Column: Time for GOP to divorce Fox News

Joe Householder | USATODAY

Walk into the offices of almost any member of Congress and somewhere in the lobby you'll see at least one TV screen. If it's tuned to Fox News, you can be reasonably certain you're visiting a Republican. Former Vice President Dick Cheney famously required his advance teams to tune all the TVs in his hotel suites to Fox. Even in my own bipartisan consulting firm you can tell the partisan leaning of who you are visiting with a quick "Fox Check" of their TV monitor or computer home-screen.

As a Democrat who once worked in media, I am filled with admiration for Fox. Don't get me wrong, the ideological bent of the programming annoys me to no end, but it's supposed to because I'm a liberal. Therein you find the magic.

The folks at Fox have been hugely successful in tying their brand to a single political party and tying that party to them. Republican voters nationwide know, in their heart of hearts, that to get the news they can use the only place to go is Fox. Similarly, Republican politicians know that if Fox hosts take a stand on something the only smart thing to do is agree with them or face the ire of Fox's largely white, older and quick-to-anger audience – aka, the modern Republican base.

Dear Republicans, this has to end. For its very survival, the Republican Party must file for divorce from the Fox network.

Just as there is nothing wrong with a cable TV network, such as BET, targeting a mostly African American audience, there is nothing wrong with Fox programming for a mostly older white and largely male audience. Both demographic groups have tremendous spending power which enables those networks to sell that advertising at profitable rates. That's what cable TV is about – selling advertising to make money.

Back before 2008, when that Fox demographic was sufficient for the Republican party to win national elections, it made perfect sense for the GOP to align with Roger Ailes' programming outlet. We all may love our American way, but what political party wouldn't want a U.S. version of the old Soviet Izvestia, a "news" outlet that promotes the party line while ferociously attacking the other side? That's what the Republicans got with Fox and, while this might infuriate my fellow lefties, there was nothing wrong with that. Politics is about winning, and at one time the Fox/GOP combo was a victorious one.

Not any more.

If election night told us anything, it told us that attempting to win a national election by focusing your energy on an older, white and mostly male voter base was a loser's gamble. The coalition President Obama put together of younger women, African Americans, Hispanics and Asians is the coalition of the American future. The Fox/GOP base is the coalition of the American past – its votes are important, but no longer to the exclusion of everyone else's.

This isn't a Fox News problem. In fact, Fox should not do anything right now to broaden its base. Older white men will always be a sizable portion of our population, and they'll continue to have money to spend on the products they see advertised on Fox. That means huge revenues for Roger Ailes, the Murdochs and the whole Fox network.

It is, however, a Republican problem. The days of this being a mutually beneficial relationship are over. Demography is electoral destiny, and the demographics of Republican electoral victory are no longer aligned with the demographics of Fox profitability. I can only say to my Republican friends that it's time for Fox to go. Pick up the clicker and change the channel and do it soon, before the American people pull the plug on your party's future.

Joe Householder is a consultant with Purple Strategies.

In addition to its own editorials, USA TODAY publishes diverse opinions from outside writers, including our Board of Contributors.

