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Egan: Right-wing media in decline

Timothy Egan, award-winning author and New York Times man-out-West, argues that the poisonous influence of the far-right media -- including Matt Drudge, Rush Limbaugh and Fox News -- is on the wane:

Rush Limbaugh, who sits atop the right-wing media food chain along with Drudge, has compared the president to Hitler for years. On Fox News, Hitler allusions are less overt, but crazy talk about Obama... is the stock in trade. The good news is that these people are talking mostly to themselves, from inside the much-ridiculed bubble that burst in spectacular fashion last November, while fewer and fewer voters are listening to them. Yes, the pyramid of political dissemination is still in place: from Drudge, to Rush, to Fox, to Republican politicians in green rooms, trickling down to all the lesser Drudges and Rushes in the wacko-sphere. ... [but] the lash, Mr. President, is now a straw. ... In truth, Drudge, though admirable as a bootstrap story, is a tool. Limbaugh is a tool. Fox is a tool. They are used to punish dissidents, people who actually try to govern and a range of enemies. ... Fox and friends can still crush their own, as Obama noted. But that only drives the Republican Party further to the fringes. Virtually everything the broadcast bullies are against — sensible gun measures, immigration reform, raising taxes on the rich — are favored by a majority of Americans.

This takes the conventional wisdom about the 2012 elections -- that conservatives are withering in a new era of "Barack Obama, gay marriage, weed, and a new focus on climate change" -- and applies it to the media. There's a great deal of truth to that: As Egan notes, and as we've reported, Fox News hit a 12-year-low in the key demo recently and Drudge accounts for a mere two percent of the nation's political media diet.

But betting against Matt Drudge, Rush Limbaugh, and Roger Ailes is always risky business. First, these three are some of the savviest men in the media businessmen. Second, their audiences are very substantial and, more importantly, aggressive. Even en route to the fringes -- especially en route to the fringes -- they punch above their weight.