Fox gained a foothold by loudly and ubiquitously claiming it was 'Fair and Balanced'. Fair and balanced was insidious then and it still is. Many people suffer from the delusion that the media cannot say or print anything that isn't backed by evidence. Folks like my dear mother before she passed away get sucked into an alternate reality. It becomes difficult or impossible to communicate with them because we don't share the same reality. Conversations we used to have about music, art, philosophy, we could no longer have because she only wanted to talk about the latest outrage on Fox. This channel has done more to divide the country than most people will acknowledge. The FCC goes after The View but does nothing about Fox.
Under the current Kleptocracy the FCC is entirely controlled by Trump. They go after “The View,” a talk show, for being political and truthful about Trump and his many, many crimes and continued corruption. Fox News Corp is a Trump cheerleader; therefore, it is classified as “entertainment” not news. Very hypocritical and it would not be happening under a decent governmental system, but currently our system lacks integrity.
From the FCC website: Cable news networks, newspapers or newsletters (whether online or print), social media platforms, online-only streaming outlets, or any other non-broadcast news platform are outside of the FCC's jurisdiction with respect to news distortion.
They also called themselves "news" until the lawsuits, when suddenly they said that their purpose was entertainment, and that no reasonable person could be expected to take that wacko Trump attorney Sidney Powell(?) seriously. Huge conspiracy theorist, and of course typical for their guests *and* hosts, but they had to backpedal as fast as they could. Didn't they end up losing a lawsuit over some lies they aired, maybe about the 2020 election and voting machines?
Those lies cost Fox $787 million in a libel lawsuit brought by Dominion voting machines. Trump still parrots the very same lies with impunity of course. Now Dominion was sold to an unscrupulous Trump ally, so maybe the voting counts will be manipulated. So many of Trump’s false accusations and projections are emulated by his cult. The least trustworthy administration in history.
This!... Or every topic that gets brought up becomes political because Fox has even made the arts "woke" and political... "Fair and Balanced" from the network that was forced to label themselves "entertainment" not news. 🙄
I was tempted to call Fox Infotainment until I read the definition: factual news delivered in an engaging, lighthearted, or highly visual way. I propose we coin a new term Ragetainment: slanted information delivered in a provocative way designed to evoke rage in its consumers.
Add to that the TVs in the gym on the Navy base I used to go to, every single one used to be on FOX. It was SO disturbing that I stopped going, but worry for our young, impressionable military men and women.
Fox News created a rift between me and my father in his final days that I blame on Rupert Murdoch et al. But it's not just the hatred and intolerance that are so disruptive; it's the constant misinformation and overt bias that poison the minds of so many (mostly older) TV watchers. I recommend a documentary called "The Brainwashing of My Dad," which came out in 2015, but is even more relevant now. Directed by filmmaker Jen Senko, the film explores how her father—a nonpolitical, WWII veteran and Kennedy Democrat—radically transformed into an angry, right-wing fanatic after prolonged exposure to conservative talk radio and Fox News.
My husband and I no longer talk to his side of the family (except occasionally to his very elderly parents to check on their health care needs), with the exception of one sister. It's heartbreaking.
This article really hit hard for me today. I'm struggling and am so heartbroken at what has become of my mom. Watching FOX news has poisoned her, and we no longer share the same reality. She thinks I'm "sick" because of my hatred for Trump. Like I'm the one with the problem? She used to be my best friend, we'd laugh and share stories about watching the Daily Show and the Colbert Report. Never in a million years would I have thought she would succumb to this propaganda on FOX and abandon all her critical thinking. She parrots all the FOX news talking points now. I know I'm not alone in losing family members and suffering from the loss of relationships, but damn it still breaks my heart that this is how our lives are now.
