Reagan adviser: Fox News ‘self-brainwashing’ Republicans into a radical fringe party

[hazlnut]

Funny, you wouldn't expect a thread based on something most of us already know to get so many replies, so much traction here on USMB.

I have to guess it's the Fox News viewers--their sense of self-worth and self-esteem is connected to their "news" source. If they admit that it's not trustworthy or really even news , think of what they admit.

If they concede that their "News" source is bogus and nothing but a daily narrative of fear-mongering and thinly veiled racism to gin up the GOP/Conservative base, then they must admit to being foolish. And old people don't like to think of themselves as foolish or easily fooled by con-men and the like. Because it's partially an admission of losing one's faculties, one's wits, or ability to think critically discerning right from wrong.

A Fox News viewer realizing that he's been duped all these years must feel like an elderly person conned out of their life savings. Think of everything the typical Fox News viewers surrender to the network. More than just their time, their mind, their god-given ability to think and review data objectively, to have one's own opinion.

Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but the typical Fox News viewer willingly gives up that right. They turn their will, their vote, their voice and sometimes their pocketbooks over to a well-oiled propaganda machine. They believe they have their own opinion when the recite a talking point at the dinner table, office water cooler, or local bar... but that's not their opinion, as they didn't come to it on their own after carefully reviewing all the facts.

Let's face it, economics, public policy, foreign affairs are way too complicated for the average person to understand on anything more than a basic level. That's why news media boils things down to 7 minute segments, putting the sexy topics at the top of the show to hold the viewers.

There is real, in depth news reporting out there. But it takes a commitment to watch and digest. The News Hour can feel like more than an hour if you know what I mean. I'm betting most Fox Newsies think because it's on PBS that means The News Hour is liberal -- no it's just news with little editorial or commentary. And to be an expert on The News Hour, you really have to be an expert, not just part of a "Think Tank." Hell, I bet because the Economist takes an editorial stance of classical and economic liberalism, Fox Newsies think they're a leftist paper.

Imagine going through life thinking words only have one meaning and that meaning is associated with good or evil. E.g. progressive, liberal, University, higher-learning...

 

[S.J.]

Funny, you wouldn't expect a thread based on something most of us already know to get so many replies, so much traction here on USMB.

I have to guess it's the Fox News viewers--their sense of self-worth and self-esteem is connected to their "news" source. If they admit that it's not trustworthy or really even news , think of what they admit.

If they concede that their "News" source is bogus and nothing but a daily narrative of fear-mongering and thinly veiled racism to gin up the GOP/Conservative base, then they must admit to being foolish. And old people don't like to think of themselves as foolish or easily fooled by con-men and the like. Because it's partially an admission of losing one's faculties, one's wits, or ability to think critically discerning right from wrong.

A Fox News viewer realizing that he's been duped all these years must feel like an elderly person conned out of their life savings. Think of everything the typical Fox News viewers surrender to the network. More than just their time, their mind, their god-given ability to think and review data objectively, to have one's own opinion.

Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but the typical Fox News viewer willingly gives up that right. They turn their will, their vote, their voice and sometimes their pocketbooks over to a well-oiled propaganda machine. They believe they have their own opinion when the recite a talking point at the dinner table, office water cooler, or local bar... but that's not their opinion, as they didn't come to it on their own after carefully reviewing all the facts.

Let's face it, economics, public policy, foreign affairs are way too complicated for the average person to understand on anything more than a basic level. That's why news media boils things down to 7 minute segments, putting the sexy topics at the top of the show to hold the viewers.

There is real, in depth news reporting out there. But it takes a commitment to watch and digest. The News Hour can feel like more than an hour if you know what I mean. I'm betting most Fox Newsies think because it's on PBS that means The News Hour is liberal -- no it's just news with little editorial or commentary. And to be an expert on The News Hour, you really have to be an expert, not just part of a "Think Tank." Hell, I bet because the Economist takes an editorial stance of classical and economic liberalism, Fox Newsies think they're a leftist paper.

Imagine going through life thinking words only have one meaning and that meaning is associated with good or evil. E.g. progressive, liberal, University, higher-learning...

