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Are you a Fox News believer? part III
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Are you a Fox News believer?
In a previous commentary I described how Fox News' focus on ratings at the expense of truth and accuracy amounts to a massive disinformation campaign, misinforming gullible Americans on the crucial issues of our day. This week, our observations were echoed by the White House, who stated, "Let's not pretend they're a news network".
But how can a cable "news" network successfully fool so many people with such blatantly inaccurate, biased reporting? As it turns out, it's really easy.
First, most Fox believers are not sophisticated listeners. In just one example, Fox reported that 80% of their viewers polled after the 2008 Joe Biden-Sarah Palin debates actually favored Palin. Say what?? Since then, I've concluded that most of their dedicated audience may also think the earth is flat …
Second, most Americans, including myself, grew up in the Walter Cronkite/Mike Wallace era when news was real news (just "who what when where and why"), not an entire evening of pure commentary from both the left and the right that is incorrectly perceived as news. Unfortunately most of us are "programmed" to believe what we see and hear on television and read in newspapers.
So, when highly skilled conservative professional propagandists like Roger Ailes, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Lou Dobbs, Laura Ingraham, Ann Coulter, Bill O'Reilly, Bernie Goldberg, Michelle Malkin, and of course Karl Rove, team up nightly on Fox to misrepresent the facts to support Republican policies, the sad result is a steady erosion of Democracy in America, favoring issues that help maintain the top 10% of wage earners. This system was described in the Citigroup study mentioned in Michael Moore's new movie "Capitalism: A Love Story".
Having said all that, I would still defend the fundamental right of Fox News to distort the news in the name of ratings. Why? It is called "Freedom of Speech". That is an occasionally sad truth about freedom and life in America--and an important take home lesson for immigrants or potential immigrants to this country.
But as long as you know that Fox News is neither fair or balanced any more than conservative talk radio, then feel free to be entertained by Fox. But if your objective is to be truly informed then look elsewhere.
We previously called for a boycott of Fox News sponsors, and we repeat that now. However, an even more effective action is to support Democratic Party candidates in the coming election. In future columns we will show you exactly why.
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