The strategy isn’t to paint your opponent in a negative light. It’s to be the first person to give any information about them, and then portray them in a negative light. Fox and conservative media ain’t stupid. They know their loyal followers might talk to people outside the bubble. It is CRUCIAL that any possible talking point that could steer them away from conservative goals be brought up by conservative sources first, so that their followers have canned responses to everything rather than needing to think about a response.

If someone knee deep in conservative bullshit gets some time to think about their actual positions, they might consider leaving. So they guarantee they don’t have time or space to have thoughts that weren’t already give them.

Edit: This is why you’ll see conservative groups seemingly fracture after any big, negative news. But then a few days later they’re all shored up again, like there was never an issue. Had to wait for their talking points to come down in order to maintain group cohesion.