Oh, the irony!

 

[hazlnut]

Funny, you wouldn't expect a thread based on something most of us already know to get so many replies, so much traction here on USMB.

I have to guess it's the Fox News viewers--their sense of self-worth and self-esteem is connected to their "news" source. If they admit that it's not trustworthy or really even news , think of what they admit.

If they concede that their "News" source is bogus and nothing but a daily narrative of fear-mongering and thinly veiled racism to gin up the GOP/Conservative base, then they must admit to being foolish. And old people don't like to think of themselves as foolish or easily fooled by con-men and the like. Because it's partially an admission of losing one's faculties, one's wits, or ability to think critically discerning right from wrong.

A Fox News viewer realizing that he's been duped all these years must feel like an elderly person conned out of their life savings. Think of everything the typical Fox News viewers surrender to the network. More than just their time, their mind, their god-given ability to think and review data objectively, to have one's own opinion.

Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but the typical Fox News viewer willingly gives up that right. They turn their will, their vote, their voice and sometimes their pocketbooks over to a well-oiled propaganda machine. They believe they have their own opinion when the recite a talking point at the dinner table, office water cooler, or local bar... but that's not their opinion, as they didn't come to it on their own after carefully reviewing all the facts.

Let's face it, economics, public policy, foreign affairs are way too complicated for the average person to understand on anything more than a basic level. That's why news media boils things down to 7 minute segments, putting the sexy topics at the top of the show to hold the viewers.

There is real, in depth news reporting out there. But it takes a commitment to watch and digest. The News Hour can feel like more than an hour if you know what I mean. I'm betting most Fox Newsies think because it's on PBS that means The News Hour is liberal -- no it's just news with little editorial or commentary. And to be an expert on The News Hour, you really have to be an expert, not just part of a "Think Tank." Hell, I bet because the Economist takes an editorial stance of classical and economic liberalism, Fox Newsies think they're a leftist paper.

Imagine going through life thinking words only have one meaning and that meaning is associated with good or evil. E.g. progressive, liberal, University, higher-learning...

Oh, the irony!

Irony doesn't mean what you think it means.


You got a point to make, make it.


Show us some responsible, objective reporting on Fox News.

Shep Smith I'll give you. Even Brett Baier sometimes. But the rest of the day.... it's called Editorial. That's NOT news.

 

[S.J.]

Funny, you wouldn't expect a thread based on something most of us already know to get so many replies, so much traction here on USMB.

I have to guess it's the Fox News viewers--their sense of self-worth and self-esteem is connected to their "news" source. If they admit that it's not trustworthy or really even news , think of what they admit.

If they concede that their "News" source is bogus and nothing but a daily narrative of fear-mongering and thinly veiled racism to gin up the GOP/Conservative base, then they must admit to being foolish. And old people don't like to think of themselves as foolish or easily fooled by con-men and the like. Because it's partially an admission of losing one's faculties, one's wits, or ability to think critically discerning right from wrong.

A Fox News viewer realizing that he's been duped all these years must feel like an elderly person conned out of their life savings. Think of everything the typical Fox News viewers surrender to the network. More than just their time, their mind, their god-given ability to think and review data objectively, to have one's own opinion.

Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but the typical Fox News viewer willingly gives up that right. They turn their will, their vote, their voice and sometimes their pocketbooks over to a well-oiled propaganda machine. They believe they have their own opinion when the recite a talking point at the dinner table, office water cooler, or local bar... but that's not their opinion, as they didn't come to it on their own after carefully reviewing all the facts.

Let's face it, economics, public policy, foreign affairs are way too complicated for the average person to understand on anything more than a basic level. That's why news media boils things down to 7 minute segments, putting the sexy topics at the top of the show to hold the viewers.

There is real, in depth news reporting out there. But it takes a commitment to watch and digest. The News Hour can feel like more than an hour if you know what I mean. I'm betting most Fox Newsies think because it's on PBS that means The News Hour is liberal -- no it's just news with little editorial or commentary. And to be an expert on The News Hour, you really have to be an expert, not just part of a "Think Tank." Hell, I bet because the Economist takes an editorial stance of classical and economic liberalism, Fox Newsies think they're a leftist paper.

