Angertainment Reshapes the GOP

Heated political rhetoric has been a staple of the media for centuries. Newspapers wore their political allegiance on their mastheads. Editorials and editorial cartoons attacked people with different beliefs viciously. Electronic media, until the demise of the Fairness Doctrine, hosted relatively sedate pro/con debates. As documented in *Messengers of the Right*, there was ample precedent for the rise of a vibrant angertainment industry. The ground was well prepared and the chief beneficiaries relished their success.

For the politicians, angertainment appeared to be the fulfillment of a long-held dream. It gave them a voice—a huge megaphone—and influence over a tidal wave of programming and messaging. Control of media channels is an essential step in any effort to establish strong political power. Step one in the young revolutionary’s guide to staging a coup: seize the television and radio stations. Every good dictator knows how to promote their government over the media channels they control and how to shut down any opposition. Control of the media can provide an enterprising media mogul with a direct path to political power, as Silvio Berlusconi and his four terms as prime minister of Italy demonstrated.

Media exposure can be enough to give a politician the necessary “name recognition” to succeed in American politics today. Donald Trump was hardly an anomaly. People like Jesse Ventura, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Ronald Reagan blazed the trail from entertainment to politics decades before his arrival.

Overall then, the idea of merging entertainment and politics has been present for decades. The Republican Party especially had an interest in promoting conservative media and messaging.

However, about the same time the angertainment industry was getting off the ground, the Republican Party was beginning a significant transformation. The Republican Party today is no longer the party of Lincoln. It has evolved to a point where it is barely the party of Reagan. Its ties with big business interests have been frayed. Its important to have an understanding of what has happened.

Republican Party 1.0

This was, from the end of the Civil War through the 1970s, the party of Lincoln. It promoted a broadly conservative agenda but also recognized that there was a role for government in protecting the nation, the environment, and human rights. Republicans never wavered in their commitment to military spending. The Environmental Protection Agency was created during the Nixon administration. Republicans were a major part of the coalition that passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The Southern Democrats

For the century following the Civil War, two Democratic parties lived in a kind of peaceful coexistence. They worked together to pass New Deal legislation and help win World War II. They elected Harry Truman, John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, and Jimmy Carter. But throughout their uneasy alliance, the matters of race and racism created a constant irritant.

The fathers and grandfathers of the Southern Democrats overturned the social justice that began to flower in the aftermath of the Civil War. Republican Rutherford B. Hayes, after losing the popular vote and lacking the electoral votes to become president, made a deal with Southern Democrats. The Republicans removed all troops from the South; Southern Democrats were allowed to impose a new era of de facto slavery with intimidation, violence, and Jim Crow laws.

Southern Democrats maintained a solid front against civil rights. Led by some of the great names associated with racial prejudice—Faubus, Wallace, Thurmond, et al.—Southern Democrats mounted resistance to racial justice at every turn.

Republican Party 2.0

In 1980, Ronald Reagan, actor turned politician, turned the key and started up the Republican Party 2.0. Reagan announced his support for “states’ rights” and the “solid South” began voting solidly Republican. Reagan’s election marked a turning point for the Democratic Party as well. Southern Democrats didn’t disappear, of course. Instead, they changed parties. After 1980, the former Confederate states became a Republican bastion in national elections. And on the local level, many Democrats changed parties while newcomers entered politics as Republicans.

The Republican Party 2.0 became a coalition of old-fashioned, strong-on-defense fiscal conservatives from around the country combined with the old Southern Democrats. It proved to be a powerful, winning combination.

Strategic Initiatives of GOP 2.0

Most significantly, the GOP 2.0 was responsible for two strategic initiatives. First, it focused on state and local elections in a way that amassed electoral power. While Democrats had national visions and dreamed big, the GOP 2.0 stayed local. The GOP 2.0 won majorities in statehouses across the nation. The old Southern Democrats completed their conversion to the GOP and created a new version of the solid South. But the GOP had a national strategy. The GOP 2.0 claimed statehouses and legislatures in the Midwestern border states and contended everywhere.

