About Us
Mission Statement
Rules of Conduct
 
Name:
Pswd:
Remember Me
Register
 

FOX News Isn't
Author: BobR    Date: 12/16/2010 13:15:47

There are people in this country who spend a fair amount of time keeping themselves informed. They take this obligation seriously enough to seek out the truth, and listen to varying opinions analyzing the truth so that they can consider contexts they might have missed. Most of you dear readers would fit into that category.

Most people, however, are not quite as interested. They watch 30-60 minutes of news and take whatever is spoon fed to them as the truth, and go about their day believing whatever the TV machine tells them. They might be watching CNN or MSNBC, but more than likely they are watching FOX News. The sad reality is that they are not under-informed, they are actually misinformed.

A new study shows that in several key political areas, more FOX News watchers believe falsehoods than watchers of other news channels:
Yet another study has been released proving that watching Fox News is detrimental to your intelligence. World Public Opinion, a project managed by the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland, conducted a survey of American voters that shows that Fox News viewers are significantly more misinformed than consumers of news from other sources. What’s more, the study shows that greater exposure to Fox News increases misinformation.

So the more you watch, the less you know. Or to be precise, the more you think you know that is actually false.
[...]
In eight of the nine questions below, Fox News placed first in the percentage of those who were misinformed (they placed second in the question on TARP). That’s a pretty high batting average for journalistic fraud. Here is a list of what Fox News viewers believe that just ain't so:
  • 91 percent believe the stimulus legislation lost jobs
  • 72 percent believe the health reform law will increase the deficit
  • 72 percent believe the economy is getting worse
  • 60 percent believe climate change is not occurring
  • 49 percent believe income taxes have gone up
  • 63 percent believe the stimulus legislation did not include any tax cuts
  • 56 percent believe Obama initiated the GM/Chrysler bailout
  • 38 percent believe that most Republicans opposed TARP
  • 63 percent believe Obama was not born in the U.S. (or that it is unclear)

(FYI - those who watched CNN or MSNBC didn't necessarily do well, but they did better than FOX News watchers)

How does this happen? FOX News has been known to use the "gossip" model for creating "facts" out of thin air:

Morning: Someone on a morning talk show says "I think Obama is a Muslim"
Noon: "Some people believe Obama is a Muslim"
Afternoon: "Some say Obama is a Muslim"
Evening: "It's been widely reported that Obama is a Muslim"

Note that the passive voice used in the latter 3 statements doesn't really provide a source for the "fact". The "some say" was widely outed way back when "Outfoxed" (the documentary) came out. The other one - "widely reported" - infers a certain validity to something without actually sourcing it or even providing examples with sources. It's marketing, not reporting.

Another example is omission. The recent failure of the 9/11 responders health bill was defeated by the Republicans voting against it en bloc. You wouldn't know that if you watched FOX:
Fox News legal analyst Peter Johnson, Jr. is mad. He's mad that Congress did not pass health benefits for 9/11 first responders. But he's not mad enough to explain why.

The bill was opposed almost exclusively by Republicans, who demanded Democrats first pass tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans.

In a three minute monologue broadcast Monday during Fox & Friends, Johnson said simply that "Congress" was to blame.

"Shame, embarrassment, outrage, anger, all are proper reactions to the conduct of our Senators, who will now find one excuse after another to explain away the fact that they have turned their back on American heroes," he said. "Heroes whose only sin was to expect nothing for their service and were then promised the world by politicians who couldn't take enough pictures with them."

Anyone that thinks this NOT coming from the top need only read the memo from Bill Sammon, the managing editor of FOX News, who told the staff to cast doubt on global warming:
In the midst of global climate change talks last December, a top Fox News official sent an email questioning the "veracity of climate change data" and ordering the network's journalists to "refrain from asserting that the planet has warmed (or cooled) in any given period without IMMEDIATELY pointing out that such theories are based upon data that critics have called into question."

The directive, sent by Fox News Washington managing editor Bill Sammon, was issued less than 15 minutes after Fox correspondent Wendell Goler accurately reported on-air that the United Nations' World Meteorological Organization announced that 2000-2009 was "on track to be the warmest [decade] on record."

So why would anyone watch FOX News when they deliberately distort the truth, blur the line between "News" and "Opinion" so completely that it is impossible to tell which is which, and omit vital details necessary to understanding a story? The reasons are likely myriad, but I've heard people tell me they are the "only ones who are 'fair and balanced'", which just shows how well they market that demonstrably untrue moniker.

FOX News does not deserve to have the word "news" in their name. It's a facade masking a charade that creates a farce of our national discourse. Everyone has opinions, but there are only one set of facts, and FOX News does not seem interested in them.

 

48 comments (Latest Comment: 12/16/2010 21:09:59 by BobR)
   Perma Link

Share This!

Furl it!
Spurl
NewsVine
Reddit
Technorati