What Russia was to Napoleon...

...the Kobe case will be for Fox News.

At least that is the way it is shaping up now. The network’s "coverage" of the matter is almost certain to alienate the key audience that has helped it take the lead in the ratings hunt.

Two-thirds of its prime-time lineup seems to be pro-Kobe. It is no surprise that Greta van Sustren's "On the Record" falls that way. She fills her show with defense attorneys whose instinct is to create reasonable doubt. Reflexively, the show's experts seize on all the facts and unattributed statements that put the alleged victim in a bad light.

It is a shock, though, to watch Hannity and Colmes and realize that you agree with Colmes. Hannity, for some reason, has decided to run with the Kobe posse and retail those same rumors. He brays about double standards as though this is the first victim whose anonymity is protected. In fact, it is Hannity and his ilk who want to treat this case differently.

Fox is no worse than MSNBC in this regard. But that is the problem. Fox owes its rise in the ratings to being different than the usual media outlets. Fox seemed to reflect the values of "red America". But in the Kobe case Fox is acting out of character and mocking those values.

Behind the electoral map of red and blue America lies a cultural divide. As Den Beste has pointed out repeatedly, Jacksonian America sees things differently than does the media. As Mead shows in this essay, Jacksonian values-- honor, equality and courage run deep.

Not discussed in the essay is another Jacksonian quality-- a roughhewn chivalry toward women. It is an important element in Jacksonian honor.

Andrew Jackson himself set the standard here. He fought duels in defense of his wife’s good name and in one instance killed the man who slurred her. In his first term he fired most of his cabinet because their wives refused to accept Peggy Eaton socially and disparaged her morals and suitability as a Cabinet wife.

Trashing the 19 year old alleged victim is antithetical to this concept of honor. Keeping silent as it occurs in front of you is the opposite of courage.

Many reporters seem instinctively pro-Kobe. In Jacksonian America we wonder if that is because Bryant is a rich celebrity athlete. We doubt that the average person would receive the same active defense. "Fair and balanced" is for politics. In this case, the coastal elites seem to stick up for their own.

I don’t expect Fox News to fall behind CNN tomorrow. This is Russia not Waterloo. But their handling of this story does dilute FNC’s claim to fame: it no longer seems culturally in tune with its audience beyond the coasts. Without that cultural resonance Fox News is just an under-funded pundit-fest with a limited ability to gather hard news on its own. How large an audience is there for that?