Fox News Liberal - Television Tropes & Idioms

Fair and Balanced™

So, you've decided to make a work of fiction dealing with the great conflict between Bobtopia and Alicevania. Of course, you're a Bobtopian in real life, so you've made the whole thing Anvilicious with all the Bobtopians being Writers On Board and all the Alicevanians being Strawmen.

However, you decide to make one Alicevanian a reasonable person for "balance". The problem is that, in your mind at least, no one who actually agrees with the Alicevanian mindset could be reasonable. The result is a character who goes around saying how Alicevanian they are and exudes all the stereotypes of a Alicevanian despite the fact that their actual behavior indicates they are a Bobtopian. This character may be created when a Strawman Alicevanian gets Character Development.

Named for a Real Life example, namely that people on Fox News identified as liberals are claimed not to actually hold liberal views. Despite the name of the trope, this also covers instances of faux conservatives as well as any other viewpoint this may be applied to. See Blonde Republican Sex Kitten.

There are some real-life politicians who fall into this, but notice there is a major difference between them and the fictional ones. That is to say, it's only noticed in the real world that the fictional ones don't have the views they're supposed to. Instead, they seem to live in some kind of bizarre alternate universe in which they are totally accepted by the "other" Strawmen, if perhaps thought of as more "moderate". The real-life examples should give you an idea of how such people would really be regarded.

Examples

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Harriet Hayes of Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip is a fundamentalist Christian in a cast of liberals who makes the odd comment about how "homosexuality is a sin", yet has no issues with premarital sex and seriously considers doing a male magazine-style photo shoot before deciding not to. It's telling that she gets less conservative in her viewpoint as she gets more Character Development.
Ainsley Hayes from The West Wing, namer for Blonde Republican Sex Kitten (BRSK with an extra bit of Southern "y'all", BTW). Presented, at first, as a strong Republican that had previously been a member of the Federalist Society and could smack around expert liberal debaters, she quickly lost or strongly downplayed her initial displeasure about pork-barrel politics, gun control, and what she saw as unnecessary legislation. Her quick decision to leave gun control off the discussion table in response to a politician's attempted assassination is a particular Wall Banger, coming as it does from a Ronald Reagan Republican.
- In the last seasons, Arnold Vinick takes up this role as well. Vinick is the kind of "classical" Republican more outspoken liberals (I.E. the ones on television) say they can respect. He's anti-government in an old-school kind of way; less regulation, less interference in all aspects of life, from the board room to the bed room. The writers took a solid concept a bit too far; Vinick's not only uncomfortable with the more extreme religious right, he's pro-choice like Gerald Ford and and secretly atheist. It's hard to imagine someone with that profile winning the nomination of today's Republican Party, and that's lampshaded and hand waved a few times in the show. (Vinick's an extraordinary campaigner.)
- In fact, pretty much any Republican character whom the audience is supposed to like and respect gradually becomes one of these if they're around long enough. One particular exception is Speaker of the House and Acting President Glenallen Walken, who proves to be a competent president and reasonably likeable man of integrity despite also being clearly depicted as a conservative Republican and military hawk. However, he was only around for three episodes, it's possible this wasn't intentional and in any case, he was played by John Goodman, which goes a long way.
- Fans have attempted to rationalize all this by speculating that the show takes place in an Alternate History where US politics didn't become as bitterly divisive as it arguably is in Real Life - as such, the moderates have more influence in both parties, allowing for more cooperation and discussion across party lines and enabling a clear moderate (if not left) politician like Vinick to gain his party's nomination where he arguably wouldn't stand a chance in real life.
  - His foe in the Republican primaries is a strawman religious conservative, Reverend Butler, who is divisive. And Vinick himself is deeply worried about the divisive influence of the religious right. The moderates on abortion do definitely have far more voting power, as stated by Vinick, "Do you realize how many states my pro-choice position puts on the table?". I'd estimate the political makeup of America is, corporate conservatives and libertarians like him, social conservatives like him more than they do the Democratic party, and as such, he wins a large vote share, because he doesn't too heavily alienate social conservatives, and he wins the votes of people who are corporate conservatives, but unwilling to vote for a pro life candidate.
The French Police show "P.J" has Chloé Matthieu, who is a Fox News fascist—she starts as a member of a far right Police Syndicate, her uncle ran a election for a far-right party (not named, but probably this real life party), she seems to hate anything and anyone having a common point with Arabs, Muslims, human being with dark skin, homosexuals... Yet she manage to become good friend with Muslims and/or black policemen, has a child with a black man, work part time in a lesbian bar, asked a bisexual colleague to help her take care of her child when she has to work late and implicitly admits than most of her opinions are bogus. It can however be seen as character development, since this comes progressively during the show, and losing her prejudices actually makes her a competent cop.
Entertainment Weekly editor Mark Harris wrote an article about this, specifically naming Harriet Hayes of Studio 60 and Kitty Walker of Brothers and Sisters.

