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news report tells us that Tony Snow, the former Republican speechwriter
turned Fox News chatter-head, is in
trouble for writing a column for a Republican-leaning website. Snow's
opinionating, his bosses apparently fear, will tag him as a less-than-objective
purveyor of news. Snow, at least at this writing, has refused to
drop the column. Three cheers for his stiff neck. And a big leg-hike
in the direction of his dopey bosses.
Snow's superiors clearly think there's someone out here in viewer-land
who buys their "We Report, You Decide" declaration of neutrality.
They apparently believe their viewers (which include this writer)
believe that their headline-readers and correspondents are "objective"
— that is, that their political biases do not influence their
work.
What kind of dopes do they take us for? There are very few Americans
who believe journalists are objective, and the ones who do don't
watch Fox. Indeed, Fox executives are laughing at their own viewers,
who turn to their network because it's friendly to conservative
viewpoints, in contrast to many of their competitors. Fox's correspondents
provide a conservative take on issues, often by allowing conservative
sources to debunk liberal positions, or by debunking those positions
themselves. These are strategies liberal correspondents have used
for decades and they work for conservatives as well.
The result is that the upstart network is gaining rapidly on CNN
(which Fox executives call the "Clinton News Network.") Such is
the beauty of the marketplace: Build a desired product and you will
gain an audience. Fox is gaining not because it appeals to some
mass of "neutral" viewers. It went after right-wingers. It's getting
them. Imagine that.
What is refreshing about Snow's screw-off attitude is, for one thing,
that it's nice to hear a guy telling his bosses to screw off. This
seems especially rare in America, most noticeably in government
— Clinton's entire cabinet, had it any dignity, would have
bolted on him — and also in the media. Stuart Varney, who followed
the blowhard Lou Dobbs at CNN, has reportedly told boss Ted Turner
to screw off after the latter made a crack about ash-spots on Catholic
foreheads. (On a personal note, Snow once filled part of the vacancy
created by a mass exodus from a publication where I once worked.
His willingness to take that particular job (editorship of the Washington
Times' editorial page) struck some of us as a gifted exercise
in grab-the-ankles career advancement, but Snow had been stuck in
Detroit for a while and that can reportedly have a harrowing effect
on one's mental equilibrium.)
In any event, his screw-off stand is impressive not only because
it reflects the presence of a backbone, but also because it reflects
a correct take on the industry of which he is a part. Cable television,
and not only Fox, is deep clover for political operatives and obsessives
alike. Nobody goes there looking for roundtables of drones pretending
to offer neutral positions. They go for the fights.
The scrapping is often quite good. Chris Matthews, for example,
is quite good at baiting liberal and conservative guests (guest
baiting is what cable is all about). Others — Paul Begala,
Bill Press, and Ollie North come to mind — are far too consumed
by their obsessions to do anything but bark their familiar lines,
but barking beats droning most days. Then there's the vast horde
of consultants, former speechwriters, pollsters, clerks, valets,
and other political hacks who remind us, minute by minute, that
politics is a petty, sniping, superficial, embarrassing, cynical
necessity of life. It also helps that many of the female guests
are babes: Katrina Vanden Heuvel beats a nice socialist tambourine,
but would probably vanish should she break her nose or contract
a disfiguring rash.
One hopes that the Fox brass will come to its senses and get off
Snow's back. Punishing a cable guy for being too political is like
punishing a monk for being too religious. Of course, if Fox can
get Bo Derek to take Snow's place, dump him with all due haste.
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