WI Fox News existed in 1941?

What would Fox News do with that?

In 1933, Roosevelt had a very close relationship with Lorena Hickok, to whom she referred as "Hick darling",[16] a reporter who had covered her during the campaign and early days of the Roosevelt administration and sensed her discontent, which spanned her early years in the White House.[17] On the day of Eleanor's husband's inauguration, she was wearing a sapphire ring that Hickok had given her.[17]
Later, when their correspondence was made public, it became clear that Roosevelt would write such endearments as, "I want to put my arms around you & kiss you at the corner of your mouth,"[18] and “I can’t kiss you, so I kiss your picture good night and good morning!”[16] It is unknown if her husband was aware of the relationship, which scholars (including Lillian Faderman,[17] Hazel Rowley and Maurine Beasley[16]) have asserted to be lesbian. Some authors consider "That the Hickok relationship was indeed erotic now seems beyond dispute",[16] while others disagree.[19]


That's from wiki. Imagine what the Fox comentators could do with this stuff.
 
But would the Japanese attack a USA were a 1941 Fox News Analogue was active? Sounds like the kind of country they could get along with.
Obviously after Pearl they would be on the war team. But up to there they woul really, really hate FDR...
And Eleanore Roosevelt would have them foaming at the mouth.
So they might be able to get FDR out of office before the war (Imagine the amount of dirt they could dig), and influence a US policy that would be a lot less allies friendly.

Fox News has never managed to get a President out of office in this day and age when we care a lot more about personal lives of our politicians than people did in the 1940s or 1950s. Look at JFK, even in the 1960s everyone knew he was a womaniser but didn't mind unless it impinged on his ability to govern.
 

BlondieBC

Banned
To approach this question remotely realistically, it's obvious that they would have immediately rallied around the flag out of good business sense the moment Pearl Harbour was bombed. They might have given platforms to America First politicians and figures like Lindbergh throughout 1940/1941 but the idea that a) they would root for the other side 'because Fox News' or b) they would, in the climate of the 1940s, attack a sitting a President for an act of war carried out by a foreign, sovereign military in which the US was now engaged in a conflict with is ridiculous, because even if they wanted to (and they wouldn't, because come on, this is a news station that prides itself on patriotism, so why the hell would it back the Nazis or the Japanese?), the Feds would kick the doors in on December 8 if they tried, and no-one would shed any more of a tear than they did when Fritz Kuhn was put in jail.

Agreed. Since they would be a wing of the Republican party, they might well call for something FDR did not do. I would go with Japan first strategy. No real big impact on war. Maybe with the right issue setup, Republicans can do better in the congressional elections during the war. It would be interesting to have a party that is calling for FDR to take even more measures and taken control of even more of the economy during the war. Also have some nationalism, so likely criticizes the compensation in the basing deal as inadequate. Good chance call for things like Bermuda and Bahamas to be given to USA outright as payment. Lot of dumb things like these items.
 

BlondieBC

Banned
Fox News has never managed to get a President out of office in this day and age when we care a lot more about personal lives of our politicians than people did in the 1940s or 1950s. Look at JFK, even in the 1960s everyone knew he was a womaniser but didn't mind unless it impinged on his ability to govern.

Agreed on the sex with women. But there is a scandal that can derail FDR if we go back to his secretary of Navy days. It can be argued that he order straight male sailor to perform oral and anal sex on gay sailor near Newport. It was either FDR or the Admiral. But to be fair, a power "Fox News like" organization would have used it to defeat FDR before the war. Either to try to save Hoover, or more likely to poison the well so FDR is not even consider for the nomination in 1940. Leaking out this stuff in early 1940 as primaries are going on, so it is well know.
 
They'd probably spend a great deal of WWII critizing Roosevelt's policy in helping the Soviets, then really blast him on it after Yalta.


J. Edna Hoover make them an offer they can't refuse

But can he beat Papa Joe (that's Joseph Kennedy Sr. for those who don't know) to the punch when it comes to blackmailing them? I could see Fox breaking the story of JFK's alledged affair with a Nazi spy just to spite him.
 
Would FDR even be elected if Fox News existed?

No.
Tere was the wheelchair thing, the failed marrieage thing, the gay wife thing, the "American Aristocracy" thing...
A Fox News like entity means a totally diferente rule book, and he couldn't play by it.
 
No.
Tere was the wheelchair thing, the failed marrieage thing, the gay wife thing, the "American Aristocracy" thing...
A Fox News like entity means a totally diferente rule book, and he couldn't play by it.

I don't think a wheel chair would make a lot of difference, but the aristocracy might strike a chord or two.
 
I don't think a wheel chair would make a lot of difference, but the aristocracy might strike a chord or two.

In the 1940 election he tried to concel his disability, something he wouldn't be able to do with Fox haunting him...
 
Would the German American Bund be the Tea Party of this world?

No, seriously. There was much mainstream sympathy for you-know-who even from the mainstream right all until 1939.
 
Would the German American Bund be the Tea Party of this world?

No, seriously. There was much mainstream sympathy for you-know-who even from the mainstream right all until 1939.

No, but I think the more fervantly Conservatives and Conservative areas of groups such as America First would be.
 
I would expect that Fox News would be strong supporters of Kimmel and Short. They would fan the flame that Washington know and did not alert Kimmel and Short. Whether they would so far as to reveal the code breaking is a difficult call. First, there is the matter of prosecution. The Office of Censorship had the power to censor any and all news. Sensitive subjects like production figures, troop levels etc had to be pre-cleared and there was a 24 hour hotline established to facilitate clearances. The broadcast media was seen as particularly vulnerable as the Attorney General was of the view that the law allowed seizure of radio and TV stations. Second, unlike today when there is a large and receptive market for Fox, the nation was almost universally united concerning the war. There would not have been much of an audience for anti war stuff.

As for sexual escapades by the President and others I once again do not think there was much public appetite for that kind of news. Particularly in the case of Roosevelt I think the far more prevalent audience view would be that such attacks on the “Commander in Chief” were unpatriotic.
 

BlondieBC

Banned
Would FDR even be elected if Fox News existed?

IMO, no. In 1932, Fox News destroys FDR reputation over the sex scandal. Even in today world of looser sexual moral, ordering straight sailors to perform oral sex on gay sailors ends anyone's career. It is a miracle FDR came back. Polio saved him. As the scandal was breaking, he caught Polio and the story was allowed to die. I doubt anyone expected him to hold any public office again. By the time he is better, the story has faded and his opponents don't bring up for some reason. So with a Fox News around, FDR decides not to enter Presidential race and likely is never governor of NY. So it is just some other democrat who curbstomps Hoover.

Now Handwavium, FoxNews magically appears in 1941, it can't do a lot. FDR is President. He will not be impeached. Fox News makes a lot of the scandal. Talks about how FDR is so bad. Then the war starts, and FDR settles the score. I am sure once Hoover is set loose to find the German agents behind FoxNews, he can find lots of crimes, some of them even true. You can't say specifically on each individual, but how likely is it that say Mr. Bill has paid 100% of all possible owed taxes in his entire life, never had sex outside of marriage, never taken any cash/gift/favor that could be interpreted as a bribe, and never committed any other felony of any type? And that his wife and children are also similarly clean? If nothing else, you can pull out the Wilson sedition acts and imprison them for prewar crimes. In WW1, one person went to jail for opposing the draft and aiding the enemy. What did he actually do? In an hour long speech, he said basically "You should contact your congressman to have the draft law repealed".
 
Many newspaper groups were intensely isolationist in 1940-41, and many Newspaper moguls opposed the New Deal. FOX would fit right in. There would be no change.
 
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