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Watching Fox News is officially worse than watching nothing
Posted on Thursday, December 01, 2011 at 08:20 AM
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| FOX News pundit Megyn Kelly |
Here's how it works -- last week Fox News pundit Megyn Kelly famously offered her opinion that pepper spray is a “food product essentially” on national television. Her host, Bill O’Reilly, nodded in agreement. In that way Kelly's opinion, with a cynical assist from O'Reilly, became a “fact” before our eyes.
Ricin poison comes from castor beans, and I suppose you could argue it's a food product too -- so why not go ahead and sprinkle some on your cornflakes Megyn? If you’re implying that we’re silly to be concerned about its effects, that is.
The subtext, the reason she apparently offered this lamentably craven nonsense, appeared to be an attempt to re-frame Lieutenant John Pike’s over the top assault of unarmed and peaceful students at UC Davis last week in the faint hope of repackaging him as a Good Samaritan.
He was just tossing a different kind of salad, Kelly inferred. Go back to your sandbox, kids.
The Internet mocked Kelly mercilessly, as she richly deserved. “Mustard gas is essentially a condiment,” wrote one wag.
“Megyn Kelly regarding water boarding -- it's a shower, essentially,” wrote another.
Now there is an online petition heading toward 50,000 signatures requesting that Kelly back up her claim and consume as much (or as little) of the stuff as she can manage.
That's not a very nice request but it makes a worthwhile point -- the public is nauseated by the increasingly transparent Fox News house style.
Later, shocked by the unexpected public pillorying, Kelly clarified, “I think what happened was people didn’t watch the whole segment and assumed I was diminishing it. In no way did I mean to diminish what was happening.”
Then she added, “From a legal standpoint, I don’t know if the cops did anything wrong.”
But since when is pepper spraying non-violent protesting Americans at point blank anything but wrong? I must have missed the episode of The O’Reilly Factor when he decided we should emulate Egypt.
Speaking of Egypt, last week a non-partisan new survey of New Jersey voters compiled by Fairleigh Dickinson University came to an interesting conclusion -- Fox News viewers tend to be less informed about current events than people who don't watch any news at all.
Respondents to the university survey were asked whether opposition groups in Egypt had been successful in bringing down the Mubarak regime. Among the NPR listeners 68 percent correctly answered they had been, but only 49 percent of Fox News viewers answered the question correctly.
In fact it emerged Fox viewers were 18 percentage points less likely to answer correctly than those who watched no news at all, the survey found.
“The results show us that there is something about watching Fox News that leads people to do worse on these questions than those who don't watch any news at all,” Dan Cassino, a political science professor at Fairleigh Dickinson, told The Los Angles Times.
That means that instead of being just benignly, passively ignorant, watching Fox News actually leads to active ignorance, ignorance that is manifestly detrimental to your understanding of national politics and world events.
That’s quite an accomplishment. I wonder how they’d caption it at the station -- the most uninformed name in news?
Accusations of biased reporting against Fox are nothing new. A while back a Fox staffer forwarded an internal email to the press requesting that pundits always present an opposing view to settled facts.
Fox claims there’s a controversy about evolution among the world's scientists (this is not true). They claim there is a controversy among scientists about global warming (also not true).
On occasion they claim there are controversies about Christmas trees, Chaz Bono and even the president’s birth certificate. They question the president’s patriotism, his commitment to countering terrorism and even to the U.S. military. No one anywhere is making these claims except Fox and its hired hands.
So if you don't mind being purposefully misled by the people that you trust to give you the facts, if you don't mind being the subject of a massive confidence trick, then by all means tune in.
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See more: Bill O'Reilly, US politics, FOX News, Megyn Kelly
36 Comments
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pmulvihill | Dec 20, 2011, 11:41 PM EST
If all of you people don't watch Fox, how do you know they broadcast nothing but lies? Sounds like many of you are actually frightened.
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seanomelbourne | Dec 03, 2011, 06:38 PM EST
Fox gives MSNBC plenty of lies to castigate them with words and blows and humorous drivvel to set straight.
