Murdoch, The Messiah of American Conservatism, has today announced plans to branch the Fox Empire into outwardly Christian territory. A new branch of Fox called – wait for it – FoxFaith™ (with the slogan, "films you can believe in") will produce DVDs and up to 12 cinema releases a year, targeting not simply the christian market, but the evangelist market that continues to grow stronger in the US as conservatism and the new social era of religious battle changes the face of modern America.

 

It’s a disturbing evolution from the well-known furore around Fox News, which has tapped into these markets – without doubt, a marketing marvel. Traditionally, these markets have been wary of major media companies, but through its anti-Democrat, anti-Muslim, anti-gay, pro-oil, pro-Christian sentiment (all within an aggressively patriotich context), Murdoch has been able to win their support, and more importantly, their money .

 

But it’s beyond simply providing a product for a pre-existing market. America has undergone a return to faith, and with the arrival of such products on the market, it shows not only the growth of this movement, but the future strength of this growth as it fashions a media culture within the biggest media empire of the modern world. It goes without saying that any movement or subculture in today’s world needs a cultural presence in order to take hold. Essentially, it needs to become a product. If this product intertwines (as it will) with a culture as big as Fox News (now a sort of modern bible for the modern conservative American), it dangerously begins to move non-faith based conservatism towards evangelism, on a potentially massive scale. It aligns a political ideology with evangelist ideolgy, through the most highly consumed product in America, Murdoch’s Fox.

This can be evidenced in the company’s first theatrical release, “Love’s Abiding Joy”, a story of the American pioneers, from a faith-based perspective. This combines the new romanticism of patritoch values (the beginnings of the great and mighty America) with christianity, putting forward an idea of the story of America as an essentially Christian phenomenon, further cultivating an ideology of nationality (so central to the new era) being inseperable from Christian faith.  This neatly combines politics with religion (after decades of modern history where the two were – quite consciously – parted), which mirrors not only the Bush administration, but now, Murdoch’s increasing political power. 

We’re a hell (or is that heaven?) of a long way from 9-11.

 

and for anyone who has yet to... please, please, PLEASE run - do not walk - to your local video shop, and hire out the documentary, OUTFOXED. Video Ezy are stocking it in all stores.