In 24/7 Politics: Cable Television and the Fragmenting of America from Watergate to Fox News, author Kathryn Cramer Brownell argues that the relationship between the cable industry and the polarization and scandal politics that are now rampant across the United States cannot be blamed on cable television itself but rather on how television has been intentionally restructured into a political institution.
Brownell explores the relationship between the cable industry and political leaders, determining how the two worked together to create a new approach to television that tethered politics to profits and divided and distracted Americans with their appetite for entertainment. She also shows how cable television became a medium for political communication that eventually sowed the seeds of democratic upheaval.