STEVE PIECZENIK TALKS

Fox News Entered into the Hunger Games- Sparing No One in Order to Create Ratings: It Failed Miserably.

These moderators became the Rapacious Vultures of Ratings making the real loser in the debate: Fox News! Sorry Roger Ailes, you went way over the top and blew it.
Like millions of other viewers, I anticipated an interesting give and take in last night’s Republican Debate. Yet what I discovered, along with millions of other viewers, were verbal snipers who were so proud of having been tutored so well that they could not even disguise their childish delight with their own presumed success.

Of course, I am talking about the Megyn Kelly whose false eyelashes and windswept blond extensions were distracting enough to attract my attention to the degree that for the most part, I could not really take this seemingly bright woman seriously. I wrote in my previous blog that these debates were irrelevant and last night’s antics proved it. 

I can now say that if I were the Trump Camp, I would disavow myself from these debates which prove nothing except that the narcissism of the moderators is even greater than that of the candidates on the dais. I have never seen such childish, boorish behavior among seemingly serious moderators who gave themselves a ‘high-five’ at the end of the show as a congratulations for what they thought they had accomplished. They had reaffirmed the simple truth that should be evident to the moribund Republican Party-- that Trump should break away from this group of staid school boys who can recite on command the proper catechisms of concern about the American economy, security and immigration.

I have warned the party that if the irrelevant if not noisome issues of ‘abortion’ or ‘same sex marriage’  supersedes the much greater concern of a failing economy or the absence of political leadership, then party is moribund. I believe that Donald is too strong and creative for such a stale party that gave America wars upon unnecessary wars.

Trump is an outlier.  He should accept the mantle without regrets or explanations. If he does not break from a non-existing party of retreads, he too will become what they all are now—“self-caricatures of a political dolls” that have nothing more profound to say than “God”, “Abortion”, and a “stronger defense with through more boots on the ground”.

Enlightenment was not part of last night’s “Fox Burlesque Show”.

Even the dower Fox News Contributor, Dr. Charles Krauthammer [whom I know well], made some fawning comments about how great Megyn was and how this debate was the definitive test of Trump’s superficiality. Unfortunately, Charlie has never been an insightful, objective critic of America; nor, its complex foreign policy. The reason is quite simple. Charlie willingly transformed himself from a serious Harvard Psychiatrist [and VP Mondale speechwriter] with some gravitas to a pitiful Fox accomplice spouting ex-cathedra statements without any bearing to reality or first-hand knowledge of anything. 

For me the defining moments were the beginning of the show when the Fox Moderators wittingly compared themselves to LeBron James and his Cleveland basketball teams. 

The moderators were so proud that they literally playing in the same ‘Hunger Arena’ as the exceedingly talented LeBron. Without belaboring the fact,  last night was the first and possibly the last night of watching this sequel to “Hunger Games” [ a movie promoting perverse sadistic themes of kill-or-be-killed]. Trump should leave the Republican Party and run as an Independent. He will probably choose Senator Ted Cruz [Princeton-trained Hispanic] to be his Vice President or even Carly Fiorina  [ a Stanford Graduate and the darling of  Silicon Valley] to be his running mate [they should bring in the women].

As for Jeb Bush?
What can I say that I have already not said?
Inarticulate, lifeless, awkward and corrupt. 

He is literally a $100M embarrassment to the old man [who should have reigned in his cretin sons] and America.

Fox News accomplished for me what I had expected that they would do—make the debates about their pathetic selves completely bereft of maturity, gravitas and enlightenment. Roger Ailes should have known better. He is far too smart for this type of narcissistic solipsism demonstrated by the Three Stooges –Megyn Kelly; Chris Wallace [a pale scion of his more tutored father, Mike Wallace] and Bret Baier. Perhaps, the only salvage for last night’s fiasco would have been to place only Brit Hume as sole moderator. He is perhaps one of the best TV Journalist in the past decades, who had both the gravitas and elegance to refrain from the offensive self-congratulatory childishness of the “Three Stooges”.

Alas, I am not Roger Ailes; and, I know one thing above all else, Roger received the ratings he had wanted to achieve -bar any sense of journalistic credulity. May I suggest that next time, he might place on stage the once offensive group “Twisted Sister” [Mrs Al Gore’s nemesis] playing against Kanye West. Then he would have broken the world record for real television firsts with regards to vulgarity, entertainment and ratings, which is all Fox really cared about.

Let’s hope that in the next year, we, Americans, can decide on what type of leader we will need without any prompting from the billion dollar dying industry of political operatives who know nothing more than how to sell postcards, bumper stickers and expensive TV commercials.

Time for change….