Say It Like You Mean It

David Frum was a close advisor to the Bush Administration - and was Bush's speechwriter and special assistant between 2001 and 2002.

His time at the White House is probably most memorable for creating the now infamous "axis of evil" term that Bush lived off of for the next 6 years.

Frum is an interesting character. Growing up in Canada - he was originally about as liberal as you could get. He was very active in the liberal party in Canada as a politically active teenager. However - he had an ideology shift and became a Republican around the time he was 20 years old.

This shift in ideologies gives Frum the unique ability to see the political world from both sides - and see political media coverage from both sides.

In recent years - Frum has been incredibly outspoken on the current state of the Republican Party - arguing that it has become a party that essentially works for Conservative media powerhouses like Fox News and Rush Limbaugh.

Similarly - he argues that at the heart of Conservative media - is this need to create conflict out of seemingly nothing issues.  According to Frum - creating these wedge issues is what drives the success - or failure - of Conservative outlets like Fox.

I'm not trying to only bash on Fox here - in recent years - MSNBC and CNN have become very similar - making little things coming out of the Republican Party seem like major issues.

And this is another problem with news media in the US today.  These networks - and talkshow powerhouses like Rush  - are creating issues out of non-issues and basically controlling debate in America.

In a 2010 interview on ABC's Nightline - Frum famously said, "Republicans originally thought that Fox worked for us and now we're discovering we work for Fox. And this balance has been completely reversed. The thing that sustains a strong Fox network is the thing that undermines a strong Republican Party."

The very notion that a political party and a media outlet could be so inexplicably linked is incredibly scary - and is a consequence of the destruction of real journalism and news in America...

Take a look at this David Frum interview from last year on CNN - he really sums it up well..