As a result of taking control of state governments, the GOP 2.0 had the power to redraw congressional districts. This it did using computerized mapping tools to draw GOP-friendly districts. The GOP 2.0 raised gerrymandering to a new, never-before-seen, scientific level.

The GOP 2.0 also focused its attention on the American judicial system. Supreme Court appointments were the grand prize, of course, but in this era, Republicans increased their focus on lower levels of the judiciary as well. At the national level, GOP 2.0 approved Republican nominees quickly and stonewalled Democratic appointees as much as possible. The strategy reached its pinnacle when Republicans refused to even consider a Democratic nominee for an open Supreme Court seat in 2016.

The growing power of the GOP 2.0 in state government gave it more control over state judiciaries and Republicans exercised their power there as well. Additionally, Republicans began paying close attention to statewide judicial elections. The GOP 2.0 began providing financing for these supposedly nonpartisan elections.

The result of all of these efforts has been a new tenor in the American judicial system. The judiciary, despite claims to the contrary, is being deployed as a tool to serve political goals. Blind justice is no longer blind.

The Demographic Challenge

The Republican Party 2.0 had all of this on its agenda. Seeing unfavorable demographic trends, it needed to take action to secure more power or be relegated to electoral obscurity. The wealthy patrons of the GOP did not want to let that happen. They helped develop a strategy and financed its execution. They wanted tax cuts and deregulation and the power to maintain the status quo. The GOP 2.0 delivered exactly what they wanted.

Republican Party 3.0

On June 16, 2015, the GOP 3.0 arrived via escalator. The reality television personality, Donald J. Trump (DJT) provided the catalyst to set off a powerful reaction in political chemistry. The GOP 2.0 had prepared all the necessary political ingredients. Now, in DJT, the angertainment industry had its perfect candidate for office.

Angertainment thrives on content that promotes fear, mistrust, anger about immigrants, and misinformation. DJT provided that kind of content and more.

Angertainment channels and personalities face a continuous battle to claim the status of being trustworthy—of being real journalists. DJT rewarded them—he treated them as the most trusted media and, for bonus points, described real journalism as “fake news.”

As the DJT candidacy gained traction, the candidates favored by the GOP 2.0 fell by the wayside. In the election of 2016, with the elevation of DJT to the White House, the GOP was transformed. The old presidential responsibility of service as commander-in-chief was dissolved. The United States now had an angertainer-in-chief. DJT supplied angertainment outlets with press credentials, interviews, and credibility. The angertainment industry responded with airtime, noncritical coverage, and direct access to the electoral heart of the GOP—the Republican base.

Beyond One Person

One person did not, however, result in the transformation of the GOP from version 2.0 to version 3.0. What DJT did was to demonstrate the efficacy of using angertainment as an electoral campaign tool, either to promote candidates or to destroy them. He used angertainment as a threat to keep Republicans in line. If they displeased him, he would support people to run against them in primaries. He showed the nation that angertainment produced campaign contributions, engaged and activated supporters, and fueled waves of support via social media.

The close relationship that evolved between angertainment and the GOP base has provided candidates with instant campaign issues and talking points. The fact that angertainers are providing content means that it is already field-tested and will work. All the candidate needs to do is repeat it.

DJT provided a second major component to the GOP 3.0 by redefining the rules of engagement for candidates. He broke taboos and ignored tradition. Civility was no longer required; truth became entirely optional. And all of this was especially effective when it echoed the content being supplied by the angertainment industry.

During the years of the first DJT presidency, two Republican parties emerged. One, the remnants of the intellectually honest, fiscally conservative, strong-on-defense GOP, pushed back against DJT and some of his excesses. They prided themselves on their principles, but when they dared to run, they were swamped in primary elections. The second party, the fully evolved GOP 3.0, emerged victorious. It is powered by a perfect match: angertainment content and the Republican base voters. The synergy is astonishing.

The Perfect Audience

It is a big audience perfect for marketing products and motivating voters. The audience is older and relatively affluent. It can spend money on supplements, pillows, and political contributions. With the primary system in place in most of the US and the success of GOP 2.0 gerrymandering and GOP 3.0 voter suppression efforts, all the candidate has to do is win a GOP primary. The general election is often a foregone conclusion. The end result for the would-be GOP 3.0 candidate is to align themselves with whatever content is appearing in the angertainment media.