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JimMcGarity | Dec 02, 2011, 11:49 PM EST
I guess you must watch Fox. You want to see a real joke, watch MSMBC all they do is talk about Fox. What news, they all talk about nothing. You have to watch BBC to see news.
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Ratslayer | Dec 02, 2011, 10:44 PM EST
Stupid Is As Stupid Does. God Bless Fox News and its legion of deranged, mindless, po-white-trash pinheads
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McNamara31 | Dec 02, 2011, 06:51 PM EST
peterson...."Fox News is more truthful than the other TV media".... Really? Substantial arguments about policy are crucial to our democracy, but cannot be had when the Fox has subverted the news into smear, vilification and propaganda. Fox has one narrative...to destroy its perceived opposition in any way no matter the negative effect on America or its people.
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seanomelbourne | Dec 02, 2011, 06:25 PM EST
Have invited Kelly and O'Reilly to breakfast capsicum with a white ricin sauce followed by a deadly nightshade compote and O'Reilly koolaid,I'll have the bacon and eggs.
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EphraimKibbey | Dec 02, 2011, 01:21 PM EST
@bogsidebunny - don't you get it! The Fox "facts" are lies said to make you support the GOP. When repeated in the real world they are shown to be falicious. Its like supply side economics (trickle-down.) Every real economist agrees that it is a lie. Demand drives supply, NEVER the other way around. Why would any rich person ever invest money just to put people back to work. They invest in a business that is expanding and will make them more money not one that is failing. Duh! A business expands and hires new workers only when its demand is greater than it can supply. The only way to increase demand is to get money into the hands of the 99% who will put it back into the economy because they must spend it inorder to buy the things they need to live. Fox has told this GOP, 1%, rich man's fable so long that even many of the 99% believe it to their own detriment. Wake up America!!!
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peterson | Dec 02, 2011, 01:18 PM EST
At least Fox News is more truthful than the other TV media. They have more viewers than the other national media. Ask the people who spend money advertising with them.
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bogsidebunny | Dec 02, 2011, 08:17 AM EST
I like Fox News. It's the only Conservative MSM. It relates facts not Liberal propaganda like the other Socialist as kissing stations.
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JOHNTOBIN | Dec 02, 2011, 05:54 AM EST
What annoys me about Fox more than anything else is the dreadful American accents the announcers have.Very nasally.Completely different to most other USA media channels.
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Sectionhand | Dec 02, 2011, 05:14 AM EST
This silly article is as biased as the author claims FOX to be .
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EphraimKibbey | Dec 02, 2011, 01:20 AM EST
@McNamara31 - Well Said! One of those you speak of is running for the Presidency of our country. The Newtster has just again revealed that he does not know when to keep his mouth shut. He just(against the GOP prime directive) told the truth to an open microphone. Newt said that running for president was different than being a Fox news commentator because he now has to know what he is talking about. Awhile back he called the Ryan budget right wing social engineering and the lie machine that is the GOP made him take it back. Ailes has said that his network is in the entertainment business and is not concerned with the validity of what is said. In reality, the network is in the right wing propaganda business and is concerned with making sure its viewers come away brainwashed. The beautiful ladies are the cheesecake in the trap. They turn the viewers' brains to mush and whatever is heard/seen is registered as fact. I think they got the idea from "A Clockwork Orange" but the association is between sex and right wing beliefs. If the viewer says "Its all Obama's fault," he is rewarded with happy thoughts.
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jamthecat | Dec 01, 2011, 09:31 PM EST
Fox Propaganda hurts your intelligence? Really? And the Faux News thugs are not liking that? Really? This just made my day.
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McNamara31 | Dec 01, 2011, 08:49 PM EST
MotherIrish.... With all due respect, do you know who runs Fox News?..Roger Ailes, a full out political operative handpicked (back then) by Nixon himself. Don't believe me, research it. Ask yourself, what other News show creates a whole gang of "potential candidates" who's sole purpose is to sell books, smear and confuse the issues before the American public. Fox had divided this country with hate and vilification like no other before. They are truly a blight on true journalism and it's a disgrace that Hannity and O'Reilly would sink to this level to make a buck!
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