Imagine going through life thinking words only have one meaning and that meaning is associated with good or evil. E.g. progressive, liberal, University, higher-learning...

Oh, the irony!

Irony doesn't mean what you think it means.


You got a point to make, make it.


Show us some responsible, objective reporting on Fox News.

Shep Smith I'll give you. Even Brett Baier sometimes. But the rest of the day.... it's called Editorial. That's NOT news.

I DID make it. You described yourself.

 

[Pogo]

I don't think Fox News viewers are brainwashed.

Newscorp has focus groups in the budget for it's "news" holdings. They find out what keeps their target demographic tuned in, and then say that.

What Fox News found out is there was a huge demographic that was on the social losing end of the 60's revolution. In 1993-1996, that was white men over 60, without college degrees, who attended a Christian church once a week. Basically socially conservative baby boomers. Now those people continue to be Fox's strongest demographic, only the original 1996 demographic is dying off, they are getting replaced with socially conservative Gen X'ers. These people grew up at the tail end of the hippy generation, and into the Reagan revolution. Fox News has been transitioning it's message towards them since 2008.

They're not being brainwashed, they're being told what they want to hear, and only the things they want to hear that help the GOP's electioneering efforts.

At the end of the day, they're still filling a niche that the mainstream media never has.

The old days of "Journalism", as a means of informing the public about current events, has become mostly obsolete before our eyes...over the last 15 years of course.

The profitable Fox News business model has the industry changing in ways that require heightened critical reasoning skills from viewers to dig down to reality.

By reality, in this instance, I'm referring to the conditions in your life affected by how you vote

Well-assembled analysis there.

TV News (legitimate news) is expensive to do; you need trucks and satellites and bureaus and airline tickets and lots of editors. The old alphabet networks' evening newscasts never paid their own way; they were heavily subsidized by the prime time sitcom drivel that would follow them. When Fox started up 20 years ago next year, the last innovation in TV news media had been CNN's idea of 24/7 news, a source that would be an automatic go-to for the news junkie who didn't want to wait for the standard evening dinner broadcast, and thus snare more viewers throughout the day and try to become the default channel.

Then onto the scene came Rupert Murdoch, fresh from a "successful " (read: profitable) career hawking sleazy tabloid rags around the world like the Sun, figuring he could do the same thing with TV, and voilà -- a gossip channel that gossips not about movie celebrities but about political ones. Instead of spending all that cash on bureaus and plane tickets to find out what the news IS, he plunks talking heads into a single studio to talk about what the news is (selectively of course to feed the emotional psychology) and more to the point, to talk about who the newsmakers are. Everything gets personalized. And that's done so it can be framed in terms of conflict and drama and "good vs. evil". News as Morality Play.

It's framed that way of course because that's what draws audience -- emotion. There's no emotion in actual news, but News Theater, well as the saying goes -- that's entertainment. Afternoon soap operas, inexplicably, keep loyal audiences coming back day after day to see what Doctor Todd thinks of Jenifer's breaking up with Biff. Whatever the psychological draw for that might be, it did not go unnoticed by Murdoch, who made Fox Noise into a Theater about emotion; all about politicians rather than about policy, always the personal rather than the abstract. About people, rather than issues. Because when your focus is people you can easily work in their motivations, what's in their dastardly heart and how they're all out to kill you or save the world, depending on what works in the narrative emotionally. After all when you're writing fiction it's important to set up your heroes and villain characters, that the audience might follow along and, more importantly -- keep coming back for what only your story can supply. Not unlike a drug.

Sure enough this approach of news as soap opera sells like hotcakes since there are more potential viewers open to being entertained emotionally than there are viewers interested in real information intellectually. FNC makes a token attempt to serve the latter master in its off-peak times (albeit with the same garish hypersplash and suggestive chyrons continually undermining the validity of the message), but as soon as prime time hits the clock, it's News Theater wall-to-wall, starring the Legion of Angry White Guys Pounding on Tables.

