Amidst the current political climate where the ideological dividing lines within political parties take form, there is an obvious phenomenon that is occurring.  This comes in the form of politically motivated media organization. What has gone down over the past several years is quite interesting from the perspective of those who study how influential media outlets can become.

Stylized reports by well-honed news anchors are used as the main outlets in convincing the general public.  Strong and harsh words are used against targeted politicians to signal hatred towards particular groups or individuals.  In the ASTV case, much of the hatred was targeted towards former PM Thaksin Shinawatra.  Though there was additional fuel added for all politicians aligned with the Thai Rak Thai, People Power, and Peua Thai parties.  The main objective was to distinguish 'bad' politicians out from the 'good' hence showing all mainstream press that they don't know what they are doing or at least were not digging deep enough for dirt on Thaksin-aligned politicians.  This was the modus operandi and it worked to a particular extent.  ASTV-Manager has been able to take charge in the rooting out of allegedly corrupt politicians, leading other bodies even the National Anti-Corruption Commission, the Democrat Party, and the courts.

For FOXNews it was rather simple: rally that conservative base hard.  Over in the United States, instead of using the nation-religion-king centerpiece, FOXNews opted for a rather simple advocacy of national security over personal privacy, religio-traditional pro-life no-gay-marriage stance over the more liberal counterparts in all of those ideas.  This simple advocacy resonates with folks in the heartland of America--already dissatisfied with the world that was quickly changing and values that were quickly evolving around them.  By instilling fear into the hearts and minds of Americans, FOXNews has been able to sensitize Americans to rally behind its networks' anchors.  Bash Obama and those liberal Democrats, rally the conservative base around the Glen Becks, the Sean Hannities, and the Bill O'Reillies, and eventually the Republican party will come begging.

Comparisons are obvious. Both ASTV and FOXNews have and always been politically motivated.  They don't answer to political parties but rather political parties answer to them.  In the end ASTV-Manager undercuts the Democrat Party's base in Thailand, while the FOXNews network undercuts the Republican Party's base in the United States.  Look at what's gone down with the New York District Congressional Elections, the Republican Party candidate there, Dede Scozzfava, couldn't even get her own party base's support.  This inevitably forced her candidacy's withdrawal 1 week prior to election date.  The Democrat Party candidate, Bill Owens, actually won in that election over a right-wing independent Doug Hoffman, unofficially endorsed by FOXNews' popular anchors.  The idea behind both ASTV and FOXNews is to have its own networks become such a political force that policy agendas can be dictated from the editorial room and the anchors' desks, or better yet from Sondhi Limthongkul's mansion or Rupert Murdoch's penthouses.  The former is known to have wanted to emulate the latter in his hey days.

What lies ahead?  The future of FOXNews is bright since it has over 2.5 million viewers each night, not bad for a news network on cable founded in 1996.  It has one of the world's richest media moguls behind it in Rupert Murdoch and one of the world's richest media enterprises in News Corporation financing its venture.  In due time regardless of the political hatred it spews, FOXNews will overtake all liberal mainstream network (if it has not already).  Could its CEO Roger Ailes actually run for president? No one is stopping him and www.politico.com is already reporting that there is a move for such.  They could conceivably form a rival party to that of the Republicans.  Next year at least 10 Republican Congressional seats will be contested against independents under the umbrella of the Tea Party movement, a campaign heavily pushed by FOXNews' most controversial host Glen Beck.  It will be analogous to what New Politics is attempting to do with the Democrats here.  

Sondhi Limthongkul, founder of ASTV-Manager, is head of the New Politics Party.  He has already transformed his engine from a media outlet into a political canvassing unit tricking younger generations using raunchy entertainment gossips and criminal news expose, while slowing massaging their brains with manipulated politicians-hating headlines of relevant news stories.  Nonetheless it suffers a worse fate due to lack of funding and lack of the mainstream audience's interest.  Could this change? Perhaps so but no one knows.  Nevertheless the evolution and eventual devolution of FOXNews and ASTV will be cases worth studying for students of political science and media & communications in the years to come.  The latter has already led an uprising against a democratically elected prime minister while the former is leading a conservative uprising against another iconic democratically president.  

Originally published in Bangkok Post on Friday Nov 6 in the print edition.