Viewership of the Republican National Convention on cable news has swung decisively toward Fox News Channel, according to ratings figures published on Drudge today. Monday night, FNC pulled over three times as many viewers as CNN, and over four times as many as MSNBC. [update:] Tuesday, the gap widened, and Foxnews actually bested the three broadcast networks, according to Druge:

FOXNEWS —— 5.2 MILLION
NBC —— 5.1 MILLION
CBS —— 4.4 MILLION
ABC —— 4.3 MILLION
MSNBC —— 1.6 MILLION
CNN —— 1.5 MILLION

Now that the broadcast networks have in effect abdicated broadcasting the conventions, save for one hour a night, this means that the American audience for politics is no longer being spoon—fed a liberal—only line of analysis. Convention coverage, other than on C—SPAN, is full of talking heads commenting on politics — in effect a rolling seminar of political analysis.

FNC's upward trajectory continues, and it is clearly frightening the left. Demonstrators in New York City are attacking Fox News nearly as much as they attack President Bush. Fortunately, they are only likely to convince more sane Americans to check out Fox. Forbidden fruit is always inherently alluring. The radical scolds are so furious that they cannot perceive their own self—destructiveness.

The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth story was exclusively disseminated to the nation on television by FNC, since the liberal networks (all of the others) attempted to ignore it. Apparently, they shot themselves in their feet by doing so, since FNC's lead has now been shown to be bigger than ever. People who watch news actually are interested in hearing more than one point of view, it would seem.

I have earlier argued  that the anti—Bush monomania of the left—leaning press is destroying not just their credibility, but the commercial value of their enterprises. Both newspapers and the broadcast networks are losing news consumers, who are the real 'product' that they sell to their real paying customers, their advertisers. By driving away their audience, they are slitting not only their journalistic throats, but also their business throats. Sooner or later, the "suits" are going to wake up and demand their journalistic staffs "think like America" (to borrow and modify a slogan popular on the left). But the very tradition of journalistic independence, so dear to members of that profession, ensures that this transition will take so long that it won't stop the bleeding while there is a chance of recovery.

The presidential election of 2004 is shaping up as a turning point for both politics and the media structure. The old media are rightly fearful of losing the control they once exercised over the political conversation. But they have already lost it. The dominant response has been to attack the legitimacy of their robust and growing competitors — talk radio, Fox News Channel, and the blogosphere (in the chronological order they appeared on the scene).

A few of the smarter liberals are taking the counter—strategy of appearing as commentators on Fox, doing occasional talk show guest slots, and even writing their own blogs. These dissidents, though comparatively few in number, fatally undermine the argument of the majority. If 'legitimate' liberal journalists appear in these media, they cannot be inherently evil. And besides that, 'Don't listen to my opponent' is not a very strong argument to begin with.

The Kerry candidacy is proving to be the undoing of the remaining shreds of credibility of the once—dominant media structure. There are layers upon layers of largely unexamined contradictions in the Senator's career. The old media will simply not take them up.  Nobody has yet exposed Kerry's  phony pose as an Irishman for decades in the Gaelic cauldron of Massachusetts politics, for example.  The average voter does not realize that the mortgage loan, which kept his candidacy alive in primary season, was based on the fiction that he had paid for half of his elegant Beacon Hill townhouse — an impossibility, given his reported income.  Besides, serial marriage to zillionaire heiresses has never been a practice evoking much reverence from the unwashed masses. Something about living on the other guy's dime just goes against the American character.

The imperious manner and Croesus lifestyle enjoyed by John F. Kerry make him a ripe object of ridicule. The fact that most established media refuse to even consider poking any fun at it makes the eventual derision all the more subversively pleasurable for the rest of us. The liberal media blockade has been broken forever. The initiative now lies with the conservative voices harnessed to new technologies, speaking truth to power, and standing for values most Americans unashamedly embrace with gusto.

So sit back, relax, and enjoy the spectacle of the fall of the once—mighty. It has quite a way further to go.