When Barack Obama was elected, FOX became white peoples crack in northern Michigan. Every business, restaurants, both mom and pop and franchises, hospital waiting rooms, doctors offices, car dealerships, airport....everybody had a big screen tv or two tuned to FOX. As it mainstreamed into our community, letters to the editor consisted of whatever Hannity said two nights prior with a few nouns and a verb added to qualify it as "original thought." Local pastors began using words like tyranny and oppression even though there's a dang church on every corner and 15 local Christian stations. It was a lynching of Barack Obama playing on FOX teevee 24/7 and they all were clamoring to be a part of it. FOX has politicized everything in our daily lives: sports, Boy Scouts, law enforcement, flag pins, Sponge Bob, French mustard, fist bumps..heck even Santa Claus (he's white kids). Nothing has been left untainted by FOX.
124
The best chart I have seen that explains media bias is:
http://www.adfontesmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Media-Bias-Chart_Version-3.1_Watermark-min.jpg
They look at media in 2 dimensions: A) Liberal vs. Conservative bias (horizontal, L-R dimension); and B) Fact vs. opinion (vertical dimension)
You'll see that Fox is very conservative, which we knew, but it's so opinionated that it is classified as damaging propaganda.
The NYTimes and WSJournal are left and right of center, but at least they are both classified as purveyors of facts.
So let's stop looking at just left-right bias, and start looking at fact vs opinion bias. The danger of Fox is that they are passing off opinions as facts.
22
As always – did and thought exactly what the NYT told me to do...
Now, getting bombarded with hair-regrowing and mood-elevating pharma ads...
Appearing seemingly out of nowhere, every time my cursor gets close to the "f" button at the top of every NYT piece...
Would mention the meds by name – but already had one comment taken down today...
And - neither company was willing to pay my going rate of $20.16 for every recommendation this blurb might garner...
Already contracted with some trolls for several hundred fake recommends...
PS
At one level, Farhad, your strategy is beyond-stable-genius...
By posting a way-more flattering lead-in pic of Hannity than any of you ever have, of Trump, only a matter of time before Stephen Miller marches him (Hannity, not Trump) out of his (Hannity’s, not Trump’s) office with only the keepsakes he could fit into one cardboard box...
In fact, Trump already has Barr looking into possible collusion between Sean and Rachel Maddow...
Turns out their studios are across the street from each other...
Probably wave at each other, when they think no one's looking...
2
“...[the] manipulated video fits within the network’s [Fox News] ethical bounds.”
I didn’t know Fox had any ethical bounds.
8
As an Australian observer..... the MSM has lost all credibility. It will never recover. You have been so biased during what is becoming (or has been all along) the biggest crime story in the history of western democracy. A coup of an elected President by a cabal of deep state operatives cheered on and obfuscated by a complicit MSM. The facts are 1. Clinton paid for fake dossier. 2. FISA court application based on a fraud by the treasonous action of the cabal.
Criticism of Trump for not declassifying.... and now the terror shill screams of those same deep state operatives that claim declassifying is a security risk. Well the games up and the tables are turning. The insurance policy if Trump won has failed. We the people of the world are watching closely and agree that if there is no justice going right up to the top..... then the USA and the west are in big trouble. Shame on you for covering this up. And may Australia's own treasonous Alexander Downer be with them in jail. But you wont change. The disease is too entrenched.
4
Let`s get something straight
And for many this may come as a shock
...that whilemany media publications ..either admit to
or are obviously..biased
in some certain
if not entirely definable..
political direction
the closest thing we have to "Fox News"
is "RT Today"
1
Why do people keep calling it Fox "News"??? It is far from news. IT IS PUNDITRY! By continually calling it news only lends credibility to this fiction and futhers their goal of legitimation. STOP!!!
6
Meets their ethical standards?
Using ethical & standards in the same sentence when describing Faux News makes as much sense as using Fox & News as a descriptor.
They have built a machine that Goebbles would have been proud of!
6
Since my initial comment criticizing the author for been naively a-historical, I will edit and summarize:
Facebook has billions of viewers, Fox News millions. Who is the worst perpetrator of “Fake News?”
2
Hopefully the lies of the left and the right balance each other out. The anti political correctness draws an audeience
1
The news division at FOX isn't nearly as bad. Yes the analysis programs are terribly biased. Those on MSNBC are not far behind. I see commenters on CNN actively rooting against the economy and cherry picking stats. Scan the NYT headlines. Plenty of my friends live in their Huff Post NYT echo chamber, and are equally angry and cynical about conservatives. Escape the bubble. Understand that white men, liberal or conservative, have reasons to resent divisive identity politics
14
The "News" skits on "Laugh In" sometimes feature a segment prefaced by "Here is what an unscrupulous editor might do..." that show a doctored interview designed to maximize the embarrassment of the subject.
Apparently some mistook these jokes for a how-to guide.
2
Joseph Goebbels would be clapping his talons and drooling brimstone from his grave, if he had had a soul, at the new lows fascist propaganda has taken in the Nation that defeated his 3rd Reich.
I don't understand how the republican party, the koch bothers, and F(alse)ox are not liable for sedition against this Nation, our government and our democracy. They have all worked full time for 20+ years to destroy the Constitution, our democracy, and the rule of law.
If we still have a Nation in 2021 it will be because We the People had enough and voted the republican party onto the ash heap of history. If that becomes the reality there are a lot of fixes that are going to be required if we are to regain our stature, our dignity, our Country.
Vote for Democrats in 2020 like your life and the lives of your children depend on it. They do.
7
Benjamin Disraeli’s was cited by Mark Twain for saying, "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics." If Disraeli were still alive today, he may well have instead said, “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and Fox News.”
8
Perhaps the only way to mitigate the the misinformation pouring out of Fox News is to establish a "Objectivity Rating" for News shows done by a panel of industry experts much like movie ratings. Movie ratings are not perfect, but it provides some assistance. You would know if a show is rated as "Opinion" vs. "News" or "News Analysis".
1
Once as we were coming up the subway stairs when my son was about 5 years old he asked me, “Daddy is the devil real?”
“Yes”, I whispered, “and I know his name: Rupert Murdoch”.
5
What can be done to rid ourselves of this pestilence? I boycott their advertisers. What can we do? I'm here to help.
4
For a start that news zipper was wrong.
It should have read "Bigly Little Lies".
1
If you have basic cable with Fox News on it, you’re contributing to the problem.
19
Yes, yes, yes, Farhad! This so-called network is brainwashing a hefty portion of the U.S. voting public disproportionate to their actual numbers. As Trump well knows--probably because Hannity both directs and delivers the message--it's hugely effective to get this MINORITY of people frothing at the mouth about border walls and the job-stealing Chinese (who were handed those jobs by American companies), not to mention "crooked" Hillary Clinton, because it gets them to the polls in percentages higher than the majority of people who are better educated and more liberal-minded--but more diverse in opinion and passion.
I can't help but mention the real and present danger of McConnell, who knows he can be gleefully hypocritical as he stacks the supreme court with sycophants because he has Fox News to cover for him no matter what.
MSN tries to counter the misinformation machine but can't help but fall into the traditional journalistic model. It's no competition to the maniacs (mostly white and male) screeching from one unrelenting songbook.
My blood is boiling when I'm not falling into despair, but I don't know what can be done. Venting is like turning to sugary snacks, momentary pleasure followed by a systemic fall, but I'm glad for the opportunity...
5
And all the other news networks and publications report fair and accurately? Please, get real. Every negative comment one attributes to Fox News can be found at the other news outlets. Regardless of which side of the aisle you're on, the media needs a complete overhaul. Let's work together to make that happen.
6
Everything on Fox is a well thought out intentional propaganda machine, honed over the years of its entire existence.
From the fluff pieces stories supporting good things about the National Anthem or the flag, to any story that supports the political narrative of any conserative issue.
Even the visual of all women wearing skin tight, short sleeveless dresses, while the men are all in warm suits. Nothing says women are second class more to me, then the dress and camera position always with a great shot of the ladies crossed legs.
7
Sadly, this is not alone in criticism. Larry King said that CNN was no longer a news channel. For two years or more it had but one theme to which it devoted most of its time - Trump colluded with Russia. What does a channel do when that single focus disappears thanks to Robert Mueller. Ouch. Where is a cable channel which carries a liberal point of view which can attract more liberal viewers and also be so balanced that it would draw over viewers from FOX? Don't complain and whinge, do something.
5
What exactly is the interest in the Murdoch family in taking down two of the most important democracies in the world - the United States and Great Britain- ?
7
@bellcurvz
The fundamental flaw in extreme capitalism is the making of profit: money. The belief that the “unseen hand” of the market always provides the best products and services. It provides untold riches and power to those that master it’s vagaries - and it blinds them.
5
The very fact that you can state, “Fox is fake. Water is wet.”, indicates just what a bubble you are living in. I totally agree with you. But the fact is, millions of Americans don’t believe Fox is fake. They know that water is wet, but Fox fake? No way!
4
Why include snark about Elizabeth Warren in this piece? I do not understand.
1
Fortunately, your's is just an opinion Mr Manjoo. And you're decent enough to make it clear writing it under your name. You may be right. The service about the woman who turned San Francisco into...actually San Francisco, was not a gentlemen's job, but have your ever tried to think to dare to imagine to look at the decency of the democratic medias? But I have to admit that one thing really striked me in your article. The "Rip your hair out in screaming terror..." stuff was great!!! I don't usually laugh when I read the news.
Fox News has millions of followers while Facebook has billions.
2
"...an entrenched, well-funded, decades-in-the-making, right-wing propaganda network, one that exists to turn faintly sourced rumors into full-blown, politically convenient narratives."
Substitute left-wing for right-wing in the above, and you'd have an apt description of both MSNBC and the New York Times
3
From now on I’ll refer to “Fox-Pravda News”.
1
Hear, hear! I believe without reinstating the Fairness Doctrine, we will allow punditry and opinion interviews to tear down our democracy. The complete rejection of reality in favor of tribal information silos is truly frightening. And it starts with Murdoch. I could live without CNN and MSNBC as collateral damage.
132
@SDemocrat It's "Here, here!" not "Hear, hear!" I think the original context of the phrase is of a large public meeting or discussion, where someone in the audience is shouting agreement with the words of the speaker, not telling others to listen, which they are already doing. A natural mistake, if you've not seen it in print.
2
@Robert Crosman
According to the OED, the expression "hear, hear" goes back to the 17th century and is a shortening of the phrase "hear him", to express approval for a speaker or sentiment.
13
@SDemocrat Yup! Bring back the Fairness Doctrine!!
4
No one expects Facebook to be news or to investigate. However Fox has a license to broadcast and they are allowed to call themselves news when in fact it isn't. It is about time that the FCC do it's job and regulate Fox and either disallow them to continue with their business model by taking away their license to broadcast as news or have them be required to communicate fully that they're a editorial channel (Fox Opinion) with no substance or investigation into publishing the truth. But rather they are just the opinion of a non-citizen and his political perspective and have no substance behind any of their stories. That is the FCC's role, it is long past the time they once again reinforced the standards of what qualifies as news (researched facts) and editorial opinion.
10
Oh, Manjoo, CNN and MSNBC don't distort the truth or just straight out lie?! Please. Give me a break.
5
Sadly, no one who watches Fox News is going to read this piece in the New York Times.
11
@Rich C
See above.
1
Like any good brainwasher Fox News works very hard to isolate its victims. They systematically and relentlessly caution them in so many words that they should not trust any other source of news or information — the dreaded elite/mainstream/liberal media!, the nefarious New York Times!, the traitorous Washington Post! NPR! Network News! OMG! — and should go to any of these sources and hear anything different from what they heard on Fox, it is obviously a lie.
12
Fox News is pure evil.
7
ABC+NBC+CBS+CNN+MSNBC+NYT+LAT+WT+etc =FN
I can see why you are worried :)
3
There must be an invisible badge of honor that slavish devotees of Fox wear. I can't imagine what it is like to complexity subordinate one's critical thinking abilities to overpaid talking heads on Fox. I still can't believe our bloated fool in charge - or the president of the once decent USA - takes his cues from Fox and Fiends. Were we this stupid all along? Do people need to be led that much? God help us and help our deadly greed.
9
This opinion is just another example of how entrenched many liberals are within their own bubbles. Of the 3 cable news shows, 2 of them are liberal in their news presentations, opinions and hatred of the current administration. As we often see on collage campuses, when a conservative speaker is invited to speak, there are demonstrations to silent the speaker that are very often successful...so much for the diversity that liberals are always talking about. Their heightened sensitivities to the ‘preferred victims’ in society, which include African Americans, gays and Muslims among others, is totally gone when talking about people who are simply conservative in their thinking. They are often referred to in extremely condescending terms that include ‘ignorant’, ‘unsophisticated’ and ‘evil’. It is clear to me that many liberals would prefer a one party system where you are either ‘liberal’ or ‘progressive’. It is not at all surprising to me that they consider Fox News a non-news, lying propaganda machine. For them, everything that comes out of Fox is lies and everything that comes out of CNN and MSNBC is the truth...A simple diagnosis from those who are quick to shut down any dialogue and prefer not to hear the other side at all...there is absolutely nothing ‘liberal’ about that mindset.
Note: I am not a Trump supporter nor a Republican...just an honest observer, attempting to be fair.
6
@Malone Cooper
"They are often referred to in extremely condescending terms that include ‘ignorant’, ‘unsophisticated’ and ‘evil".
Can't say I've heard these descriptions on the above-mentioned networks. In the comments sections of more liberal newspaper outlets. But not actually during a broadcast. Maybe I'm missing something.
2
The saddest part is that Rupert’s sons have been poisoned, and unable to see their way out of the evil ways. I don’t know why our country allows propaganda to be spread without consequence.
3
Mr. Manjoo is right. The Pelosi video is bad enough but to give power to Facebook to decide in advance of any content is undesirable. Fox News, propagandist right leaning web sites, and talk-radio are the root cause of much of the lies Trump supporters take as gospel. However, in a free country stupid and crazy people have same rights as rational and sane. So it boils down to us Americans. Majority of the people who vote will give us the country they want, whether the others (actually much higher numbers than the voting majority) deserve it or not.
1
If FOX news presented a falsified video of Pelosi why doesn't she sue them for slander? Surely the major media can be held accountable for using falsified news reports to demean and slander people? Pelosi doesn't seem to recognize the gravity of the times in which we live. It may be a product of her age, her gender or her religion, but she is a horribly ineffective leader.
I completely agree with you. However, there comes a time when you have to stop blaming the dealer and start blaming the consumer. If the consumer is too stupid or too addicted to stop, you cannot fix the problem. So yes, Facebook and Fox are a plague, but the American populous is the really problem. How do you fix that?
10
Agreed. An even more insidious airing, with no manipulation, of course, since the man is so in tune with Fox news messaging, involved Cory Lewandowski, in the grand tradition of the Clinton "indictment" fantasies, claiming Comey, Biden, McCabe and a few other so-called "criminals" will be on trial in a year. It doesn't mattter if its fantasy, stating it feeds the base.
5
Such a great, great point, Mr Manjoo.
Fox News’ lies, distortions and divisive talking heads are a toxin on a democratic society. Each and every company that places advertisements on Fox News in 2019 onward deserves to be boycotted unless and until the company commits to never placing even a single ad on Fox News (and holds to it).
3
Excellent article, and thank you Mr. Manjoo! You have made me more well-informed.
I saw the slowed-down versions of Speaker Pelosi and was glad when she finally asked Facebook to take them down. I didn’t know what Fox was doing with the videos, and share your feelings of frustrated rage.
Thank you for putting this in perspective, and for clarifying the dilemma of Fox’s so-successful disinformation.
3
News feeds the American public, and the people believe. Movies, commercials, feed the people and they believe. Truth is that journalism was designed to report the news, and not create the news.
