No serious observer of US politics thinks that Fox News is anything but a highly partisan propaganda operation that serves as the mouthpiece of the oligarchy. But they usually try to maintain a façade of being a news organization.
But they seem to be getting so brazen that the mask is slipping with increasing frequency. The Daily Show shows discussions on the network where they openly discuss how frustrating it is when their efforts to get Mitt Romney elected are undercut by Romney’s incompetent staff.
(This clip appeared on August 9, 2012. To get suggestions on how to view clips of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report outside the US, please see this earlier post.)
FauxNews is such a joke it’s hard to say anything more about them, but as I remarked in one of my posts there must be a mole there because at least their website every now and then reports something a little removed from the usual ultra-right position. Maybe it’s just a con, figuring many of us would never watch any show but we might every now and then get vectored to the website via Google News and actually think sometimes there is news there. But two minutes of watching any show or Daily Show brings one back to reality they are just a propaganda channel.
I’ve never heard or read anything good about FOXNews. I’m really glad I’ve never watched it…I wonder why anyone would!
Of course that means I’m not entitled to an opinion on it…that’s also good that I don’t have to take up any part of my valuable lifetime in thinking about it. That’s my 2¢.
FOX Nuisance
More than a nuisance, leftoverunder. A source of information, specifically one that is so readily available and so breathlessly self promoting, so widely available and slickly produced, is as much a threat to the easily amused and distracted cohort of the voting public as is a full blown, officially promoted propaganda machine. The illusions engendered in and entertained by that cohort have concrete echoes throughout our society and our future. Not to mention our cohesion.
This is an old, tried and true method. Usually it has some means of camouflage, some ostensible “higher purpose”. But not in this case. Fox Olds has no shame and they fairly revel in the fact. Damn them, I say, call them out for the lying tools that they are. For whatever small good that will do.
Still, damn them. And do so loudly.
The problem is that your average Fox News viewer doesn’t care about facts, and pointing out factual inaccuracies or distortions seems to have absolutely zero effect. Part of this might be that Fox News produces a mindset which is unfalsifiable -- any attempt to present another viewpoint is some sort of vast liberal conspiracy. Another is identity politics -- Fox News represents ‘real America’ instead of the leftists ‘phony America.’
I tend to find dealing with Fox News viewers is like dealing with uneducated creationists.
Smrnda, I agree completely. I work with a bunch of Fox-watchers, and pointing out the flat-out, bald-faced lies to them is about as effective as pointing them out to the stapler. They are so brainwashed that they simply don’t accept anything unless they hear it from Fox.
I don’t think the Obama ad is as bad as it is being made out to be. The right wing framing is permeating the media and winning the messaging on that ad. The ad does not say Romney killed anyone, nor did it say Romney is responsible, or should be prosecuted for murder.
The ad showed that real people suffer real consequences, even death, when coverage is denied to them. This is truth. And Romney is in favor of cutting benefits for senior citizens and cutting all safety net spending. In Mitt Romney’s universe it makes sense that wealthy people should be entitled to medical care and higher education, but poor people should not be entitled to these things. That is a policy that will lead to a lot of death and poverty, and it is a perverted sense of “equality of opportunity”, which the Republicans like to credit themselves with supporting.
The wealthy class under Romney policies will choke the goose that laid the golden egg. Much prosperity in America is founded upon not only the hard work of business owners, but also their employees, and depends on a broadly prosperous consumer base, and a healthy educated work force. These things are gradually eroding under the policies ushered in under Reagan.
Perhaps you think this is effective parody. Regardless of your actions or your level of awareness, FOX news is carefully coordinated political messaging that marches hand in hand with the RNC. This does not apply to all of its news reporting, but it certainly applies to all the talk shows that offer political commentary. I know this for certain from watching it with my own two eyes.