Mediaite’s Joe Concha writes about cable news spats…
So does CNN or MSNBC benefit by attacking Fox?
Sure, it may provide their more myopic audience members some red meat (“Look! O’Reilly is yelling at someone! Fox is stupid!”), all while replacing some-otherwise-boring or repetitive segment in the process (“COMING UP: Who’s to blame for the sequester? Republican strategist (insert name) and Democratic strategist (insert name) will predictably provide their talking points like two C-3POs to help you get a good night’s sleep…THAT’S NEXT!”). Ugh.
Of course, Fox will return the favor in this regard as well, but not remotely as often due to the punching down theory outlined above. For them, it’s more to push a narrative it particularly excels at: Media bias and the guilty parties behind it. Pointing out an on-air brawl between a right-leaning O’Reilly and a liberal Colmes doesn’t prove any point around bias (two sides being presented). Instead, the footage is provided simply for supposed shock value of seeing a prominent host berate one of his co-workers by calling him a liar on national TV, all while (allegedly) to prop up the network (CNN, MSNBC) as superior to such behavior (which, if this clip and this clip are any indication, are not).
The final challenge around such segments is execution. O’Donnell and Schultz did a fair job mocking O’Reilly, but there are two bigger issue that always seem to be ignored:
1) Try as they might, news anchors and hosts aren’t comedians (where delivery is everything).
2) Jon Stewart sets the bar too high in ridiculing the media (and especially Fox) every night. Anything else presented pales in comparison.
Filed under: CNN, FNC, MSNBC
