Reading Arianna’s account of her appearance on Hannity and the Other Guy reminded me of a debate I’ve had over the years with a few friends who are occasionally invited to appear on these shows. The argument in favor of doing so is that it’s important to make the noble, if futile, effort to counter the relentless flood of utter bullshit Fox unleashes upon its viewing public each night. And I’m not unsympathetic to that view — attempting to counter relentless floods of bullshit is pretty much what I do for a living, after all. Still — I can’t help but wonder if the Fox evening lineup wouldn’t be irrevocably crippled if everyone of a left/liberal persuasion simply stopped accepting the invitations. No one’s ever going to keep Hannity and O’Reilly from bloviating, of course, but they’ll certainly look a lot sillier doing it in a vacuum. And face it, Arianna: the few masochistic liberals watching these shows already mostly agree with you, and as for the rest of that audience, the ones who don’t understand that “fair and balanced” is meant as ironic Orwellian doublespeak, not literal truth — you’re not going to win them over. You’re just not. So why keep feeding the beast?
Just say no to Fox News.