FOX News Losing Audiences Because It Is No Longer Extremist Enough For Many Trump Supporters

So, perhaps this could have been foreseen. The destabilizing effects of Trump's rise to politics - where he clearly had no business, but where his ego and abilities to manipulate masses of people to believe the product of his own convenient, ridiculously flattering mythology of himself - was bound to have some serious, and probably unforeseen, ramifications. 

FOX News had been the unchallenged bastion of conservatism in the modern media up until the 2016 election, and the political rise of Donald Trump. Then, however, there was some friction, as some in the FOX News crowd seemed, at best, lukewarm towards Trump. Some seemed outright opposed to him, which felt, at the time, a bit comforting, as it seemed to confirm that even FOX News and the swarms of hard right-wing nuts had their limits.

Except that Trump is a master manipulator, and he managed to get his loyal supporters to believe that FOX was entering the conspiracy against him. In his mastery of manipulating just enough people and swaying them to his point of view, and to remain loyal to him, FOX News was itself put to the test in the court of right-wing extremist opinion, and often, it was found lacking. Enter alternative news sources, particularly One America News (OAN) and Newsmax, which have begun to steal FOX's traditional, hard right-wing media thunder.

Suddenly, many Trump fans almost seem to view FOX News as too liberal, as too anti-Trump. Yes, you read that right. Indeed, some of Trump's loyal supporters feel that FOX is too closely aligned with the "libtard" mass media, that it is dishing out reliably "fake news" with a liberal bent. And now, the master manipulator, Donald Trump, has gotten his crowd to begin to question the conservative credentials of FOX News, because FOX did not literally bend over backwards at all times to cater to his every whim, that they did not, in effect, become his unofficial but de facto loyal state media. The modern era's answer to Louis XIV might as well have been telling them,  "L'etat c'est moi."

For many Trump supporters, this seems to be what they literally believe. While I half expected someone like Trump to get elected at some point or other, it amazes me that I still seem to underestimate his power over the people he fools, time and time again. Many Americans never bought Trump's crap, thankfully. But those who did seemed to suspend any and all disbelief, and unashamedly turned this pathetic, needy man, this demagogue who posed an obvious and clear threat to democracy, into a virtual Biblical figure, quite literally. Some of them seemed to outright think that questioning anything that he did was tantamount to blasphemy. They stopped seeing him as a public servant, and viewed him almost as a ruler by divine right, and an infallible one, at that. Quite a number of them said straightfaced that he had been placed in the White House by none other than God himself. It seems hard to believe that so many millions of people could have become convinced of such a thing so quickly, but how many of us heard many of them claiming, without a trace of a a smile or irony, that Trump was the greatest president in American history? How many of them believed what he obviously wanted them to believe, namely that he was a hardworking man who had taken a modest loan of one million dollars and built an unbelievably successful business empire, and that he then selflessly stepped down from his success in order to share this successful approach of his (the secrets of success) for the country that he loved so dearly, only to be mercilessly attacked and ridiculed by mean-spirited libtards and traitors who hate all that America stands for? How many of them seemed to believe that this man should remain in office no matter what the official election results clearly showed, that he had lost the election? How many of them seemed to buy into what is arguably Trump's master stroke of manipulation, that he indeed is the last and best hope to "save the country" from the secret elites who were truly trying to run things deep inside of the deep state? And they believe this despite all of the overwhelming evidence that Trump himself is, always has been, and always will be an elitist?

The defeat of Trump in the election (which by no means felt like a certainty) would, I hoped, reveal the man's vulnerabilities to his adoring, unwavering loyal supporters. Even this, somehow, he spun around so that he came across as the victim. Funny, how he at once can insist on being a strong man showing no weaknesses, yet also manages to play the victim card time and time again, without any scrutiny by his followers. But he managed it yet again to the willfully idiotic, who once again, with no real surprise, bought into everything that he said. So he was the most successful president in American history, according to them, yet he was also, simultaneously, the most hated. Yet despite his being the most hated president in American history, they also believed that he would win the election in a landslide, and that the only way that he could possibly lose would be if they rig the election against him. That kind of logic only flies with Trump supporters.

