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Tuesday, January 17, 2017

Why Conservative Media is Dead

       The incoming administration seems to be a collection of crony capitalists.  Why a former Exxon executive is qualified to be Secretary of State is the most alarming Cabinet pick so far.  Did something happen to prevent John Bolton from being a contender for Secretary of State?  Did a boulder smash the prescient Mitt Romney, whose 2008 observation that Russia was our geopolitical number-one threat loomed large as Oh Blah Blah found Vladimir Putin our toughest nut to crack?  The ignorant old canard that government needs to be run like a company seems to be the ruling philosophy of Orange Blatherskite.  
        Those who believe that canard are probably not likely to read political philosophy, so they should seek political theory in a more palatable form--the movie "RoboCop."  The point of the movie RoboCop was that governing and making money were two separate activities, and ones that in many ways conflict.  It is a sad commentary on the state of conservative media that it now sees no conflict between the skills of making money and the skills of good government.  Fox News is now utterly worthless as a barometer of conservative thought.  It now seeks to marginalize those voices who questioned the candidacy of Orange Blatherskite.  As business experts play statesmen, it is highly unlikely that any of the Fox talking heads will point out their defects.  Estase was watching Tucker Carlson's new show.  Tucker Carlson seems to be nothing more than a less-annoying avatar of Sean Hannity.  The same game of "you-people-are-hypocrites-because" and then inserting whatever issue is under discussion is Hannity's stock in trade;  it is also the game Carlson seems to want to play.  Conservative media is unlikely to challenge a winner.  If challenging popularity was within Fox's range of action, they would have done more to challenge the sleazy tabloid media push of Orange Blatherskite.  In other words, Fox was more interested in not offending their viewers than they were interested in vetting the candidates.  If Fox was too weak to point out that Trump wasn't a conservative when he was running, they are too weak to point out that he isn't a conservative as President.