IS FOX TRYING TO TURN BACK THE CRUZ TIDE?

You can talk about liberal media bias all you want, but right now, one of the top stories on the New York Times front page is an analysis of the battle between the establishment GOP and "an emerging, younger class of social-media-savvy leaders like Mr. Cruz of Texas, who claim the mantle of a resurgent grass roots," including Rand Paul -- while the front page of FoxNews.com looks like this:





Here's the story:

The number of U.S. drone strikes appears to have dropped significantly over the past several months while terrorists have staged dozens of attacks, a trend raising concerns for the top House Republican on national intelligence.

New statistics from the West Point Counterterroism Center show more than 60 terror attacks across the world since July 1 -- most recently, the attack at a Kenya mall last weekend in which more than 60 people were killed.

Meanwhile, the number of U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan and Yemen – the hotbed for Al Qaeda and other terror groups -- appears to have decreased significantly over roughly the same period.

The publication The Long War Journal reports a total of 22 strikes since May in those countries.

The apparent trend of fewer strikes amid perceptions of a weakened Al Qaeda and diminished terror threats is drawing concern from Rep. Mike Rogers, chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

"It's not diminishing," the Michigan Republican told Fox News on Tuesday. "There have been counterterrorism changes made by the administration that have concerned us all, things that we've been working on for a period of months that we're trying to work through that are very, very concerning. This is no time to retreat." ...

Seriously? Your audience is cheering on a faux-filibuster by Ted Cruz, and you're pushing for more use of drones? Drone, the subject of the last base-cheering filibuster by Senate crazies?

Maybe I shouldn't read too much into this, but it suggests to me that Fox is rebuffing the Cruz/Paul wing of the party and throwing in its lot with the McCain/Graham/defense contractor wing.

(Fox Nation, after a day of cheering on Cruz, now has "Big ObamaCare Fight Still Looms" at the top of its front page, under a big picture of ... the Capitol Dome in the sun. Cruz is at the bottom of the front page, pictured with Rush Limbaugh.)

I think there's a business opportunity here for a crazy right-wing billionaire: bankroll a cable channel that sells itself as the true conservative alternative to RINO Fox. C'mon, crazy billionaires! Do it! Seize the moment!