“State TV/Media” is a common thread in the hostage taking of a society and/or country. The USA created The Fairness Doctrine in 1948 in a direct response to what we experienced and learned from WW 2. The doctrine demanded all media outlets to present facts, rather than opinions or, god forbid, entertainment as “news.” The American journalists who experienced WW 2 and saw how propaganda through media destroyed whole nations made sure that what they shared on ABC, CBS and NBC was built upon integrity, honesty, and objective truth and accountability.
I don't think we will ever be able to measure the full impact of Fox (and others who copy them) upon our country over the decades. However, I do not think it hyperbole to compare their actions to a criminal gang going on a mass murder all through our country. Seriously. Not only do they swing family and friends against one another, but they feed and stir the dangerous toxins in right wing militias, white nationalist paramilitary groups, impressionable young kids in our military branches and young veterans (think Timothy McVeigh)and, of course, ICE and HLS.
If we are survive this regime(s), tons of changes and reforms need to happen. Right at the top is how our media needs ACCOUNTABILITY under LAW.
I had an aunt (dead at 95 in 2019) who was caught in the rightwing media craziness. She was a devout Catholic, conservative but formerly supportive of civil rights (less so women's rights). But she got turned against Obama by the crazy stories--that Obama was a Muslim or not born in the U.S. She accepted the line that Obama's stepfather's Muslim faith, which Indonesia used to label Obama as a child, made him a Muslim, while I argued that Obama's adult decision to become a Christian would far outweigh a meaningless bureaucratic label from his childhood in Indonesia. Had no impact.
My biggest question here, though, is how we can understand WHY these various folks, many of them identified as Christian, were so vulnerable to this propaganda. What changes in their lives led them to be attracted to it? If we could understand that better, then we could have some clue as to how to change their minds. It must be that there were some underlying anxieties that Fox was able to exploit--for men, fear of feminism? for white people, fear of losing their dominant cultural and social position as people of color gained some rights?
I saw "The Brainwashing of My Dad" at the 2015 Traverse City Film Festival--a great exploration of the issue.
Also recall seeing Fox on the TV at a clothing store we frequent (and that's in Canada). I asked them to change the channel, and they did.
I disagree. FOX merely proffered the poison. They CHOSE to take it. They were told over and over that this was dangerous, that this was misinformation. They were provided with every possible source to do their fact checking. Heck, I was one of the altruistic idiots who tried to reason with these people.
They CHOSE to go with FOX. Which tells me - this is not new. They have always been that way and were waiting for the false prophets to suit their REAL views. They were waiting for someone big and famous to start spewing the most hideous rhetoric possible, which made it ok for them to do the same. They were ALWAYS. THAT. WAY. They were just really good at faking it because they didn't want to be isolated.
I am so grateful that we don't watch television. But my husband was a Republican precinct committeeman who worked for Carson's campaign in 2016 and probably because of that was subject to a bunch of conservative mail, and got a subscription to The Epoch Times. He is not MAGA but still convinced that he reads a balanced and fair newspaper. He is absolutely not a racist. We have had "homeless" people (who turned out to have mental issues and addictions) living or staying temporarily with us, he hired felons to work for us to give them a second chance, worked with a downtown ministry to unhoused people including many who don't speak English, is learning Spanish, served on the board of a battered women's shelter, and in other ways has tried to walk out the teachings of Christ. But he just cannot lose the idea that Trump is a good businessman who surrounds himself with brilliant people. We've been married 51 years .... and we're at a stalemate.
It's hard to "like" this post because it saddens and angers me so much. I "liked" It because of the truth in it that you so well describe, John. Fox news is poison and I would love We The People to file a class-action lawsuit against them for poisoning and degrading so many people in our Country. Which as you wrote is only a part of the world. The anchors on Fox news are a disgrace to this Country and should be ashamed of themselves for spreading lies and hatred and infiltrating the minds and hearts of so many who previously believed in kindness, love, empathy and decency. I weep for all who have been so corrupted with Fox News poison, whose hate filled, bigoted, racist beliefs so destroy the good character of our home, the United States of America. This poison is insidious. There must be an antidote and that class action lawsuit to me sounds like a potential one. Thank you, John, for always baring the truth before us in such a profound way.
