How a generation was captured by thrashing hysteria

[finehoe]

We're losing much of a generation.  They often sport hats or other clothing, some marking their status as veterans, Tea Partyers or "patriots" of some kind or another. They have yellow flags, bumper stickers and an unquenchable rage. They used to be the brave men and women who took on America's challenges, tackling the '60s, the Cold War and the Reagan years — but now many are terrified by the idea of slightly more affordable healthcare and a very moderate Democrat in the White House.

My father sincerely believes that science is a political plot, Christians are America's most persecuted minority and Barack Obama is a full-blown communist. He supports the use of force without question, as long as it's aimed at foreigners. He thinks liberals are all stupid, ignorant fucks who hate America.

I do not blame or condemn my father for his opinions. If you consumed a daily diet of right-wing fury, erroneously labeled "news," you could very likely end up in the same place. Again, this is all by design. Let's call it the Fox News effect. Take sweet, kindly senior citizens and feed them a steady stream of demagoguery and repetition, all wrapped in the laughable slogan of "fair and balanced." Even watching the commercials on Fox, one is treated to sales pitches for gold and emergency food rations, the product cornerstones of the paranoid. To some people the idea of retirees yelling at the television all day may seem funny, but this isn't a joke. We're losing the nation's grandparents, and it's an American tragedy.

http://www.salon.com/2014/02/27/i_lost_my_dad_to_fox_news_how_a_generation_was_captured_by_thrashing_hysteria/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=socialflow

[avonjax]

The scariest thing is how people believe everything they hear on Fox News. They NEVER research some of the insane opinions of the horribly biased "reporters" and "news anchors," or whatever they call them on that network. I'm sure there is some bias in most news sources but NOTHING even comes close the crap that Fox News calls news. I don't know how they will stay in business when Obama is out of office. They accuse him of blaming everything on Bush but they accuse every ill of the world on Obama. I despise Fox News. It's pure garbage. FN has helped many people in this country become even more hardcore liberal. 

[WarDamJagFan]

So what has Fox News done that has so pissed you off? Yes, they have opinion programming like other stations. But what are they reporting that caused you to go off on a tizzy?

It's also hard not to see the comedy of trying to throw fire and brimstone at Fox News for being a bunch of loony hard core right wingers - using an opinion article from a liberal opinion outlet as the quoted source.

[bill]

So what has Fox News done that has so pissed you off? Yes, they have opinion programming like other stations. But what are they reporting that caused you to go off on a tizzy?

It's also hard not to see the comedy of trying to throw fire and brimstone at Fox News for being a bunch of loony hard core right wingers - using an opinion article from a liberal opinion outlet as the quoted source.

Correct, and better ratings than the other three(4) combined. Not genuflecting to the Barry administration might pay dividends

[fsquid]

Fox News averages about 1.8 million viewers a night in primetime.  That is less than 2% of households with televisions.   That would be like me blaming Lifetime Networks for women not trusting men.

[JaxJersey-licious]

Although the social and ideological divides between left and right have always been intense and tension-filled, in over thirty years that I have been following politics have I have never seen the amount of fear that is prevalent in  conservative people over the last five years. Of course liberals have their own fears but look at the actions and reactions by many conservatives over numerous social, economic, and security issues in this country...and most of them either don't deny or totally embrace these fears.

Weather any of these fears are warranted or over-reactions is not my point. And for the record, I do NOT think Fox News is the sole creator or instigator of these fears. You could totally shut-off the Fox News and right-leaning talk spigot but it would seem to ramp up their existing frightful mentality. What was more intriguing to me is not so much what the right fears but how they've developed this fearful mindset in recent years - I certainly got my theories.

[I-10east]

In a vast ocean of liberalism, Fox News is an atoll surrounded lagoon. 

[avonjax]

So what has Fox News done that has so pissed you off? Yes, they have opinion programming like other stations. But what are they reporting that caused you to go off on a tizzy?

It's also hard not to see the comedy of trying to throw fire and brimstone at Fox News for being a bunch of loony hard core right wingers - using an opinion article from a liberal opinion outlet as the quoted source.

Pissed off? No not really. But it's sad that so many people, in this area at least, treat the opinions presented by FN as the political equivalent of the Bible.

There may be a liberal bias at the other networks but NOTHING to the degree as Fox.

[WarDamJagFan]

Pissed off? No not really. But it's sad that so many people, in this area at least, treat the opinions presented by FN as the political equivalent of the Bible.

There may be a liberal bias at the other networks but NOTHING to the degree as Fox.
[/quote]

You said you "despise" Fox News.  Pretty aggressive if you ask me. But again, you aren't giving anyone here a concrete reason as to why. What exactly are they lying about (in your opinion)?   