Sadly, the CNNs and HLNs and MSNBCs have slavishly tried to mirror the same News Theater psycho techniques, since all of the so-called "mainstream media" -- the alphabets, the Murdochs, the CNNs, all together -- are corporate enterprises and therefore exist above all to make a profit, certainly not to serve a public interest. Thus the bandwagon effect, all of them trying to out-profit the next, on the backs of We the Viewers, who get to play a small part in the grand Theater production -- i.e. the pawns.

But lest we take our eye off the big ball, Fox really isn't different from its competitors; they all like to toss out shiny object distractions like "liberal meda"/"conservatvie media" but in reality none of them could care less which message you buy; all they care about is that you buy, preferably from "us".

What happenedv to journalism, fact checking, and investigative reporting... Bring back the fairness doctrine, which means HONEST debate to fill the 24/7 maw...

Bring back the fairness doctrine,

No.

Revealing response, since the whole purpose of the FD was to ensure diversity of viewpoints.

Makes ya wonder, if somebody doesn't like diversity of viewpoint -- what the hell are they doing on a message board?

 

[tinydancer]

That old man should shut the fuck up because he obviously is suffering from dementia.

Certainly he missed the mid terms. Freaking HISTORIC midterms. Was he in a coma 6 and a 1/2 months ago?

But the lib media will fawn all over him no doubt and he'll be the darling of the left wing party circuit. They love so called R's who bash their party.

Among midterm winners many historic firsts
By Jeremy Diamond, CNN

Updated 3:20 PM ET, Wed November 5, 2014

The 2014 midterm elections brought a historic victory for Republicans, handingthe GOP its largest congressional majority since World War II. But Tuesday night also tallied an impressive list of historic firsts at the individual level.

Tim Scott became the first African-American from the South elected to the Senate since Reconstruction, according to the Charleston Post and Courier. The last black Senator was Blanche Kelso Bruce, who left the chamber 133 years ago. Scott also became the first African-American to be elected to both the House and the Senate.

Mia Love became the first black Republican woman elected to Congress -- ever. Love, who is a first-generation American, will also become the first Haitian-American to serve in Congress, according to the Washington Post.

Among 2014 midterm winners many historic firsts - CNNPolitics.com

 

[Staidhup]

If a persons entire political and economic viewpoint is dictated by what is delivered by TV news broadcasts then it explains why we are in the current mess we are in.

 

[Toddsterpatriot]

I don't think Fox News viewers are brainwashed.

Newscorp has focus groups in the budget for it's "news" holdings. They find out what keeps their target demographic tuned in, and then say that.

What Fox News found out is there was a huge demographic that was on the social losing end of the 60's revolution. In 1993-1996, that was white men over 60, without college degrees, who attended a Christian church once a week. Basically socially conservative baby boomers. Now those people continue to be Fox's strongest demographic, only the original 1996 demographic is dying off, they are getting replaced with socially conservative Gen X'ers. These people grew up at the tail end of the hippy generation, and into the Reagan revolution. Fox News has been transitioning it's message towards them since 2008.

They're not being brainwashed, they're being told what they want to hear, and only the things they want to hear that help the GOP's electioneering efforts.

At the end of the day, they're still filling a niche that the mainstream media never has.

The old days of "Journalism", as a means of informing the public about current events, has become mostly obsolete before our eyes...over the last 15 years of course.

The profitable Fox News business model has the industry changing in ways that require heightened critical reasoning skills from viewers to dig down to reality.

By reality, in this instance, I'm referring to the conditions in your life affected by how you vote

Well-assembled analysis there.

TV News (legitimate news) is expensive to do; you need trucks and satellites and bureaus and airline tickets and lots of editors. The old alphabet networks' evening newscasts never paid their own way; they were heavily subsidized by the prime time sitcom drivel that would follow them. When Fox started up 20 years ago next year, the last innovation in TV news media had been CNN's idea of 24/7 news, a source that would be an automatic go-to for the news junkie who didn't want to wait for the standard evening dinner broadcast, and thus snare more viewers throughout the day and try to become the default channel.