2
Fox News is a foreign owned fifth column. Farhad also neglected to mention Fox's role in instigating the Iraq War from outright disinformation, rah rah propaganda, demonizing those who opposed the war as if we were treasonous and unamerican. And this mistreatment of the opposition even extended to the holy of hollies, those who lost loved ones in 9-11 (search YouTube for the video of Little Boy Bully Bill O'Reilly mistreating a man who lost his father in 9-11).
4
To your point, I just saw an interview with an older woman who was interviewed in the audience at Justin Amash's town hall. She said she watches "conservative news" and thought the Mueller report said that Trump didn't do anything wrong. Hearing Amash's call for impeachment was a shock to her--she had no idea what was in the Mueller report because Fox News told her everything was a-okay. Trump and his gang--especially Barr--will stop at nothing to keep their supporters fat, dumb, and happy--and totally ignorant of the facts. How do Fox News, and the vile Rupert Murdoch, get away with it? This country has sold its soul to the highest bidder.
9
Conservatives watch MSNBC in similar shock and disbelief.
1
My mother-in law was a Fox News true believer. I tried one time to argue with her. Her response was that she didn't follow the news as closely as I did and didn't have the facts at her disposal to rebut me, but she knew I was wrong. When I tried to continue, she literally screamed at me, "Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!"
8
CNN and others happily and repeatedly featured Michael Avenatti.
2
I've never watched Fox news. I did once see an interview with Ann Coulter on CBC TV. I had a hard time believing that Ann Coulter believed what she said. I have the same difficulty when watching YouTube clips of Sean Hannity et al. But then I see the occasionl clip of daytime TV, and it all becomes clear: too many people are incapable of or unwilling to question what they see and hear on a coloured screen.
I recall an experiment done decades ago: the same short film was shown in black and white to one group and in colour to another. Both then wrote a content test. The people who watched the colour version not only recalled less of what they saw, they misremembered more of what they did recall.
Colour creates emotions. Emotions trump critical reason. Pun intended.
1
Fox is a 24 hour version of "Two Minutes of Hate" as described in the novel 1984 by G. Orwell.
5
People here in the UXA don’t want “facts” anymore- they want pure entertainment, spoon fed to them by a Big Brother and his media machine. Fox News, meh! Do exactly as Winston Smith did: learn to love Big Brother and his Ministry of Information. Doublethink can be so entertaining! Look how well it worked out for the German people in 1945.
Why do mainstream media outlets simultaneously criticize Fox News and then turn around and write feature articles about their lying propagandists? The NY Times and the New Yorker, have all done articles on Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson. Doesn't that bestow on them legitimacy and more influence?
2
@FAM BAM BLOOP Same reason almost everything gets done in the hyper capitalism of the USA - money. The Fox talkers bring eyeballs and eyeballs bring advertising dollars.
So Ed “Strunk and White” Rollins is concerned about Nancy Pelosi’s syntax and grammar? Did schoolmarm Rollins ever listen to his beloved president? Trump sounds like a man for whom English is a second, or perhaps third language. And don’t get me started on Bush II.
4
We receive "answers" from the MSM and our EdBiz functionaries. Fox prompts us to do the responsible thing, which is: Question your answers! And question them again and again.
This is ancient wisdom, which should not evoke the hate displayed on this thread.
1
It's been horrible watching Sky News (after dark) slowly morph into Australia's Fox News.
On behalf of Australia, I'd like to apologise for our unleashing of the ruthless Rupert virus.
3
Ok, so now I am bald.
Hate to say this but I'll be surprised if the USA makes it to its 300th birthday. Americans are just too dumb to keep a good thing going.
8
Why thinking people would watch and listen to the drivel on FOX remains a mystery until one considers how many low IQ and poorly educated people there are in America.
6
There is enough hatred spewed out in these comments to fuel the world. Apparently, there is no room for differing opinions any more.
2
"...the idea that undocumented immigrants pose an existential threat but climate change does not..."
Tell that to an oil-field worker in Texas who had his (high paying) job taken by an illegal immigrant or the climate change crowd denying a pipeline right of way. There are millions of Americans just like this - and Fox (alone) speaks for them.
1
Kinda feel the same about MSNBC and the NYT.
2
Farhad is discovering what Goebbels demonstrated long ago: propaganda works to strangle reason and replaced it with the ancient reptilian unconscious mind.
6
I work with some of the smartest guys I've ever met..engineers, business owners and everyone of them only have Fox news's website on for news. Only..and that's the only source of news they watch at home.
All news sources from the NY Times to the WSJ to the Washington Post are slanted to the left or right.
For instance NYT will generally publish only the news they want their readers to know as will most others.
But Fox is in a class of its own. They take it a step further and just make stuff up and it has gotten worse and worse over the years.
4
No news outlet, including FOX with its extremely conservative bias, could successfully slant the news if the Fairness Doctrine (Red Lion) remained in place. The Fairness Doctrine required equal time for competing views so that the public could receive suitable access to social, political, esthetic, moral, and other ideas and experiences. Under the Fairness Doctrine FOX could not have aired the doctored Pelosi clip without allowing time for a Democratic rebuttal. By killing the Fairness Doctrine the Regan FCC in fact enabled the creation of FOX News. Perhaps the time has come for legislation to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine legislatively.
7
"the complete and slavish attention of tens of millions of Americans every night,"
Why is this? Sure, there are still xenophobic bigots. But we live in the most accepting time period ever. Yes, there are old school evangelicals, but church membership has fallen from 70% to 50% in the last 20 years.
Could it be that most news organizations are overwhelmingly liberal? That 92% of journalists (it was less than 60% in 1971) are college grads that were influenced by left leaning instructors?
There is a sizable population in the +/-20% of center group. It was voters from this pool that stuck us with Trump.
It's natural that some will move away from sources that consistently espouse wealth & income redistribution, open borders, putting criminal's rights ahead of victim's, obliterating existing healthcare delivery systems, and confiscation of fire arms from law abiding citizens.
So while many, perhaps most, of the tactics and personalities of Fox News are repulsive, there are otherwise rational voters that accept them versus the alternatives.
1
The continuing disdain liberals and the left in general have for Fox News is proof to me that they have no real interest in freedom of the press. It's also a good indicator of the still overwhelming left-wing slant of the mainstream press. Liberal views are so predominant still, that a voice in the wilderness like Fox is is to be denounced, marginalized, and to the extent possible, omitted from the spectrum of coverage, using Senator Warren's example. The Senator may claim to love the First Amendment, but her actions say otherwise.
7
But Farhad, how could you discuss Fox News and Rupert Murdoch Enterprises as the Big Snake, without mentioning Sinclair Broadcast Group as the Little Snake that lives with the Big Snake? Sinclair Broadcast Group owns most of the broadcast television stations (the place where many people get their local news) and many of the radio stations. They aid Fox News by running so-called "must-run" segments that contain nothing other than the unfiltered raw sewage spewed by Fox News, thus cementing the spread of propaganda from America's right-wing.
14
People doctor videos for fun all the time. One of my favourites is the "Sassy Trump" series created by Peter Serafinowicz. Highly recommended. What I can't forgive Facebook for is the whole Cambridge Analytica trojan horse hijacking of Western democracy. Furthermore, in the light of the mind-boggling amount of money and resources Facebook-a media company- commands, I don't think they should get away with saying that they cannot take responsibility for what is uploaded to their platform, such as the live streaming of the Christchurch Massacre. I am no fan of Fox News, nor of Murdoch, but at least Fox News is overt and upfront in its enabling of its populist views, whereas Facebook has enabled the sort of insidious fear-mongering and terrorist atrocity live-streaming that even Fox would be taken off the air for broadcasting. In sum, I think you let off Facebook very lightly.
20
@Lisa US presidents don't air mean spirited doctored videos all the time.
5
@Lisa
Fox is "over and upfront" only if the viewers are aware they're being mislead. The news professionals at Fox (Smith, Hume, etc.) have been pretty straightforward -- especially lately -- in covering the Trump administration. But the big Fox numbers come not from Smith, Hume, et al., but from Hannity, Carlson, and the other outrage generators. These people never correct themselves, never clarify or retract. Their viewers believe they're getting "real" news, and it's the other guys who are liars.
12
To be clear, my comment was about Facebook. I am not defending Fox News.
3
What I see in this article and the letter from Robert De Niro to Robert Mueller in the current digital edition of the NYT is just more of the myriad examples of how uncritical the general public is with respect to what they are willing to believe as long as it jibes with that with which they happen to identify. Pascal's cogito ergo sum in our day has become sum ergo non cogito. Identity politics has conquered the rational.
This is why humanity is on a treacherous path to ruin, and why crisis management has become the only way we can collectively be moved to action. Unfortunately, this will not be enough to prohibit mankind from careening past one or more tipping points...
2
Wrong.
Fox viewers watch Fox because they find it entertaining and bias confirming, which makes them happy. Blaming Fox for deluded and prejudiced voters is like blaming an "adult " TV channel for people who are obsessed with sex.
Fox does probably make them worse.
People who want to be objectively informed seek out news sources that seek to meet this satisfy this desire.
4
I gotta say this is hilarious. The attitude appears to be if I disagree with a news source it is all false news, lies and propaganda. If I agree it is an unbiased fount of truth that doesn't shade the truth to policy or group. Bluntly pretty much every news source shades things and grinds an axe. There are no neutral news sources. Every single one is pushing an agenda of some sort. And every single one is a bubble. A bubble were disagreement is nearly called heresy and often enough feels like people are calling burn the heretic under their breath. Fox news (who I don't watch by the way) is more blatant then most but unique hardly. There are no neutral news sources every single one exists to promote an agenda, Whether it be a left center or a hard right or cloud cuckoo land agenda. But they all have them. Pretending one that tho one I support is unbiased, unprejudiced and strictly neutral. While saying the other sides is vile evil propaganda shows a inherent bias I think.
6
Try tuning in to the National Public Television News Hour, which makes a decent effort to present opposing viewpoints.
2
CNN and MSNBC are propagandists for the left and Democrats. Listening to the shrill voices of the talking pundits spewing their wrath and hatred for all things republican makes one want to demand the FCC take away their license. None of them qualify as “news” including FOX. They are “opinion” shows and depending on your political beliefs, the network choice is yours. I watch all three, and firmly believe FOX is the most credible.
5
Try National Public Television. It sure beats FOX in terms of lack bias .
1
I troll FOX several times a day by posting about a half dozen contrarian headlines from Feedly, igHome and Google news. Sometimes I think it's futile and that I should quit, but I'm an old white guy in CA with probably too much time on my hands. I do feel well informed though as I read and watch news and politics online and on TV maybe 12 hours a day, many sources and points of view.
Impeach or not yet? I've followed many of the arguments pro and con and I'm leaning toward the necessity of impeachment regardless the political calculations, or at least all the investigative groundwork.
1
Any criticism of Fox will have their viewers falling back to their 1st amendment arguments that what they do is free speech. This will also be the same crowd that will reminds us about the importance of their 2nd amendment rights after another school shooting. They will stop at nothing for their bent agenda, all the while sitting on camera with an American flag pined to their sport jacket lapel. This is America in 2019. They will label this argument as unpatriotic.
3
I don’t know. Fox News spent months telling us that there was a crisis at the border.
The NYT told us there wasn’t, until the NYT started telling us there was.
Also, this seems like a simplistic explanation. Does Fox News explain the rise and electoral victories of Modi, Farage, LePen, Salvini, Duterte, Orban, and right wingers in Columbia and Brazil? No, it doesn’t.
So maybe we’re being a bit parochial here. If the rest of the world is experiencing the same lurch to the right, perhaps it has something to do with something bigger than Fox News. Maybe it has to do with borders, national sovereignty, basic norms regarding security, and a rejection of the left’s position that borders and norms don’t matter.
I think until the left comes back to planet earth, they’ll continue to lose across the world. Here in the U.S., I predict that after losing in 2020 with a centrist, the Dems will go full bore socialist open borders in 2024, and only after losing that one too will they come to their senses.
4
@Cane The "lefty" does believe that borders and norms matter. Just not the way they did in the past. We don't live in 1950 or 1850 anymore. What worked back then doesn't work now. Why not? Because the striving for ever-increasing profits drove technological changes that changed everything else.
Watch an old Walter Cronkite newscast sometime. Boring, right? To get audience share, TV stations made news into entertainment. It's a small step from making news into entertainment to faking news. What took may hours of painstaking mousework a decade or two ago can be done with click or swipe on your device. So now we have escalating outrageousness.
5
@Cane:
"... the left’s position that borders and norms don’t matter."
See?? That's the problem right there - you bought the Lie. Nobody on the left says those things don't matter.
And just what would constitute the left coming "back to planet earth"?? Being a mirror image of the right?
I wish I knew who first said it, but 'Reality has a well known liberal bias'!
2
Fox “news” is listed as entertainment not a news station. This allows them to lie and distort. Murdoch purposely did this so the station could dodge the rules set by the FCC.
@Kb:
The FCC still has rules?!?!?
Who knew?!?
What are they??? Seems like anything goes...
3
Fearful of a pied piper that rivals their own for echo-chamber, lemming-like fawning. It's the usual plaint from the left -- WE know what's right; WE know what is truth; WE are better than all of YOU. And so, once more we the people will stick our ever-enlarging thumbs into their ever-myopic eyes, in every precinct, on every corner, in every election. Continue to attempt to thwart the will of the people and watch what happens. You want resistance? So be it.
2
Fox News didn’t create this audience but it sure knows how to feed it!
They watch to reinforce their preconceived biases, prejudices and anger. This comes from poor public education, zero critical thinking and an outsized fear of “The Other.”
4
Here's how Fox News works: Anti-liberal/democratic conspiracy headline followed by tabloid sensationalism ( breast implant surgery gone awry, gruesome rural murder, bikini-body pictures mined from instagram). The juxtaposition of conspiratorial suggestion with tittilation/arousal + disgust/horror is designed to elicit a heightened emotional response and cognitive dissonance. That's the winning formula on any given day. It's like the old fast-food hamburger; sugar in the bun, sugar in the ketchup, and eventually the consumer's body begins to crave, not the hamburger, but the sugar itself.
One must only ask oneself if this packaging would be at all necessary if the information could stand on its own merit. It's the same reason I've never purchased a wondersalve or life-changing manual from an infomercial at 3 in the morning; I just assume its not what they say it is.
To be sure, sensationalism can be found across the political and media spectrum, but please let's not equivocate. Fox News is the embodiment of a form of capitalism devoid of any inkling of social responsibility, and thus largely responsible for this nation's inability to engage in any discussion without entirely talking past each other.
Thank you New York Times for your commitment to stringing sentences together that follow sequentially and very often logically!
6
I agree that without right wing media propaganda that the criminal conservative empire would collapse. Without constant reinforcement through a diet of lie-filled red meat at least some of the members of the pro-racism/sexism/never-ending-war/anti-worker/pro-wage-Slavery/Christian-dominionist culture might be open to questioning their self-righteous identities. That said, what can be done to purge the airwaves and internet of such blatant partisan lies that is both legal and within the power of the opposition today? Can it be done in a way that is compatible with the first amendment lest the oppressed become the oppressors. What can be done to take the daily dose of Fox News stupidity away from half the country or better yet, get them to refuse and refute the dose of their own volition?
1
I cannot deny it any longer - Fox News and Fox Business are now off my viewing channels; CNBC and Bloomberg stay strong.
2
A lot of forces are conspiring the destroy the US today but in my opinion Faux News is the biggest threat this nation has ever faced. They lie non stop without any shame and millions of uninformed Americans buy it hook, line and sinker.
I don't expect everyone to have the same political views nor would I even want that. But it would be nice if we were disagreeing on real facts and not lies made up to sell "news" to low information voters.
4
Talk radio and Fox dominate much of Red State media.
And years of "liberal bias" criticism has made newspapers and even local NPR affiliates unable or unwilling to challenge them.
