• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, November 14, 2022

Political messaging over-promising and underdelivery are all at work.

New political TV and media messaging should go something like this -- especially for the big political party that missed its moment in these elections: “No, we did not mean "stop the steal" -- we meant "stop the deal." Vague enough to cause some inquiries.

Whatever the new theme, TV marketing messaging of widespread election fraud among conservative-minded political marketers is seeing its final days.

Earned political messaging on TV airwaves -- in terms of news, commentary and analysis disseminated on the likes of Fox News Channel, Newsmax, and others -- flopped big time.

Mind you, content on Democrat-leading TV news outlets has not been all that consistent or persuasive either. 

And maybe that's just the point. Life, politics, and the general way of U.S life can be complicated:Jobs are still plentiful, but inflation is still naggingly high -- although seemingly trending down.

Democracy on the ballot? Nice, but seemingly vague for most voters.

Still, Republican-minded news outlets offering an overriding push of TV content tied to fuzzy logic around rising crime rates, higher inflation, immigration and other issues was a no go. Except for some states -- in particular a state like Florida-- there was overall rejection in many states.

TV media attention still scored well for Fox News Channel -- the best prime-time viewership results of any TV new networks results when it came to midterm election coverage --- 7.4 million viewers.

Perspective is always good. Fox's viewing take came out of a total of 29 million average primetime viewers -- Fox being just one of 13 networks airing election results.
And that 29 million is just 12% out of around 240 million U.S. eligible voters and 19% of the 160 million of those who voted in the last Presidential election.

Fox News Channel and other conservative-leaning outlets pointed to what they thought was an obvious and easily-to-recognize “red wave.” 

That marketing message flopped -- so much so that another Rupert Murdoch-owned media platform hit the brakes and went into reverse.

The New York Post plastered a front-page cartoonish image with the words “Trumpty Dumpty.”

More importantly, think about next week. Imagine what the message Trump will have if he goes ahead and pursues another Presidential run.

Will his main theme be, with adoring crowds screaming behind and in front of him telling supporters: “Well, another election was stolen -- again!”

Another TV rerun? That will have little bite, having the same meal one too many times.

Turn the channel. Get a different deal.