Wow! This is exactly it. Reagan did so much damage to our coubtry, not just politically, but through his allowance of hate media that began with allowing Rupert. He then invited televangelists into the White House and government. He was a crowning jewel to ignorance of our constitution and lack of curiosity to learn governance. His fall back was the introduction of Heritage Foundation.
I payed $5 to become a subscriber just to post this comment: please take the call to mount a class action lawsuit against fox news seriously. Please use any connections you have to push this forward and make this happen. I know so many people, myself included, who have failed to penetrate the walls fox news has put up around so many of our family and friends, through relentless continuous lies.
If you haven’t already seen it, I encourage everyone to watch the documentary “The Brainwashing of my Dad”. It explains the hypnotic Fox effect quite well. It’s frightening and sad how compromised our media is. Thanks for another insightful commentary, John.
I wish that sending this to the people who I still love would soften their hearts and "wake them up". Thank you for putting into words the feelings of grief that so many of us are feeling.
Fox gained a foothold by loudly and ubiquitously claiming it was 'Fair and Balanced'. Fair and balanced was insidious then and it still is. Many people suffer from the delusion that the media cannot say or print anything that isn't backed by evidence. Folks like my dear mother before she passed away get sucked into an alternate reality. It becomes difficult or impossible to communicate with them because we don't share the same reality. Conversations we used to have about music, art, philosophy, we could no longer have because she only wanted to talk about the latest outrage on Fox. This channel has done more to divide the country than most people will acknowledge. The FCC goes after The View but does nothing about Fox.
Good point. Can we make the FCC go after Fox?
Under the current Kleptocracy the FCC is entirely controlled by Trump. They go after “The View,” a talk show, for being political and truthful about Trump and his many, many crimes and continued corruption. Fox News Corp is a Trump cheerleader; therefore, it is classified as “entertainment” not news. Very hypocritical and it would not be happening under a decent governmental system, but currently our system lacks integrity.
Many names have been applied to this government. My preference is for kakistocracy: government by the incompetent and least qualified.
From the FCC website: Cable news networks, newspapers or newsletters (whether online or print), social media platforms, online-only streaming outlets, or any other non-broadcast news platform are outside of the FCC's jurisdiction with respect to news distortion.
Pffft. You do know who the puppeteer for almost every federal agency is, don't you?
They also called themselves "news" until the lawsuits, when suddenly they said that their purpose was entertainment, and that no reasonable person could be expected to take that wacko Trump attorney Sidney Powell(?) seriously. Huge conspiracy theorist, and of course typical for their guests *and* hosts, but they had to backpedal as fast as they could. Didn't they end up losing a lawsuit over some lies they aired, maybe about the 2020 election and voting machines?
Those lies cost Fox $787 million in a libel lawsuit brought by Dominion voting machines. Trump still parrots the very same lies with impunity of course. Now Dominion was sold to an unscrupulous Trump ally, so maybe the voting counts will be manipulated. So many of Trump’s false accusations and projections are emulated by his cult. The least trustworthy administration in history.
The voting counts will be most definitely manipulated.
Yes. That figure was floating around the back of my brain but not quite within reach. Thanks for providing it.
This!... Or every topic that gets brought up becomes political because Fox has even made the arts "woke" and political... "Fair and Balanced" from the network that was forced to label themselves "entertainment" not news. 🙄
I was tempted to call Fox Infotainment until I read the definition: factual news delivered in an engaging, lighthearted, or highly visual way. I propose we coin a new term Ragetainment: slanted information delivered in a provocative way designed to evoke rage in its consumers.
Add to that the TVs in the gym on the Navy base I used to go to, every single one used to be on FOX. It was SO disturbing that I stopped going, but worry for our young, impressionable military men and women.
