Fox News has done a lot of good in the media as it has  allowed Conservative/Libertarian voices an outlet to air their opinions. Fox also  covers stories that the Progressive media refuse to cover at all (or hardly cover at all) such as Fast & Furious, the Benghazi fiasco, the Black Panther intimidation of voters in Philadelphia, etc.

As we saw with the last election, Fox News is really outgunned by the Media-Entertainment Industrial Complex.  Fox also made the mistake of creating  a false bubble perpetrated by  Karl Rove and Dick Morris that Obama was going to lose. Conservatives refused to believe polls showing Obama winning while guest after guest on Fox reassured us that the polls were wrong. The only ones warning the Fox audience about the coming defeat were Pat Caddell, Doug Schoen and Larry Sabato and they were right and the rest of Fox was wrong.   Some on the Right realize that they need to get their message out  to the public by other means besides Fox News and have begun to go that route.

WASHINGTON — Earlier this month, with the fiscal-cliff fight intensifying and public pressure mounting on Republicans to cave, House Speaker John Boehner prepared to take his case to the American people.

Hoping to change the dynamic of the debate, he armed himself with fresh talking points, a heap of data, and a few well-crafted lines designed to prove to frustrated Americans that House Republicans had their best interests at heart.

Then he called Fox News.

To some Republican strategists and communications operatives, Boehner’s insular media strategy in recent weeks — a smattering of press conferences on Capitol Hill, and a sit-down with Chris Wallace at Fox News Sunday — is emblematic of what one called the GOP’s “choir-preaching problem.”

[….]

As the Grand Old Party looks to convert a new generation of conservatives, some Republican strategists are urging their leaders to start carrying their message to media outlets that aren’t named after a certain bushy-tailed woodland carnivore.

“Fox is great,” Appell said. “But those viewers already agree with us. … I think you have to take the attitude with the media that no one is going to just give you anything; you have to go out there and get it. Whether that’s sitting down with Univision, or BET, or visiting college campuses and doing an interview at each one with student-run media. How else are different demographics going to get to know you if you never reach out to them?”

“The Democrats have been much better at this than we have,” he added.

[….]

Marco Rubio is frequently cited by strategists as a conservative star who seems to inherently understand the need to court new media outlets. During the four-day Republican National Convention, for example, the Florida senator sat for two interviews with Univision, and one with Black Entertainment Television’s news anchor Ed Gordon. He’s also done two separate interviews with The Daily Show on Comedy Central, and he was the first major political figure to make the trek to BuzzFeed’s New York headquarters earlier this year.

“Americans get their news from a wide range of sources these days, so you can’t limit your engagement to a limited number of media,” said Rubio press secretary Alex Conant. “Sen. Rubio is a conservative who happens to speak fluent Spanish, which opens up a lot of Hispanic media opportunities.“

Fox News has done awesome work and is the best news organization in the business, but conservatives need to start appearing on other outlets (assuming that other outlets will allow them to appear, which in no ways is a given). Will there be some gotcha questions?  Sure, but after the Akin/Mourdock debacles,  conservatives need to be prepared for them (schooled actually). It’s time to go beyond Fox News and spread our message to groups we normally do not try to reach and if that means appearing on MSNBC and CNN so be it. Also it would be nice to see conservatives not afraid to appear on The Late Show, Comedy Central, The Tonight Show, MTV, even the hag fest known as The View.

As for Fox News, they need to get rid of Karl Rove, Dick Morris, Sarah Palin, Alan Colmes,  Geraldo Rivera, 9/11 Truther Andrew Napolitano, John Stossel, Jeanine Pirro, and John Bolton and bring on newer voices. Fox has some terrific regulars – Chris Wallace, Bret Baier, Brit Hume, Charles Krauthammer, Kirsten Powers, Stuart Varney, Tucker Carlson,  Greg Gutfield, Joe Trippi, Steven Hayward, but the discredited dead wood needs replacing.