Close Live Action TV

Real Life

The Trope Namer: Fox News Channel.
- Alan Colmes is sometimes hit with this label, but most view him as more of a normal Democrat who's just not loud enough to effectively debate Sean Hannity. Colmes now just works as a pundit and has a weekly segment on The O'Reilly Factor where he really seems to have come into his own. (Of course, Your Mileage May Vary.)
- Susan Estrich is a perfect example, and has been criticized by Representative John Conyers in the past as a result.
- Bill O'Reilly of The O'Reilly Factor claims to be an independent as a transparent act to appear impartial, but his stock in trade is bashing liberals and Democrats. Stephen Colbert calls attention to this by also claiming to be an independent immediately before giving commentary that overtly supports the Republican agenda.
- Juan Williams, also of NPR, often plays the same role as Colmes on other Fox News shows.
- Oh so very much subverted with Mark Lamont Hill, who could basically be described as the walking, talking, Anthropomorphic Personification of the American Left.
- Red Eye w/ Greg Gutfeld (a late-night comedy offering on Fox News) has a Strawman Political made of wood pulp: the “liberal” New York Times “correspondent” Pinch (actually a copy of the NYT anthropomorphized with a pair of eyes and operated like a puppet by the show’s Butt Monkey Bill Schultz).
Any conservative who appears on MSNBC is bound to get labeled this on some blog or forum.
- Aside, perhaps, from MSNBC host and former Republican congressman Joe Scarborough, who is widely liked by his colleagues, unlike MSNBC's previous token conservative, Tucker Carlson (who, ironically, was very well liked by some viewers).
- Also subverting this trend is Pat Buchanan, who makes regular appearances across MSNBC despite being quite firmly in the ultra-far right.
On the other side of the fence, any conservative viewpoint in the Op Ed pages of your college newspaper. Many defiantly, and humorously, refer to themselves as the "token fascists."]]
- This principle applies further up the ladder at papers like The New York Times and Washington Post. Although most papers do employ some conservatives (the Times ran hawkish neo-conservative commentator William Kristol for a year, and employs David Brooks, and gave Judy Miller carte-blanche to write whatever she wanted about Iraq; and George W. Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson wrote for the Post), they are most treated as the local pet conservative. Their writings - especially Brooks' - have been often ridiculed by more thoroughly conservative pundits for embracing liberal doctrine in such substantial ways as to be hardly considerable conservatives at all.
- Similarly, Ben Stein, who divides his time between political commentary and acting in Hollywood, was introduced by the studio announcer as "our resident fascist" when he appeared on Norman Lear's show All's Fair in the 1970s.
- According to Stein, it was easier for a communist to get a job in Hollywood during McCarthy's heyday than it is for a conservative to get a job in Hollywood today. Expressing conservative belief is, according to his admittedly biased opinion, immediate grounds for ostracization and/or dismissal in many film studios.
DINOs and RINOs, respectively meaning Democrats in Name Only and Republicans in Name Only, which make up a nontrivial part of the American federal Congress. Lincoln Chafee, for example, was a Republican Senator rated about as conservative as Hillary Clinton by the American Conservative Union. Of course, the Democrats and Republicans are both "big tent" parties that cover a wide variety of related ideologies that don't always get along - try putting Ron Paul and Mike Huckabee in a room together, or Joe Lieberman and Dennis Kucinich, and sparks will most likely fly.
- Zell Miller, a Democrat who was appointed to one of Georgia's Senate seats as a mid-term replacement, was often rated as being more conservative than many Republicans, and even made a keynote speech at the 2004 GOP convention where he backed George W. Bush for reelection and accused the Democratic party of treason. When Chris Matthews questioned his judgments on the matter in an interview, Miller stated that he wished you could still challenge someone to a duel.
- Bob Casey, the late Democratic governor of Pennsylvania, was denied a speaking spot at the party's 1992 national convention because he wouldn't endorse the candidate. The myth persists that he was barred from speaking for his pro-life views despite that convention (and every one since) featuring speeches from any number of pro-life Democrats.