At the gym I go to now, every TV is usually tuned to it. Any time I can get a hold of a remote, I change the channel.
👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
That is beyond awful. 😞
All militants had Faux Noise playing. Add to that a lot of hospitals and doctor's offices.
* military bases....auto incorrect at work again.
Having Faux News on all the time, you may not have been too far off the first time!
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
It’s pretty obvious where their allegiance lies!
Fox News created a rift between me and my father in his final days that I blame on Rupert Murdoch et al. But it's not just the hatred and intolerance that are so disruptive; it's the constant misinformation and overt bias that poison the minds of so many (mostly older) TV watchers. I recommend a documentary called "The Brainwashing of My Dad," which came out in 2015, but is even more relevant now. Directed by filmmaker Jen Senko, the film explores how her father—a nonpolitical, WWII veteran and Kennedy Democrat—radically transformed into an angry, right-wing fanatic after prolonged exposure to conservative talk radio and Fox News.
I watched that too & it explained my dad’s political change when he was alive. It really broke my heart.
My husband and I no longer talk to his side of the family (except occasionally to his very elderly parents to check on their health care needs), with the exception of one sister. It's heartbreaking.
This article really hit hard for me today. I'm struggling and am so heartbroken at what has become of my mom. Watching FOX news has poisoned her, and we no longer share the same reality. She thinks I'm "sick" because of my hatred for Trump. Like I'm the one with the problem? She used to be my best friend, we'd laugh and share stories about watching the Daily Show and the Colbert Report. Never in a million years would I have thought she would succumb to this propaganda on FOX and abandon all her critical thinking. She parrots all the FOX news talking points now. I know I'm not alone in losing family members and suffering from the loss of relationships, but damn it still breaks my heart that this is how our lives are now.
“State TV/Media” is a common thread in the hostage taking of a society and/or country. The USA created The Fairness Doctrine in 1948 in a direct response to what we experienced and learned from WW 2. The doctrine demanded all media outlets to present facts, rather than opinions or, god forbid, entertainment as “news.” The American journalists who experienced WW 2 and saw how propaganda through media destroyed whole nations made sure that what they shared on ABC, CBS and NBC was built upon integrity, honesty, and objective truth and accountability.
I don't think we will ever be able to measure the full impact of Fox (and others who copy them) upon our country over the decades. However, I do not think it hyperbole to compare their actions to a criminal gang going on a mass murder all through our country. Seriously. Not only do they swing family and friends against one another, but they feed and stir the dangerous toxins in right wing militias, white nationalist paramilitary groups, impressionable young kids in our military branches and young veterans (think Timothy McVeigh)and, of course, ICE and HLS.
If we are survive this regime(s), tons of changes and reforms need to happen. Right at the top is how our media needs ACCOUNTABILITY under LAW.
I had an aunt (dead at 95 in 2019) who was caught in the rightwing media craziness. She was a devout Catholic, conservative but formerly supportive of civil rights (less so women's rights). But she got turned against Obama by the crazy stories--that Obama was a Muslim or not born in the U.S. She accepted the line that Obama's stepfather's Muslim faith, which Indonesia used to label Obama as a child, made him a Muslim, while I argued that Obama's adult decision to become a Christian would far outweigh a meaningless bureaucratic label from his childhood in Indonesia. Had no impact.
My biggest question here, though, is how we can understand WHY these various folks, many of them identified as Christian, were so vulnerable to this propaganda. What changes in their lives led them to be attracted to it? If we could understand that better, then we could have some clue as to how to change their minds. It must be that there were some underlying anxieties that Fox was able to exploit--for men, fear of feminism? for white people, fear of losing their dominant cultural and social position as people of color gained some rights?
I saw "The Brainwashing of My Dad" at the 2015 Traverse City Film Festival--a great exploration of the issue.
Also recall seeing Fox on the TV at a clothing store we frequent (and that's in Canada). I asked them to change the channel, and they did.
