Fox News plays an important role in setting the Overton window. They act like a mainstream news channel, presenting themselves as just to the right of center. T

Fox News plays an important role in setting the Overton window. They act like a mainstream news channel, presenting themselves as just to the right of center. Then viewers consume NewsMax, thinking of them as only slightly more extreme, even though an objective view would present them as being utterly crazy-pants. If Fox News were to disappear, there would be an enormous gap between the other mainstream media and the far-right ones. I don't know what would happen to its viewership, but they'd be presented with a starker choice than they expect. They're used to thinking of themselves as fairly moderate, while being regularly presented with extreme opinions. Those opinions have drifted consistently further from reality, and I suspect that the viewers would rather continue that path than follow Fox News to a more moderate place. But that may be unnecessarily cynical.