In Georgia they even share the same building. https://medium.com/@brianpbannon/after-republicans-came-to-power-in-georgia-fox-news-moved-in-to-gpb-6f2e848d55b8
1
What I find amusing about the whole Pelosi video affair is that Fox News commits malpractice by _editing_ videos of Ms. Pelosi to make her appear to be in decline, Meanwhile it would be malpractice to _fail_ to edit any video of Mr. Trump just so anything he says does not sound like unfiltered raw sewage.
You wanna make it look like Donald Trump's mind is starting to fail? Then just show his unedited speeches. Without editing it would look like this man needed to be institutionalized. If they were to perform the same kind of edits to Mr. Trump's speeches to cut together the errs and outtakes like Fox News did to Ms. Pelosi, there would be an outcry to put Donnie in a padded room.
4
And then the conservatives and Republicans wonder why everyone makes fun of Fox News and doesn't take them seriously.
2
This article helps to explain why a trumpkin informed me last week that Pelosi was on her way out; he told me she was obviously senile. Now I know where he got that impression.
The trumpkins swallow Fox.
Hook, line and sinker.
It is no wonder that our country is so divided.
Even on those rare occasions when news is presented with straight forward, fact based, reporting, what people hear is based on what they choose to believe.
How does a country or a community or a household stay united when the truth is debatable? The answer is they cannot because they can't even agree when a fact is a fact.
With truth abandoned, justice becomes impossible.
2
It amazes how the Left never ceases it's attack on the credibility of Fox while the credibilty of MSNBC and CNN is never considered as part of a discussion on the current state rof the fourth estate. Is it because CNN and MSNBC propagate their political narratives? These media outlets decide what to report, how to report and when to report. All of the power to communicate that Mr. Manjoo attributes to Fox also rests with CNN and MSNBC. Apparently, Mr. Manjoo hasn't watched these networks which have devolved into nothing more than the medisa arm of the Democratic National Committee. What percent of the Cental News Network's reporting is on news not related to the Trump administration. How many time is the name "Trump" mentioned in a day on CNN? I don't remember voting for CNN and they appear to be acting as a fourth branch of government as opposed to a responsible check on government. Are they abusing their almost unlimited power? Thankfully, I can go to Fox for a little balance.
4
“Demanding that Facebook remove posts that cross some hard-to-define line may end up dragooning lots of legitimate political speech into its memory hole. “
Why?
Lots of my posts here in the NYT comments sections never appear, although they are decidedly NOT false or misleading.
I can claim precisely the same and with a far better justification.
1
Fox News is the 'empty calories and trans-fats' of the US information diet that so many people find delicious and addicting. Wrap it up in pretty people presenting, and scoff at the yucky 'cod liver oil and broccoli' that CNN and the rest so often serve up. Descry any exotic 'foreign flavors' (untasted) like BBC or Al Jazera as un-American and potentially traitorous to even sample. What happens to most of the body politic? It becomes morbidly obese, with a dangerous type-2 reasoning deficiency. Soon, parts may have to be amputated. I like the occasional chocolate bar, but only a fool would try to survive on them... washed down with cola.
The author repeatedly asks that “we” understand how grave Fox manipulation is. His is a noble “we,” with roots in “We, the people….” when having an American identity was a matter of righteous collective pride. Fox is chipping away at the numbers of that “we,” replacing it with gullible people who believe the lies it tells them to. It’s pure brainwashing, but those being tortured are the old “We, the people….” crowd who only ask journalists to tell the truth and expect fellow Americans to have enough common sense to recognize it.
Too bad Fox News doesn’t air Trumps off the cuff speeches. Now there is some real problem with predicate and verb as well as clear concise thought. His speeches are a complete flow of disparate topics all in one sentence. When this is the only channel you watch, this is what you get.
Donald Trump received about 62.9 million votes in the 2016 presidential election. see https://www.cnn.com/election/2016/results/president
Fox News' audience ranges from about 2 to 3.1 million nightly viewers in May of 2019. see https://www.forbes.com/sites/markjoyella/2019/05/29/foxs-sean-hannity-is-1-in-may-cable-news-ratings-as-msnbcs-maddow-has-worst-month-since-trumps-inauguration/#16d9a9466301
The forgoing facts would seem indicate that the number of Trump supporters who watch Fox News is small. Lets not over estimate the power of Fox News, or cable or internet based media, to dominate or effect political debates. I never watch Fox news or any other television news channels. I would rather get my news and opinion articles from sources like the Times and/or the Wall Street Journal.
Fox News has done more damage to this country in the past few decades than just about any other entity, but I think the author is wrong to dismiss deep fake videos as "long-range threats." Fox News paved the way for this kind of misinformation to spread, and it created an audience of non-thinkers who are willing and eager to absorb misinformation. But that only means that new types of misinformation--like deep fake videos--will become a huge problem as the technology advances, which it is doing very, very quickly. This is not a long-range threat; this is the immediate future.
2
Fox is the "pravda" of the USA masquerading as a news channel but their real purpose is indoctrination. The damage which Murdoch's manure spreaders are doing on both sides of the Atlantic may take generations to repair. It seems that their goal is no less than to destroy democracy, and thus to create a society where the extreme rich can reign unimpeded by its constraints. It is no coincidence that presently Fox is the mouthpiece of the trump administration who at every turn, champion dictators and denigrate the instruments of the rule of law. Fox and Trump; they are indeed birds of a feather.
1
Fox News is basically State TV, a tool of the Republican Party to influence what people across the US believe. In Florida you cannot go to Dunkin Donuts or a car wash or buy tires or eat Sushi without listening to Fox News. It’s role is exactly the same as Pravda and it is even more effective. Trump personally helps manage the strategy
Much more powerful than Russian interference. It is why republicans have control of all major policy decisions.
Democrats are left protesting racial intolerance or women's right to kill fetuses or humanitarian support for refugees. All fringe stuff which Fox uses to further denigrate liberals
This is a relentless 30 year campaign. And it wins big
73
An independent agency must be created to vet all sources of news. If deemed a bonafide and reliable news source, it would get their stamp of approval imprinted on the screen. There could also be a crawl that states that what you are watching has not been approved by said agency and is for entertainment purposes only such as Fox News. We are living in dire times where our news sources are faked. People need a fighting chance to know that the information they are given is fact or fiction. People obviously cannot distinguish the differences on their own without a proper education.
I watched Fox news on a hotel television back when it was broadcasting wall-to-wall stories about Benghazi. What was really astonishing was that after several hours of having this on in the background, I knew absolutely nothing about what had happened in Benghazi. All I knew was that it was skulduggery of some kind, perpetrated by Hilary Clinton.
It's a news station that doesn't seem to have very much actual news or reporting.
73
@Fenella By design. Thinking is not only not required, it is discouraged. It is the equivalent of 'many people are saying.' Listen to or read what trump says and it is the same thing, an empty nothing burger.
12
@Fenella That's deliebrate. Facts may prompt different inferences than the ones you want.
8
Never forget that under Bush /Cheney, Fox News was provided talking points by the White House.
Now, under Trump/Pence, the White House is provided talking points by Fox News.
And this is much, much worse.
I work in the News business. I edit what people say all the time - to cut out stuttering, cursing, too many "um" or "you know" or sometimes tighten up a long pause.
But not what they said or what their point was.
That's not what happens over at Fox News.
They clearly edit to distort and misinform.
It's a big difference, and it is doing great harm to our country.
550
I grew up in New York and currently live in Massachusetts. Many of my extended family has moved out of the area to red states. When speaking to them I hear them repeat many of the Fox News talking points so I can tell they are consuming a lot of Fox News. These are reasonable, well-educated people (not white working class) and their thinking has completely changed by the Fox News propaganda. This is both younger people who consume social media and older people who do not consume social media at all. It is frightening how it has seeped into their whole value system.
8
An even greater problem is that television is the chief news source for most voting Americans.
Whether it is (the disturbingly non-credible) Fox News, one of the more left-leaning cable outlets, or the traditional networks, it is passive and intellectually lazy.
A truly informed citizenry should read.
Read primary sources.
Read secondary sources.
Read op-eds.
Read in-depth investigative pieces.
And read literature, to gain a broader understanding of humanity.
Reading beats watching.
6
A bigger worry now that other networks are chasing Fox's ratings success by providing the same sort of content for other tranches of the voting public. There lies the money. An ill-informed, fearful public is more motivated to buy what the advertisers are selling no matter their political preferences.
3
Not clear that Fox is rated that well.... I believe it is number 4. It is first among “cable news networks”, but for watched evening news programs NBC, CBS, and ABC are all more popular than Fox, I believe. Fox is certainly a disinformation machine.
@Richard G Dudley We're talking about successfully carving out a niche in today's fractured media landscape. When targeted advertising is paying the bills, truth is just a happy coincidence.
"And it is devastatingly effective: Just about every political lie that has dominated American discourse in the past two decades — the Swift Boaters and the birthers, death panels, the idea that undocumented immigrants pose an existential threat but climate change does not — depended, for its mainstream dissemination, on the Fox News machine."
I disagree. The Covington Catholic schoolboys were unfairly maligned and castigated due to misleading videos and tweets from CNN and the Washington Post, among others.
5
@David Ricardo this is what's known as the exception that proves the rule. The fact that there's an avalanche of evidence proving Fox's malignant practice doesn't change because other news outlets made a mistake that they later attempted to correct.
12
@David Ricardo
Oh, that explains everything about FOX doesn't it? And the fact they misinform and distort everyday of the week like with Pelosi is equivalent to one little meaningless episode where a bunch of children used as political props were unfairly "maligned"? Oh the horror. Let's compare that to attacking the mental stability of the Speaker of the House via intentionally doctored videos. You could say what, there wasn't sufficient context for the poor little Covington boys excuses FOX for supporting a President who lies every day? Who enlisted the support of the enemy? Who lied about who paid for his adulterous acts with a porn star? Who is the only modern President not to release his taxes? The transparency and context are never present in FOX news presentations and especially on Hannity or Dobbs shows. I will say Shepard Smith is quite literally the best and only one I will give a high passing grade to. Chris Wallace comes in second with no one else behind. I say this because as a political scientist it is necessary to listen to opposing opinions in order to objectively assess FOX as an information source. Incredibly the policies advocated by the FOX demonstrably hurts their own members the most and yet they still prefer to be loyal supporters of it while theirs, and their children's futures dim continuously. When does the winning begin for them? The answer is never when the business model of selling "hate" profitably trumps everything else.
2
@David Ricardo Are we supposed to forget about Fox's multitude of sins because of the mistake you mention? Moreover, CNN and the Post corrected their error. That's something Fox rarely does.
This essay comes the closest I have seen to why some people I love still support Trump. Fox spreads disinformation and it also influences by what it concentrates on.
Years ago, when we were starting a war in Iraq, a friend was furious over something the state of Vermont did. We both live in Montana and this had no connection whatsoever to either of our lives. I don’t watch Fox but can tell that they do this diversion thing a lot. They get people upset and excited over peripheral (or made up) events.
When I was a counselor, I wondered if Fox might be good for some depressed people who watched it because It energized them so. However I saw that energy come out as anger and saw that anger seep into relationships themselves at times.
29
I live in Europe and, on a 2016 trip back to the U.S., was shocked that it was Fox News with its Trump clips that was playing non-stop in airport lounges to the captive audience of waiting passengers. Who made the choice to broadcast THAT station, as opposed to a neutral one? Who HAS that power and why?
75
I have wondered the same thing. Doctors offices also have Fox News playing in their waiting rooms and I have complained and asked them to switch.
10
@tsl In a hospital waiting room a fellow patient asked if i could change the channel for him - as he couldn't figure out how. I started - and then asked: "To what channel?". Fox News. I said I would not. He got visibly upset with me. When I have seen Fox News on in public spaces, I ask if I can change the channel to the local News channel (It is not political). I believe that the channel choices is not frequently that of the management, but that of the clientele.
7
@tslPlease identify “neutral”:news source. MSNBC? CNN? The big 3? These days, NOBODY is neutral! Neutral doesn’t attract advertisers or viewers.
3
Thanks for this timely piece. For many of us Fox drones on unheeded in the background of our society, while our attention is caught by all the latest threats and catastrophes. The insidious and long-term damage that Fox News does to democracy and the health of our nation needs to be regularly brought to the forefront of our consciousness.
70
Thank you, thank you, thank you for highlighting what a pernicious effect Fox News has had on America’s political well-being, and by virtue of that, its social and economic well-being. I’m constantly telling people not to underestimate the depth and breadth of Fox’s influence and damage. I see in its willingness, in fact in its compulsion and imperative, to deceive and divide, a fundamentally unAmerican entity. When historians of the future look back at when America took a wrong turn, it will correspond with the founding and rise of Fox.
68
Why does Rupert Murdoch want to destroy our democracy? He’s one of the very most powerful people in the world. And of course one of the wealthiest. So how does he benefit from ending America’s rule of law and leadership in world affairs?
34
@Marcia
That’s an excellent question. My thoughts on it: the Fox propaganda machine spins out train wreck tabloid sensationalism (like opium) to the masses. In the disinformation, they discredit statistics to where coal is beautiful and clean, immigrants murder, women slaughter beautiful babies at birth and the answer to gun violence is more guns. They harness the audience into an avid base which votes against science, fact and self-interest and for the status quo - or; more accurately, the growing asymmetry of power and wealth. Win, win for the Murdochs. No regulation and unchecked perpetuation - if not systemic promotion - of wealth and power. Honestly, I’d love to be wrong. It seems pretty evil to me.
5
@Marcia
Like Trump Murdoch is addicted to destruction to feel powerful. Everything he touches is toxic.
Advertisers still place ads on Fox because in the battle for attention many viewers like moth to flame keep their eyes on the Fox screen. Attacking the advertisers might have some impact but is hard to do nationally.
2
If you really want to know how effective Fox News is, ask one who watches why, after two years of antagonistic, partisan attacks on HRC, there were no indictments, guilty pleas or convictions. Then ask if the Mueller investigation was justified. After trying numerous times, on numerous topics backed by data (climate change, immigration, abortion, gun control) I haven’t budged the needle on a single person. It honestly frightens me to see how immune to reality a Faux News viewer has become. I do give thanks for the occasional time Chris Wallace calls out Lindsey Graham for gross hypocrisy, but then am horrified to see the comments on a Trey Gowdy or Jim Jordan You Tube. Like sheep to slaughter.
71
@Mark Alan Imagine for a moment what our nation would be like today if Fox News was not pat of the TV landscape?
2
@Bruce Maier
Thank you. Imagining our “News” landscape without Faux News made me happy. Fox News is not just an honest reporting from a different ideology. The vast majority of their air time is ruthless, mean-spirited propaganda attacking science, reality, and civility. There’s a reason no other major media outlet is defending them. While I could go into a long list of conspiracies, false narratives and relentless manipulation stoking my distaste for Faux, I’ll just say, “thank you.”
2
Just as our real political problem is not with Trump; the real news problem is not with Fox.
The real problem is with the people who continue to support Trump who are mostly the same people who continue to watch Fox.
The lies and misinformation from both Trump and Fox are too much and too obvious not for anyone with half a brain and even less of a soul not to know its is all garbage. Its no longer plain ignorance that allows it but plain evil that drives it, and that evil is looking more and more like about half the American people.
28
The evil of this evil is not that it has the usual suspects of sociopaths in its grip but far too many of otherwise decent folks. While it maybe consoling to beat our chests of our sins, there is a point to be made to call out those who exploit financially and politically those of humanity's darker sides. So, yes, without those who succumb to Fox's fakery, Fox would be nothing. Yet, moral superiority over those who fall for Fox won't do it. I do hold that we are phylogenetically hard wired to binary thinking. And if you allow yourself to admit it, you'll find sufficient instances were you fall for it, too. This in no way exonerates Fox News from abdicating standards of journalistic ethics, quite to the contrary, since we readers/viewers are so vulnerable, moral standards are even more important to uphold.
2
@zb But "the people" do not know or see Trump personally. What they know and see is what is told to them by the media, whichever media that is. How are people to know the facts and the truth? Even I, a well-informed and educated scientist, believe most of the things I believe -- climate change and vaccine safety, and even the existence and extent of the Holocaust and the roundness of the earth -- because they have been told to me by people and organizations I trust. Hence a huge problem IS the media. Things do not have one cause: both Trump himself AND Fox are big problems.
