Great thread here from Parker. One point I'll add -- Fox News has an unrivaled hold on the Republican Party, from agenda-setting to candidate selection. That moves the GOP away from a majoritarian message -- but sometimes it wins anyway.
Donald Trump spent much of the 2016 campaign in a similar Fox feedback loop. And his message did not command the support of a majority of voters. But he got enough to win in the Electoral College despite getting three million fewer votes.
Once he was in office, Fox had more power over his administration than any media outlet has had in recent history. Here are 15 examples from the last two years, they influenced everything from personnel to a government shutdown. mediamatters.org/donald-trump/1…
But most elections are not national! Republicans who represent safe districts climbed the ranks in the House by virtue of appealing to Fox and its audience. They will likely hold senior positions when the GOP eventually takes back the House. mediamatters.org/fox-news/its-n…
Likewise, the Republican Senate majority is built on an overall minority of voters due to the way the states are skewed in favor of rural areas.
And of course, the network is working hard to bolster Republican efforts to suppress Democratic voters, ensuring they can win elections without having majority support.
tldr; influence over one party matters a lot in our system, even if that influence pulls the party away from majority opibion.

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More from @MattGertz

12 Oct
The press is getting worked by Republicans on court expansion
mediamatters.org/2020-supreme-c…
All four of the agenda-setting broadcast Sunday morning political talk shows discussed GOP complaints about potential court expansion.

Only one referenced Pence dodging Roe Q, which set it off.

None mentioned him dodging Q on peaceful transfer of power.
At the very moment that Republicans are violating political norms to cement conservative control of the court, they are demanding journalists focus on whether Biden might engage in his own norm violations to counter it in the future.
Read 4 tweets
9 Oct
NEW STUDY: Two years of Trump's Fox live-tweeting obsession, by the numbers

Trump live-tweeted Fox 1,146 times from September 2018 through August 2020 -- 7.5% of his total tweets

mediamatters.org/donald-trump/s…
This is the culmination of quite a lot of toil dating back to when I started chronicling Trump’s live-tweets in October 2017, so I hope you’ll indulge my long thread; if not, feel free to mute this.
First, why Trump’s Fox obsession matters: It dictates policy outcomes.

Here are 15 ways that happened over the two years of the study, from military strikes to impeachment to the coronavirus to racial justice protests to pardons to personnel and more. mediamatters.org/donald-trump/1…
Read 14 tweets
7 Oct
Trump, Barr, and Fox News are working in concert to undermine confidence in the election

The playbook here is obvious -- throw together some sketchy investigations and use them to throw doubt on the election results.
mediamatters.org/tucker-carlson…
Literally within minutes.
Looks like there's no evidence that this had anything to do with the election -- the ballots were among "roughly 1,875 pieces of mail" recovered from dumpsters -- but the Barr/Fox machine is flogging that anyway to undermine confidence in the election. nbcnewyork.com/news/local/usp…
Read 5 tweets
7 Oct
Fox & Friends keeping the president focused like a laser on the issues marginal voters in swing states care about the most.
The president is down by double digits in recent polls amid his COVID diagnosis, and his Fox cabinet thinks his way back is... this?
Good luck, folks.
Read 4 tweets
3 Oct
Dawning realization that nine months into the pandemic. senior WH officials think that if you test negative it means that you definitely have not caught the virus and can do whatever you want and don't need to quarantine if you've been in contact with someone with COVID.
The president's Fox News buddies told him the virus was nothing to worry about so he took as few precautions as possible and here we are. mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-n…
Read 4 tweets
30 Sep
Fox theoretically has a "news division" but here we are right before the debate and they've got Tucker Carlson doing his show, saying Joe Biden "may be senile" and passing on the claim that he backed out of getting his ears examined for an earpiece.
Now Brit Hume is on to say that Biden is definitely senile but there's a chance that won't be visible tonight and he'll be well-prepped and perform well anyway.
Carlson has said at least three times already that he didn't expect Biden to actually show up tonight.
Read 8 tweets

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