's move to Fox


I really was sad at this move.  It is just one more step in the movement toward opposing media camps that reflect the parties and cannot be relied on for a public debate about the issues.

10 comments:

  1. Agreed, has anyone hear an explanation of why the move occurred?

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  2. I had not heard this. I am really surprised, and more than a little disappointed.

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  3. $$$

    Likely...right?

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  4. Yes, but that just means that the right is willing to spend more to get all of the effective right side voices than the left is willing to spend to maintain diversity. The reverse is true as well since Juan Williams (a center left person) is the closest that Fox has to a lefty. MSNBC seems to me to have no diversity at all.

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  5. Just to be fair MSNBC does have Joe Scarborough, an unapologetic Republican, with his own show, albeit at 5:00 AM. I don't think Juan Williams has his own bully pulpit on FOX.

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  6. Sorry, I had thought that Joe's show had gone away. Maybe it has. Is a 5 AM pulpit really that bully? I would think sharing the main 5 PM news show would be a lot more.

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    1. I should point out that on the east coast the time is 6:00 AM - 9:00 AM which I think is about the same time as FOX and Friends and overlaps the Today Show. So the time slot is not really as horrible as I made it sound. As far as the "bulliness" of his pulpit, I see, on the internet, that on an average morning hundreds of thousands of households watch his show. I don't know what the bulliness cutoff is. What I do know from observation is that having your own show gives you certain powers. Whomever is viewing will be drawn in or repelled by how the "star" handles those powers. Those who continue viewing will receive information, news and opinions, very much shaped and filtered by the "star" of the show. For Juan, he does not have those powers and whatever he says on his show is subject to the tone of acceptance, or lack thereof, by his fellow commentators who are somewhat right of Juan in their views. I don't want to be put in a position of defending MSNBC because, other than Morning Joe, I don't watch it. But it seems to me that putting a Republican in charge of a show on a left leaning network, watched by hundreds of thousands of people with the aforementioned power of the "star", shows a lot more willingness for diversity than FOX. FOX has Juan on at a very popular time but he is surrounded by people who are right of him, some even far right of him, who can easily foil his attempts to communicate a clear lefty message. It would be much easier for him to do if he had the power of the "star". I see him strictly as a token kind-of-lefty, so that people, much like yourself, will say "FOX has Juan Williams on their network. Look how diverse they are." I watched FOX for awhile on the last election night before I borrowed a gun and foolishly, yet happily, shot my TV into a hundred pieces. But before I did that I saw Juan making some good insightful bipartisan comments about what was going on with the election, only to be shouted down by the next commentator who, because of their politics, did not like the message Juan was communicating because it seemed to be not negative, or negative enough, about the Democrats. FOX makes no bones about their purpose. When Jon Stewart calls FOX "b---s--t mountain" he's really not exaggerating that much.

      But now they have recruited a person for whom I have always had great respect. (I will not say "gone to the dark side") I just wanted to say "George, have you watched FOX much?" One good thing about it for him, he won't be challenged much on that network. Maybe this is kind of a semi-retirement gig. He'll be able to just phone it in, so to speak, and the other people on whatever show he's on will just nod in agreement. He's George freakin' Will! That's all you need to know.

      (I didn't really shoot my TV into a hundred pieces.)

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    2. I wasn't concerned that you shot your TV, only that you had to borrow the gun.

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    3. I wasn't concerned that you shot your TV, only that you had to borrow the gun.

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    4. I put that in the story just for you Tom.

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