3
There must be a way to sue Fox "News"for its false representation of Newsworthy journalism. News means "newly received or noteworthy information, especially about recent or important events" google definition.
Journalists are being sued at NYT, how is it possible to lie so blatantly and still be called News? Fox is no more a news channel than Stephen Colbert, despite liking his artistic interpretation of current events.
Fox entertainment, Fox information, Fox cable network; all suitable titles. I would argue against the title, Fox News, as it lies from its opening message and continues throughout.
15
@DLB However, we learn more 'real' news from Stephen than from Faux News. To answer your question - most of the programming is news 'commentary', not news. There should be a requirement for labeling of the content. Oddly, Shepherd Smith does an early morning news show that is refreshingly honest (mostly). I guess those addicted to fake news don't get up that early.
2
I am unaware of anyone who has been suspended or fired from Fox News for airing doctored video or audio.
16
@Paul Of course not, that is their duty - to provide misinformation and other lies to advance their cause. It is called propaganda.
1
It isn't just fox news. This all started in the early 1990's, the televangelists were already trying to cozy up with the Bushes, let's be honest daddy Bush (ex-cia head, oil guy) tanked Jimmy Carter by going behind the scenes to get the hostages freed, next Bill Clinton was elected and he was far from perfect, there were even the hosts of cnbc money shows, Maria Bartriomo and especially Jim Cramer who bashed on the democrats everyday. Next Rush Limbaugh has his am radio program who took the truth and put his special "twist" on a subject, I used to listen to him and Dr Laura until I realized what a load that was they were dishing out. Most of the Fox guys stared out as cohosts on the Limbaugh show. In the mean time Bush Jr "found" religion and the televangelists, and the Limbaugh crowd help get him elected. Emboldened, the fake care about life people and tea partiers hang out at the high schools with their signs for the students to look at. Finally there's NBC network who promoted and helped the man we now suffer through as president. There is a lot of blame to go around and they have nearly 30 years head start. What are we democrats going to do, wear beads, smoke pot and rebel... that won't work this time...
27
As bad as Fox News is, it doesn't hold a candle to the verbal diarrhea and fabrications spread on right-wing hate radio, which has millions of more listeners than Fox has viewers.
43
@George
That is truly frightening and a chilling fact. Right-wing hate is unAmerican.
1
Agree with some of this. But at least FOX didn't employ the pathological Michael Avenatti as a frequent commentator (almost a semi-host) the way CNN and MSNBC did. (The latter networks also initially pumped Avenatti's ill-fated presidential ambitions.) Sad. CNN used to be a fairly neutral source. Not any more!
20
@FrederickRLynch Certainly they didn't! He is an enemy of Trump! Otherwise he would fit right in at Fox.
2
@FrederickRLynch I certainly agree with you regarding CNN. Long ago they were the class of the cable news broadcasts. No longer. They have an agenda, and the news is skewered in a way to promote it. I don't trust them any more than I trust Fox.
10
@baw
I agree that CNN has become a left leaning News Organization, and that it is fair to say they have a "liberal" agenda. However, there is no comparison with Fox, which spews lies and hate, and which has an agenda which is based upon falsehoods. They have a pretty good news operation, including Chris Wallace and a few others, but that is separate from the "entertainment" operation, which is most of Fox's programming. Most people don't differentiate "news" from the "entertainment, or "fake news" Fox provides, such as the Pelosi video, or coverage of the Muellar Investigation and Report. Fox's viewership is higher than any other "news" programming. Studies have shown that the more time people spend watching Fox, the less informed they are about the issues. The less informed electorate due largely to Fox News is the reason that we are still fed "trickle down economics," which has led to the greatest income and wealth inequality since the Great Depression, and why we sit on our hands while the Climate cranks up more and more powerful storms, rising seas, wildfires and floods which devastate the US and the world. If people received accurate information, they would be supporting measures to mitigate, and ultimately reverse Global Climate Change. Unfortunately, it may well be too late by the time they realize they have been lied to.
7
All this consternation about ONE cable news outlet - one that actually includes liberals like Juan Williams & Donna Brazille on their payroll? Their audience pales in comparison to the combined draw of the broadcast networks, MSNBC, CNN, CNBC & more. Liberalism also dominates print news. The NY Times, WaPo, LA Times & more draw more eyeballs than The Wall Street Journal. Moreover, there is no lack of poor ethics at the liberal outlets. Complain about anything except a worthy competitor. Fox News whining & sniveling is merely wearisome envy. You just don’t see this kind of incessant griping about competition on the Journal’s editorial pages either. Be professional.
21
To assume that all the news outlets lie and exaggerate is a big lie and you can say whatever you want to say and put it as you like it but the lying and misinformation that you see sometimes on most of the news outlets like CNN, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, etc. Is nothing compared to the open and constant lying and deceiving that you see on Fox News and if you can’t see the difference there isn’t much that anybody can do about it.
40
@Once From Rome
Fox News draws more viewers in prime time than MSNBC and CNN combined. The Wall Street Journal, WaPo, and the NYTimes all have the same journalistic ideals (though the opinion pages vary widely). When you read something in the Journal or the Times, you know that the reporters and editors worked hard to establish its accuracy. Putting the Journal and Fox News in the same category is misleading, and an insult to the WSJ's reporters.
54
Putin gets way too much credit, Fox News has been dividing Americans for decades.
35
it's no coincidence that the English-speaking nations of the world are in a fat mess. The U.S., the UK, Australia... are all places where Rupert Murdoch runs his media empire.
Could it be that fomenting nationalism and populist rage with entertaining stars is such a marketable business model that we're all being lulled into a trap? Are we being duped into fascism?
40
I just watched Hannity's monologue detailing the Mueller report, and its true. On Fox, up is down, war is peace, and their truths are fact-checked at reputable news organizations and turn out to be untruths. Hannity goes on this rampage about how Mueller is a partisan and only hired big donation giving democrats to work for the Special Counsel, and went on about a deep state conspiracy trying to illegally remove Trump. He called liberals dumb and noted that the left wear tin foil hats! It was eye opening to say the least.
31
@Richard
Eye-Opening to those of us that see Fox for the disruptive, lying outlet it is, but sadly, and scarily, reinforcing of truth to viewers who believe every word Hannity spews. How do we burst this Wizard of Oz bubble?
1
Yet James and Lachlan Murdoch are welcome in polite society, big companies advertise with them, ostensibly decent people are willing to be on Fox's board. They might as well be on the board of the KKK.
The Murdochs and their enablers should all be ostracized, and there should be a divestment from Fox, as there was with apartheid.
Thank you so much for writing this column, we need to snap out of our paralysis and start pulling out the weed by the roots. Bigger giants have fallen.
47
Fox News a THREAT? Because they have a different point of view than liberals. Insanity at its finest. Then we need to call CNN and MSNBC threats too. Because what they proclaim night after night is often untrue.
16
Sad that so many people can’t discern fact from fiction, don’t know what a reputable source is, don’t know what to believe. I’m talking about Joe Fox Viewer.
2
@samuel, you're blurring two terms: "truth" and "point of view." The question here is, does Fox lie more than other networks?
@samuel
"Then we need to call CNN and MSNBC threats too. Because what they proclaim night after night is often untrue."
You don't agree with them. That is very different than the verifiable lies Fox News (with the exception of their News operation) puts out constantly.
1
Fox followers believe the main stream media is lying to them. That Fox News is bringing them "the truth". This is a phenomenon at the heart of so much hucksterism. I have a relative who watches FOX and now "knows" that 98% of homicides in Los Angeles are committed by illegal immigrants that the "liberal" LAPD won't go after.
I provide him with crime statistics published by LA County, and US census data from the Federal government, that shows that this is statistically impossible, but he is impervious to logic. A frightening thought, as his day job is to design fuel systems for commercial aircraft jet engines.
29
I blame both Facebook and Fox equally.
It is disgusting that the leaders of both have no shame over their spread of falsehoods.
7
Please, spare us all yet another one-sided attack on Fox News and Rupert Murdoch. Has this author (or any regular NYT commenter) ever wondered why Fox is the #1 news channel in the US?
No, it's not because the nation is overrun by zealous consumers of misinformation. It is because Fox is the anti-mainstream news channel, covering topics and angles that the mainstream media would rather avoid.
The liberal establishment owns CNN, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, NBC, PBS, NYT, WaPo, The Atlantic, The New Yorker, Mother Jones, HuffPo, and on and on and on...But singular Fox News is the bane of all that's wrong with news? Where is the critical thought here?
There aren't enough rabid right-wing Republicans to make Fox News #1. It is #1 because enough moderates, independents, and yes, even Democrats, check it out for balance when the 99% of other media outlets are too fawning of Democrats (see 8 years of Obama coverage) or too critical of Trump (see 2+ years of Trump coverage).
Fox is the anti-establishment news source. It's #1 because there is demand for its coverage, not because it magically created a pool of willing viewers.
12
@Jason W
I am a Democrat who occasionally watches Fox News. However, I don’t “check it out for balance.” For me, watching Fox is the equivalent of reading the comics.
20
@Oliver if you don’t “check it out for balance” then maybe you should. Ever wonder why Rachel Maddow never, ever ever invites a person onto her show with a different viewpoint? That is because she does not want you to hear another viewpoint. I get NPR in the morning and Ben Shapiro in the afternoon. If you can’t even listen to a point you disagree with, you are already reading the comics.
2
@Jason W Loved its announcer narrating Michelle Obama's 'terrorist fist bump' at the Dem Convention. But everybody will have his own favorite moment like that, with many thousands to choose from.
1
Elizabeth Warren nailed it when she called Fox Fake News the "Hate for Profit" network.
Fox has not: "apparently persuaded us all to live with its lying." If the rest of the moronic press gives Fox Fake News a pass, well, that's their problem. If thirty percent of Americans believe the Fox Fake News propaganda network, that's their problem.
We are in decline as a nation, and I just don't care anymore. I watch Fox Fake News once in a while, and I'm just astounded. Sometimes they make Alex Jones look sort of sane in comparison. It's just astounding. Attention Americans: if you watch "Hate for Profit" network, you're a hater. And, not too bright either.
28
"Just about every political lie that has dominated American discourse in the past two decades "
Wow. Just wow.
Breathtakingly partisan, and either willfully ignorant or hopelessly naive.
9
Yes. Faux News is a danger- the people who have brought us DJT and scads of folks who think of themselves as good people have been swallowed into the mire. I know many and they really are good people. Some are aging. Some just can’t imagine that anything could be wrong with news that is “Fair and Balanced.”
Without Faux we wouldn’t have DJT or a Republican majority senate. I don’t know what to do with them. Other than Boycott the Sponsors. My dream is a movement of that sort. The idea is - 10 sponsors randomly chosen each month and a widely publicized boycott of their products or services for one month. Even a five-10 percent drop in sales for a month would hurt. The next month 10 again. Could be same or different. Any corporation who had sponsored during past month might get chosen.
It wouldn’t be fun. We want to buy what we want when we want it. But we also would like to save the country which means limiting/ changing/ eliminating Fox News.
14
I admit I get a kick out of sometimes watching how Fox News manipulates its public, which is a broad conglomeration of a part of the elite gentry at the top all the way down to trailer-park sludge at the bottom! I’ve actually lived in a trailer before so I’m allowed to say that! I’ve paid my dues.
It’s fantastically amazing to see the perfectly choreographed routines of smartly dressed presenters spewing out their froth for a hungry public! It’s not Fox’s fault though. It’s us. We think we’re cultivated and modern but really we’re one step away from mediocrity—where we came from.
Could anybody really be against affordable healthcare, low-cost child care, food stamps for low income families and more investment into education? Is there even one god-fearing American who would not desire to help our fellow humans to the south? That doesn’t mean opening the gates but it does mean sending the love, so to speak. No woman wants an abortion! Instead of helping the women, what do we do? We hammer nails into her future! That doesn’t sound very intelligent now does it?
Don’t get the feeling that liberals are so much better because they’re not. Sometimes liberals are about as inspiring as removing lint from the clothes dryer! They talk about their Green New Deal and Climate Change but when you actually show them that you’re also interested in the new technology moving away from dependency on oil but are not willing to vilify carbon dioxide do it they run away calling you a denier!
4
Sorry.
Fox News is nowhere as corrosive to the public debate as the distorted views expressed by morning joe, Chris Mathews, Chris Hayes, Rachel Madow, and don lemon.
Just remember what I said more than two thousand years ago, “men keep their promises when neither side can get anything by the breaking of them.”
Solon
7
Thank you to the NYT and Farhad Manjoo for the careful, important reporting and analysis. Please keep it coming!
8
It is not a news network. It is a propaganda network working for their own interest.
18
"The disease is an entrenched, well-funded, decades-in-the-making, right-wing propaganda network, one that exists to turn faintly sourced rumors into full-blown, politically convenient narratives" Manjoo writes.
No, I disagree. The disease is a fear-filled, ignorant -- let me repeat that, IGNORANT -- American public who let their hearts, minds and, most of all, their amygdala be hijacked by those oh-so-satisfying "politically convenient narratives."
Until we understand the extent to which we are captive to our fears and our wants, we will be captive to those (like Fox "news") who so masterfully exploit those fears and wants.
12
I can't think of anyone who has done more damage to society this century than Rupert Murdoch.
18
Fox News intentionally deceived the public in it argument of WMD, Weapons of Mass Destruction, against Iraq. It was all propaganda. They live on fear, racism, deception, manipulation, all other evil characteristics for the benefit of its elite donor class.
6
Great. Now tell us something we don't know.
1
Truth has been replaced by "alternative facts," and irony has been replaced by intellectual shutdown. The irony would be that Trump supporters hear him rail against "fake news" while the source of the most egregiously fake news is Trump TV, aka Fox Noise, and the right-wing radio propaganda that rabidly attacks those who challenge Trump's plague of lies and corruption. But Fox viewers are beyond fact and beyond irony now, in the very "echo chamber" they claim is the territory of "liberals" assailing their champion, the con man in the White House whose suckers will follow him over a cliff without noticing their peril at the edge or even in midair.
Which helps explain the woman interviewed after a town hall by Rep Justin Amash, who said she hadn't heard there was anything "negative" in the Mueller report until Amash brought up the report's actual findings. This woman said she had been relying upon "conservative news" for all her information, and there had heard how the Mueller report exonerated Trump. This woman and millions like her are not just sheltered; they are willfully ill-informed, choosing to feed at the trough of news distortion because it reinforces their biases.
The evening commentary hosts on Fox don't just turn reality upside down, either. Their propaganda invokes the promise of truth to mangle our democratic values while praising a president who is the antithesis of presidential character and upholding the oath of office.
17
@TRJ. Thank you very much for the example of the woman at Amash’s Town Hall. Naturally it helped that he wasn’t a Democrat, but it’s stories like this that make me think that Warren and other contenders that refuse to do FOX Town Halls are making a mistake. “It gives FOX legitimacy, so I won’t do it.”
You don’t understand, nothing you do or say will give FOX more legitimacy for its viewers. They have already awarded it status as the only legitimate news source. By not appearing at all on FOX, all you are doing is making sure they don’t hear your point of view. They are not going to go to your self-sponsored Town Halls near their town.
5
People need to have access to real social media. Just links to family and friends. The thought of trying to falsely smear the Speaker of the House of Representatives is sickening. This is our country and our elected officials. Shame on Facebook.
4
The problem is that when people speak out about Fox News to defendants of Fox News, they are accused of being brainwashed by the MSM. There doesn’t seem to be a reasonable way to get people who are devout Fox News viewers to see the propaganda machine that it is.
8
@Deanna
On a side note- isn't it richly ironic that they bash the "MSM"... while somehow contriving a way for Fox to not be part of the "MSM"? As though the largest and most successful cable-news channel were some kind of upstart, underground, "indie", news-service?
