Funferal

What’s wrong with ‘liberals’, latest installment

You want to know why Democrats are out of power? It’s because they’re wasting energy and cash challenging Fox’s trademark on ‘Fair and Balanced’. What, precisely, is this meant to achieve? In the same mail that Alternet sent me looking for funds for this suit, they also say “Progressives are building an independent media infrastructure, but we have nothing like Fox – yet.” So it’s not the fact that Fox is biased that they can be complaining about (except it is).
Now there are grounds for challenging conglomeration in general, separate from the political stance of the outlet. Indeed if this is not the framing used we risk obvious rejoinders when Clear Channel starts airing Air America. But challenging the ‘Fair and Balanced’ slogan – what is to be gained from this? Fox viewers aren’t going to say ‘ah – so they’re not balanced? I think I’ll watch Democracy Now instead!’ Fox isn’t going to say ‘oh – we’d better become Fair and Balanced, now that we can’t call ourselves balanced.’ Liberals, radicals and others aren’t going to gain anything other than a minor sense of schadenfreude.
To be fair, Alternet do finish with:

There are two great ways to fight Fox. Help us hold their feet to the fire in our legal action. And support AlterNet’s hard-hitting independent journalism so people have other news options. With a generous donation to AlterNet, you do both.

But why do they feel the need to lead with the suit. Is this really the best way to motivate people into action? Similar approaches are used by MoveOn (who are a party to the suit) and others, so it’s possible that this is ‘researched’ conclusion. If so we’ve got more problems than Fox….