Rachel Finally Wounds the Mighty FOX

A Brief Glimpse of New Trends in American Media:

FOX Is Wounded.

It's finally about time.

The prime time blowhards at FOX Broadcasting have spent the past few years wallowing in an irritating ebullience -- perhaps better described as an "irritating inebriation" -- while basking in the constantly darkening lamps of the reactionary network. All the while high FOX audience ratings rolled into Murdoch's executive offices daily, very dependably, further "stoking the flames" of the Hannity/Limbaugh/O'Reilly style ideological, show biz arrogance without interruption.

A very large part of Murdoch's "business success" was his corporate ability to purchase and dominatecontributions" from the wacky billionaire right kept the thing above water until it could develop a sufficiently reactionary audience to sustain it.

MSNBC's Dr. Rachel Maddow

hundreds of domestic media outlets. FOX was nowhere close to profitable during its earliest years, but huge amounts of out right "

By five years ago FOX "news stars" were the voices of hundred of hours of broadcast time every week. Limbaugh's hateful daily show was being broadcast and re-broadcast in some localities in the morning, early afternoon and evening. This saturation was made possible by the almost unlimited corporate war chest. Predictably, when the same rancid broadcast was all that was available in such markets, the audience ratings sky rocketed -- and stayed there.

For years it seemed that no power on Earth could "break the spell" of the FOX-billionaire juggernaut.

Then, THIS happened.

MSNBC beats Fox News and CNN

in ratings for the first time

[Excerpted. Read the entire article here:

 MSNBC Beats FOX News Ratings/NYDailyNews]

MSNBC averaged about 611,000; CNN drew 589,000 and Fox News trailed with 497,000 — as Fox historically draws much older viewers who are considered less desirable to Madison Avenue executives.

The industry is rife with theories as to why this is happening now.

Some believe that Fox News and President Trump friendly surrogates like Hannity are doing a poor job covering the near daily scandals erupting around the Trump White House.

Others believe the discord and scandal that has rocked Fox News’ primetime lineup, especially the loss of Bill O’Reilly, who went down in a sexual harassment scandal, has severely weakened the once dominant channel.

Although this article was posted in the NY Daily News entertainment section, the impact of this development will probably enjoy a prominent place in the History of the United States through the 21st Century. FOX had been doing everything possible to undercut the American democracy, and FOX broadcast content had been entirely directed at "grooming" an electoral demographic into a state which, ultimately, began to deliver quite un-American election results.

We see Murdoch's "empire of deceit and persuasion" faltering -- big time -- with the news that Maddow and MSNBC have now topped FOX's ratings. MeanMesa is not at all convinced that the FOX front line actors precipitated this with their misogyny scandals. The audience currently driving the network ratings may have simply outgrown Murdoch's incendiary adolescence. A year ago Trump was FOX's most exciting, future "business asset." However, as viewers have had a chance to take a closer look at Trump, maybe they've also taken a closer look at FOX.

More than a few of them are currently manifesting the red faced embarrassment which accompanies buyer's remorse.

Breaking the FOX Spell

Gee whiz. This certainly seems to be moving quickly!

Who'd have thought -- after all these years?

How to frighten FOX viewers. [image]

There has been a major demographic of "default media consumers" which has been powering Murdoch's hate filled FOX News forward for the last few decades. By "default" MeanMesa is referring to the comatose, geriatric audience which found their automatic outrage to the network's endless incendiaries somehow gratifying enough to "slip" into the opinion that the drivel was, in fact, worth something.

Throughout these tedious decades Murdoch's propaganda machine brazenly promoted the election of every candidate with an "R" behind his name. The "other residents" of the American air waves languished under what appeared to be an unstoppable wave of top ratings for FOX.

MSNBC, originally "created" to compete with the Murdoch's rancid broadcast giant, was immediately beset with "growing pains." These got worse instead of better as things progressed -- until radio talk show host, Rachel Maddow [Yes, that would be DR. Rachel Maddow. She holds a PhD in political science from Oxford University.] came on board.

MSNBC has had more "growing pains" since then, but Maddow has set the theme for the network's progressive reporting.