11
All you have to do is watch fox news to know it’s a sideshow from reality. It’s fake bluster for the sole purpose to create chaos and make money for the talking mouths. Fox made trump and the fools that believe it has fox network laughing all the way to the bank.
Mark Twain said that it's easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled. That’s the definition of the fox philosophy.
9
I’ll take the sentiments expressed in this op-ed more seriously when they’re framed to include MSNBC.
9
I am considering filing an elder abuse lawsuit against Fox for what they are doing to my aged in-laws.
18
@Pancho Fox News has thoroughly destroyed one of mine.
1
If everyone who is upset with FB simply dropped it and let it wither, that would be the best. I don't agree with this column....FB should have taken it down or at the very least labeled it FAKE NEWS much quicker than they did.
Sorry if it costs them and their shareholders some $$$$, but hire more people to get the job done. Wonder if Z and company just really don't care about what happens so long as the ad money continues tumbling in.
4
FOX "News" is one of the primary daggers into the heart of American Democracy.
It has helped to ruin the country by fomenting spittle-sputtering levels of partisanship, most based on lies.
The Fairness Doctrine was well named, and Ronny Reagan junked it at the behest of dirty old man Roger Ailes, who went on to found FOX.
The stated business model? "Make old white people angry."
A daily and nightly dagger into the heart of American Democracy - thanks a lot, FOX 'news'.
31
News Limited (who pay no tax in Australia) are a self interested, evil propaganda machine pure and simple. yet politicians continue to fawn to them so all I can do is not give them any of my money. TBH, I see the world through a happier lens without their bile and hatred
4
Wow! Little O’Facebook doesn’t pose much threat because they put a disclaimer in front of a doctored video. As someone who’s called for regulating “Big Tech” , you suddenly sound like everything’s allright at FB. How coy. Both Facebook and Fox need stronger enforcement, ie. removing Section 230 of the DCMA(in Facebooks case) and Reinstituting the Fairness Doctrine for Television broadcasters(in Fox’s). Then you’d start to see some impartial and truthful information on both the internet and broadcast TV.
6
Fox News is on in so many waiting rooms and hotel lobbies. Be sure to let the business know that they can keep on Fox News OR they can have you as a customer but not both. If you are speaking to an employee with no authority then ask for a way to make a formal complaint. If you want to suggest an alternative station - the Weather Channel is a good safe choice.
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@David
I always send a note to businesses featuring fox, but they don’t get a second chance- I state clearly I won’t be a customer in the future, and I’ll be advertising my disappointment as well...
10
@David
Yeah... I get right on telling my Doctor's office that they can either take Fox off their television... or I'm going to take my business, and my life-threatening illness elsewhere! I'm sure that can't go wrong!
3
&David. I got one of those TV-Be-Gone remote controls, and use it to turn those t.v.’s off. However, you could always ask them to change the channel to weather or sports.
5
The Murdoch influence is global and his offspring are equally scaly. Think Brexit.
However, there are other nasty players among old media - "talk radio" for the belligerent victims or the Sinclair "soft" propaganda machine, or the televangelists who seem to weigh in on science and politics wielding the sword of absolute truth.
14
The FCC should maybe close all the outlets who yelled Russia, Russia, Russia collusion for two years.
That would leave only Fox News. The others were all fake. They even got Pulitzers for reporting on the fake Trump Russia collusion, so in all fairness the Pulitzer Foundation should be closed as well.
In fact, I don't advocate for any of these. As long as people know which news outlets are blatantly fake (the vast majority), and they appear to know (MSNBC lost 17% of its audience after the Mueller report, mostly to Fox), everything is all right.
10
@otroad your comment is hilarious, considering mueller's appearance, only today, to discuss exactly this topic of russian interference and the trump campaign's cooperation with it.
10
@otroad Do you mean to say MSNBC lost 17% of it's audience after Barr misrepresented the contents of the Mueller report?
5
@SN There was no cooperation whatsoever. That is what the report said, and Mueller did not contradict it at all.
Listening to fake news is bad for you.
By the way, if you have an actual reference (page and paragraph) in the Mueller report where "trump campaign's cooperation with it" is referred to, please post it. Else we may provide you help, should you need to get back...
1
Excellent analysis.
1
Let's be honest. Other than a few journalists like Chris Wallace, Bret Baier and Shepard Smith, almost all of Fox is not news but opinion at best and pom-pom squad cheering for Trump at worst.
4
I totally disagree with the premise here that Fox News' warped angle is more dangerous than outright lies, disinformation, and falsified videos spread and supported by Facebook. The Fox News clip referenced in this article splices together various mis-articulations in Nancy Pelosi's speech, after which Lou Dobbs presents his perspective—which I strongly disagree with.
Free speech: Lou Dobbs can present his warped perspective. The splices of Pelosi that Fox News shows present nothing new: we've already noticed Pelosi's speech idiosyncrasy. We understand—Pelosi is 79, and she awes us with her integrity, intelligence, maturity, dignity, and wisdom. The little speech blips pale mightily in the presence of all the other excellent qualities that she brings to her performance as Speaker of the House.
Perhaps only in Silicon Valley could it appear that Fox News is a bigger problem than Facebook and Big Tech. Fox News is a problem because the people watching it are in a stupor (the root word of stupid is stupor). Transform Education and we can eradicate the stupor—then there is no one to watch Fox News. Big Tech is mastering stupefaction, and it exerts a behemoth impact on Education. Big Tech = glitter + $$$ on the outside, value's vacuum + stupor on the inside.
4
If you think that Facebook or Fox (or CNBC) is providing you with news, you are dumber than a sack of potatoes (and I mean no disrespect to potatoes).
All social media and TV platforms are entertainment at best and devious deceit at worst. Their business models are based on eyeball-time - the more you watch the more they make. So it's no surprise that Faux news (or CNBC) will turn every event, however trivial, into some cataclysmic moment that requires your prurient attention.
5
Sadly, both parties do the same thing, Fox should set a higher standard than this but we can say the same thing about all media sources, including the Times.
5
@DickH No, they DONT do the same thing, the Republicans are actively destroying America, the Dems are trying to keep us ALL alive. There is a huge difference between a group deciding they will intentionally be stupid enough to kill off mankind VS a group trying to educate us to the dangers.
Last time I checked Fox News main show had 2.8 million viewers, not "tens of millions" Doesn't Limbaugh (equally repugnant) have a much larger following?
1
Thank you for this. Fox manages to keep Trump's 40% safely on the other side of the looking glass with their frequent diet of omissions, lies and distortions. Leading this 40% to the conclusion that the evil Democrats are trying to mount a coup against our democratically elected president just because they disagree with him. Over a period of years Fox has managed to successfully support the hallucination that the most spectacular liar in the history of modern politics is a source of truth. Putin+Trump+ Fox + Senate Republicans have done serious damage to this country and its essential democratic institutions. And they're not done yet. The Democrats are facing a talented, shameless streetfighter in the White House. They need to stop acting like confused librarians and aggressively fight to take back our country.
9
Hopefully most readers and viewers can generally discern when there is propaganda going on, whether open and obvious or subtle & sly. Whether Fox News, the New York Times or any other media source. That is the whole point of the First Amendment. Fox News, Breitbart, etc. are open and obvious in their propaganda. New York Times used to be more objective until about 5 or 6 years ago and has arguably become a more sophisticated version of Fox News over the last few years (from other side of political spectrum). Whether this was determined helpful to increase subscriptions & to stay "relevant" in changing media market, long term readers have taken note.
Political Scientist Brendan Nyhan cited here is the one who claimed on Vermont Public Radio that, in his words, while America has "never seen a dramatic event like a coup," Trump is unique threat because of his "violation of norms." Missing about 55+ years of American history. As if Nov 22, 1963 was not a coup. As if the fraudulent public relations pablum from the Warren Commission was not an erosion of norms. As if the Patriot Act and then Obama's signature on National Defense Authorization Act of 2012, which permits president to suspend habeas corpus for US citizen on US soil, did not erode norms. As if Ford's total pardon of Nixon; or Bush Sr's total pardon of Iran-Contra criminals did not erode norms. Or Clinton hatchet-man Sid Blumenthal's birth of the "birther" lie. Both parties have their share of nonsense.
4
I used to be a Republican, and I once voted for Reagan. But his repeal of the Fairness Doctrine, in retrospect, negates any positives of his presidency.
It made Fox News--especially from 8 to 11 PM--possible. Fox has enabled Trump, and Trump has enabled equally dangerous "leaders" around the world.
In a perfect world, Rupert Murdoch would--if not jailed--at least be deported.
10
A Deep State of Deception
Donald plays at being a victim of a "Deep State" that wants to get him; but, the very social media he leverages are becoming the global context of profit which soars beyond ethical bounds.
I'm with Nancy on this: Facebook is a fundamentally unethical enterprise if it can't tell right from wrong; and, worse, if it collaborated willingly in the disruption of representative democracy.
Yet, Donald strives relentlessly to embed his cynical absence of ethics throughout his administration. The not-too-deep fake of Nancy is matched with the not-too-deep thought of Rick Perry, the confirmed Salesman of "molecules of U.S. Freedom" at the Department of Energy.
4
Fox is extremely vile propaganda machine. I still vividly remember a singular newscast. The local Boston anchor introduces a story about Barack Obama. The content of the story. Obama was is Korea for a G20 Summit on Veterans Day.
While in Korea he visited with American Troops.
The FOX NEW lead in to story. It was several years ago, but it went like this: "Should Americans be outraged Obama was overseas on Veterans Day?"
After the head line they broke for a commercial before talking about Obama's visit and how he met with troops.
Why that negative headline on what was basically a positive story on the President. Why? People remember the headline and either don't hear or forget the wordier details. Negative headline on a positive story, that works for FOX.
Introducing the news story like that was deliberate and meant to generate anger where there should be none, It was the first time I realized how low FOX goes to push a political narrative. It is Propaganda pretending to me News.
10
It's not just the lies that Fox tells. It's what they choose to talk about and what they choose to ignore. When Trump does something outrageous (seemingly on the average of once a day), CNN and MSNBC immediately jump on it. Switch to Fox, though, and no one there has ever heard of it. Instead, you'll tune in on another "report" about the horrible crime wave spawned by illegal immigrants, or perhaps breaking news about Hillary's emails.
14
I believe Fox is slow to report on breaking news events adverse to Don Trump because it is getting its signals straight with the White House.
7
Am I the only one who uses Facebook to promote my shows, put up a few pics and stay in touch with friends?
If I want news, I go to the NY Times, NY Daily News, NY Post, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, CNN and occasionally the Christian Science Monitor for opposing views. I Google the people being talked about in the articles, see what sort of person they are and what they have to say publicly. I take my time, or try to, before believing what a publication has to say about anyone or anything.
But Facebook? Why? It's like going to a Chinese Restaurant for someone else's leftovers. Get it from whence it came, not how it's interpreted.
4
IMO, we;'re back in the yesteryears of "Yellow Journalism".
So, we HAVE been here before.
This is the very reason the FCC was created. However, under republican control, it is obviously not doing it's job.
Reagan's repeal of The Fairness Doctrine set this whole situation up. America has been watching a slow moving coup for decades now.
It has come to fruition in Trump and "allies" pushing over the pillars of our Constitutional Republic. Someone else will, eventually take his place and then, it will be all over.
What worries me the most is that the entire populace is affected to some degrees of corruption
11
@Southvalley You forgot that Obama opposed the Fairness Doctrine https://www.factcheck.org/2009/03/the-fairness-doctrine/ Under his administration, the "FCC finally kills off fairness doctrine" https://www.politico.com/story/2011/08/fcc-finally-kills-off-fairness-doctrine-061851
I stopped reading when you stated that Facebook was justified when it (Zuckerberg) refused to take down a doctored video released with the intent to slander a Congresswoman because of "some hard to define line". A 5 year old child knows that is wrong.
13
@Steven T. I loved Kara Swishers column about this earlier this week. She called it “Fakebook”, and that is what it will be, from here on out.
6
It is refreshing to read this excellent article that has captured the essence of fake fox news. We are truly living in a dystopian present which is eerily like the world portrayed in “1984” (but that was more about centralized government censorship and disinformation). Our reality today is this twisted capitalist media shaping our democracy for it’s own purposes and shaping fake “truth “ which is public perception . Real truth seemed easier to find many years ago - when Cronkite seemed to speak it. Absolute kudos to author Manjoo for this - and kudos to the many comment writers responding to Manjoo’s column - they seem very thoughtful and smart and they seem to be searching for real truth.
13
"But we don’t have much hope nor many good ideas for limiting the lies of old-media outlets like Fox News, which still commands the complete and slavish attention of tens of millions of Americans every night, polluting the public square with big and small lies that often ricochet across every platform..." Actually, we do. It was known as the Fairness Doctrine, and it needs to be brought back so that medial outlets, including SMS, can be regulated and their ability to operate put at risk for knowingly engaging in the disemination of falsehoods, fake news and agitprop.
9
@expat The Fairness Doctrine never applied to cable news, and it would almost certainly be struck down on First Amendment grounds if it were. It only passed constitutional muster for radio and broadcast TV because the broadcast spectrum is a limited resource.
While it could be used to rein in right-wing talk radio, the Fairness Doctrine can't touch Fox.
1
@expat, the Fairness Doctrine did not prevent most media outlets from cooperation with the CIA's Operation Mockingbird, to pay CIA assets at and across various US media, including the major networks, to plant and push narratives suggested and desired by the CIA. Exposed during the 1970's Church Committee Hearings, this all went on long before Fairness Doctrine was abolished.
1
Yes, Fox "News" is terrible. But it does not have and has never had the "attention of tens of millions of Americans every night" or even close. Hannity, the top Fox draw, gets 3.13 million viewers per night. Those who watch his show are likely mostly the same people who watch the other junk on the network. It doesn't add up to tens of millions no matter how you slice it. I have no idea how many people see a given Facebook post, but a Trump tweet goes out to (but is not necessarily seen by) some 60 million followers as well as people like me who wouldn't be caught dead following him. So hold Fox News accountable, but don't overstate its reach in order to make a point. Its most pernicious effect is no doubt its evil Svengali-like power over the clod-in-chief.
5
Very few people saw the FB post on Nancy P? I believe the journalist who saw it and flagged it last noted it had been posted & reposted 1.4 million times in very short order. That seems fairly significant.
On Fox, of course, no disagreement. They must be taken for the threat they are, it is long past time.
10
I'll go along with just about any criticism of Fox News (well, our local affiliate's coverage of local news and weather is reasonably good). But the Fox audience is self-selected. The outrages committed by Fox are accepted because that is what this audience wants to hear - this is why they tune to Fox in the first place.
Facebook's transgressions are somewhat more insidious, since it frequently is not clear what is straight information, what is satire, and what is purposefully fabricated disinformation.
7
@Steve I agree with you on the Facebook form of confused reality. But with Fox, it's more of a chicken and egg dilemma: Which comes first, the gross distortion of reality or the audience's appetite for biases that they want to reinforce? The audience chooses to be led down a path of disinformation, but their biases were in part established and fed by the network's propaganda machine in the first place. The two are inextricably linked. But it's still the case that good journalism would never sink to such a degradation of standards wherein political bias and entertainment take precedence over honesty and a commitment to democratic ideals.
2
I am no fan of Fox News, but the doctored video of Nancy Pelosi is really not very different than the actual video of Nancy Pelosi speaking. Spend some time on YouTube and watch videos of Nancy Pelosi speaking. She sounds weary. She is a bit tongue-tied and not very articulate. She's good at back-door negotiations, but she ought to stay out of the spotlight. There are far more compelling members of Congress who can speak on behalf of the Democratic Party.
15
@Tom, I've seen the full video, and it's nothing like the doctored Fox clip. Pelosi is as sharp as anyone in Washington--many times sharper than our tongue-tied and inarticulate president. Perhaps he should stay out of the spotlight?
I find it interesting that someone would double-down on a doctored video. Nice try.
