I first noticed it over the whole Benghazi saga. Day after day Fox would breathlessly unleash yet another leaked cable, or internal State Department memo, exposing failures in the protection of Ambassador Stevens, his staff and his embassy. And I ignored them; firstly because there were so many ”revelations”, secondly because they were clearly being pushed as part of a wider political agenda and thirdly, because they were from Fox. And Fox, in my eyes, is synonymous with poor and partial journalism.

But in retrospect, some of what Fox was publishing was actually – in journalistic terms – solid material. Setting aside the crazy conspiracy theories, it was clear that concerns had been raised about security at the embassy compound. There were legitimate questions to be asked about the nature of the military response once the attack was under way. But these weren’t being asked – to any significant degree – by other media outlets. And they weren’t being asked – in part – because the story was being driven by Fox

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Obviously Fox are influential. They reach a wide audience, and are a major, well-resourced and professionally run national broadcast outlet. But I’m not so sure they’re as damaging to Democrats as Democrats fear, or as helpful to Republicans as Republicans like to think.

And as the GOP begins the process of sifting through the wreckage of its latest election defeat, it needs to learn a lesson. Just because you’re winning around Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity, it doesn’t mean you’re winning around America.