George W. Bush wins the 2000 Presidential Election by using (in essence) 537 votes; Fox News goes to #1 within the cable information race a number of months later.

Bush narrowly beats John Kerry in 2004. Not surprisingly, Fox is still #1, and via a wider margin.

Barack Obama soundly defeats John McCain in 2008; Fox is still #1 by means of a Secretariat-esque margin.

Mr. Obama decisively beats Mitt Romney 4 months in the past; Fox continues to be decimating the competitors, albeit by way of a slightly smaller-than-universal margin. Sure, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow and Lawrence O’Donnell are periodically beating Sean Hannity and Greta Van Susteren within the demo, but for 22 other hours out of the day, it’s now not even a good combat.

So why does this preserve taking place?

Why, for the simpler a part of 12 years, can’t any individual significantly problem Fox News?

The usa IS becoming more socially innovative, whether or not it be homosexual rights, prison pot or its angle toward unlawful immigrants.

So why isn’t the usa—of which fifty one.8 p.c of its registered voters went for Mr. Obama last fall—moving away from a community that lots of its critics name an extension of the Republican Celebration?

The answer played itself out again this week starting on Tuesday’s night O’Reilly Factor: Invoice O’Reilly is conversing together with his typical Tuesday night time friends in the form of Monica Crowley (conservative) and Alan Colmes (liberal). It is a phase that has existed for years. Colmes is married to Crowley’s sister, bringing a Carville-Matalin component (type of) to the convey. The subject is sequester, who’s in charge, and particularly if the President has any inclination to ever cut anything else given his file over his first 50 months in office.

Section I: O’Reilly claims that Mr. Obama has no inclination to scale back spending, desires Colmes to specifically listing what the President is willing to do away with.

Part II: Colmes claims that Mr. Obama has been receptive to Medicare and other entitlement cuts, however is speaking in general phrases and therefore isn’t as explicit as O’Reilly needs…

Section III: O’Reilly (obviously annoyed), calls Colmes a liar, and comes on the subject of dropping an s-bomb on the air, characterizing Colmes’ argument is “bull-clean” and “jack”. The sixty three-yr-previous host proceeds to point his finger at his longtime co-employee at least a 1/2-dozen instances, however later apologizes for calling Colmes a liar (whereas nonetheless maintaining he wasn’t being particular relating to precise cuts).

Nevertheless it doesn’t finish there on Tuesday’s convey: John Stossel, longtime ABC News reporter now Fox Information libertarian, doesn’t stick to the original section topic he used to be invited on The Issue to speak about. As an alternative, he tells O’Reilly to his face that he was “obnoxious” and “out of line.”

Tomorrow, there is no memorandum from Roger Ailes or Bill Shine (Senior VP of Programming) declaring that nobody else at the network must speak about the incidents. As an alternative, the other opinion shows—figuring out that they’ll received a hot story—use that freedom to run with it, give it legs.

The hosts of The 5 predictably strengthen O’Reilly in his argument that the President doesn’t have the opportunity or courage to cut spending. Juan Williams, filling in for the show’s lone liberal, Bob Beckel, gamely defends Colmes.

Three hours later, Kirsten Powers—the “feminine Colmes” who progressives loathe for actually having the audacity to sometimes go against the usual talking factors of her party—confronts O’Reilly straight away on his express, says he’s “one hundred pc unsuitable” in his argument towards the President. She goes on to element $four hundred billion in cuts toward federal healthcare spending Mr. Obama proposed, even tweeting out the PDF she used after the section to drive house her point.

Remember that, O’Reilly is the LeBron James at Fox Information: He’s the community’s perfect-paid, most influential, most revered participant on the crew. He’s authored multiple very best-dealers, he’s host of a application that destroys the whole lot in the ratings and has considering 2001, and is such an influential character that he receives regular visitor invites on CBS, NBC, ABC, The View, Letterman and Leno.

But right here’s Kirsten Powers, a liberal contributor, a fellow employee at Fox News who will get limitless crap on a daily basis from fellow liberals for snoozing with the enemy, telling him he’s filled with it on his own software.

You want to know why Fox is #1?

Let me answer a question with a question: Could you ever picture this scenario going down at MSNBC or CNN?

Let’s use MSNBC as an example since it’s more opinion-based totally (hell, it’s ALL opinion-based now):

Rachel Maddow invitations Michael Steele (former head of the RNC and current MSNBC contributor) on her software. They get into an argument over whatever, issues get heated. Maddow calls Steele a liar, pronouncing his standpoint is full BS.

Might you ever, EVER, see O’Donnell calling out Maddow for her remedy of Steele? How about The Cycle? Would S.E. Cupp rush to Steele’s safety while Touré mocked him whereas defending Maddow?

Would, say, Steve Schmidt (MSNBC contributor, former McCain marketing campaign manager) come on Maddow’s exhibit the following evening and say to her face that she used to be absolutely out of line?

The answer, from what we’ve viewed, is no. Sure, there’s disagreement between guests, small-time gamers on the community…however to not this degree, not to this stage of candor.
Hardball has its share of yelling (mainly from the host) but does that disagreement elevate into different presentations? Not for your life.

Be aware: This isn’t an ethical argument according to good habits or a greater code of ethics. Fairly, it’s merely one that specializes in which community is more compelling in terms of its personalities and the style during which they interact with every other.

And that’s why there’s Fox, and there’s everyone else. It’s very similar to the dynamic of the Howard Stern Express: A mixture of characters all willing to take on Howard and every different, and in probably the most honest of how. There simply isn’t any filter on Howard’s exhibit, and the target audience revels in having the ability to witness a family fight on a nearly-day by day foundation. Most significantly, none of the fights are deliberate or scripted.

It just occurs, simply adore it does in properties each day throughout the united states of america. Individuals can relate and due to this fact can appreciate what they’re listening to.

Lawrence O’Donnell sat in judgment of the O’Reilly-Colmes brawl just hours after it came about, mocking the former for shedding his cool.

What O’Donnell doesn’t get, what his network will never take into account, is that this is the roughly stuff that makes O’Reilly and Fox untouchable: They’re willing to attack each and every other based on their opinionis and rules, all while his bretheren at MSNBC wouldn’t dare call out its personal in a identical situation.

Debate and powerful opinions are what cable information is all about, even when these opinions are directed at those you may run into on the company cafeteria.

Fox News gets that.

Everyone else…well…simply take a look at the numbers.

Observe Joe Concha on Twitter @ConchSports