- On the other side of the aisle, there's former Vermont senator Jim Jeffords, who, sick and tired of being called a RINO, became an independent in 2001 and began caucusing with the Democrats. Needless to say, in a senate divided exactly down the middle (50 Republicans, 50 Democrats, and a Republican Vice-President holding the tie-breaking vote), there was no shortage of controversy from this move.
  - Though it does seem like the people of Vermont have warmed to having an "independent" for a Senator, as they elected Bernie Sanders (a self-admitted "democratic socialist," but belonging to no party) to Jeffords' seat when he retired.
  - Bernie Sanders actually predated Jeffords as an independent in Washington, though he served in the House rather than the Senate until Jeffords' retirement. Many Vermonters, including This Troper, trace Jeffords' defection instead to a series of political snubs by the then-majority Republicans, culminating in his dis-invitation to a White House event honoring a Vermonter.
- One explanation for this trope is that for many years the GOP - at least in its Eastern, "Rockefeller Republican" wing - was the more progressive party on social issues (closer to modern Libertarians, though maybe not as extreme), while the Democrats were the party of southern social conservatives. After the Civil Rights act, among other things, was pushed through by Southern Democrat Lyndon Johnson, the parties essentially traded sides as far as social issues went, though they remained more or less the same on economics. Some older conservative Democrats simply stayed in the party (such as Zell Miller, see above), despite the fact that it had generally moved away from them.
- Another simple explanation for this trope is that candidates of the regionally unpopular party running in a heavily conservative or liberal region have to moderate their message to have a chance of running. Basically, the constituents will only entertain a race between a kinda-liberal and a very liberal candidate in a "Blue State" like California. (I.E. the Governator is not particularly conservative, and happily signed onto the Stimulus plan.) This results in conservative Democrats running in the South and much of the Midwest, and many liberal Republicans in the northeast.
  - In the most recent election, most of the Republicans in "Blue States" were thrown out of office, especially in the House, since all their seats are up for grabs every 2 years. This has led to a problem where nominally, the Democrats hold a major numerical advantage, but the Republicans are a rock-solid coalition of the true believers, while the Democrats are filled with DINOs from "Red States" that require ceaseless compromising, flattery, and donations to keep on the party line.
A lot of old-school Labour supporters would hand this label to Tony Blair, who took over the party and basically abandoned all of their socialist policies in favor of liberal capitalism, while still relying on their old working class core voters.
The View likes to have a Token Conservative on the panel, and they usually try to make sure that she's a Blonde Republican Sex Kitten or, even better, The Ditz, in what some have interpreted as an attempt to make sure she's not taken seriously. At least one was booted from the show and a lot of the commentary about the decision seemed to imply that it was because she was holding her own a little too well and actually being conservative, and that the show wanted to find someone meeker and more likely to agree with the rest of the women.
- And then they fired Lisa Ling and brought in Elisabeth Hasselbeck.
Well, Your Mileage May Vary, but Bush is known to have "spent like a liberal" as far as budgets go (though on substantially different programs), and did try to win over Hispanic voters. He was, however, a Christian conservative with nationalistic beliefs, and so fit better with the Republicans.
- Your Mileage May Vary again, but cynical liberals and libertarians argue that the entire Republican party claims to be deficit hawks, but behaves like big spenders. When they realized they could simultaneously campaign against taxes and deficits, they never looked back. Especially the ones who own or are employed by defense industries, and thus personally profit from taxpayer money.
A lot of southern black Democrats are seen as this, as many of them have conservative Christian social views more in line with the ideals of the modern GOP.
1864: Andrew Johnson: Southern Democratic Senator (from a state that had seceded!) coopted as the running mate for Republican Abraham Lincoln. Great symbol of national unity. It wasn't until after Lincoln was shot that people noticed that putting a Southern Democrat a heartbeat away from the Presidency wasn't such a good idea.