Then onto the scene came Rupert Murdoch, fresh from a "successful " (read: profitable) career hawking sleazy tabloid rags around the world like the Sun, figuring he could do the same thing with TV, and voilà -- a gossip channel that gossips not about movie celebrities but about political ones. Instead of spending all that cash on bureaus and plane tickets to find out what the news IS, he plunks talking heads into a single studio to talk about what the news is (selectively of course to feed the emotional psychology) and more to the point, to talk about who the newsmakers are. Everything gets personalized. And that's done so it can be framed in terms of conflict and drama and "good vs. evil". News as Morality Play.

It's framed that way of course because that's what draws audience -- emotion. There's no emotion in actual news, but News Theater, well as the saying goes -- that's entertainment. Afternoon soap operas, inexplicably, keep loyal audiences coming back day after day to see what Doctor Todd thinks of Jenifer's breaking up with Biff. Whatever the psychological draw for that might be, it did not go unnoticed by Murdoch, who made Fox Noise into a Theater about emotion; all about politicians rather than about policy, always the personal rather than the abstract. About people, rather than issues. Because when your focus is people you can easily work in their motivations, what's in their dastardly heart and how they're all out to kill you or save the world, depending on what works in the narrative emotionally. After all when you're writing fiction it's important to set up your heroes and villain characters, that the audience might follow along and, more importantly -- keep coming back for what only your story can supply. Not unlike a drug.

Sure enough this approach of news as soap opera sells like hotcakes since there are more potential viewers open to being entertained emotionally than there are viewers interested in real information intellectually. FNC makes a token attempt to serve the latter master in its off-peak times (albeit with the same garish hypersplash and suggestive chyrons continually undermining the validity of the message), but as soon as prime time hits the clock, it's News Theater wall-to-wall, starring the Legion of Angry White Guys Pounding on Tables.

Sadly, the CNNs and HLNs and MSNBCs have slavishly tried to mirror the same News Theater psycho techniques, since all of the so-called "mainstream media" -- the alphabets, the Murdochs, the CNNs, all together -- are corporate enterprises and therefore exist above all to make a profit, certainly not to serve a public interest. Thus the bandwagon effect, all of them trying to out-profit the next, on the backs of We the Viewers, who get to play a small part in the grand Theater production -- i.e. the pawns.

But lest we take our eye off the big ball, Fox really isn't different from its competitors; they all like to toss out shiny object distractions like "liberal meda"/"conservatvie media" but in reality none of them could care less which message you buy; all they care about is that you buy, preferably from "us".

What happenedv to journalism, fact checking, and investigative reporting... Bring back the fairness doctrine, which means HONEST debate to fill the 24/7 maw...

Bring back the fairness doctrine,

No.

Revealing response, since the whole purpose of the FD was to ensure diversity of viewpoints.-- what the hell are they doing on a message board?

Revealing response, since the whole purpose of the FD was to ensure diversity of viewpoints.

How about if the government just butts out?

what the hell are they doing on a message board?

You're entitled to your moronic viewpoint.
You're not entitled to have the government force me to give you equal time.

 

[Stephanie]

If a persons entire political and economic viewpoint is dictated by what is delivered by TV news broadcasts then it explains why we are in the current mess we are in.

really, thankfully not many watch so they don't swallow the stuff off MSNBC, the worst of them all. then CNN has fallen into lapdog status for the dnc. but here they come with FOX NEWS again. one station they haven't been able to infiltrate. chaps their ass but good

 

[tinydancer]

If a persons entire political and economic viewpoint is dictated by what is delivered by TV news broadcasts then it explains why we are in the current mess we are in.

What I find truly disturbing about his article is how desperately ignorant he is about conservative voters. The old bastard might as well be spewing talking points from Media Matters.

 

[EdwardBaiamonte]

If a persons entire political and economic viewpoint is dictated by what is delivered by TV news broadcasts then it explains why we are in the current mess we are in.

I agree, the TV news is overwhelmingly liberal and always has been so it is not surprising that we elect liberal politicians to form liberal govts that have created all our problems.

 

[Stephanie]

If a persons entire political and economic viewpoint is dictated by what is delivered by TV news broadcasts then it explains why we are in the current mess we are in.

