I've often posted here about the horrors of Fox News. Each time I do, friends ask me a very simple and valid question: "If Fox News upsets you so much, why do you continue to watch?"
I always give them the same answer -- "Fox News is the train wreck from which I am unable to avert my eyes."
But, let's face it, my friends have a good point. Do I enjoy the high blood pressure? Do I need it? No. Even though it does give my face a welcome bit of color, there's really no up side.
So I have been in Fox Detox. I've been voluntarily avoiding the network in hopes of improving my health. No Doocy, Kilmeade or Kelly. No Morris, Kristol or Krauthamer. No Wallace, Hannity, O'Reilly or Beck. No Ailes mis-infotainment of any kind. I've been going cold turkey. And, to be honest, I've been feeling better. Much better.
So I just stuck to reading The Huffington Post. I thought that would be safe.
I was wrong.
I've been like an alcoholic staring at all the delightfully tempting bottles of amber liquid behind the bar then forcing himself to order a glass of soda. It's healthier but without much buzz.
I'm embarrassed to admit that I fell off the wagon. I honestly didn't mean to. I didn't even think I was. After all, it was Huffington. They wouldn't hurt me, would they? Well, they didn't mean to, but they did.
I followed a link to Jason Linkins' recent post about the way Sean Hannity selectively edits film to make it tell whatever story he wants to tell instead of telling the truth. Jason's piece is upsetting, but wonderful.
He included film from Media Matters showing how Hannity sliced and diced an interview that Major Garrett did with President Obama. Garrett's questions elicited thoughtful responses. But apparently they were too thoughtful for Sean so he took the President's words out of context and gave his audience a totally different and dishonest accounting of what was said. He also played with Obama's words from various speeches so that he could portray the President as an un-American terrorist sympathizer.
Lincoln, in his Gettysburg Address said of our fallen soldiers -- "The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here." Sean and his editor would have had Lincoln say that "The world will little note what they did here," then use the clip as proof of how little regard he had for our troops. That's because Hannity's a liar.
If you haven't seen Jason's post, I invite you to take a look.
Horrible, right? You bet. Taking someone's words and rearranging them to tell a completely different story is wrong. It's not journalism, reporting or even commentary. It's lying. It's Hannity, once again, proving himself to be a revolting manipulator of the facts. No surprise there.
What I don't understand is why this story isn't the lead on every newscast in the country. Why isn't it on the front page of every paper? Why isn't everyone being shown what a truth-bending biased psuedo-news organization Fox really is?
I fear I know the answer. We collectively don't care. We're numb. We don't think it matters.
It does. Believe me, it does.
Like Obama or hate Obama, that's your choice. But Fox is not telling the truth about who he is or, even more importantly, who we are.
Having recently traveled out of the country I was stunned to find that Fox is often the only television station one can receive. Why? Because in many places they do not charge for their services. Fox makes their satellite feed available for free. So in many places Fox is the only representative of American society and its political views. In many places around the world, people think that Fox fairly represents all of our opinions.
Of course, they do not.
Please, read Jason Linkins' post here at Huffington and watch the clip he included. Then... please... send it to as many people as you possibly can and ask them to do the same.
Sean Hannity says his job is to stop his opponents. You say 'civil disagreement' is more appropriate than persuasion using hateful invectives. Banger you are right, you aren't advocating Hannity's practices of infulencing masses through lies. You were referring to uniting the country by considering all viewpoints. How about if we would just use the ones that aren't lies. Fox management should establish policy of not lying. That would entail ridding themselves of liars. That would draw viewers interested in new objective reporters.
It's a very impotent feeling to know that Fox is spewing lies to our country and the world, misrepresenting our President on a regular basis. All I can do is not watch it. My husband, for some ungodly reason watches it(perhaps it has something to do with his military status? IDK, I can't explain it and neither can he to my satisfaction), but I will not be in the same room with him when he does. To his credit, he always chooses me over Fox and changes the channel. Smart man.
In theory, American citizens control the FCC. Why not reinstate the Fairness Doctrine and even go farther--make it a crime for a media source to deliberately lie?
While living in Los Angeles (1980 - 1987) O'Reilly had a nightly segment (I've forgotten the name of the programme) that I used to watch and enjoy. He was different then -- normal, sane. However he completely changed when he joined Fox News which I refuse to watch.
Citizens need to be informed and educated on the issues otherwise democracy becomes unhealthy and eventually dies. Perhaps that is the goal because Fox is doing everything possible to dumb-down the public.
I don't know, argument seems simple. To argue or discuss, a person makes an assertion, then states why the assertion is true or why he believes it. The mass of people should be able to identify people trying to mislead, allowing democracy to survive. Hannity has apparently been lying when he gives the reason for his assertions.
Here's something to think about. When Obama took the field to toss out the first ball of the All-star game in the packed Cardinal stadium in St. Louis, there was an 'boo' under the cheer. Booing may be a reaction or a "gathered" response, gathered from collected knowledge or conclusions.
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You seem to be suggesting that Hannity is a sucker-puncher and a cheap-shot artist.
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No, of course it is not OK for Hannity to lie to his audience.
But he can't help it. It's what he does.
Another part of the Fox News method is to start with a loaded premise or a false assumption and then build a loaded question based on that.
Hannity is very good at this. He's also good at shouting down anyone who is smarter than him and at changing the subject when he starts to lose an argument.
Basically, he's a bully who cannot win a fair fight.
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After rereading your blog, I realized you were commenting about your travels outside the U.S. where feed of FOX news is free. Therefore, I have to assume that our citizenry is actually paying for FOX News (as we pay for other cable channels) and thus concede that my argument is flawed. I held onto the pollyannish view that as a culture, we wouldn't actually intentionally choose to watch distorted news. A bit naive of me, I know.
I can't explain the popularity of FOX news. It dumbfounds me. I am concerned that this blog has only received 37 comments since July 10th, however. Please HuffPo, keep this blog visible on every page. As Obama reminded us by quoting Moynihan, one is entitled to his own opinion, not his own facts.
Since having the epiphany that Fix is Right Wing propaganda and not much more, I find that I am unable to watch because it makes me yell at my TV, this upsets my wife and scares the dog.
My parents will watch Fix and I see a little when I go over to visit, but in their defense they do watch other political shows on MSNBC but they still think MSNBC distorts the news more than FIX. We seldom get into political conversations because it only infuriates all of us with no real change in opinion.