This week’s bombshell news that Tucker Carlson had been abruptly fired by Fox News has prompted me to conduct a thought experiment, one that imagines a kind of secular rapture event: If Fox News suddenly disappeared along with its most prominent host, what would America be like?
Recent public opinion surveys that ask about trust in TV news outlets confirm the strong presence of Fox News. According to PRRI’s 2022 American Values Survey, among the two-thirds of Americans who report consuming TV news, 17% say they most trust Fox News to give them accurate information about current events and politics—a number that is slightly larger than the proportion who most trust local TV news (15%), CNN (12%) or public television (12%). Only the combined broadcast news outlets (ABC, CBS, NBC) outpace Fox News as America’s most trusted TV news source. [Note: Here and below, all data come from the PRRI’s 2022 American Values Survey, a national representative survey of over 2,523 Americans conducted September 1-11, 2022. Full results and methodology are available here.]
For the purposes of our thought experiment, let’s imagine an alternative reality in which the Republicans who most trust Fox News and the ultra-conservative outlets spawned by its model disappear and are replaced by Republicans who most trust any other television news source (local TV news, broadcast news, CNN, public television, MSNBC, or some other outlet).
What would happen?
1. Republicans would dump Trump
First, it’s important to understand just how big a footprint Carlson and Fox News have had in the television news market. According to the New York Times, Carlson’s show averaged 3.25 million viewers in the first quarter of this year, making it not only the largest draw on Fox News but one of the most-watched shows in all of cable news.
Approved ~ FS
Mariam
Article URL : https://time.com/6275452/america-without-fox-news/