The Day Angertainment 3.0 Took Control of the GOP

On January 6, 2021, doors and windows were closed, airlocks were sealed, fact shields were raised, and the Republican Party was assimilated by the angertainment industry. With the benefit of an impermeable fact barrier, Republicans arrived at the industry’s ideal destination. Whatever was said inside the angertainment world was true; what was said outside its confines simply didn’t matter. In a grand paradox, the disturbing words and images of the angertainment content created a comfort zone.

As a majority of Americans and people around the world watched DJT supporters stage an assault on the US Capitol, the angertainers transformed their actions into civil disobedience, a peaceful protest, and a justifiable response to a stolen election.

January 6 was a great day for angertainment. Angertainers on the web and over the air set the stage for the insurrection. They broadcast theories about how the electoral wrong could be righted. They amplified conspiracy theories that, under the scrutiny of real journalism, would never have seen the light of day unless they were mentioned in a report on bizarre conspiracy theories.

Content Gold Mine

The images and sounds of “the people” asserting their rights and battling big government will be on endless replay. The actions will always be justified. Convicted rioters make wonderful martyrs. Any action taken by the government can be parsed, analyzed, and used to prove that organizations like the FBI are, in fact, conspiring against real Americans. In short, the insurrection provided the angertainment industry with content that will live on to excite, anger, motivate, and captivate audiences for decades. It will keep its audiences engaged. It will be profitable.

That One Little Problem

While Angertainment Inc. could bask in the success and profit of January 6, one small dark cloud appeared on the horizon. The repeated, unsubstantiated claims about election fraud linked to voting machines caused the manufacturers of some of those machines to push back against the angertainment businesses that were spreading these lies. One of those aggrieved parties, Dominion Voting Systems, took aim at one of the biggest angertainment businesses: Fox News. Dominion sued Fox News for defamation and wanted $1.6 billion in compensation. Libel cases are hard to win in the United States. The plaintiff has to prove the defendant knew that the content it was disseminating was untrue, and that it disseminated it anyway. In simple terms: the media was knowingly lying and misleading its audience.

On April 18, 2023, Fox News agreed to pay Dominion Voting Systems $787.5 million to settle the case. Fox News issued a statement that said in part: “We acknowledge the Courts rulings finding certain claims about Dominion to be false. This settlement reflects FOXs continued commitment to the highest journalistic standards.”

That is another falsehood.

What Actually Happened? What Did the Settlement Prove?

What serious journalists have known for decades since Rush Limbaugh first went on the air: The behind-the-scenes drama Fox News revealed in court documents spells it out. People throughout the organization knew that they were broadcasting lies. They were deliberately misleading their audiences—or perhaps more accurately they were telling their audiences what their audiences wanted to hear.

Angertainment Inc. was fully invested in the stolen election lie. Angertainers everywhere were repeating and amplifying it.

If Fox News committed an act of real journalism and told the truth, the internal documents show the organization feared it would lose viewers. The devoted angertainment audience would turn to other sources. And so, in the spirit of great angertainers everywhere, Fox News purposely continued to broadcast lies.

Rupert Murdoch thought the election denialism was “really crazy,” even as Fox personalities peddled those same claims to millions of viewers. Tucker Carlson said he “passionately” hates Donald Trump, whose presidency was a “disaster.” Fox hosts, producers, fact-checkers, and senior executives privately said the on-air claims of a stolen election were “kooky,” “dangerously reckless” and “mind-blowingly nuts.”

And so, on April 18, 2023, it paid $787.5 million for that privilege. To put that in perspective, the settlement amount was roughly eight times Dominions annual revenue in 2021, according to court filings, and nearly 10 times the company’s valuation from 2018. Various sources indicate that Dominions annual revenue ranges from approximately $100 million to $200 million, making the settlement a massive windfall that far exceeded the actual business damages the company could have claimed.

The settlement represents the largest known media settlement for defamation in U.S. history. It established a precedent that even the most profitable angertainment operations are not immune to consequences when their manufactured outrage crosses the line into provable defamation.