Peter Preston on Fox News 

20 April 2009 tbs.pm/1043

Peter Preston has a fantastic piece in the Guardian about Fox News, and, most importantly, the secret ingredient that makes it a “success”

As he says…

Here’s the secret ingredient. It is known as rage. You don’t have to sit there and take life’s hard knocks. You don’t brood over mistakes made, plans destroyed. You can turn puce with fury, call Barack a damned socialist or Castro clone, let ire swill from every pore. You’re licensed to hate again.

And here’s one big question. Do our broadcasters, tones modulated, allegiances carefully concealed, serve us best by bottling that rage away like spring water? Shouldn’t we be allowed to loathe on air just as we do when we blog? Or is there a bigger question still? The pundits’ recent message has been oddly uniform: that we have been betrayed, that we should get mad. But turn to Fox and see what this means.

It’s an article well worth reading. And remembering. And those that want de-regulation of TV news better not act all surprised with the inevitable anger generated in the nation when it finally does happen…

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