How the Left is Actually Helping the Right

One would have to be living in the wilderness for the last several months in order to be unaware of the war that the left is waging against certain conservatives. The White House has declared war on Fox News Channel. MSNBC continually goes after Limbaugh, Hannity, Beck, and Coulter as if they were the 'axis of evil', as do the liberals throughout the blogosphere.

It seems that the more the left decries their enemies the more popular they become. Despite the efforts of the White House to paint Fox News as a primary source of disinformation, and something other than a legitimate news outlet, Fox's ratings continue to climb.

Fox News' Glenn Beck show, which only began airing on January 19th of this year, now draws more viewers than all three of the competing time slot shows on CNN, MSNBC, and HLN.

While negative press typically has a correspondingly negative effect on popularity, that is not always the case. There are many instances in which negative publicity can have a positive effect on popularity. Many times negative publicity, such as a musician who has gotten into trouble with the law, has an indirect relationship to their currently marketed work, in such cases, negative publicity can increase sales. In other instances in which it is the product or service which is the subject of the negative publicity, such as a book or movie review, sales would be adversely effected.

Since this is generally the case, and since the negative press is directly attacking these conservative commentators products and services, why isn't the negative publicity negatively effecting their popularity? Well, it may have to do with risk. Negative advertising used against a politician works because their is risk involved in ignoring such advertising. The same is true with a product or service, the consumer risks his money, and in some cases, his safety, by ignoring the negative publicity. However, in the case of negative publicity against conservatives, the consumer need only risk a little time, usually at his discretion and leisure, to verify (or dismiss) the negative claims which the left presents against conservative commentators and Fox News.

So, if Rachel Maddow says that Glenn Beck is exploiting the tragedy of 9/11, or if Keith Olbermann attacks Glenn Beck for his part in bringing about the resignation of Van Jones, the public risks relatively nothing in deciding for themselves if such claims are accurate. And there in is the rub, because the public is obviously doing that, and are concluding that the negative publicity is substantively wanting. In the final analysis, it all boils down to credibility.

It seems to this observer, that the liberals are actually helping conservatives to get our message out, and while that is certainly their intent, we are nonetheless, very appreciative of their assistance.