Over the past year there has been a broad array of economic and political indicators that have been trending generally downward. In the U.S. jobs having been declining, as have exports. Construction has pulled back and property values have fallen. Wages are not keeping pace with inflation. At the same time, approval ratings for President Bush have cratered and Republican Party registration is down. GOP primary voters are showing up at the polls in significantly lower numbers than Democratic voters.

Not surprisingly, this social climate crisis is also being reflected in the market performance of the Fox News Channel. For 2007, Fox News squeezed out a meager ratings increase of 4%. While that was enough to beat the somnambulent CNN’s 2% gain, it was far short of the surging 32% rise enjoyed by MSNBC.

The new year didn’t produce much to brighten Fox’s spirits. Despite the abundance of news, Fox still managed to lag far behind its competitors. Here is a sampling of some of the important events that took place in January:

• Primary contests in six states
• Nine nationally televised debates (two of which were on Fox News)
• Benazir Bhutto’s assassination in the last days of 2007
• Deadly violence increased in Iraq
• Bush delivered his last ever State of the Union Address
• The stock market suffered historic declines (the worst January for the Dow in 7 years, 17 for the S&P 500, and the worst ever for the Nasdaq)
• Britany was committed.

This sort of activity usually triggers increased viewing for news networks. Indeed, that was the case for CNN which rose 42% for the month, and MSNBC which nabbed a 37% gain. However, Fox pulled up the rear with a paltry 9% uptick. At a time when viewers are tuning in to news with greater frequency, Fox is being left behind while its competitors are reaping rich rewards.

For those seeking an explanation for the disparity between Fox and the rest of the news purveyors, you need look no further than the content and style for which Fox has become famous. The influence of rightists in the government and the media is dissipating. As it does so, the noise level on Fox News is swelling to an earsplitting shriek. They are descending (and condescending) into a desperation fueled by their own crumbling credibility. They are finding it increasingly difficult to lure fair-minded commentators and public figures to appear on their tainted air. The refusal of Democrats to participate in Fox-sponsored debates is having a real impact on both the network’s performance and their perception as the Republican house organ. That effort must continue and broaden to include ANY appearance by Democrats or progressives (Starve The Beast) The result of this cold shoulder is an over-reliance by Fox on plainly biased personalities like their newest contributors, Tony Snow, Rick Santorum, and Karl Rove. I expect we will also be seeing a lot more of Dick Morris, Ann Coulter, and Bill Kristol, as the Foxians resort to just interviewing one another.

The current stable of Fox News hosts are becoming noticeably more shrill. Chris Wallace recently branded Democrats as “damned fools” for their refusal to be abused by Fox demagogues. Bill O’Reilly went positively crackers as he shoved an aide to Senator Obama because the aide was blocking his view. John Gibson didn’t see anything wrong with making offensive and homophobic jokes about Heath Ledger on the same day the actor died.

Fox News is in a sort of journalistic death spiral of its own. The more people tune them out, the higher they turn up the volume on their idiocy amplifier (and they’re already way past eleven). Then even more people tune out. This process will continue until no one is left but the brain-damaged spawn of a Coulter/Limbaugh clone experiment gone horribly awry.

Fox has already destroyed any pretense of credibility that they might have hoped to use to delude the weak members of the herd, and now they are simply becoming a parody of themselves. They still have a surplus of habitual viewers that may take a while to wind down. But the time is coming when their ratings will be struggling to keep up with the Bass Fishing Channel. And their programming will be just as exciting and newsworthy.

Brought to you by…

News Corpse

The Internet’s Chronicle Of Media Decay.

1. The U.S. killed 9 Iraqi civilians in mistaken bombing reports the McClatchy Newspapers. “U.S. helicopters attacked allied Iraqi militiamen south of the capital on Saturday, killing at least nine civilians and wounding three, apparently because of a miscommunication during fighting with suspected Islamist gunmen. An Iraqi police spokesman put the death toll at 13. Casualties included two women and a child… The militamen apparently called for U.S. support during the fighting. A spokesman for the local militiamen said that poor communication between the militiamen and American forces was likely to blame. The militiamen were unable to summon U.S. forces directly, and their request was relayed through local police”. Winning hearts and minds — one corpse at a time.

2. The Washington Post reports Bush unveils $3 trillion budget proposal. “Bush today unveiled a… $3 trillion budget proposal for fiscal 2009 that would slice $14.2 billion from… federal health-care programs, eliminate scores of programs and virtually freeze domestic spending — but would still record a $407 billion budget deficit… The Bush budget plan would continue his first-term tax cuts beyond their 2011 expiration date, at a cost to the Treasury of $635 billion through 2013, extend abstinence education programs, create elementary and secondary education vouchers and guard other White House initiatives… The document also assumes $70 billion in costs for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars next year, a fraction of the true costs, which could reach $200 billion in 2008. Beyond 2009, the budget includes no war costs at all.”

   McClatchy Newspapers add Bush budget – more of the same, and Democrats don’t like it. “Among the biggest spending increases would be a 7 percent boost for Pentagon spending and an 11 percent increase for homeland security, with big increases for border security. Not included is full funding for the war on terror; Bush would allot $70 billion for 2009 but leaves spending targets for future years’ up to future presidents and Congresses.”

3. The AP reports there were Close ties between White House and Sept. 11 commission’s executive director.

   The Sept. 11 commission’s executive director had closer ties with the White House than publicly disclosed and tried to influence the final report in ways that the staff often perceived as limiting the Bush administration’s responsibility, a new book says.

   Philip Zelikow, a friend of then-national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, spoke with her several times during the 20-month investigation that closely examined her role in assessing the al-Qaida threat. He also exchanged frequent calls with the White House, including at least four from Bush’s chief political adviser at the time, Karl Rove.

   Zelikow once tried to push through wording in a draft report that suggested a greater tie between al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and Iraq, in line with White House claims but not with the commission staff’s viewpoint, according to Philip Shenon’s The Commission: The Uncensored History of the 9/11 Investigation.

   Raw Story weighs in with 9/11 Commissioner: ‘We had to go through Karl Rove’. “9/11 Commission member John Lehman goes on to tell MSNBC that it was impossible not to go through Karl Rove when documents such as presidential daily briefings were needed… ‘We had to go through Karl Rove, and through [Attorney General Alberto] Gonzales and the other most senior members,’ says Lehman.” Certainly calls into question the commission’s independence.

4. The Los Angeles Times report on Where blubber meets the road. Some elephant seals below the Hearst Castle are “sneaking past barbed-wire fences designed to protect them, then flopping on blubbery bellies right across California 1… The phenomenon of wandering seals isn’t entirely new. Seals and motorists have had encounters before. Seals have been killed and drivers injured. But Brian Hatfield, a biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey who has watched the rookery grow from a few seals in 1990 to an estimated 16,000 this year, said it had become more of a problem as the population exploded.” Check out the great narrated slide show too.