Candidates Running Against, and With, Cable News

When Rupert Murdoch, the chief executive of the News Corporation, donated $1 million to the Republican Governors Association this summer, he may have given an even bigger gift to its opponents. The Democratic Governors Association said its call to match the Murdoch contribution raised $1.7 million. Ginning up a fight with Fox News, which is owned by the News Corporation, "helped fire up the base," said Nathan Daschle, the association's executive director. That is what cable news does now: fire up the base. Even more than they did than in 2008, Fox News Channel and its left-leaning counterpart MSNBC are playing outsize roles in the midterm elections this year. Attacking the news media is time-honored in politics, but the recent fund-raising efforts show how some candidates and groups have been directing their attack ads this year not at other candidates, but at cable television.