• by Joe Mandese , 3 hours ago

Hard to believe it's been 30 years since I personally played a role in helping Roger Ailes launch Fox News Channel, and don't think I don't regret that.

I almost missed today's anniversary milestone, but just received a dispatch from Media Matter's Matt Gertz reminding me that it's been three decades of the fractious "news" channel's role in American politics, and as Gertz notes, "even the pretense of impartiality is all but gone."

You can read his full take here, but on an ironic note, I'd like to point out that at the ripe old age of 30, Fox News Channel still is less than half the age of its average viewer: 69.

Not that there's anything wrong with that demo.

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I also received a noteworthy dispatch from my favorite brand, Patagonia, this morning reporting that its generous get-out-the-vote campaign has already generated $11.2 million in promotional Patagonia purchasing credits.

"You hit the full $11.2 million spend," Patagonia's dispatch read, noting, "This election season, we committed $11.2M in Patagonia $100 credits to help get out the vote. Thanks to our community, we hit our goal within a week. While we’re out of credits to give away, there’s still ways to get your people to the polls."

Patagonia pledged to give that amount of $100 store credits to registered consumers who got other friends and family members to register and pledge to vote in the midterms.

While the store credits are no longer available, you can still participate in the get out the vote program here.

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Interestingly, Patagonia's $11.2 million donation to midterm voting correlates almost exactly with the estimated $11.5 million in taxpayer dollars Trump has used for media buys running his own midterm ads, which some say may be illegally violating the Hatch Act.

And while he has pledged to fund future media buys from his well-endowed super PAC, he reportedly does not plan to reimburse us for our tax dollars that he's already spent.

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Apropos of nothing, I'm sharing this recent post from the "Fake News" comic strip on my personal b/log. It's entitled, "Donfeld Orders Take Out."