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Chronicling and critiquing the media industry from the birth of modern cable through the advent of TikTok.
Nigel Farage certainly checks the boxes on the job description for Raging Right-Wing Ranter. A major MAGA fanboy during The Donald’s 2016 White House run, he got up close and cozy with the campaign, forging an alliance with Brexit fellow-traveler Steve Bannon and Trump himself.
The fictional drama in HBO’s “Succession” mirrors the real news world, where top management bottom-line concerns so tragically often outweigh true fair and balanced journalism. Sadly, it’s a reality that’s been happening since long before The Donald became the dominant profitable voice in presidential politics.
Fox News competitors such as Newsmax would welcome Tucker aboard. So would RTN, the Russian government-owned network that loves to show clips of the fallen Fox personality defending the Motherland.
It’s important to note that Rupert Murdoch (above) has a history of dictatorially jettisoning his most potent stars when they become liabilities. That’s what happened with Glenn Beck when he sailed off the reality rails with his rallies and proto-QAnon conspiracy mongering. Likewise, Bill O’Reilly, when he got caught up in multiple sex scandals.
Over the last few months, Abughazaleh’s biting video commentary on Tucker Carlson’s nightly rants, interspersed with tart observations on other Fox News talking heads, have turned Kat Abu, as she’s known on Twitter and TikTok, into a bit of a social media sensation.
Since its launch four years ago, The First has been a kind of witness protection program channel for a murderer’s row of talking heads, including some whose once high-flying careers were grounded by scandal. Recently, however, The First’s fortunes brightened, and further rightened. (Image: Pixabay)
Can Chris Wallace’s reputation as the down-the-middle guy at Fox News, the flagship of right wing media, help CNN shed the network’s left-leaning image and tack to the political center? But a better bet is that in a couple of years, when his contract is up, there won’t be anyone talking to Wallace on CNN.
Who other than Rupert Murdoch should be the immoral center of the year’s best real-life “Succession” docuseries? “The Murdochs: Empire of Influence” aired on CNN and it became essential viewing for anyone interested in the astonishing power of partisan media, where facts are relative and making millions and wielding influence is everything.
Iger going up against DeSantis or the Commander-in-Chief of Mar-a-Lago would be big box office for right wing websites that have seen traffic dive. This is the kind of cultural war series the Tucker Carlsons of the world dream about.
Sadly, Oprah blundered badly in declining first to condemn Dr. Mehmet Oz’s dangerous candidacy, and then to endorse his Democratic opponent, John Fetterman, in the Senate race in Pennsylvania. Instead, Oprah stayed calculatingly neutral about the former surgeon she made into a daytime TV star, a move that had earned them both tens of millions of dollars.
The impact of the late night talk shows like “The Late Show” on political discourse will continue to be huge despite some softness in the genre. Colbert (above right), Fallon and Kimmel have tens of millions of followers on Twitter and Instagram, as well as millions of subscribers to their YouTube channels that magnify their real-time impact exponentially.
The CNN documentary Empire of Influence builds a potent case for how Rupert Murdoch’s insatiable lust for power and profit has turbocharged white nationalism and the decline of democracy.
