To be elected, someone needs to win the swing voters who aren’t rabid Republicans or rabid Democrats. Hillary Clinton’s candidacy, Obama’s presidency, and Kamala Harris’ run for office shows that a lot of those swing voters are racist and sexist.

Even if Fox News went off the air tomorrow, along with Newsmax and all the various right-wing podcasts and streaming junk, there are a lot of swing voters who won’t vote for a woman, or won’t vote for a gay man, or won’t vote for someone without white skin. Many of them probably don’t even think of themselves as bigots. They just think things like “I support women, and I had no problem with Hillary Clinton as secretary of state, but commander in chief of the military is different, maybe if she had military experience…” Or, they’ll think “I have gay friends, and Mayor Pete seems like a great guy, he’s really smart and caring, but I don’t think people who choose that lifestyle really have the right values to lead the country”. Or they’ll think “I don’t have a problem with it, but people in Washington will, and they’ll never get anything done as president.”

Of course outlets like Fox News are always going to go hard after every Democrat, even a straight, white, male, christian one. Maybe that will influence some swing voters. But, it’s more about energizing enraging their base. I don’t think your typical swing voter is a fox news addict.