12
Fox News claims that their news shows are separate from their other shows like Hannity or Outnumbered. The problem is that they often blur the lines between the two types of programs. And many of the viewers don't make the distinction at all.
13
Just like MSNBC and CNN.
Great article, but it's not an either-or proposition. We should be proportionally concerned with all sources of misinformation and their motives. We should hold the NY Times to account for treating FOX news as a legitimate news organization, lending credibility, and ultimately aiding in their continued legitimization in the eyes of the public.
8
Fox Noise identifies fully as 'Fake News', always mixing facts with fiction 'a la Rupert Murdoch', an awful source of disinformation. It reminds us of Hearst News, helping Ted Roosevelt fabricate the need to go to war with Spain (1898) on false pretenses (the sinking of a boat in Cuba). Isn't it ironic that, with this plethora of information out there, we cannot trust any of it?
8
@manfred marcus
Spain 1898? How about all the news outlets that cut George W. Bush so much slack on his (1) persistent insinuations that Saddam Husain had some connection to Al Qaida and (2) the cherry picking of raw input from the intelligence services by Chaney and Rumsfeld, resulting in the unprovoked attack on Iraq that set the entire Islamic world against us?
This was not an error. It gave fresh life to the military industrial complex, reeling from the demise of the Soviet Union.
6
@Robert, completely and totally outrageous and even papers like NYT, that were editorially more skeptical of Iraq, knuckled under to Bush-Cheney in numerous ways, including, for example, suppressing Risen's story about the NSA's mass warrantless surveillance of US citizens on US soil (which Clapper then lied about more under Obama).
And shameful votes in favor of the even-then obviously concocted Iraq War by Democrats like Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden to provide absurd bipartisan cover for Bush-Cheney. Unlike some more courageous counterparts such as Ted Kennedy, Paul Wellstone, Jim Jeffords, Bernie Sanders, Barbara Lee, etc.
My 25 year old niece recently remarked, defending Joe Biden & his pro-Iraq vote, "But that was so long ago!" With zero connection to how the trillions thrown down the toilet hole of Iraq and other neo-con, intervention-first regime change adventurism under both the Bush and Obama administrations have meant tax money not being spent on real needs at home, including shoring up her eventual Social Security, if any, etc.
1
@Robert Indeed, Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld Irak's misadventure was a 'treason' to the American people, by declaring war on Irak on false pretense. And the world is still paying for it, as it unravelled old grievances of the West's exploitation of the Middle East (the free flow of oil) by way of the Taliban, ISIS, etc, and a huge (as unnecessary) waste of blood and treasure. As you said, the military-industrial complex rearing it's ugly head, for the profit (and with Bolton's approval!). I mentioned only the Hearst fiasco (fake news) as I thought the Irak assault was still fresh in our memory.
1
As the global corporate powers divide people against one another both Fox News and Facebook are the major sources of "hate news" and misinformation. I joined the NY Times because if it is said to be "fake news" by our president - it must be pretty decent and have some integrity. Fox News and Facebook are lethal sources of destroying democracy - especially in this age of unlimited corporate money as free speech. The diabolical 2010 SCOTUS "Citizens United" must be overturned and our elections and political ads need to be returned to public funding - or we simply are living under corporate oligarchs and leaders such as the GOP and the oval office who are thier instruments of control and power.
31
Fox News is a menace to a society that values truth and evidence based facts. The impact of its manipulation of public opinion should give everyone cause for concern. More effort must be made to convince advertisers that associating their Brands with Fox News only tarnishes the Brand's image.
15
Sadly, Fox hides behind the freedom of the Press and speech right. Libel laws are weak in America and unless there is a larger outcry from others in the press itself calling out Fox news directly for their misinformation, things will never change. For some strange reason others in the press continue to handle Fox with gloved hands and that will only encourage Fox and they will continue to spread false information to the general public.
8
@Theni With no call-out of FOX things will get worse.
1
Money talks. Boycott the products and services of all advertisers on Fox News.
Fox has done more to drive the decline in civility and decency in our country than any other cause. And it often does so through willful misinformation.
109
tempted as i am to agree with the assessment of murdoch's monstrosity, i must insist that facebook is the greater evil threat to civil society. facebook has a much greater reach and immediacy than fox commentary. facebook's capacity for spreading lies is at least an order of magnitude greater than fox. facebook needs to be shut down which i dont think you can say about fox.
7
Fox News needs to be hobbled by consumers boycotting the products and services of each and every company that advertises on Fox News.
2
I tuned in to fox just now to check the horror for myself. ( pulling out my hair is not an option. Screaming is but it scares the dog) Tucker what’s his name just declared that we should not believe that Russia interfered with our election. Discussion to follow. Tuned out so I would not scare the dog.
183
@S. Mitchell I shout at the TV in front of my dog for a few seconds at a time but then catch myself and start singing something Rodgers and Hammerstein with a smile and I think she realizes that things are fine and that the shouting has nothing to do with her. I used the same technique with our previous pooch during the Cheney-Bush years and it seemed to work with her too. No apparent canine anxiety issues or ulcers in either case.
18
@S. Mitchell please don't stretch the truth. If we are to have debates, they have to be honest ones. I also watch all networks for news. I always go back to fox bc I actually research. Tucker Carlson never said that. The Muller report clearly brings evidence that Russia interfered with the election as they have for decades. Tucker stated that Trump or his campaign never colluded with them in doing so. Show your proof. Do your research before commenting on something so important.
4
S.Mitchell, thanks for the quick spot check on what Fox News puts out in a given moment (total misinformation - no, it’s actually disinformation) and for the chuckle.
5
Doesn't a national broadcaster have to meet certain criteria with regard to the "public good" to be allowed to broadcast on government regulated airways? Fox News no longer meets the requirement of providing benefits to the "public good" to my way of thinking.
I'm not against conservative news reporting -- it's important to know what all sides of the political spectrum are thinking. But I am against misleading news reporting and outright lies which is what Fox News seems to largely be about.
11
No, government action like that may get into first amendment rights issues.
Better a blanket consumer boycott of any company that advertises on Fox News unless and until the company pulls all ads from Fox News permanently.
Money talks—and it doesn’t lead to potential first amendment issues that may arise if you seek for the government to act based on the content of Fox News’s speech.
1
@Greg
From the Radio Act of 1934: "Broadcast licensees operate in the public interest, convenience and necessity"
https://govinfo.library.unt.edu/piac/novmtg/pubint.htm
That same radio act created the FCC to oversee broadcasters but since FOX News is a cable operation the rules are far less stringent. As media consumers we need to be more skeptical about trusting sources than we were 40 years ago... And, in case you're wondering, much of the media de-regulation and consolidation we enjoy (?) today began in the Reagan administration:
http://www.pbs.org/now/politics/mediatimeline.html
Note that Bill Clinton took the process a step further in 1996. There are now very few national TV news providers and local TV station ownership is likewise concentrated into relatively few hands.
https://www.pewresearch.org/topics/media-ownership/
In my part of the world COX Media owns the cable company and TV / radio stations... Which means if you hear the same story from several different outlets it must be true, even though it's from one source.
BTW: Do a little web surfing on Sinclair TV. Like FOX on steroids.
5
Not on cable, only on airwaves.
1
Scrutinizing and then adjudicating whether any part of the entire growing output on the internet is appropriate/inappopriate is sisyphean folly.
The first obstacle will be choosing who will be scrutinizer or adjudicator in chief and it goes downhill from there.
1
Fox News is the problem. THE PROBLEM. If Watergate had happened today, Nixon would not have left office, because, like Trump, he would still be at a 40% approval rating. Why? Because a huge section of our populace is under Fox News' spell. It's not just that they spread blatant disinformation, but that they teach their viewers a specialized rhetoric, one that encourages them to become OUTRAGED at the mere suggestion of a difference of opinion.
You can see the exact moment when you know you're talking to a Fox News watcher, the moment their face turns back into a grimace, their eyes cloud over, and they stop listening to anything you have to say.
66
@Todd Tell them Trump has been documented as LYING over 10,000 times, they will say "you can keep your doctor" and smile like they just said the smartest thing in the world. You can point out something as obvious as Mexico ain't paying for no wall, and they will just rattle off Hannity talking points. Fox is a license to hate liberals, immigrants and anybody who does not fall in line with Trump.
4
@Todd I know a couple of Fox disciples who like Trump are Ivy League grads. What a waste of an education. Also like Trump they seem to have incipient Alzheimer's. Chicken or egg?...Does watching Fox cause Alzheimer's, or does Alzheimer's cause one to be able to watch Fox?
5
FOX “news” has destroyed my family.
It is a brainwashing machine, and my parents are part of their loyal following. Seeing it in action - on every TV in the house, twelve to 15 hours a day - is mind blowing. My mother has been in a constant state of agitation for years now. It is the formula. Hate and fear are addictive, but also very bad for ones health. They have essentially disowned my brother and I because we are “liberal elites”. That means that we watch and read reputable news outlets that are not FOX, and believe in facts. There are enough people like my parents out there that there are support groups for families in conflict because of FOX.
I wish that there was a law about what is allowed to be called “news”. Reinstating the fairness doctrine would be a good start. But until we strip this programming of its legitimacy as news, they will continue to peddle lies as fact, stir up hate and divisiveness and keep their viewers glued to the tube.
It’s not a left versus right issue anymore. It’s right versus wrong.
232
Hear, hear. Thank you for sharing your experience. Very sorry to hear it, but sadly not surprised. Best wishes.
19
Thank you. I’ve experienced the same thing in my family. It’s horrific and it’s 100 percent Fox News.
4
While everything you say about Fox is 100% accurate ... people know what Fox is and they're quite upfront about their political bias. And as such the only people who watch Fox News, whose average viewer is 65, are people who hold those same opinions (and a few who unaccountably hate watch it)
Facebook, OTOH, holds itself out as impartial and people don't see that bias in Facebook. So they're far more likely to believe #FakeNews coming from what appears to be a legitimate source and Facebook reaches an audience that is much broader in its scope of political POVs.
If you want to point fingers, it should be at the media in general for letting Fox and Trump's Twitter feed control the news cycle. Maybe if you ignored the lies they spit out and the outrageous comments, they'd remain in darkness.
6
@ALW515 Average viewer at Fox over 65? Then how does FOX NEWS WIN EVERY NIGHT IN THE 25-55 DEMOGRAPHIC? Check the stats and data. Stop spreading false propaganda.
Outstanding, salient article. The elephant in the media that doesn't get enough attention. Nothing is causing the division in America more than Fox News. It even has a ring in the nose of the President.
31
When Fox’s license renewal comes up I’m willing to bet that the FCC hearings will not go well for Fox. I hear that the FCC license renewal panel will be lead by English Beagles. Tear Fox up guys.
3
Kudos to Damon Winter for the serendipitous image at the top of the column. I'll vote in a heartbeat for any Democratic candidate who will go in Hannity's show and render him speechless.
3
I agree with the author, but this really isn't a new problem. Fox news has always been a laughing stock and is not really news.
I'm more concerned about all the liberal news sources that I used to listen to that have gotten extremely polarized since Trump. I can't watch CNN anymore as they are now mostly just newscasters providing a monologue on Trump and not really providing any factual reporting.
I think NYT has faired well since the election, but I feel the only unbiased news sources these days are Politico and Quartz.
9
Some fair points here. But the deadliest journalism of our times was the WMD report.
Trying hard to remember where that one came from.
8
Last time I was home I did what any good son would do and locked Fox News out of my newly-retired parents' TV before it could get its hooks into them.
Hey, they call it a parental lock for a reason.
97
Fair point. I am still boycotting Facebook and Instagram. It's time.
5
If people didn’t like the content of Fox News, this channel would not exist. It is clear that many people need this type of “news” to feel better about themselves and their way of thinking. As Trump would say, very fine people!
6
It is incredibly painful and terrifying to see the Left aggressively demanding censorship and squelching of speech through shaming. Fox News may offend you but so what? Fix News may spin and editorialize but so what? What media platform does not? When in history were things different? This is a truly mortifying slippery slope. Jeez louise, Lenny Bruce and Thomas Paine and Susan B Anthony and Malcolm X are spinning in their graves.
11
@Harry Mylar, deep breath. Nobody is calling for censorship. The author is simply pointing out the degree that Fox is responsible for misinforming Americans over the last few decades. Today it's the propaganda arm of the Trump administration, aiding and abetting the cover-up of the crimes detailed in the Mueller report.
No media platform puts itself so completely at the service of an administration as Fox News. Spinning is one thing; manufacturing fake "news" is a whole different ballgame. But Fox has been manufacturing propaganda since its inception, beginning with the "Swift Boaters" and continuing with the Trump administration cover-up.
Personally I believe we should reinstate the Fairness Doctrine since all airwaves are owned by the public. The question here isn't freedom of speech, but an independent and responsible free press. Fox News isn't independent of Trump. We should never welcome a Pravda and mistake it for news.
6
@Harry Mylar
The problem is not that they spin, it's that they flat out lie and hire people who are completely ignorant (like the ones saying that Central American countries are part of Mexico, or that Germany and the US were allies in WWII)
3
@Harry Mylar, I'd just be happy if Faux would stop with the fake sensationalism.
"Aside from Elizabeth Warren — who has a plan to limit the power of Fox, as she has a plan for everything (a caveat that is becoming a regular occurrence in my columns)"
It's nice that Mr. Manjoo mentions that this "caveat" is a regular occurrence, but one is left wondering why he feels it necessary to make the comment about Sen. Warren in the first place. It adds nothing to anything he's writing about, and therefore, it can only be interpreted as "snarky."
3
How difficult would it be for Hillary Clinton or Nancy Pelosi to prove actual malice? Even without the fairness doctrine there is still a level below which lies become actionable in court.
3
I canceled my bookings.com account because they advertise on Fox. I use Hotels.com now. I won't buy from any company that supports Fox. The country may be run from Kentucky, but economic power is in New York, California, Massachusetts, etc. It's time we flexed it.
52
@expat. Thank you for the information.
2
Finally! Twenty years of alternate reality from Rupert Murdoch got us Trump, and all the media talks about is Facebook. What gave Fox a pass until now? Incomprehensible.
10
" Rip Your Hair Out in Screaming Terror.."
Thanks for the helpful suggestion on how citizens can act for positive change.
7
The only way to stop Fox lies is regulate cable, and for that matter FB and others like it, much like airwaves.
3
i watched it on CNN live. not her finest hour in real-time. but it did get manipulated by the MAGA folks and yes, Facebook is its own problem (read the Mueller report). it was laissez-faire if not complicit (dollars are dollars) in what the GRU was up to......as for cable news in general, buyer beware.
5
Really. When I found out my elderly Mom' descent into intolerance and craziness was being fueled by Fox News, I had to stage an intervention: I told "If I catch you watching that show again, I'll throw your TV right out the window." That was two years ago, and I'm happy to report she has gone back to being a nice old lady. No joke: Fox is evil brainwashing.
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@Peter
Well done Peter! I would do the same but my parents are heavily -armed Fox News watchers and would kill any man woman or child that so much as turned the channel.
My parents descent into madness began when they moved to an "active seniors" community that is 95% right-wing with Fox News as their soundtrack.
That is also when our relationship disintegrated. They are in a much worse place emotionally but they are addicted.
39
@Peter I ended my relationship with my mother as my late dad and sister--both Navy vets--would be embarrassed by her support of Fox news. I should have known, she always wore the American flag and placed it on her mini-van--etc., even though she never served a day. Typical of Trump supporters--they THINK they support the military--as they are too fat or lame to meet the requirements--but they are not supportive at all.
32
Wake up! Fox targets young viewers and the future audience. Old people? Really?
5
For a fascinating and horrifying view of the origins of Murdoch's empire outside Australia, see "Ink" on Broadway. The production was a big hit in London and deserves to win the Tony Awards for which it has been nominated. The run was recently extended to four weeks after the Tonys. Go now!
