I just want to pinch his cheeks, he's so cutely naive. Bernstein thinks Republican leaders tell Fox News what to do! That's so last century -- or at least last decade.

Jonathan Bernstein at The New Republic tries to reassure those of us fearful about a Palin candidacy :

It's clear from our discussion that Sarah Palin's charisma is highly polarizing, but this is also true for other very charismatic politicians, such as Bill Clinton.



Andrew Sullivan recognized back in January, when Fox News Corp. signed Palin, that the shoe is on the other foot:

we're seeing the fusion of a political party with a media company. It's like a state-run TV that only runs pro-GOP stories. Think of the TV in Iran and you'll get the fuller picture. And by sealing off Fox viewers from any other news source, and feeding propaganda 24 hours a day, and having a monopoly of the base, FNC is more powerful than the RNC in determining Republican politics. Already they have fused with the Tea Party movement, essentially creating and shaping and hyping it. Now they are fusing with the head of that movement, Sarah Palin. Since their idea of government is entirely abstract - they're against it except they're also for Medicare, more war, torture, and no tax hikes, i.e. bankruptcy sooner rather than later - they don't even have to run anything or hold any serious public office.

[emphasis mine.] If "Republican leaders" don't want Palin, they're just going to have to suck it up and deal: as long as she's FNC's candidate, she's their candidate.

FNC, of course, is part of News Corporation's world-girdling empire, and News Corp. is Rupert Murdoch. As the gang at Media Matters are documenting, Fox has so many of the potential Republican candidates on its payroll that it constitutes a "shadow primary" -- and currently Murdoch is favoring Palin, against the wishes of Karl Rove. Rove *should* be the kind of Republican leader who can determine which candidates *don't* get to run -- but it looks like Murdoch can veto *him*.

So why would Murdoch possibly want to promote a Palin candidacy? I suppose it's possible that he actually likes and agrees with her ... no, I just typed that and I don't believe my own fingers. Palin is an incoherent believer in American exceptionalism; Murdoch is a cynical globalist who believes in Murdochian exceptionalism.

I can only think of two reasons Murdoch would be promoting Palin. One, he chuckles evilly at the idea that he might have a chance to elect and have a leash on the President of the United State. Two: in the words of Jay Rosen:

On Fox, the news exists in order to generate controversy. And controversy exists in order to generate resentment. And the resentment is what generates ratings. So this is my most concise idea about Fox: we should consider it “resentment news.” I think that’s the genre in which it trades… Resentment of whom? Well, a cultural elite that is corrupt and maneuvering behind the scenes to exercise power.

...

Many stories—every night there’s new stories on Fox—one narrative that endures. Many provocations, one lesson. The liberals, the cultural elite, are at it again. And this is the essence of myth: that no matter what happens, the story remains the same

Having their annointed candidate run andwould be the external proof to lock Fox viewers' resentments into place. Even more important, this would lock their *dials* in place, because the perpetual villains in Fox News' mythic world are the "liberal media", what Palin calls the "lamestream media" -- that is, the other channels.

No wonder that in an interview with Fox Business' Liz Claman, Murdoch said:

"Our best growth engine right now is in this country." When Claman pressed for specifics, Murdoch immediately responded, "Fox Business. Fox News. Seriously." He later noted "other cable channels" -- though not by name -- and gave "Fox Broadcasting Company" a shout-out, but it's clear that he believes the financial future of News Corp. as a whole is tied closely to the financial future of Fox News.

the Republican "base" is Fox News viewers, and FNC controls the base more tightly than the Republican Party does.

the FNC base is about 25% of the voting population, a large enough group that it *has* to the core of a major political party. There isn't room for Republicans to have a base to the political left of the FNC base, so the party is basically stuck there. Fox News has captured the Republican Party.

Fox is better off if Republicans do not capture the Presidency, because then the base stays resentful, and stays with Fox.

a Palin loss in 2012 would be just the ticket

Hmmmmm. As I've put this post together, I'm starting to wonder how much of a real *political* force sarah Palin can be, after all. Let me lay it out logically:There's no telling what the media landscape (how important will cable still be?), the news landscape (what are these "newspapers" of which you speak?), or the News Corp. landscape (Murdoch is now 79, with no clear successor) will be like in 2016, but the chances are that *something* will have changed enough that Fox won't still be pushing Palin. We can hope.