I watch Fox. I don’t just see a clip or two. It’s on the screens at my gym for my 30 minute eliptical workout. I believe that watching in longer form is required to understand the depth of what this force against democracy is -
Its’ a 5 Alarm Fire for democracy in America that no one in power is taking seriously enough.
It is the engine of the Republican machine. It builds a populus that allows the politicians to do act how they are acting.
On our side people ask the question constantly “How is it possible that people think _________________”
The most egregious fill in the blank is “That Donald Trump is fit for office” but there is a litany of other head scratchers but the answer is singular:
They don't know the actual story. They have never seen the real version.
Their entire universe of information does not include real and critical issues and on the other hand is filled with issues that are either unimportant but made to seem earth shattering and/or are dangerous lies.
I am certain that very few people on our side process the extent of how manipulated and complete this feedback loop is because we don’t observe from their point of view which is the only way to connect the dots.
Understanding Fox by truly examing what viewers see and equally what they don’t see is absolutley critical.
I don’t believe that watching a few meme-worthy clips of Fox adequately conveys the depth of this entity.
As people, our world view is only comprised of the what we allow ourselves view. If I asked you to tell me what is going in the country Surinam I can almost guarantee that you have zero idea. I don’t. It’s a random example. “Something” is in the news in Surinam but because it’s not part of our view we have no idea good, bad or indifferent.
Fox Viewers don’t have a view into many critical current events. None. The most flagrant example is the multiple indictments of Donald Trump.
If there are dicussions of the depth or even actual charges against Trump they are at best irregular. I have not seen a single discussion of them on Fox in hours of watching at prime time. No evidence presented. No reading of the charges. Nothing. I’ve never seen the pictures of the documents spread through Mar A Logo. I haven’t seen the text messages between the employees. I’ve seen Nothing which even begins to explain in any real fashion what the former president of the United States is being charged with, what the evidence or for that matter anything of substance. The case is critical news with frequent additions and given the amount and times I have watched I should have seen something. Can I say it’s never been shown? No. But I can say it is not part of the programming that it should be for the most important news story at the current time.
This is inexcusable but more than that. It is a threat. Fox News watchers and their friends they communicate with have no actual information about the depth and breadth of the Donald Trump Charges.
This statement may sound ridiculous. “How can they not know?” you ask. The answer is that they aren’t being shown any of it. None of it. I want you to ponder that statement. If you don’t want to take my word for it, turn on Fox for a decent amount of time and see if you can better come to terms with this.
I am presenting to you that Fox News viewers have almost as little actual data points or facts of the Donald Trump cases as they do about what is going on in Surinam.
And if you are interested in what Fox News watchers are seeing in relationship to the Trump cases, the following screenshot encapsulates the theme of any broadcast that touches this subject:
Instead of a deep and serious set of indictments for crimes, it’s all a scam.
This is a picture I took the other day of the monitor that says everything you need to know. This was duing Mark Levin’s program. He is particularly venemous but Laura Ingraham is using the exact same thread.
This segement was 10 minutes long. It covered an entire unit of time from one commerical to the next. This is generally the format for all of their talking heads.
Please note that the keys to the “Web Of Corruption” are that he is in line from Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Merrick Garland and Erik Holder among others. 4 men with absolutely zero record of corruption, Facts are not important in the world of Fox.
What the are seeing constantly at all hours is Hunter Biden and Joe Biden as Criminal Pair.
I believe that on the left we think the right is obsessed with Hunter Biden and his laptop and the Dick pics. That isn’t the story. That’s a fragment of the story.
The actual story isn’t that the son of the President is corrupt. The actual story is that President Biden is corrupt.
For Fox News watchers this is THE issue, but not only is it Hunter. Fox News directly calls Joe Biden corrupt and connected to Hunter. There is no innuedo. They are connected in crime. This recent Ingraham segment was two full blocks of time which I think is 20 minutes. 20 minutes discussing the ins and outs of a “10 million dollar bribery scandal” with Joe Biden, Hunter and Ukraine. This wasn’t Dick Pics, this wasn’t a laptop, this wasn’t crack use.
I also don’t think that anyone who isn’t watching Fox News gets the fact that this is on their programming every single day. At least when I go to the gym I see some version, some “new detail” and it takes up a very big chunk of programming. ‘President Biden and his son are criminals’.
The FBI, The DOJ and the rest of government as we know it are also targets of Fox
I’m reusing this image because it fits so well. Another core piece of what Fox is telling their viewers is that the fundamental pieces of the government are corrupt and criminal. This is a direct attack on our democracy and it is constant. If you know a Fox watcher you can ask them what they think of the FBI and the DOJ and I guarantee they will tell you that they are corrupt and dysfuctional. Fox News promotes this. All of the hosts promote this. It is impossible to understate the extent of this programming reality. These organziations and systems are critical to the functioning of our democracy. This single “news” organization is responsible for converting millions of Americans into people who don’t believe that the fundamental law enforcement agencies of this country are legitimate. How much more serious can it become than that before some attempt to address this is made.
I’m asking you to do an experiment.
“Know your enemy” is empathy. Empathy is the ability to put yourself in someone’s mental place. We always think of empathy for those we feel sympathy for but I argue that we almost never try to empathize with a mind we disagree with. Here’s the experiment. Imagine that you only recieve this content in your news. Let go of the idea that “The real news is out there” and attempt to understand that the viewers of Fox don’t watch other media and/or they have been trained for years to think it’s all a lie.
How do you feel? Angry that the President and his son are ciminals? Angry that the DOJ is a corrupt shame?
If you blame it on the viewer you are missing the point of the experiment because blaming the viewer does no good. Sure, the viewer should check another channel, but they don’t. And what they believe is worty of rage if it were true.
Remember this — the phrases “MSM” and “CNN” mean one thing to the Fox watcher — they mean “liars”, they mean “Fake News” and the truth is that just like the vast majority of people on this side don’t watch a steady stream of Fox (or even any aside from currated clips), almost no Fox News watchers watch deep reporting from anyone else.
Through this lens of empathy with these people who you have no sympathy for it might start to make more sense as the threat that it is.
These people believe what they see and the people who are showing it to them know it’s false and they know why they are showing it to them and there is the existential threat.
Fox as a propaganda arm of the Republican Party is factually a threat and nothing is being done about it.
The Fox masses are being trained for violence. They are being trained that the current President of the United States is a criminal. They have been told he is illegitimate. They are being trained that our Federal legal organizations are illegitimate. They have been trained that our voting systems are illegitimate and the Democratic Party and the rest of the media are at most making jokes about it.
I do have a solution. I don’t have the megophone to make it happen. The Mainstream Media and the Democratic leadership need to go on a full born assault on the mistruths of Fox News Specifically. What does that look like? I don’t have a full answer. Joe Biden has frequently taken shots across the bow at Fox in various interviews and speeches. It’s not enough. It’s not nearly enough.
This is a story Fox News distrortions, lies, false accusations and attacks on our once funcitoning institutions is a story. It’s a huge one. We have a real story of corruption — unlike the Joe Biden lies we have a conspiracy on our hands.
Fox News is a criminal conspiracy to falsely motivate viewers to act against the government. Fox takes our President on in a full front attack of falsehoods, they shouldn’t be immune to a full front attack on their operations.