So for example, I do not care one ounce about Dan Rather. Why? Because he knowingly and willingly ran a story with forged documents about Bush's time in the Air National Guard as a complete smear campaign - which ultimately led to CBS firing him. And yet, he still claims he is correct even though all of the evidence contradicts his personal claim.

If you could at least provide some clarity on your opinion on Fox, other than just a normal rant from a liberal that claims how much they hate Fox News, that would make for a much better discussion.

[Traveller]

Man, I thought this thread was going to be about Metallica.

[finehoe]

What exactly are they lying about?   

Punditfact, a branch of Politifact, has put together profiles for CNN, MSNBC and Fox News detailing just how honest each of these networks are.  And while it's obviously not a completely comprehensive profile (it would be nearly impossible to fact check every single thing said on each network) it's a decent measure of the honesty of each.

And what do you know, Pundifact found Fox News to have only told the truth 18 percent (15 of 83) of the time for the statements they checked.  And even of that 18 percent, only 8 percent of what they said was completely "True."  The other 10 percent was rated as "Mostly True."

A staggering 60 percent (50 of 83) comments were found to be either "Mostly False," "False," or "Pants on Fire."

The other 22 percent were rated "Half True."

Essentially well over half of what Punditfact has fact-checked on Fox News has been a lie and only 18 percent has been deemed factual.

To compare, CNN was found to have been honest about 60 percent of the time, while only having 18 percent of their comments found to be false.  As for MSNBC, they were found to have been honest about 31 percent of the time, while 48 percent of the comments they had fact-checked were deemed untrue.

So while MSNBC's numbers aren't exactly worth bragging about, they're still far better than the "fair and balanced" Fox News.

http://www.politifact.com/punditfact/tv/

Though I'm sure any conservative who might run across this article, or the Punditfact profiles, would simply dismiss the results as "liberally biased lies."

You know, because anything that's not approved by Fox News or some other right-wing media source is clearly "liberally biased propaganda."

Which is really a fantastic piece of rhetoric, isn't it?  Fox News, and other right-wing media sources, can lie as much as they want.  Then if any other source debunks the nonsense they're spewing, the conservative media simply dismisses it as "lies perpetuated by the liberal media."

[finehoe]

Of course there is this:

Fox News viewers are much more likely than others to believe false information about American politics, a new study concludes.

http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/articles/brunitedstatescanadara/671.php?nid=&id=&pnt=671&lb=

But their false views wouldn't have anything to do with being told lies, would it?

[Non-RedNeck Westsider]

I can only speak for myself, but I find myself tuning out to approx. 95% of the news from either side. 

With 24/7 "coverage" (<------  Extreme sarcasm quotes), you get maybe one  or two pertinent bits of info regarding an issue somewhere, a blurb let's say, that runs at 6:24am for about 30seconds.  Then you get 23 hours, 59 minutes and 30 more seconds of opinion on that blurb.  And it's never what could/should be done to correct it moving forward, it's about what could/should have been done to prevent it from happening in the first place.  And I'm not speaking specifically of FOX.  If you're paying attention, the same thing is happening on all channels from FOX to CNN to ESPN to MTV to A&E....  30 seconds of legit info followed by 20 hours of opinion.

And for the life of me, I don't understand the amount of worry and consternation that people put into world events when there's so much more here at home that needs more immediate attention.  I feel that if only a fraction of that worry was directed towards doing something about the negatives in our own backyards, tangible, positive things would start to happen.

The discussion among my peers right now is mostly over the rift running through OPEC and the ISIS conflict - neither of which I personally give a fuck about because, while it may affect me, I have no control over what happens on the other side of the world.  If these same people could be convinced to fact-gather information on the upcoming City Council election with the same veracity that they do to 'prove' each other wrong about ISIS, then maybe some positive change could happen right here.

[finehoe]

Fox News averages about 1.8 million viewers a night in primetime.  That is less than 2% of households with televisions.   That would be like me blaming Lifetime Networks for women not trusting men.

Assessing the importance of Fox News involves more than just looking at ratings. Its extraordinary central role in "informing" the ideological "base" of one of the country's two major political parties is unparalleled.

A big new Pew Research Journalism Project survey of media consumption patterns has a lot of fascinating detail, and confirms some of the most common stereotypes about what Pew calls "consistent" conservatives and liberals:

Overall, the study finds that consistent conservatives:

* Are tightly clustered around a single news source, far more than any other group in the survey, with 47% citing Fox News as their main source for news about government and politics.

* Express greater distrust than trust of 24 of the 36 news sources measured in the survey. At the same time, fully 88% of consistent conservatives trust Fox News.

http://www.journalism.org/2014/10/21/political-polarization-media-habits/

[fsquid]

That's great, still less than 2 million watch nightly.  More people are watching Spongebob