“It’s not easy to flip a congressional district that’s been Republican since the late 1800s, but after being willingly hijacked by the right-wing media — after getting steamrolled by Fox News’ embrace of third-party candidate Doug Hoffman — Republicans managed to hand Upstate New York’s 23rd District to Democrats last week. And they did it just in time for the newly elected Democrat to help (barely) push health care reform through the House of Representatives during Saturday night’s historic vote.”
“Doug Hoffman was, first and foremost, a media candidate (a media creation), which means we are entering a very new and different realm in American politics. We’re entering a sort of Fox News Era where media outlets — where alleged news organizations — essentially co-sponsor political campaigns. We’ve moved well beyond the time when Fox News, for instance, leaned right and gave conservative candidates more air-time and tossed them lots of softball questions. We’re now watching unfold a political reality where Fox News literally selects candidates and then markets them through Election Day.”
Fox News has been treading very close to the point where they are violating Federal Election Commission laws by advocating one party or one candidate over another. If they are going to be a PAC of a sort or continuous TV ad for the GOP or conservative candidates, then they have to register and notify the public of their status. Churches, especially the Catholics and evangelicals, have long been in blatant violation of the FEC, and they get a tax-exemption that precludes their particpation in politics. Now whether Holder’s DoJ will enforce these laws is another matter.