7
Thank you. How long have we been waiting for someone in the "MSM" to speak the truth about Fox & the right-wing propaganda industry? The silence & complicity of the "MSM" (& of Democratic politicians) has been shocking. Facebook may be automating political manipulation, but it has been integral to our politics for decades.
15
@Martin
See “What Libera Media?” by Eric Alterman, 2003.
This column makes an important point about the relative importance of Fox and other sources of lies, but the more fundamental problem is why so many lies that are so obviously lies are so effective. Fox is a ratings juggernaut. How can a network that so obviously lies have so many dedicated viewers who believe Fox is the only reliable source of the truth. Fact checking has essentially no impact. Facts do not trump (or Trump) lies. Is "confirmation bias" enough to explain this. I don't believe it is since then the truth would be effective. I believe that the lack of critical thinking skills is the more fundamental problem, and is an even bigger and more fundamental threat to democracy than Fox.
17
Like others, FOX is a commercial enterprise, but it puts money before ethics. It puts money before truth, and money before decency and most disturbing of all ... money before everything.
15
We were living in Australia when Rupert Murdock bought FOX and the Wall Street Journal. From an Australian vantage point it was apparent, even then, that this was not a good development for the United States.
It is now clear that FOX is a political entity -the media platform and echo chamber for Trump and the Republican far right, its commentators even campaign for Trump at political rallies and coordinate their messages with the White House. They should be regulated as a political entity by the FCC, be banned from public buildings (such as airports) and regulated by the federal election commission pursuant to our election laws. We should also boycott entities that advertise on FOX or play FOX in their common areas - such as lobbies and cafeterias.
If you see FOX in a public or common space, complain to the management, about being harassed with political propaganda.
69
Thank You for these tips.
4
@bob miller This is just a superb comment — and really an entire organization should be built around doing what you prescribe
3
@bob miller I complained one day about Fox being on TV at my local YMCA and they changed to another entertainment network. The change appears to be sticking, as I have not seen the dreaded network on their screens in the many months since my complaint. This simple step was apparently very effective!
2
The only possible way to minimize a person's exposure to media fraud is to tune out completely. Scandal and rumor have fueled disconnected people with anger for a long time and with no check and the anger will unlikely change until we can all agree to disagree.
4
Fox is not a journalistic enterprise. It is a propaganda machine. Of course dishonestly edited video meets their standards. Why would anybody expect anything different? Why would anybody even use the word “standards” in a sentence with Fox News? Does anybody really think that Fox is a better source of information than the British tabloids or the National Enquire?
Having said that, I don’t expect that there is anything that could or should be done about it. They have their audience. Their audience doesn’t care that Fox routinely misleads at best and more often deceives. They get to hear what they want to hear and believe what they want to believe. After all, they have a president with an equal disdain for truth, as we saw again today, as we do on most days.
The antidote is for legitimate news organizations to investigate and report the truth. From time to time, somebody will find that approach to journalism preferable to Fox and change their viewing habits and hopefully their vote. That’s about the most we can hope for.
7
For me the concern w Facebook, Google et al is privacy. Fox does not, I believe, maintain huge databases of information on millions of people, whereas the digital giants have created all the underlying tools for a full-blown surveillance state of the kind Orwell imagined. Also, Fox has a shelf life; the databases are self perpetuating.
12
How do you know that Fox doesn’t collect data? Why wouldn’t they?
1
Everything Mr Manjoo says in this column is absolutely on point. But where does it leave us? How can we as a nation ever come together again on just about anything short of an alien invasion (the space kind not the sort that Republicans are really scared of at our southern border) when the right-wing media machine's reason for being is dependent on us not doing so. The lies and the misinformation and the meanness of Fox and Hate Radio will not end with Trump but is now a permanent fixture of our media landscape. And this machine is the primary source of news for a significant segment of our population. And woe betide the Republican politician that crosses them. So almost none of them do.
Where does this leave our democracy, our nation, now and for the future? Because we need to start asking the question: How can we ultimately survive as a nation as the two halves of it drift (or march) farther apart?
22
The whole Fox news / Hannity / Trump thing is a pattern breaker, nothing like this has been seen before in the US.
Trump and Fox news are symbiotic, Trump couldn't exist without Fox .
Like most demagogues in history, I think Trump will be a major power until he dies, but he will eventually go away.
However Fox news, because there are many billions of $ at stake, will find a replacement for Trump when he goes. Thus the current conservative lock will perpetuate.
Its a good business for Fox! they aren't just going to let it go when Trump dies, they will find a successor!
14
Both FB and Fox News have the same business model, maximize engagement to drive advertising dollars.
Both have found success (financially) in manipulating some of the worst aspects of human nature.
The only difference is that for now, FB manipulates its users for financial gain (personal data mined and used to sell ads) while Fox News manipulates its audience for both financial (general ads) and political gain (GOP / right wing ideology).
As for ripping my hair out screaming in terror, that will happen when someone inevitably grafts the overt political orientation of Fox with FB like algorithms and personal data.
8
I am afraid the author doesn't understand the scale of online or it's targeting. Hannity, Fox's rating champ averaged 3M viewers in May. 1.6 Billion, yes Billion people log on to facebook daily. There are over 1.74B mobile FB users. The targeting mechanism for ads allow data profile driven advertising and FB pushes notifications to you to get you to return whereas Fox is a passive medium. Most importantly, FB is so large with such impact that advertisers cannot stop advertising with them versus Fox. Fox is regulated as a broadcast medium and FB is unregulated. Finally, Zuck has complete and absolute control of the entire platform. With his supervoting shares, he has a an influence platform larger than the Pope's and Catholicism has only 1.2B users and they are hardly daily.
23
A much better and fuller expression of thoughts I just shared. Thank you!
3
So few people watch cable news that any effect it has is irrelevant. All of the “news” stations are propaganda machines. It’s unfair to single out one of them when they all are in the same business, which is making money.
6
@JimH, I think Fox is unique as a pure propaganda machine, one that regularly makes up fake news such as the doctored Pelosi video. You can't compare this kind of manipulation with what other news stations do, even on cable.
4
We all agree with this essay as the comments indicate, unfortunately fox cannot be held to account for their daily lies and misinformation and nothing will change.
Sometimes I tune in just to hear what they're saying and I can only make it a minute or 2, their M.O. is clearly to keep their audience agitated and tuned in.
Also quite amusing what they consider the (top) important story of the day...they live in another universe.
31
Fox News is the most important part of what is essentially a classic Russian disinformation system, delivering news that fits predefined messaging. Over the past 20 years the system has been refined to incorporate fringe ideas from social media, biased web sites, and other conservative voices.
Because the system supports anonymity, encourages conspiracy theories, and discourages fact-checking, it was a perfect vehicle for Russian meddling. A YouGov survey shows Russians apparently using the system to improve the reputation of Putin starting in 2014, when over two years Republican voter opinion showed a 25% rise in his approval while Democratic voter opinions barely moved. (The survey was referenced in a Times article in late 2016)
As long as conservative voters depend primarily on information from the "Echoplex", the rift in the country is only going to get worse.
54
thank you for this much needed and dead on analysis. Fox has been sowing discord and peddling misinformation for decades, and people shouldn't think that coming for FB will have any impact on that much bigger and more powerful misinformation machine.
40
Consider the Fox News MOTIVES. Murdoch himself has been quoted that he created his “news” outlets to be machines geared to create and drive grievance. Because people who are angry keep tuning in, and the bigger the audience, the more money in the Murdoch pocket.
It’s also been widely reported that Trump ran for office not planning to win, but to set up a new Trump-brand right-wing TV, modeled on Fox News but without the very few constraints that Ailes put on Fox. With Ailes gone, those constraints are gone and Fox can go all-in, with doctored videos no less, for Trump. When he’s no longer president it will be interesting to see if he goes ahead and creates his new TV network. That’s clearly where his heart really lies, not in serving the country. Trump is a Murdoch wannabe.
Fox News keeps up its messages of grievance – real or contrived, and a lot is contrived – in order to keep its loyal watchers convinced of the “us” against the “them.”
If Fox were to suddenly go honest, or be forced to comply with the old rules of broadcasting that required actual balance & honesty, it would lose its audience because they’ve been brainwashed for 20+ years and the cognitive dissonance would be too much.
The claim of right-wing media that it is an underdog is a lie but they’re not going to give it up without a fight. A fight to the death. Yes, scary.
90
@Fleming,
Absolutely stellar comments!!
6
Fox News viewers who are steady viewers and do not look at news from mainstream sources are like a nation within a nation. They have a different value system. They value bias-confirming information over truth. Basically they reject the values that emerged during the enlightenment. They often ignore scientific evidence. Many don't believe in Darwinian evolution. Also, many reject the views of scientists on climate change. Given their support for Trump it must be assumed they prefer authoritarianism over democracy. I think it was really conservative talk radio that demonstrated that enough of these people were out there for media financial success. These people are a minority of Americans but they are working hard to dominate the majority. While Fox News may be more important in keeping this right extremism going full tilt it is the internet which is involved in some of these people taking violent actions.To reduce white supremacy terrorism which has become more of a threat in recent years we should be very concerned about what takes place through the internet.
53
Who are we really worried about here - the spin doctor peddlers or the gullible buyers-in of the snake oil they are selling? I'm personally unconcerned that the modern day carnival barkers and hucksters at Fox and Facebook exist - they are nothing new. But it irks me in this day and age - there are still folks ripe for the con. Con - short for confidence. Gain it and people will buy anything.
18
@Wilson1ny
I know you mean no ill will, but your position is exactly the problem in this country. Making excuses for liars is outrageous.
The fact that people believe liars is sad, but at least it is not a culpable act.
This has happened over two generations with the introduction of advertising, and the unwillingness of our public to recognize it for what it is. The unwillingness of people involved in commerce to call out a liar is slowly killing our democracy. We have now reached a point where people would prefer to be lied to, rather than feel uncomfortable.
4
@Wilson1ny So you are unconcerned that millions of people are being misinformed? Surveys have show that Fox viewers are more misinformed than people who get tier news from other sources.
You don't care that they are being manipulated? You don't care that Fox misleads it's viewers? You are essentially blaming the victims with your comment.
They don't think they are gullible even if they are. They believe that they are being told the truth. And Fox and Facebook ARE new. There has never in history been anything like them.
1
Elizabeth Warren's "plan to limit the power of Fox" is a bad one.
She spurned the chance to present her views to an audience that otherwise might not hear them. Contrast that with Pete Buttigieg, who had a very fair Town Hall appearance with Chris Wallace (so much so that Trump tweeted angrily about it) and allowed people to hear what he had to say unfiltered.
There's no easy solution for biased political shows but it's not helpful for leaders to preach only to their own choirs.
11
@Jim C.
Elizabeth Warren got more coverage by demonstrating her integrity in this matter than by following the crowd. Simultaneously, she made her point about Fox and pulled away from the rest of the pack. Anyway, the debates are coming soon and anyone interested in hearing her views can tune in then. Even Fox viewers are welcome, though they may have to dust off the remote.
44
@Jim C.It is not at all clear to me that the regular Fox audience is watching these Democrat town halls. I am curious as to what the data show in this regard.
4
This may well have been Warren’s “deplorables” moment.
Every coin has two sides. The FOX news is one side and most of the news outlets are on the other. It has been stated by Trump and many other Republicans view most news outlets as being relentlessly pro Democratic, a charge with which I agree. Now, FOX News goes the other way. Unfortunately, much of the time that organization goes too far and spoils the counter view very much needed these days.
In the sphere of print journalism, I view WSJ and NYT as opposite sides of the coin. However, here each tries, most of the time, to maintain some balance.
Bottom line is that, if FOX drives you nuts, don't view it. Just don't make the mistake to assume that the other major channels are maintaining balance. They are not.
22
@Bill
You are entitled to your opinion, but your claim that other news outlets are "relentlessly pro Democratic" are largely unfounded. If we agree that Fox News is clearly biased to GOP/conservative, then news outlets that provide a different, largely fact-based, point of view are not necessarily "relentlessly pro Democratic." Sure, some may be--such as some MSNBC programs--but the vast majority are not. CNN inviting pundits on to argue both sides is not the same thing. Similarly, having shows that provide a liberal, but still fact-based, viewpoint is categorically different than the conservative, alternative-facts-based viewpoints espoused by Fox "News" primetime hosts.
And simply "not viewing" Fox is not a solution. A healthy democracy requires a sharing and reconciliation of ideas and opposing viewpoints. If a large portion of the population has their viewpoints formed by misleading and/or false "news," then our democratic processes are necessarily affected. This makes it a concern of ALL Americans, not just those that watch Fox News.
211
@Bill As a watcher of CNN and MSNBC, I actually agree that they tend to focus on issues that are not flattering to the president (not hard to find these days). But, I haven't heard them say anything shown to be a lie. Nor have I seen them not cover something that reflects well on the president, just perhaps with less persistence than on fox news. That's the difference. Fox News outright lies.
224
@Bill
Try watching PBS news and listening to NPR news, or reading it online.
Fact based, and inclusive of Republican and Democrat points of view. It is neutral news.
15
Might I suggest that the difference may be in choice? People choose to turn on Fox News and they choose it precisely because of the content. Yes, people also choose to check FB but there are times when those routine check-ins become a place for a sort of attention hi-jacking, ala spectacle. I no longer use FB but I do still have Instagram. I try to avoid the ‘explore’ section because I have no idea what IG plans to put there. I have seen propagandistic and even violent content there before along with a TON of spam and fake accounts. Theses are the things that Facebook Inc is failing to contain.
8
@NG What choice are you talking about?
The people who watch Fox News are being misled. They don't know they are being misled. Why would anyone choose to be misled?
Would you go to restaurant if you knew the cooks were putting rat poison in the food? Of course not. In a free society there has to be a sense of good faith in the market place. Rupert Murdoch has never believed that. Whatever gets his viewers riled up he sells them. They don't know they are being manipulated. Polls have shown that Fox viewers are less informed than people who get their news from other sources.
9
Good Afternoon: Was the Fairness Doctrine unconstitutional? If not, any chance we can bring it some day?
52
@VSB The Fairness Doctrine was held constitutional. However, that was because the FCC made obeying it a condition of having a broadcast license--a license to broadcast "over the public airwaves." Cable doesn't broadcast over the public airwaves, so it doesn't need a broadcast license. Thus, if the Fairness Doctrine were to be revived, it wouldn't apply to Fox News or to any other cable network.
4
Author: the issue with the FB-circulated video was that it was surreptitiously altered (you wouldn't know unless you investigated yourself). While the lou DObbs Fox video (I went and watched it) was clearly edited, with standard effects to indicated that clearly (swipes, etc).
The issue isn't slowing down video to make someone look drunk, per se -- Jimmy Kimmel does that all the time -- it's not being UP FRONT that you've done that. I dislike Fox News as much as the next guy on these comment sections, but going after them for editing video at all -- even though they clearly signal they edit -- is going out of your way to be outraged, IMO.
5
@MadManMark
Jimmy Kimmel does not present himself as a purveyor of news, but as a purveyor of comedy which might be based on news. Lou Dobbs, on the other hand, is supposed to be presenting fact-based, even if opinionated, commentary. When the facts themselves are lies, or at best intentional distortions, we end up with a world in which Fox News viewers believe in "alternative facts" while the rest of us live in reality, with never the twain meeting. To draw an equivalence between Jimmy Kimmel (or in an earlier era, Jon Stewart) with Lou Dobbs (or Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, or any of a number of Fox News personalities) is to admit that Fox "News" doesn't really care about the truth and is all about entertainment, viewership, and ratings. Which it is.
42
Luckily we have freedom of the press and we can’t just run out Fox News. For if we could other channels and media outlets would be next. So few people watch cable that it is no longer a factor. 3 or 4 million out of 350 million is a rounding error.
3
@JimH, I don't think we should "run out" Fox News either, but I think we should be able to hold it to some journalistic standards. The hosts can be as polemical as they want, but they can't make stuff up. Why is that so difficult?