Meetings of the "PhD Club" at FOX doesn't require many chairs.

Just Waiting for the Headlines -- MeanMesa Peers Through the Fog

Apologia To Facts and Feelings

There simply comes a time when the fantastical nature of the content of the nightly media fraud grows too great to ignore.  Yet, perched at the nervous edge of my cushioned television viewing chair, something seems to be missing, some urgent headline seems to remain unmade.

What can be done?

Well, why not lend voice to that suspiciously missing headline right here and now?
 
MeanMesa has never shown even the briefest reluctance to launch out in such a raw fiction before this. Yet the "counter balancing" impulses to simply proceed passively, that is, on the one hand, saying nothing at all and, on the other hand, careening into a traditional MeanMesa hyperbolic hysteria which might permanently soil the little blog's noteworthy reputation for clarity, accuracy and objectivity turn out to be, literally, the 21st Century equivalent of the "siren's call."

After an entire tenth of a nanosecond of careful reflection, the reckless course is, naturally, the one selected.  So, here we go.

This series of short, fabricated "headlines" and stories might, at first glance, seem too preposterous.  However, when the media presentation of the actual news of the day also seems too preposterous, that is, too similar to an overly pregnant teenager in a mall shopping for bikini swimsuits, the decision is one taken quite easily.

The first of these little vignettes will be presented here.  Those which follow will each have their own post titles, but, with a sincere promise from the ultimately trustworthy MeanMesa, every effort will be made to ensure that all of them, although preposterous and hilarious, of course, will also be both tediously droll and  refreshingly entertaining.

Enjoy.

Number One

Murdoch to Punish UK For Being Ungrateful

All eyes were glued to London's executive News Corp bunker for the official Murdoch  corporation's response to the growing scandal of hacking into the private text messages of rape and murder victims, people dying from terrorist attacks and British soldiers in combat zones.

The, uh, brave and distinguished "reporters" at The News of the World head office have made their own position quite clear in the matter.  According to them, the British people deserve to know all about what a murder victim might have moaned at the last minute or what pungent final message a dying terrorism victim might have texted to a family as life slipped away.

In fact, these reporters say, their readers are always quite grateful to have received such things in their daily post.  They look forward to this sort of "news."  And, in fact, these readers are so grateful that they immediately rush down the next day to purchase the next, latest paper.

Grateful News of the World "Hacking Victims" (image source)

Naturally, not only the UK but the entire world was waiting breathlessly to see what would happen next.  Would Australian Murdoch, perturbed by such a sudden cessation of "free ranging" gratitude, strike back at all these loyal readers?  Would the old fascist simply cut off the flow of this important "scoop style" information?

Late today, with the arrival of two limousines at News Corps' Reich Headquarters, the waiting finally ended this afternoon.  The first of the armored cars carried  written instructions from the Saudi Royal Family while the second, apparently, carried additional instructions from the Australian fascist himself.  Once the News Corps owners had spoken, the path forward was immediately implemented.

The very wildly popular and successful News of the World newspaper was to be vaporized immediately before any taint of the horrendous deeds could reach the News Corp owners.  Further, British citizens were supposed to immediately forget everything about the incident before some wave of pathetic public outrage could possibly "muddy the water" in the British Government's hearings concerning  Murdoch's efforts to obtain permission to purchase British Sky Broadcasting.

Grateful Brits Encourage Murdoch to "Keep Going!  Do It More!" (image source)

The Murdoch Empire's strategy to lower the stock prices of British Sky seems to be working, and analysts are expecting a greatly reduced price offering.  Other Murdoch publication entities in the UK -- News Corp owns 4 of the 21 major British companies in the business -- have already begun a wide release of upcoming head lines about the affair.

"Murdoch Completely, Totally, Unequivocally Innocent -- Had Absolutely Nothing To Do With News of the World Phone Hacking!  Has Every Right To Purchase British Sky!"

For more reading on this story, MeanMesa suggests:

The Guardian - http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2010/sep/10/phone-hacking-victims-list

and, CBCNews - http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/story/2011/07/08/sky-broadcasting-shares-fall.html