Blunder on the right
It seemed as if it was going to be a slow week for observers of the media landscape in the Trump Era, the Sean Spicer Hitler fiasco slowly fading in the rear-view mirror.
And then, from the "subterranean" newsroom that hosts the Fox News Channel came "The Word": Bill O'Reilly was out as the host of one of the most popular cable television "news"programs, his history of sexual harassment finally catching up to him.
Much has been said, here and elsewhere, about the rise of conservative media outlets that aimed to counteract what they viewed as the left-leaning bias of the "mainstream" media.
O'Reilly and his former Fox colleagues including Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes, who departed last year under a similar cloud, were the principal cheerleaders of this very successful spin.
The constant drumbeat against liberals emanating from Fox, Rush Limbaugh and a host of conservative junior varsity talk show hosts eventually brought us to the Fake News Era trumpeted by Donald Trump, the ultimate recipient of the spoils of the campaign.
But the loss of "Papa Bear" may, in hindsight, be seen as a turning point in the War over Words.
As much as O'Reilly, in particular, was reviled on the left for his do as I say, not as I do morality he carried with him the undying trust and support of his audience. He projected wisdom and reason in a way that few of his more blustery colleagues like Limbaugh or Sean Hannity can.
While his loyal following is not about to hop over onto the left, the steady exodus from Fox -- including Greta van Susteren and Megyn Kelly -- leaves those with a Fox viewpoint with fewer credible sources.
Which brings us back to Spicey.
A recent, very earnest discussion among millennial journalists at the Columbia Journalism Review "Kicker" podcast (first segment) broke down Spicer's performance in equating Bashar al-Assad to Hitler and concluded the White House Press Secretary was mortally damaged and needed to leave the Baker Briefing Room because he had lost his credibility among the press corps.
But the loss of "Papa Bear" may, in hindsight, be seen as a turning point in the War over Words.
The truth is that probably happened earlier in the administration, for example when he berated reporters over the size of the Inaugural crowd. And in sense that may only be a little earlier in a term than most journalists start taking the word of a PR spokesman with increasingly larger doses of salt.
Spicer has reached Ron Ziegler levels sooner than most of his predecessors, on his way to Baghdad Bob status. But he retains (as of this writing at any rate) the support of the only person who matters: Donald Trump.
And here's where it will start to get harder for the warriors on the right.
Polls are showing even conservatives are beginning to question Trump's veracity. The true believers who thought he and the GOP congress would stand with them are starting to have doubts about that too.
There's no doubt many of those same people firmly believe O'Reilly was forced out by the Liberal Media. But without their hero standing watch at the barricades for them the credible options for their point of view are dwindling.
Nothing will happen overnight. In fact, the pushback might even be stronger in the near term.
But Hannity is not O'Reilly. Unless Spicer and Trump change tactics (if you believe that there's a bridge in Brooklyn I can sell you) we may look back on the Trump presidency as when the Thunder on the Right began to return to the darker corners of the conspiracy universe.