Has Fox News’ Ratings Dominance Led To More Government Spending?
There is no question that, as opinion media has evolved over the last decade, Fox News has become the dominant voice in the new and changing environment. And since the majority of Fox News opinion journalists are conservatives, one could easily argue that this been a great development for conservative efforts, particularly the GOP. But not so fast – just weeks after catching some rhetorical flak from David Frum and Senator Tom Coburn, now NY Times’ conservative columnist Ross Douthat is piling on. In a smart, and certainly provocative piece, Douthat asks “Does Conservatism Need Fox News?” and openly wonders just how beneficial a strong conservative voice in the media has been – in practice – for the conservative movement. While Douthat first posits that “the last eighteen months have been enormously successful for conservatives,” he then qualifies the success as primarily political in nature, then pointing out that liberal policies have continued to flourish in the same time. (Side not