1
Here's why I can’t muster much outrage towards Fox News. Media of liberal persuasion engage in the same type of misleading presentations, but they rarely get called out for it. And every Trump supporting shows on Fox News can be matched host by host on the other cable channels devoted to destroying all things Trump. I have watched hours and hours of the other cable shows where they presented "evidence" that Trump is totally guilty of collusion. Those hours I will never get back and that is on me, but where is the introspection and reflection on their part? Be fair and watch the news reporters, Chris Wallace, Bret Baier, Shepherd Smith - they ask some of the toughest and most insightful questions to the Trump administration. Here is the lastest headline from Bret Baier: Mueller's statement on Russia probe is not 'no collusion, no obstruction'. Would not look that out of place in the NYT.
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@Chat Cannelle All media has a point of view, but that is different than fabricating "facts". Any editor can pick and choose stories, and the emphasis in them, but knowingly fabricating facts is an entirely different category, and Fox does that regularly. Among other techniques, Fox searches for someone with the outlook they want, and then presents them as experts, despite their credentials being ludicrously minimal, and sometimes outright fabricated. No effort is made by Fox to vette such contributors, as long as they express the view Fox wants expressed. The result is a fabricated platform for commentators to use in reaching their preconceived posture on issues of the day, even to the point of influencing Trump.
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Unless you watch “hours and hours” of Rachel Maddow or Keith Olberman, I can’t imagine which “liberal” shows you are watching that are consistently anti-Trump by distorting his public statements. I will agree that Fox has some news correspondents that are straight up reporters- Wallace, Baier and Shep. However, they are in an entirely different universe than the Trump flacks like Hannity, Pirro, Dobbs et al. They are plain and simple propagandists - spreading Trumps lies and exaggerations far and wide.
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@David DiRoma, I agree with you about Hannity, Pirro, Dobbs et al, but I wouldn't put Rachel Maddow in that category. I've never seen her distort public statements by Trump or anyone else. When she makes a mistake, she issues a correction. She doesn't do fake news.
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Spot on! While everybody is rightly worried about foreign influence and a homegrown fanatical fringe using social media for nefarious purposes, the global Murdoch media empire has done more to advance the interests of the far right than any other media player. Consider, just for starters, that neither the election of Trump nor Brexit would have happened without Murdoch's support. But we should also remember that no one has done more to subvert the cause of addressing climate change than Rupert's media. It is not yet clear if American democracy is going to survive Trump. But if it doesn't, its demise will be reported as great news on Fox.
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@Bob Chisholm
The Murdochs have also done huge damage in Australia.
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@Bob Chisholm
And why do we still allow this?
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true, of course, but it is easy to do something about fb: leave. So why more people aren't leaving and denying fb its profit making audience is beyond me.
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I watched a couple of videos of Jay Leno interviewing people on the street about subjects many of us would put into the "common knowledge" category. It was shocking to discover how empty-headed so many Americans are. Some of the participants were even college students or graduates.
Fox News is more influential and dangerous than any of us can imagine when it is pumped into the minds of people that are essentially empty vessels.
No one knows this better than the Republican elite.
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@Robin Johns I was vaguely aware of the phenomenon of jumping to suggested conclusions when you have no real information (or are ignorant of it). But I didn't realize how devastating it could be until recently.
I'm a high school teacher, and recently I used a computer program that allowed students (all with laptops) a few seconds to answer a question presented on the projector at the front of the class, and then it projects the class results for that question immediately after each (for example, 2 answered A, 0 answered B, 3 answered C, and 25 answered D, with the correct answer highlighted) .
Whenever there was a difficult question only one or two students knew, one of those students would shout out an incorrect answer to get the point advantage (points were calculated by both speed and accuracy).
Time after time, when most students didn't know the answer and an incorrect answer was suggested, they just went with the suggested (shouted or mumbled) incorrect answer. The students who knew the correct answer would delight in their deception. Over time the class started getting wise to this, but they also had instant feedback that the answers they were being suggested were wrong and that certain students were overtly lying for personal gain.
No one is instantly suggesting the lies on Fox News are wrong by those who watch it. So the lies stick until they don't matter anymore (death panels, birth certificates, WMDs, etc).
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@Robin Johns
Your point about "empty vessels" is an important one, but I believe the more important issue is the lack of critical thinking skills in vessels, empty or not. We are constantly presented with new information and without the ability to critically think we are susceptible to intentional misinformation (a.k.a. lies). Lies are very effective and are pretty immune to the truth. This is a more fundamental problem than the existence of liars like FOX or zillions of posters on Facebook, Twitter, etc.
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@Robin Johns
Where there are deer, there will be wolves.
Where there are the empty-headed empty vessels you speak of, there will be entities like Fox News.
Transform (through education) the empty-headed empty vessels into mensches (a la Paul Krugman's column today),
Voila—no one to watch Fox News therefore no more Fox News.
The crux of the matter is education (a much more interesting subject), not Fox News.
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The aim of Fox is to make "news" a joke that no one has to believe or only has to believe what he wants when he wants. News on Fox is entertainment and little more. As Frank Zappa said: "Politics is the entertainment division of the military industrial complex," and Fox is just the center ring.
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@NoVaGrouch
Never saw the Frank Zappa quote but it fits. Thanks for the info
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@NoVaGrouch It's not just entertainment to the trump base. Read the comments on the Fox News app and you will be frightened for America! Name calling, consistent references to Obama as a "Kenyan" and denials that Obama went to college at all much less Harvard, it goes on and on.
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@NoVaGrouch
Always wonderful to read a FZ quote. Just wish he was around to apply his merciless wit to the current situation.
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Farhad: Of course Fox is much worse than Facebook when it comes to spreading fake videos or false information. The difference is that pretty much all intelligent people KNOW that Fox is just a propaganda machine for Trump and don't take seriously much, if anything, that the Fox propagandists say. Facebook on the other hand has or hada reputation for either removing false information or clearly marking it as such. That's why Its refusal to remove the doctored Pelosi video even after it concluded that it was doctored was so infuriating.
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@Jay Orchard
I disagree with you statement- I unfortunately know many, many intelligent people that watch Fox News, and as soon as they start talking anything politics I know exactly who they are because they all sound like what I hear on Fox News. It really is an effective, dangerous propaganda machine, and it does effect how even intelligent people view the world. It also allows them to have just enough misinformation at hand to pooh-pooh the worries everyone else has about the Trump administration.
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@Jay Orchard
Jay, I totally agree that "pretty much all intelligent people KNOW that Fox is just a propaganda machine for Trump and don't take seriously much, if anything, that the Fox propagandists say", but the sad reality is that there are also MILLIONS of Americans who watch FOX as tho it were the word of God. And they VOTE! We underestimate the destructive power of this PRAVDA wannabe at our peril.
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@Jay Orchard. You would be surprised at the TENS OF MILLIONS OF PEOPLE who watch Fox News as their only source. Fox News continues to be the most watched news in the US. And based on the number of comments here (of all places) where people have fallen into this ridiculous narrative that NYT (and any other actual news source) is the analogue to Fox is dangerous.
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Fox News and other propganda outlets are "devastatingly effective" because many Americans at best look to the "news" to confirm their beliefs not to inform them and at worst are devastatingly, willfully ignorant.
This has long been the case, it's just that there are many more information outlets with low barriers of entry to choose from and thus more opportunity for the dishonest to profit.
And there is little that our government can do stop it because our government does not get to control political speech. Thankfully.
I don't know what the answer is. Better education could help long term at the margins and at least force the liars to make a coherent, logical argument. Maybe put economic pressure via boycott on the worst offenders as much of our propaganda is distributed from an advertiser supported model.
But like drug addiction, the lies and propaganda we we see in this country is a demand side problem where supply side solutions are doomed to failure.
In the end, if we are a nation that is willing to be lied to, and in many cases, such as with Trump supporters, demanding to be lied to, then we WILL be lied to. Often and profitably.
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@LT:
Yes, far too many in this nation WANT to be lied to. And I think that, basically, the USA as we knew it is over, done, killed off by racial and other kinds of hate.
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Thank you for this piece. I wish the news side of the nyt would view this topic as newsworthy as well.
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@R
The "news" side is engaging in the same exact type of misinformation. Those in glass houses...
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@asdfj, nonsense. The New York Times is a respected source of real journalism. It doesn't engage in pushing falsehoods; if it prints something that's wrong, it issues a correction.
If our population can't distinguish between real news sources and propaganda, we're in real trouble.
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@R
The NY Jtimes is superior to Fox News in every facet of ethical journalism, but never think that its overwhelmingly left leaning staff is unbiased. I saw a recent example when a Comment of mine was first posted, then “disappeared.”
“Some Democrats seem to think that winning in 2020 is vital. I doubt that being seen holding hands with Al Sharpton will help.”
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Wrong. Your title is broad reaching but the reality is that facebook is a virus or toxic broad reaching influence with impact far beyonf misinformation. Mental health impacts, cultural fiber impacts, etc, etc.
Sure, Fox may be bad. But fb is baddest.
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You're absolutely correct. While everyone understands that Facebook and Twitter are naughty temptations, like picking a scab, Fox News poses as legitimate, and sits in the background of so many homes and public spaces mumbling "truthy"-sounding lies into our ears. I don't know a liberal or conservative who wouldn't see the benefits of limiting Facebook time, or deleting the app altogether. But for many Americans, Fox is like water!
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@Colin Small gesture perhaps, but I politely ask managers to change the channel when I'm in the airport restaurant and Fox is on most every screen. Once told that the channel had to be for sports or news, I laughed and said, "Fox isn't news." They changed the channel.
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This is my only comment. To classify Fox as "Fox News" is a misnomer. In reality it is "Fox Entertainment." Is it the dog wagging the tail, or, perhaps better, the tail wagging the dog? As long at there is an audience that supports this kind of nonsense, and advertisers care more about profit than truth, Fox will have no incentive to care about honesty. Money not only talks, it rules!
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Absolutely spot on. A little history - Hitler's attacks on Czechoslovakia, Poland and Austria were preceded by false news headlines of abuse against German minorities in those countries, including a totally faked "attack" by the Polish against a German territory (featuring convicts dressed in fake Polish military garb). Mussolini ran a right-wing news publication, and thrived on a vast diet of fake Italian news.
This is a technique long nurtured by right-wing totalitarianists.
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@Pete And Russia did similar things in Ukraine, in the run-up to its invasion, and does similar things daily on its own news outlets. And will continue to do to us.
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@Pete
Yes, but it is not just right wing dictators who do this. In 1954 President Eisenhower, using the CIA, sponsored a coup d'etat in Guatemala that was favorably covered by a lazy American commercial news media. Seems the United Fruit company was angry at land reform proposals by a newly elected and idealistic democratic reformer, so they overthrew him and replaced him with a murderous right wing dictator friendly to United Fruit. Given the biased media coverage, Americans thought we were restoring democracy when we were doing the opposite.
Most Americans are ill-informed and gullible, partly due to poor journalism. The death of the Fairness Doctrine (which can be restored) helped bring the rise of Fox News, and now it has gotten worse. Roughly 40% of Americans actually think that Fox News is "fair and balanced." Democracy is in real trouble.
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@Phil Rutledge, the Dulles Brothers and the Guatemala coup happened while the Fairness Doctrine still reigned supreme. The Iran coup to install the Shah as well. The Chile coup. Operation Condor in Latin America, etc.
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right on!!!1
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Funny, I don't remember many retractions and firings due to misinformation like with CNN, NBC, CBS. I don't remember a key star using being gay as an insult the way that MSNBC's Mika Brezinsky did (B$tt buddy). I don't remember 250 million dollar lawsuits against Fox news for ruining a 16 year olds life just for standing and waiting for a bus.
Isn't it fascinating the way the MMM all report using the same words. It is almost like someone is telling them what to say....
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@Kathy Tegreene
This is because all the other MMM (no one else uses this term except Fox News watchers, btw) actually deal in facts, not lies and distorted news. They sound the same because they all believe in some sort of actual truth, and try to stick to it as best as they can. Fox News invents the truth to suit it's viewers biases, and then influences their biases with their distortions.
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@Kathy Tegreene Oh yes, Kathy. And remember, just because you're paranoid doesn't mean that there isn't somebody out there who is trying to get you.
Manjoo! I do not watch Fox nor use Facebook. I am lost in admiration that you were able to get the "America's Cities are Unlivable" article up there. I salute you. We need to address the homeless problem before it literally blows up in our faces.
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Exactly. Of all the miscreants in the western world today, I put Rupert Murdoch at the top of the pile.
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@Diane Ferguson What can be done about Murdoch?
We could start by reinstating for broadcasters the Fairness Doctrine and the Equal Time Rule -- both killed by the Reagan administration -- repeal of which led fairly directly to the rise of Fox News and right wing anger radio in the decades since.
For those who say, "we can't! Fairness was only for over-the-air broadcasters" -- nonsense! The people's government can regulate cable news to be balanced and honest just as much as we can regulate airwave news. Cable should be seen as a public utility, just like the public airwaves. (And even if reinstating the rules only fixes right-wing propaganda-radio, that will improve our discourse a lot.)
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I think he’d have to knock Mitch McConnell off that perch. Room for both?
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@Ray Donnelly
I'd encourage them to fight for it, and I'd pay to watch, just to make sure one of them was crowned the loser. "Room for both" sounds awful.
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Fox = Faux = Fake News
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"...an entrenched, well-funded, decades-in-the-making, right-wing propaganda network, one that exists to turn faintly sourced rumors into full-blown, politically convenient narratives."
That's a very accurate description of this 24-hour propaganda and disinformation outlet.
A more educated citizenry would ignore Fox much as Russians used to understand that whatever came out of Pravda was obvious propaganda. But unfortunately that is not our situation.
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@Pat
A better and more involved an concerned citizenry would demand, right now, that The Fairness Doctrine be re-established. Why was it taken away again? In 1985?
Unfortunately, no one can do anything about this.
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@Stephen Csiszar Rupert Murdoch is an Australian. In 1985 it was illegal to have a foreigner own a USA News media. Regan had his US citizenship fast tracked so he could open the Fox broadcast network . Fox News followed registering as the Fox entertainment network. Fox news isn't actually news. The repeal of the fairness doctrine was part of the plan. Climate change was the original point to get Americans to argue among themselves and he still uses that internationally. After all, during the formative years Republicans were in power and they needed something to divide us. Pretty much all climate change deniers watch Fox news or all their friends do so. We can implement the fairness doctrine again but it will be difficult to affect "fox news" that wouldn't affect Saturday Night Live or other entertainment shows. Perhaps a ban on the word news that is not registered as a news organization?
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@Ragread
Murdoch was an Australian, but renounced his citizenship to take out US citizenship. Glad to be rid of our most awful export, you're welcome to him.
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I'm sympathetic to the sentiments here, Fox News as the source of the poison, but where does the figure "tens of millions" of Americans come from? A Google search reports figures like 2.5 million viewers for Fox News and ~350k for Lou Dobbs.
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@Mike
These are figures for a set period of time, such as daily viewers etc. They are not all the same people all the time. If you take the 35% of the country that strongly supports trump, they pretty much all watch Fox News, as does the majority of the other 10% that support trump more often than not.
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@Mike I get the sense that Fox News viewers aren't the type that tune in once every couple of weeks, but instead are committed, frequent viewers. Further, a little digging shows that network news broadcasts generate 3x the viewership of Fox News. Lastly, Fox News viewers skew old, and as such as more likely to be Trump voters.
I would be surprised if the data supports the tens of millions assertion, in which Farhad should be asking "why does Fox News have such an outsized impact on political discourse relative to its viewership?"
Either way, thanks for engaging the discussion.
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@Mike
Have you ever noticed how many TVs are just on all over America? When I travel, every hotel is blaring some pundit station at me. Restaurants? TVs. I go to get my car repaired? TVs in the waiting area blaring at me. TVs at the gym. TVs everywhere.
What's on TVs in the heartland? Fox Fake News, all the time.
People see it...somewhere. They can't escape it.
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