What I find truly disturbing about his article is how desperately ignorant he is about conservative voters. The old bastard might as well be spewing talking points from Media Matters.

he probably is. they just had him sign his name to it. that's how low these progressives like those from Rawgarbagestory crawl,.

 

[Kondor3]

If a persons entire political and economic viewpoint is dictated by what is delivered by TV news broadcasts then it explains why we are in the current mess we are in.

What I find truly disturbing about his article is how desperately ignorant he is about conservative voters. The old bastard might as well be spewing talking points from Media Matters.

That's cold...

And more than a little funny...

 

[tinydancer]

I know. To show we conservatives can be willing to listen to differing opinions we should all tune into Brian Williams tonight on the Nightly News for a truthful and insightful take on the current events of the day..

Oh wait

 

[Pogo]

I don't think Fox News viewers are brainwashed.

Newscorp has focus groups in the budget for it's "news" holdings. They find out what keeps their target demographic tuned in, and then say that.

What Fox News found out is there was a huge demographic that was on the social losing end of the 60's revolution. In 1993-1996, that was white men over 60, without college degrees, who attended a Christian church once a week. Basically socially conservative baby boomers. Now those people continue to be Fox's strongest demographic, only the original 1996 demographic is dying off, they are getting replaced with socially conservative Gen X'ers. These people grew up at the tail end of the hippy generation, and into the Reagan revolution. Fox News has been transitioning it's message towards them since 2008.

They're not being brainwashed, they're being told what they want to hear, and only the things they want to hear that help the GOP's electioneering efforts.

At the end of the day, they're still filling a niche that the mainstream media never has.

The old days of "Journalism", as a means of informing the public about current events, has become mostly obsolete before our eyes...over the last 15 years of course.

The profitable Fox News business model has the industry changing in ways that require heightened critical reasoning skills from viewers to dig down to reality.

By reality, in this instance, I'm referring to the conditions in your life affected by how you vote

Well-assembled analysis there.

TV News (legitimate news) is expensive to do; you need trucks and satellites and bureaus and airline tickets and lots of editors. The old alphabet networks' evening newscasts never paid their own way; they were heavily subsidized by the prime time sitcom drivel that would follow them. When Fox started up 20 years ago next year, the last innovation in TV news media had been CNN's idea of 24/7 news, a source that would be an automatic go-to for the news junkie who didn't want to wait for the standard evening dinner broadcast, and thus snare more viewers throughout the day and try to become the default channel.

Then onto the scene came Rupert Murdoch, fresh from a "successful " (read: profitable) career hawking sleazy tabloid rags around the world like the Sun, figuring he could do the same thing with TV, and voilà -- a gossip channel that gossips not about movie celebrities but about political ones. Instead of spending all that cash on bureaus and plane tickets to find out what the news IS, he plunks talking heads into a single studio to talk about what the news is (selectively of course to feed the emotional psychology) and more to the point, to talk about who the newsmakers are. Everything gets personalized. And that's done so it can be framed in terms of conflict and drama and "good vs. evil". News as Morality Play.

It's framed that way of course because that's what draws audience -- emotion. There's no emotion in actual news, but News Theater, well as the saying goes -- that's entertainment. Afternoon soap operas, inexplicably, keep loyal audiences coming back day after day to see what Doctor Todd thinks of Jenifer's breaking up with Biff. Whatever the psychological draw for that might be, it did not go unnoticed by Murdoch, who made Fox Noise into a Theater about emotion; all about politicians rather than about policy, always the personal rather than the abstract. About people, rather than issues. Because when your focus is people you can easily work in their motivations, what's in their dastardly heart and how they're all out to kill you or save the world, depending on what works in the narrative emotionally. After all when you're writing fiction it's important to set up your heroes and villain characters, that the audience might follow along and, more importantly -- keep coming back for what only your story can supply. Not unlike a drug.

