Is Fox News the best thing to ever happen to the Democratic Party?

Many people have recently sent me photos of the extremely disrespectful billboards and bumper stickers that are out there focusing on President Obama.  I have heard about these disrespectful billboards before. I've also seen others, one that was also on a bumper sticker - "Let's not Re-Nig America". They say so much more about the people who put them up, and support them, then about the current president. I don't remember any such disrespect of a sitting president in my lifetime. I suppose part of it can be attributed to the ease of making large signs nowadays but that doesn't explain the intensity of the hate. Some think the level of disrespect is related to the quality of the man, of President Obama. I don't believe that in the least. President Obama has about the same popularity, or better, than most any other incumbent president after four years in office. It is the level of hate that is different. I believe that much of that hate can be attributed to racism and disrespect of minorities. It is the same type disrespect that soldiers often go into battle with. It is a necessary mind game that many individuals must play in order to deal with an opponent.

I don't think that displaying such hate, or disrespect, is helpful to their cause. It is the "Fox Effect" or "Yelling Wolf!". Fox News built a very successful industry around pretending to be a news agency and people who liked their version of the news were thrilled. They gained most all viewers who were already in the extreme right camp. They saturated their market. The gave a bullhorn to the extreme right. They led the charge for the republican party to appeal to the most extreme element of the party. It's very similar to what happened to extreme religions in the 1950's and 1960's. Those religions peaked, followers became disenchanted, and then, fell by the way side. Fox News experienced the surge in past years and has been losing viewership in recent years as people recognize it for what it is: a 24 hour platform for the most extreme elements of the new Republican Party. The more candidates appear on Fox, the more extreme they are viewed.  It is a self full filling prophesy.  You could say much the same about MSNBC except that format is more about the middle of the Democratic Party and has continued to gain viewership. It is a 'new morning" for how people get their news. It is likely that Fox News, just by continuing to exist the way they exist/have been existing, is more damaging to their cause than if they didn't exist at all. It's likely that the Republican Party has become more extreme in the process. Jeb Bush, a fairly reasonable member of the Bush family, a chip off the shoulder of George Bush Senior, says that the Republican Party has become so extreme that his Dad, the official mascot of the Republican Party, could not be elected to represent today's Republican Party.

It's thought that Fox news made major gains in past years until they garnered most all of the extreme right viewership. They remain the leading cable news network with their numbers of viewers far behind the regular network television of NBC, CBS, and ABC. Individual Fox shows (O'Reily, Hannity, VanGreten) all fall way behind Comedy Central's shows, the Daily Show and the Stephen Colbert Report.

In another example of the declining fortunes of the right-wing extremism propagated by conservative media and displayed so prominently by the GOP family competing for the Republican nomination for president, Nielsen has reported that the ratings for Fox News have taken a steep dive in 2011 and beyond.

Fox News has gone down significantly in prime time, posting its lowest weekday ratings since July 2008. “Hannity” is down -8% in Total Viewers and -20% in the demographic compared to last year, while “On The Record with Greta Van Susteren” is down -13% and -20%, respectively. “Fox Report” is down -13% in Total Viewers and -19% in the demographic.