Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/05/14/elizabeth-warren-says-nope-to.html
Other 2020 Democratic presidential candidates took the bait.
I love Elizabeth Warren. Too bad voters want a sorcerer, not a hard worker.
HOT DAMN! That was a good response.
That lady has grit and wit. We need a thousand more just like her.
Ladies: now is your time, please help make America Sane again.
She reminds me of Lawrence Lessigâs âroot-strikersâ idea (from Thoreauâs Walden): There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root
As much as I hate Fox News. Bernie Sanders showed that their bs can only be defeated by sunlight and appearances by candidates who not only directly contradict their support but, contradict their side of the aisle.
Fuckin Aâ. Thatâs how you do it.
In a way, Fox showed that Warren is right that ultimately itâs about whatever gets in ad dollars. Clearly the Sanders event did not go as expected from an ideological perspective, but they saw the ratings, and were suddenly all on board with more of that.
Good. Just as platforms have no obligation to host hatemongering politicians, politicians have no obligation to appear on hatemongering platforms â especially ones that have learned to vet their invited audiences very carefully after previous errors.
Fox News Comedy Channel is a hate-for-profit racket that gives a megaphone to racists and conspiracistsâitâs designed to turn us against each other, risking life and death consequences, to provide cover for the corruption thatâs rotting our government and hollowing out our middle class.
Truer words have never been spoken.
Warren has taken a valid and salient position on this and I respect her decision. But, thereâs something to be said for âpiercing the bubbleâ and reaching people where theyâre at.
Fox News viewers need to see thereâs a better way to live than constantly being asked to look the other way on a President who doesnât respect their faith or values or economic hardships. And some, maybe some, might just come around.
Valid argument: having a town hall on FNC means asking the people who are honestly interested in her candidacy to help funnel money to people who are only interested in tearing her, and every other Democrat, down.
Loyal Fox News viewers donât care what she has to say, and either wonât watch or will sneer and mock her. PLUS you can bet the pundits on FNC will cherry pick everything they can pull out of context to denigrate her.
Okay, but read the rest of her Tweet-thread. A main reason she pulled out was her refusal to help the Fox hate machine make money.
Showing up on their turf and providing them with a larger audience share is not the âonlyâ way to defeat their bs. Better ways: constantly pointing out that they are indeed a profit-driven hate machine, and encouraging ad pullouts and audience boycotts.
Maybe, but not with someone like Warren. Sheâs been demonized by Trump and Fox so incessantly that thereâs no way their viewers will be able to see through their preconceptions of her and hear what she actually has to say.
Perhaps. Itâs hard to know how much benefit that has over helping FNC boost ratings.
I would counter that anyone open enough to consider what Warren has to say will hear those ideas during the primaries and campaigning anyway. And those people who cheered Bernie in the FNC town hall, who were they? We assume they were all conservatives but the host admitted there were Democrats and others there besides the standard FNC crowd.
They make money irregardless. You have to get their advertisers to pull out if youâre really interested in causing their bank account pain.
As I said, âencouraging ad pullouts and audience boycotts,â which is better than Warren appearing on an event for Fox and driving up ratings for it.
And while they do make money regardless, if Warren did appear, theyâd make more, and sheâd be helping them make it. (âWoah, that dingbat is actually going to show up? Letâs watch this shitshow!â etc.)