A few years back, Roger Ailes and company created a network. More than a network, they created a persona on which to carry the conservative message. Look great. Speak in varying tones of outrage. Create your own truth. Dismiss anyone and anything that contradicts.
And beat the message into fact by repetition, repetition, repetition.
It worked amazingly well. By the power of personality alone, Fox News developed an audience that dismisses scientists on climate change, dismisses economists on financial reality, twists religion into a justification for abandoning the poor and interprets constitutional freedoms in ranked order: Mine trump all of yours. It was brilliant.
Ah, there is that word, “trump.” And there he is, Mr. Trump, outfoxing Fox at its own game, becoming the monster offspring they cannot control.
What will you do?
Fix everything!
How will you do it?
By the power of being me!
Can you give us specifics?
How dare you ask!
As crazy as it is to see Donald Trump proposing himself as the leader of the free world, it is a little bit satisfying to see the logical conclusion of the Fox News experiment come full circle. When you cut out the truth and skip over integrity and decide only your own goals matter, you create a Donald.
Watch out, Fox, he’s coming to get you, too.
Mary E. Plouffe
South Freeport
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