The integrity of the November 2020 presidential election remains to be contested by a few individuals and organizations. In particular, Fox News has been spreading all sorts of conspiracy theories and “disinformation,” especially ones about Smartmatic, a company that provides electronic voting technology. Other voting technology companies have also threatened to sue various right-wing media outlets with a “Red Slime” or libel lawsuit. After what happened at the Capitol, how much would you attribute the mob uproar at the Capitol to the information provided by these media outlets? These things are hard to argue, and there is a fine line that needs to be carefully considered.
With President Trump leaving office, many people believe that the storm is over, but that might not be the case. Typically, ideologically minded news outlets perform well numerically (and perhaps getting their message across effectively) when their political rivals are in control of the presidency. MSNBC's ratings spiked during George W. Bush’s presidency and now again in Trump’s presidency. Looking at this trend, it looks like Fox News and other right-wing media organizations will be seeing new highs in ratings during Biden’s presidency. However, with the consumers of the right-wing media possibly believing that the entire election and now presidency having been stolen, what kinds of new theories or scandals will satisfy their demand for the “unhinged?” With Trump’s defeat, more conservative news consumers seem to be leaving Fox News for farther right media outlets like OANN and Newsmax. According to the 1st NYTimes article, “in the month after the election, Newsmax viewership rose 497 percent between 4 p.m. and 8 p.m., while Fox suffered a 38 percent decline.”
With the rise of television and media, the president has increasingly become the focal point of attention of the entire nation and world. In general, the president’s media image is unique credibility that holds significant advantages, allowing the president to manipulate the national agenda to their party’s and his or her liking and silently block out interference.
Political recognition can make or break a campaign, political confrontation, and more. Recent examples may include Andrew Yang’s presidential campaign during 2019-2020 and Bernie Sanders presidential campaign during 2016. For example, MSNBC completely left Andrew Yang off polling charts even when he had higher percentages than other candidates on the chart itself. While quite well-known now, their lack of political recognition (albeit their political views and agendas played a much larger role in their lack of result) hindered them from ultimately making it far in the nomination process.
That being said, great power requires great responsibility. In his four years, Trump seemingly has caused a rise in the conservative-news consumer’s demand for the “unhinged,” and what caused the Capitol insurrection goes beyond toxic partisanship.
How will conservative media evolve in the coming Biden administration?
1 comment:
I definitely think the impact that conservative news has will decrease during the Biden Administration, but I don't think that it will completely stop. A lot of people are very stuck to their opinion, which is totally fine, everyone is entitled to their opinion but I think the broadcasting certain ideas over large media outlets has been a problem for a long time and spreading things such as voter fraud cannot continue. Obviously everyone has their opinions the Trump Administration and some people from Fox News believe in the Voter fraud in this past election, but the dangerous thing about spreading such accusations on a nationwide TV network compromises the integrity of our country and things like that should not be broadcasted. When people see things like that it makes them believe it and that is where the impact comes from. I definitely think that the Impact that conservative news will subside with Biden as president, but it will not go away, I don't think it will ever go away, mainly because getting rid of conservative news would silence people and that is definitely not okay. I just think the radical impact that conservative news has on people needs to be lessened and will within the next 4-8 years.
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