Fox News is obviously the mouthpiece for the Reactionary faction of the GOP, but it is far more than that. Its hosts identify issues and shape opinions, even in the White House. It transmits and gives legitimacy to conspiracy theories. It also makes lots and lots of money.
Two questions for the future are pertinent:
- Tucker Carlson is the country’s leading “national conservative,” which essentially means that he thinks the GOP should ditch its Reagan era economic policies and regulate business in favor of white Christian workers. Will Fox as a whole follow that line, or stick with the status quo?
- Millions of reactionaries have made it clear that they value their conservative social ideas far more than our liberal democratic system. Fox supports them and thereby damages public support for the system, but push has not come to shove yet. Would the Murdochs rather own the house broadcaster for an American Orban than one of several networks in a free democratic system? I’m not sure even they know the answer to that question.