Five key insights into how the modern right-wing media and the Republican Party work together
By: Media Matters for America
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
The GOP speaker fight was brutal, but it showed how things work nowadays
Written byMatt Gertz
Published 01/10/23 2:15 PM EST
After a historic week of messy party infighting, the Republican-led House of Representatives has finally selected a speaker, passed a rules package, and gotten to work on its agenda of making the country safer for wealthy tax cheats. There are important lessons to learn from the chaos given the likelihood of future interparty rifts over the next two years — and the centrality of the right-wing media to the GOP.
Here are some key takeaways:
The GOP's leaders are fueled by right-wing media. Gaining prominence in the modern Republican Party virtually requires a willingness to rub elbows with the right-wing press. New House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) spent the last several years cozying up to Fox hosts, and two of his "key" supporters "helped corral surrogates - especially in the conservative media space - to act as validators" for his bid. He also benefited from the backing of Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), the congresswoman from QAnon and an ally of Steve Bannon, and Jim Jordan (R-OH), whose regular Fox appearances helped him ascend from back-bencher to incoming House Judiciary chair. Meanwhile, McCarthy's most prominent opponents included Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), who has gained prominence entirely on the basis of his courting of the right-wing media and reportedly sought jobs at Fox and its competitors, and Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO), another favorite of the fringe-right press. The right-wing media will be the key battleground for future fights between those sides.
Fox is now the GOP establishment. While Fox once aligned with the insurgent wing of the Republican Party, Donald Trump's presidency had the effect of merging the network with the GOP's establishment wing, and almost all of its prominent personalities lined up behind McCarthy's bid and sought to stifle the revolt against him. Several of the pro-McCarthy network hosts have since sought to minimize the extent of the divide within the party by praising the concessions the rebels extracted during the fight. But the fracas sets a precedent for which side the party's powerful propaganda arm will back the next time its insiders and outsiders face off.
The narratives of the right-wing press will form the core of the GOP agenda. With Democrats in control of the Senate and the White House, House Republicans are unlikely to see many of their priorities become law — but they plan to make noise, and to do so in step with their propagandists' priorities. The initial bills proposed in the House Republican rules package were "centered on issues and themes important largely in the conservative media world," as The Washington Post's Philip Bump pointed out. The rules package also included not just the Tucker Carlson-sought "weaponization" panel but also a coronavirus committee which promises to put investigative muscle behind various right-wing pandemic narratives. And the first bill the House passed rolled back last year's increased funding for the Internal Revenue Service, which became a target of right-wing conspiracy theories.
Fox's competitors will use party fights to gun for the network's market share. As Fox rallied behind McCarthy, its rivals in TV and digital media saw an opening. They became the propaganda support for the anti-McCarthy campaign, savaging the would-be speaker and championing his critics. They also went after Fox, denouncing the network and its top hosts for purportedly selling out in an offensive more extensive than any from the right since late 2020, when Fox declared Joe Biden the president-elect and Trump urged his supporters to switch to its competitors. Expect more of this in the future as right-wing outlets try to use internal GOP fights to build their audiences at Fox's expense.
Tucker Carlson is the most influential right-wing media figure. Carlson's show is a festival of white nationalism, far-right conspiracy theories, and violent rhetoric that seeks to work his viewers into a frenzy. It is also a guiding force in the modern GOP. While his colleagues were foursquare behind McCarthy, Carlson was playing all sides of the debate, criticizing the would-be speaker one moment, praising him the next, and, above all else, seeking specific concessions. It worked — Carlson got the House inquiry into the purported "weaponization" of federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies that he's been building up to for years. Now he'll be able to spend the next two years cheering on the Republican efforts to spread his conspiracy theories about the January 6 insurrection and whatever else the panel tries to push.
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