Respectable conservatives used to make a lot of noise about how they wanted a conservative network on television. Now that Fox News is providing exactly that, I can't find mention of it in those same respectable conservative media.

Since I am one of those who used to make my living speaking for the American right, I think I can explain this silence.

People who make their living as respectable conservatives have found a cushy niche in our society. They can ignore touchy issues like immigration or the insane Republican pursuit of the liberal minority vote. They never have to do anything hard, like asking a liberal to define the word "Racist," which they use as a club against us.

Respectable conservatism has become a formula. Those who make their living as respectable conservatives have found that if they get in the right groove, and avoid saying anything that would hurt the left, they get lots of exposure on the liberal media as the "opposition."

This formula requires no courage and very little intelligence. In fact, any sign of intelligence or courage on the right threatens liberals. As a result, today's conservative spokesmen are lightweights who ignore the big, dangerous issues and make liberals feel comfortable. So the liberal media monopoly lets them in.

I often had to follow those rules myself, and I am ashamed of it and refuse to do it any more.

But this happy little world of respectable conservatism can only last as long as there are no big and professional conservative media. All we have speaking for us today are the selected lightweights that liberals allow to speak for conservatism.

Now that the real thing is here, respectable conservatives have found out an unpleasant truth:

If the big-time professionals like Fox News are now going to take over safe, respectable conservatism, there will be no place for the liberals' pet conservatives.

Right now, on any debate on a liberal network, all the respectable conservative has to do is look at the Internet and talk about the stories the solid liberal media simply don't mention. But if the big leaguers like Fox News take over reporting, what are the little lightweight respectable conservatives going to talk about?

Suddenly, lightweight conservatives are finding that the idea of a real, professional conservative network is a threat to them. If the pros take over respectable conservatism, those who want to make a living in this business may have to start talking seriously about serious issues.

Recently Fox News had a special feature on the coming publication of Reagan's radio commentaries. It shows a knowledgeable, highly intelligent man, the opposite of the regular news stereotype of a dumb and bumbling old man. Fox directly attacked this stereotype, and ended by pointing out that the media has used his Alzheimer's to clinch its stereotype of Reagan as dumb.

You can't get much lower than being cruel to a man with Alzheimer's, but no one else in the media has dared attack this stereotype.

Bill O'Reilley, of the Fox News regular program "The O'Reilley Factor," is hot after Attorney General Reno. He is pointing to the total blocking of all investigations during Clinton's second term.

O'Reilly has the kind of guts you don't see in regular respectable conservatives.

O'Reilly brought in Clinton's own former chief advisor Morris to testify that Clinton had hated Reno in his first term, saying she was the worst appointment he had ever made. Clinton was going to get rid of her, said Morris. But after meeting with Reno at the beginning of his second term, Clinton gave her a year to shape up. After that, he kept her on as Attorney General.

By an odd coincidence, it was after that meeting with Clinton that Reno threw a bodyblock against all serious investigations. She brought the appointment of special counsels to a screeching and complete halt. I defy you to find any other media that would report that little coincidence.

There have been a number of office shootings lately. The regular media just point to a lack of gun control and leave it at that. Fox reported that one of the reasons for these shootings is a law that will not allow employers to look into the mental health of employees. It is the first criticism of an anti-discrimination law I have seen in the media in a long, long time, if ever.

When I heard that Fox News founder Rupert Murdoch was conservative, I had expected a somewhat larger token conservative pretense on Fox than on the other cable channels. But Fox News is coming out swinging.

Fox's move to get the conservative viewers seems to be paying off. They took a huge step forward during the big election 2000 story, in the same way that the Gulf War originally established CNN.

At long, long last, the absolute two-generation-long monopoly of liberals over all television is broken, at least for now.

That absolute liberal media lockup was no accident. The Big Media knew that they could only suppress inconvenient stories if there was not a single competitive network to break them. The Internet and Talk Radio began breaking that monopoly, but Fox News is different: It's right there in their back yard.

Talk Radio was largely responsible for the 1994 victory that won the Republicans majorities in both Houses of Congress.

That 1994 defeat was also attributed to the growing ability of people with suppressed information to reach the public on the Internet. The Internet is bigger now -- MUCH bigger -- and it has been a major factor in making the network news the public's LEAST TRUSTED information source.

But now Fox News has broken the liberal monopoly on TELEVISION itself!

It is up to us to help make sure the Fox News appeal to the non-liberal audience pays off. We must spread the word to make sure that conservatives start watching CNN's new competition.