The AP noticed something that other people will probably start talking about, that three of the supposed contenders for the Republican 2012 nomination are all employees of Fox News. Huckabee has his talk show, Gingrich is an often used commentator and Palin, to much fanfare, was just brought on and has her own show. This speaks to the ever blurring line between media celebrity and politician, one can be both anymore. Palin is the poster child for this transition, because she doesn't have an overly impressive political resume but she does have an ever growing media influence. It will be interesting to see if she can translate that media presence into votes and political power. She hasn't faired so well in straw polls taken at CPAC and the Southern Republican Leadership Conference, while Romney and Ron Paul have actually done the best and neither are paid Fox News personalities.
I am not really sure if this will hurt any of them, it will probably help them in the primary process. Fox News has the largest of the cable news audience and easily has the largest conservative/Republican viewer-ship of any of them as well. The more people see your face and hear your opinions, the more they can form an opinion and consider voting for you. However, anyone who wants to be the Republican nominee will be making frequent trips to Fox News and I have seen them all on there at one point or another. The biggest pitfall to being a media star while working on becoming a viable presidential contender is it only takes one misspoken word to undermine you.
During the 08 Democratic Primary, Fox News was also a campaign issue. A lot of Democratic primary voters didn't want any of the candidates to appear on Fox News, since it is the mouthpiece of Devil. Hillary was pretty vilified, not that she wasn't being already, for going on the O'Reilly show to do an interview. But at by this point, Hillary had turned into the "conservative, blue collar democrat" and it was one of her best ways to get around Obama and go to a network more sympathetic to her. Yes, Fox News became sympathetic to her and if you don't believe me, go watch some of those primary election returns.
As much as some people wish to deny it, Fox News' power has only grown and will continue to grow in the coming election cycles.
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