Sure enough this approach of news as soap opera sells like hotcakes since there are more potential viewers open to being entertained emotionally than there are viewers interested in real information intellectually. FNC makes a token attempt to serve the latter master in its off-peak times (albeit with the same garish hypersplash and suggestive chyrons continually undermining the validity of the message), but as soon as prime time hits the clock, it's News Theater wall-to-wall, starring the Legion of Angry White Guys Pounding on Tables.

Sadly, the CNNs and HLNs and MSNBCs have slavishly tried to mirror the same News Theater psycho techniques, since all of the so-called "mainstream media" -- the alphabets, the Murdochs, the CNNs, all together -- are corporate enterprises and therefore exist above all to make a profit, certainly not to serve a public interest. Thus the bandwagon effect, all of them trying to out-profit the next, on the backs of We the Viewers, who get to play a small part in the grand Theater production -- i.e. the pawns.

But lest we take our eye off the big ball, Fox really isn't different from its competitors; they all like to toss out shiny object distractions like "liberal meda"/"conservatvie media" but in reality none of them could care less which message you buy; all they care about is that you buy, preferably from "us".

What happenedv to journalism, fact checking, and investigative reporting... Bring back the fairness doctrine, which means HONEST debate to fill the 24/7 maw...

Bring back the fairness doctrine,

No.

Revealing response, since the whole purpose of the FD was to ensure diversity of viewpoints.-- what the hell are they doing on a message board?

Revealing response, since the whole purpose of the FD was to ensure diversity of viewpoints.

How about if the government just butts out?

what the hell are they doing on a message board?

You're entitled to your moronic viewpoint.
You're not entitled to have the government force me to give you equal time.

Nobody ever did that, just like nobody ever showed you how the damn quote feature works.
Now you're entitle to have USMB "force" me to let you respond. Even if you don't know how to hit "quote".

See how that works?

 

[Toddsterpatriot]

Well-assembled analysis there.

TV News (legitimate news) is expensive to do; you need trucks and satellites and bureaus and airline tickets and lots of editors. The old alphabet networks' evening newscasts never paid their own way; they were heavily subsidized by the prime time sitcom drivel that would follow them. When Fox started up 20 years ago next year, the last innovation in TV news media had been CNN's idea of 24/7 news, a source that would be an automatic go-to for the news junkie who didn't want to wait for the standard evening dinner broadcast, and thus snare more viewers throughout the day and try to become the default channel.

Then onto the scene came Rupert Murdoch, fresh from a "successful " (read: profitable) career hawking sleazy tabloid rags around the world like the Sun, figuring he could do the same thing with TV, and voilà -- a gossip channel that gossips not about movie celebrities but about political ones. Instead of spending all that cash on bureaus and plane tickets to find out what the news IS, he plunks talking heads into a single studio to talk about what the news is (selectively of course to feed the emotional psychology) and more to the point, to talk about who the newsmakers are. Everything gets personalized. And that's done so it can be framed in terms of conflict and drama and "good vs. evil". News as Morality Play.

It's framed that way of course because that's what draws audience -- emotion. There's no emotion in actual news, but News Theater, well as the saying goes -- that's entertainment. Afternoon soap operas, inexplicably, keep loyal audiences coming back day after day to see what Doctor Todd thinks of Jenifer's breaking up with Biff. Whatever the psychological draw for that might be, it did not go unnoticed by Murdoch, who made Fox Noise into a Theater about emotion; all about politicians rather than about policy, always the personal rather than the abstract. About people, rather than issues. Because when your focus is people you can easily work in their motivations, what's in their dastardly heart and how they're all out to kill you or save the world, depending on what works in the narrative emotionally. After all when you're writing fiction it's important to set up your heroes and villain characters, that the audience might follow along and, more importantly -- keep coming back for what only your story can supply. Not unlike a drug.

Sure enough this approach of news as soap opera sells like hotcakes since there are more potential viewers open to being entertained emotionally than there are viewers interested in real information intellectually. FNC makes a token attempt to serve the latter master in its off-peak times (albeit with the same garish hypersplash and suggestive chyrons continually undermining the validity of the message), but as soon as prime time hits the clock, it's News Theater wall-to-wall, starring the Legion of Angry White Guys Pounding on Tables.

