I
was impressed with the tough and direct questions the FNC moderators
asked of the kiddie-table and prime time GOP candidates (addressing and
not ignoring their glaring liabilities). That makes sense, as I suppose
it's in the GOP's interests to thin the (huge) heard as early as
possible so they don't waste resources/political capital for the coming
war vs. Hillary.
Personally, I don't think Kelly's sexism
question was journalistically or politically out of line. Trump has not
held office and has not behaved like he deserved to hold office in the
past (esp. vis-a-vis women who are >50% of voters), so why should
America elect him now? He of course felt that question was unfair and
"impolite" (teapot, kettle anyone?), but Kelly never forced Trump to
say/tweet those disparaging things in the past. You make your bed, you
lay in it man. Nothing is off limits when you're running for president.
Anyway,
I thought that exchange would really hurt Trump and the GOP, who have
already suffered from major rejection by many female demos. But
strangely the opposite happened. Trump's numbers held steady or maybe
even rose, and FNC got blasted with angry viewer feedback defending
Trump and criticizing Kelly and her network. Trump did a "genius" thing
and flipped the issue from one of his sexism/rudeness/
unstatesmanship
to one of media bias/political correctness (stuff that is hurting
America) - the latter really resonates with his supporters and some
conservatives.
He must have prepared for that, and you have to
give him credit for delivering it so persuasively. His daughter Ivanka
allegedly urged him to tone down the racist/sexist/offensive tone of his
campaign, but he dismissed her because every time he did something
outrageous (even the McCain comment that I thought was going to sink him
- but it turns out a lot of conservatives don't really like
establishment McCain anymore - esp. for losing to Obama), his numbers
held steady or rose. I guess it's like saying, "Why should I reform and
get a legal job when I'm making so much money selling dope, and not
getting caught by the cops?"
The FNC base is a little
weird. They hate and distrust the (elitist, liberal-leaning) mainstream
media, yet still watch FNC (the top TV news property in the US by far).
So Fox has to straddle that fine line of being the MSM (being part of
the institute of journalism) and hating on the MSM (mocking and
rebelling against the institution of journalism). This is problematic at
times because from segment to segment, you never quite know what you're
going to get. Certainly their opinion shows are more of the latter.
To
wrap up, the business-first, politics-second Roger Ailes saw the
reaction to the Trump-Kelly spat and was worried that defending Kelly
(and her legitimate question) would piss off many viewers and hurt the
company. This is probably why most of the other candidates (sans Paul,
who is desperate to stay relevant) didn't take the opportunity to go
after Trump on national TV. They talked crap at their lightly-covered
campaign events, but not on the big stage because (1) more Trump feuding
only seems to benefit Trump and (2) they risk a Kelly-esque backlash
and don't want to be labeled as establishment cronies (the part of the
GOP that Trump has called "stupid" and blamed for losing to the Dems -
maybe that is accurate).
So Ailes personally talked to Trump to
smooth things over, and probably invited him on the network soon (he has
had many interviews in the past). Kelly had to deliver a highly
sanitized closure statement and was even subtly congratulating Trump for
his recent political success (gotta throw his Jupiter-sized ego a
bone). That must have sucked for her. So once again, score one for
money/sexism/cynicism at the expense of decency/women/journalism.
PS
- it's pretty telling that on Trump's web page, there is ZERO CONTENT
regarding his political platform and policy ideas (oh yeah, because they
don't exist beyond his sound bites). He makes Rick Perry look like a
wonk in comparison.
https://www.donaldjtrump.com/
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