Fox and the CBC

B. Beutler's analysis of the Fox News/Congressional Black Alliance split gets the big picture right and the small picture wrong. It's certainly true that "Fox News is, for all intents and purposes, a Republican propaganda network," and their action have to be evaluated through that lens. Less convincing is Beutler's argument that "the only reasonable conclusion one can draw is that the network predicted--perhaps correctly--that an alliance with the Congressional Black Caucus would cause a rift within enemy party and have the beneficial side-effect of making Fox appear welcoming to opposition and minority points of view."

I highly doubt they're half that smart. Remember: The organized opposition to Fox News is a very recent occurrence in the Democratic Party. Fox almost certainly assumed their sponsorship would go virtually unnoticed, but would prove useful whenever they had to burnish their bipartisan credentials. More interesting is their choice of the Congressional Black Caucus as the group to pair with. There's a reason Fox hasn't approached the Children's Defense Fund, or the Sierra Club, or even MoveOn.org. The longtime slam of on Democrats is that they're a party composed primarily of coastal elites and racialized interest groups. The CBC, which is largely controlled by very liberal, old school African-American politicians, represents the Democratic Party in precisely the way conservatives would like to see it. It is the group most likely to unsettle Fox's basel, and so most likely to further Fox's goals. Small wonder, then, that Fox is so willing to donate their air time and resources to publicize the CBC's importance in the Democratic coalition.