Well said. Thank you.
Fox is also aired in all U.S. military common rooms across the globe.
Oh my gosh, exactly what I came to say!
I disagree. FOX merely proffered the poison. They CHOSE to take it. They were told over and over that this was dangerous, that this was misinformation. They were provided with every possible source to do their fact checking. Heck, I was one of the altruistic idiots who tried to reason with these people.
They CHOSE to go with FOX. Which tells me - this is not new. They have always been that way and were waiting for the false prophets to suit their REAL views. They were waiting for someone big and famous to start spewing the most hideous rhetoric possible, which made it ok for them to do the same. They were ALWAYS. THAT. WAY. They were just really good at faking it because they didn't want to be isolated.
I am so grateful that we don't watch television. But my husband was a Republican precinct committeeman who worked for Carson's campaign in 2016 and probably because of that was subject to a bunch of conservative mail, and got a subscription to The Epoch Times. He is not MAGA but still convinced that he reads a balanced and fair newspaper. He is absolutely not a racist. We have had "homeless" people (who turned out to have mental issues and addictions) living or staying temporarily with us, he hired felons to work for us to give them a second chance, worked with a downtown ministry to unhoused people including many who don't speak English, is learning Spanish, served on the board of a battered women's shelter, and in other ways has tried to walk out the teachings of Christ. But he just cannot lose the idea that Trump is a good businessman who surrounds himself with brilliant people. We've been married 51 years .... and we're at a stalemate.
It's hard to "like" this post because it saddens and angers me so much. I "liked" It because of the truth in it that you so well describe, John. Fox news is poison and I would love We The People to file a class-action lawsuit against them for poisoning and degrading so many people in our Country. Which as you wrote is only a part of the world. The anchors on Fox news are a disgrace to this Country and should be ashamed of themselves for spreading lies and hatred and infiltrating the minds and hearts of so many who previously believed in kindness, love, empathy and decency. I weep for all who have been so corrupted with Fox News poison, whose hate filled, bigoted, racist beliefs so destroy the good character of our home, the United States of America. This poison is insidious. There must be an antidote and that class action lawsuit to me sounds like a potential one. Thank you, John, for always baring the truth before us in such a profound way.
Wow! This is exactly it. Reagan did so much damage to our coubtry, not just politically, but through his allowance of hate media that began with allowing Rupert. He then invited televangelists into the White House and government. He was a crowning jewel to ignorance of our constitution and lack of curiosity to learn governance. His fall back was the introduction of Heritage Foundation.
I could be wrong but I think it was Clinton that dropped the fair and balanced act.
The FCC abolished the doctrine in 1987, citing First Amendment concerns. That would be Reagan p2.
Fox News, Rush Limbaugh and the “Christian” programming took my family. This is a great article and has caused me a lot of thought.
One of the things I have tried not to do is hate other.
But this entire “thing” permeates to the core of one’s own soul and I do hate.
I hate what our relationships have become - indifference and obligatory.
I hate that I see my once caring parents delight in wearing MAGA hats and posting pictures of the t family in the main rooms .
I hate that I feel this way about family.
I payed $5 to become a subscriber just to post this comment: please take the call to mount a class action lawsuit against fox news seriously. Please use any connections you have to push this forward and make this happen. I know so many people, myself included, who have failed to penetrate the walls fox news has put up around so many of our family and friends, through relentless continuous lies.
Don’t talk to many of my relatives anymore because of Trump and Faux news. They are part of the cult. 🤯🤯
If you haven’t already seen it, I encourage everyone to watch the documentary “The Brainwashing of my Dad”. It explains the hypnotic Fox effect quite well. It’s frightening and sad how compromised our media is. Thanks for another insightful commentary, John.
I wish that sending this to the people who I still love would soften their hearts and "wake them up". Thank you for putting into words the feelings of grief that so many of us are feeling.