Here's my review of the Fox News Primary over the first 8 months of the year. Tom Cotton is working hardest to put himself in front of the Fox audience, but Ron DeSantis is better at making the network part of his wins and he rules in primetime: mediamatters.org/fox-news/cotto…
DeSantis quite literally owes his governorship to a Fox News-focused strategy, so it will be worth watching this going forward. He is very adept at using the network for best results.
By contrast, Cotton's aides are clearly putting him on Fox every chance he gets, he vastly outpaces the field (113 vs Pompeo's 55, and the latter is on the Fox payroll), but he's not a fav of Hannity or Carlson and basically just gives his take on news of the day.
Also worth mentioning that Sean Hannity's show is an ongoing cattle call for the GOP field, he's done 90 of the groups' 498 interviews over the first eight months of the year.
Why does this matter?
Fox hosts have spent the year undermining the COVID-19 vacciner campaign; drifting toward a paranoid, fascistic, apocalyptic politics; and institutionalizing former President Donald Trump’s lie that the election was stolen.
To try to appeal to those powerful forces in the GOP, would-be presidential hopefuls will need to adopt extreme rhetoric and policies. And during a pandemic, that comes at enormous costs.
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