Where do they get this kind of logic, and the nonsense propaganda that keeps feeding them these frankly literally unbelievable (to anyone with an ounce of common sense, or even two functioning brain cells remaining) story lines? 

Well, until recently, it remained FOX News. But that became less and less the case deeper into the Trump presidency. Once FOX News ran afoul of Trump, he began to cast aspersions towards them. Perhaps not surprisingly, Trump tools began to seek new sources of media, ones that would remain loyal to Trump no matter what, because even FOX's very slight criticisms of Trump, and their apparent reluctance simply to follow and support everything that he says and does without question, was enough to drive Trump fans batty. Talk about precious snowflakes!

In any case, now FOX is struggling. Donald Trump is now a former president, and finally, FOX News is showing the first cracks in the old armor. Ironically (and perhaps fittingly, given the nation's political climate presently), however, this turns out to be alarming, because it is losing audiences not because of a lack of credibility because of mindless support of a demagogue like Trump, but because they were not unconditionally supportive enough. Now, they are losing ground to some of the news media sources that are even "purer" in their unwavering support of Trump and Trumpism. The lunatic asylum is growing more crowded.

Meanwhile, FOX, having lost some of it's audience, has now fallen behind CNN and MSNBC in cable television, with the worst numbers it has experienced in two decades.

What specifically triggered this? FOX News calling Arizona early in favor of Biden, and against Trump. That was what did it. Now, FOX News ratings are sliding, and they may very well be entering an identity crisis, because they were not willing to bend over backwards in their support of Trump. With others now stepping up in that capacity, FOX finds itself struggling. Somehow, it is hard to feel sympathy for them, although it is yet another worrisome sign of the direction that this country is heading in as far as what, finally, managed to start to do FOX News in.

Television entrepreneur Jonathan Klein, the former president of CNN, probably put it best: 

“One America News and Newsmax were more willing to provide the heroin that conspiracy addicts were looking for.”

My fear is this: people will dismiss this group, understandably, as a small minority of nutcases. But that was what happened with FOX News in the beginning, as well. I remember the first time that someone warned me that FOX was setting up a hard right-wing conservative news channel, and I felt a little alarmed, but not too much. After all, the nation had just elected Bill Clinton, and there seemed to be a turning away from the Reagan brand of conservatism of the eighties. I knew that Reagan-style conservatism would not simply go away, but my blindspot was in underestimating just how influential right-wing media would prove to be, and updating Reagan conservatism to the neocon policies of Bush, and then eventually, to the white nationalist, xenophobia of Trumpism. I would have said conservatism, but frankly, I do not even think Trumpism qualifies as a strictly political ideology. 

Clearly, it will continue, with or without FOX News. Whether FOX News steps back in line and the far right-wing gets back to being in lock step (goose steps?) again, or whether they finally have a break and become the voice of more moderate self-identified conservatives or moderates, only time will tell. But the more extremist Cult 45 members now have their new outlets to continue to indulge in their convenient beliefs without having to bother with even an ounce of scrutiny. And that has proven detrimental to the country in the past, which makes me worry, once again, for the future of this country. How can you not, when FOX News proves to be literally to liberal and intellectual for some extremist nutcases?

Fox News Ratings Free Fall Is a ‘Self-Inflicted Wound,’ Insiders Say by Lloyd Grove Lachlan Cartwright Diana Falzone Justin Baragona Updated Feb. 03, 2021 9:54AM ET / Published Feb. 02, 2021:

The network fell behind CNN and MSNBC in key ratings figures for the first time in 20 years—a remarkable nosedive that has staffers worried and critics gloating.  

https://www.thedailybeast.com/fox-news-ratings-free-fall-is-a-self-inflicted-wound-insiders-say