J.D., otherwise known as the Mouth of the Brazos (which is a river in Texas for those who don’t Google), has a good question which leads me to an uncomfortable conclusion.
The background: Fox News is, by all accounts, the No. 1 electronic news source, and they cover all of the Democrat scandals all the time. Thus J.D.’s question:
“If they are the most widely watched by the huge measures everyone claims, how are they then not the ‘main stream media?’ And with this many folks knowing what is ‘really’ happening, why the [%#&] isn’t something more effective being done?”
My uncomfortable conclusion: The majority have increasingly little influence in this supposedly free, democratic country.
If we’re missing something here, what is it?
THE TEXAS SCRIBBLER 
You are seeing an effective application of what Madison called the “Tyranny of the Minority”. The Libs don’t really care about what the people think, they concentrate on who we elect and once they’re in the Washington Bubble and corrupt them there. The parties, the insider status, etc are their main weapons. ABC, NBC, CBS, etc only really matter now for inside the Beltway. In a sense this is why there is not more concern over their declining ratings. And even if they go broke in free competition the Left will subsidize them with money stolen from us. It’s actually a fairly smart way of politics for awhile, but only for awhile. In the end they must coerce, compel, and confiscate to continue and that generally leads to a very messy ending.
That’s a believable analysis, thanks. That’s from the Federalist #10, according to Wikipedia. Too few, including me, read the Federalist papers anymore.
All but the messy ending, however. I tend to think that, rather than revolution, it will come down to the majority ignoring the feds to a greater extent than most of us already do. They can only raise taxes so high until people stop cooperating en masse and they, the feds, don’t have enough enforcers now. Well, I hope so, anyhow. Be interesting to see what happens in November, if say more Cruzes are elected, and whether the Queen of Benghazi gets the White House in two years.
“people stop cooperating” It’s starting to happen here and there. It’s one of those things that seems to be sporadic, but builds beneath the surface until it bursts forth seemingly from nowhere. I still contend that they know subconsciously that they are losing, hence the hysterics and radical lurches leftward in policy that belie their put on self confidence.
Tina Brown, editor of the Daily Beast, which I think is a spinoff of the dead Newsweak, a Democrat house organ, has a whiny piece blaming Drudge’s reporting on the Lewinsky scandal for, ultimately, the rise of Fox News and decline of CNN and the WaPo. Pretty amusing. It was a Newsweak staffer, as I recall, who alerted Drudge to the story which Newsweak had but was refusing to run. http://tinyurl.com/lxasunz And, of course, the pols periodically mount futile attempts to regulate bloggers. They want their gatekeepers, like the lying Dan Rather, back sooo bad.
I have never read The Federalist Papers. Mainly, I reckon, because I was a Jefferson fan, and a Hamilton hater. I still like the Jefferson ideal as a society, over this urban blight we are afflicted with. Why, oh why, can we not have FTL and migrate to a more empty planet to escape, like the Founding Fathers did? It’s the only really good solution. When we ran out of room to the west to bail out of “civilization,” that’s when we started compromising our freedoms.
“I have never read The Federalist Papers.” You should, if I remember right Jefferson approved especially Madison’s input. If Adams and the DOI signers ignited the revolution and Washington won it (well didn’t lose it) then the underlying foundation of our government was laid by Madison. The story of the “Papers” themselves is fascinating.
OK, OK, dammit. I’ll put it on my list.
Well, gentlemen, there is a difference between the majority and the vocal majority. Whoever shouts more hysterically usually wins the shouting match, not matter the topic.