Sadly, the CNNs and HLNs and MSNBCs have slavishly tried to mirror the same News Theater psycho techniques, since all of the so-called "mainstream media" -- the alphabets, the Murdochs, the CNNs, all together -- are corporate enterprises and therefore exist above all to make a profit, certainly not to serve a public interest. Thus the bandwagon effect, all of them trying to out-profit the next, on the backs of We the Viewers, who get to play a small part in the grand Theater production -- i.e. the pawns.

But lest we take our eye off the big ball, Fox really isn't different from its competitors; they all like to toss out shiny object distractions like "liberal meda"/"conservatvie media" but in reality none of them could care less which message you buy; all they care about is that you buy, preferably from "us".

What happenedv to journalism, fact checking, and investigative reporting... Bring back the fairness doctrine, which means HONEST debate to fill the 24/7 maw...

Bring back the fairness doctrine,

No.

Revealing response, since the whole purpose of the FD was to ensure diversity of viewpoints.-- what the hell are they doing on a message board?

Revealing response, since the whole purpose of the FD was to ensure diversity of viewpoints.

How about if the government just butts out?

what the hell are they doing on a message board?

You're entitled to your moronic viewpoint.
You're not entitled to have the government force me to give you equal time.

Nobody ever did that, just like nobody ever showed you how the damn quote feature works.
Now you're entitle to have USMB "force" me to let you respond. Even if you don't know how to hit "quote".

See how that works?

Nobody ever did that,

The government didn't force people to give equal time? LOL!
Were you born stupid, son?

 

[BULLDOG]

Raising capitol gains taxes should have been done long ago. Why should stock market profits be taxed at a lower rate than money worked for?

Raising capitol gains taxes should have been done long ago.

Even if the hike in capital gains rates gives the government less revenue?

Why should stock market profits be taxed at a lower rate than money worked for?

One reason is that a higher rate can stifle business creation.

Giveaways to the rich don't create jobs. They just increase profit. Trickle down has never worked.

What give away to the rich are you talking about?

They just increase profit.

Profit is bad. There's no profit in Venezuela. No toilet paper either.

Are you trying to say low capitol gains tax is anything other than a giveaway to the rich? Doesn't a man who works for a living have a right to be taxed at the same rate as someone who makes their money in the stock market?

We can all benefit from a low capital gains rate.

Doesn't a man who works for a living have a right to be taxed at the same rate as someone who makes their money in the stock market?

How much does this working man earn?

Doesn't matter. When a man goes out every morning and does a job, the wages he earns shouldn't be taxed at a higher rate than money made in the stock market.

 

[Toddsterpatriot]

Raising capitol gains taxes should have been done long ago.

Even if the hike in capital gains rates gives the government less revenue?

Why should stock market profits be taxed at a lower rate than money worked for?

One reason is that a higher rate can stifle business creation.

Giveaways to the rich don't create jobs. They just increase profit. Trickle down has never worked.

What give away to the rich are you talking about?

They just increase profit.

Profit is bad. There's no profit in Venezuela. No toilet paper either.

Are you trying to say low capitol gains tax is anything other than a giveaway to the rich? Doesn't a man who works for a living have a right to be taxed at the same rate as someone who makes their money in the stock market?

We can all benefit from a low capital gains rate.

Doesn't a man who works for a living have a right to be taxed at the same rate as someone who makes their money in the stock market?

How much does this working man earn?

Doesn't matter. When a man goes out every morning and does a job, the wages he earns shouldn't be taxed at a higher rate than money made in the stock market.

When a man goes out every morning and does a job, the wages he earns shouldn't be taxed at a higher rate than money made in the stock market.

How much does this poor worker have to make for his rate to be higher?

 

[JimH52]

If you're trying to twist this into Reagan being a liberal, you have failed.

Reagan didn't know who or what he was......unless a Nancy's astrologer told him.

 

[Stephanie]

I know. To show we conservatives can be willing to listen to differing opinions we should all tune into Brian Williams tonight on the Nightly News for a truthful and insightful take on the current events of the day..

Oh wait

or little Steffie Stephanopoulos . the Hillary lapdog.