Jumping into the Foxhole

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

What is the genius of Fox News? It may be the network's ability to mount opposition to progressive ideas way before most liberal-leaning people are even aware of them.

That's a big takeaway from the March 21 Navigator survey, a project of Democratic-leaning GBAO Strategies (DC) and Global Strategy Group (NY), about the Fox echo chamber.

Let's take a look at the hammer job Fox pundits Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson did on New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and sidekick Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey for their "Green New Deal" proposal to address climate change.

In warming up, Hannity called the Green New Deal a "real serious threat to our way of life."

And then he let loose: "Ocasio-Cortez and others put forth one of the most dangerous, impractical, misguided, economically guaranteed-to-be-devastating plans ever championed by any American politician.”

Not to be outdone, Carlson called the Green New Deal a "scam," "religious document" and insulted Ocasio-Cortez as a "screechy moron" to boot.

Since the former "fair and balanced" network pays attack dogs like Hannity and Carlson to consistently trash anything that hints at being progressive, Fox viewers become highly aware of the new (and apparently hated) policies.

Navigator found that nearly seven-out-of-ten (69 percent) of Foxers heard "some" or "a lot" about the Green New Deal.

That compares to just a third of Democrats who expressed awareness of the climate change proposal.

Navigator's upshot: "When evaluating national polling about progressive items like the Green New Deal, it should be acknowledged that opinion can often be driven by this highly aware, but relatively narrow slice of Fox News-watching Republicans."

The reality: only 34 percent of Americans admit to watching Fox, which now fancies itself as "Most Watched. Most Trusted," a few times a month.

Navigator did uncover a shocker: 15 percent of Fox viewers are not Republicans. They must be watching Sean and Tucker for laughs.

And there's an opinion chasm between Republican and non-Republican Fox watchers.

Ninety percent of Republican Fox-watchers support Trump's job performance to the point where 78 percent of them say the Tweeter-in-Chief has accomplished more in his first two years in office than almost any other president. [Pass the Kool-Aid.]

Those figures compare to 24 percent on job performance and 16 percent on greatest of all time among non-GOP Fox-viewers.

Eighty-nine percent of Republican Fox watchers buy the president's "fake news" rant against the mainstream media and 79 percent say the FBI and other intelligence agencies are out to get their guy.

Comparable percentages for non-GOP Fox people are 32 percent and 24 percent, respectively.

The Democratic National Committee shouldn't write Fox off and reconsider its ban on the network from participating in the presidential candidate debates.

Navigator shows there is a glimmer of hope for the Dems to pick up some votes from Fox fans.

After all, less than one-in-five (18 percent) of non-Republican Fox watchers voted for the GOP Congressional candidate in the 2018 election.