The Gospel According to Fox News
It's mysterious how swiftly a society can collectively change its mind. As rapidly as the financial markets crashed, so has Fox News's credibility. What was gospel to an entire segment of voters and viewers just a few months ago has become a desperate flapping in the wind. Some may view this as part of the swing cycle that politics is heir to. But from the Reagan era forward, certain truths were held to be self-evident, and far from inventing anything, Fox News simply put the high gloss of mass media on them.
If you tune in to Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, or the network's humbler toilers in the vineyard, their tactics haven't changed. They must be shocked to find themselves stranded, all the more because it seemed to happen overnight.
In the spirit of Emerson's dictum that evil is the absence of good, it's worth recalling where good was absent just a year ago. Here are the working beliefs of the Fox News credo.
Article 1: The worst aspects of human nature are actually cherished freedoms.
This is Fox News's main rallying cry. Hating minorities, despising gays, ridiculing women's rights, and slandering the ACLU all fall under the rubric of precious liberties.
Article 2: God loves gun owners.
Fox News rabidly seizes the high ground when it comes to law and order, an issue that is seen primarily as a loaded gun under every pillow and a triple-bolted front door.
Article 3: Patriotism is the last refuge of ratings wars.
Here the old axiom that patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels has been updated (but by no means abandoned). Every Fox News commentator earns his battle scars by wrapping himself in the bloody flag, without ever personally endangering his own skin, of course.
Article 4: Ideology is way better than thinking.
Pre-chewed ideas are more easily digested than actual thinking. But ideology goes one better by answering every doubt in advance. Thus Fox News is never in doubt. Truth is as automatic as a gum ball machine.
Article 5: The mind's primary use is for bellowing.
I advise any prospective guest on Fox News to demand that there be no shouting. This immediately decouples the mind of O'Reilly and Hannity. Their most basic assumption is that any guest, once shouted down, has lost the debate. (I tested this gambit out personally and can vouch for its effectiveness.)
Article 6: Shamelessness is next to godliness.
In other words, you can sin at leisure as long as you keep pointing out other people's sins. Long a tactic enshrined in the Book of Hypocrisy, Fox News has turned holier-than-thou into a moneymaker.
Article 7: Don't bother me with the facts. My mind is already closed.
This is really just a corollary to the belief in ideology, but it deserves its own chapter and verse because of the ironical light it casts on the Fox News logo, "Fair and balanced."
Article 8: The little guy is always mad.
On the whole, Fox News tries to make the little guy feel that he is always right and those pointy-headed educated elitists always wrong. But sometimes the little guy proves tricky, as when he doesn't like Republican deficits and foreign wars. Luckily, Fox News always has a fallback -- the little guy is always blistered about something, and a little kerosene is a marvelous accelerant, as they say in arson investigations.
Article 9: "They" are about to get you -- watch out!
The bulk of Fox News's sanctimony rests on its pledge to look out for everyday working Joes. Since there is no record of the network actually protecting something realistic like clean air, freedom from assault weapons, and safety in the workplace, what is really being safeguarded is the right to be freaking paranoid every minute of the day.
Article 10: If I just said it, it must be right.
Here, as in several other places, Fox News is indistinguishable from a drunken frat party where not only is bellowing a sign of intelligence, but never backing down, however cockeyed your last statement may be, shows that you are a man.
I am not a communicant in this particular creed, so I'm sure I've left out some key passages in the gospel. For full knowledge one would have to delve deep into the Old Testament of Fox News (i.e., the minutes of the John Birch Society 1958-date). Daily viewing will keep one abreast of new anathemas (i.e., socialism) and potential saviors (Sarah Palin). Or you could take the easy way out and celebrate the waning of Fox News's belief system and the cleaner air left behind.
See related articles on: Fox News, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, Sarah Palin
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Do you know why FOX has such high ratings among the 24 news channels because conservatives like to hear the sound of their own voice rather than different opinions. Plain and simple.
Non conservatives watch CNN, MSNBC, and other channels like TV Land, CBS, NBC & HBO.
Conservatives like to say that FOX is the champion but that's not true. Network shows and repeats of Gilligan's Island" garner higher ratings than Bill O'Reiley...
I'm a total leftie and I watch Faux all the time. I want to see how insane they are on any given day. Also I get a real kick out of their rants now that they have no marker in the game. Also here in Rosarito, Mexico, my cable only receives Faux and generic CNN with temperatures and weather 50% of the time. I have Satellite TV downstairs and still flip to Faux when Rachel, Keith, or Chris is on commercial. I agree with your premise, I'm just saying their 'ratings' are a little skewed.
Absolutely perfect article, though. Really worth printing and saving.
The op/ed writer has hit the nail on the head in reguards to Fox Noise. All noise and nothing to back it up. They appeal to such a narrow segment of the general public, just like party (the retrugs) that at this point, it's just kinda sad. (NOT)
A wonderful, insightful summation of Fox News. All the right-wingers posting here crying foul are only confirming that accuracy of his analysis. Bravo Deepak!
So why bother looking at this station. I have not gone there in 10 years.
I used to debate fellow college students and to prep I would watch Fox News because those republicans I debated would watch and repeat Fox News, it amazed and puzzeled me why smart college students would take Fox News as gospel. I did very well in these debates. As I look back at these students and our debates and how wrong they were, I wonder, do they still eat, drink and repeat Fox news! Or can people change? Could Fox change?
This is an excellent analysis of the very wrong Fox News. Thanks for shining a light on their hypocrisy.
quit watching.
the Dems are in control of everything and Fox news still bugs you?
We lose when we stop watching how the other side is morphing and recruiting and retaining their followers. Friends close, enemies closer, huh?
really...i scan them just to "keep in touch", so to speak......i'm still stunned at how totally outrageous they can be and the stuff the spew....but, keeps me on my toes because there are a lot of people out there that watch them....
Not too bugged. Even their highest rated show gets only .0833 of the population on their best day. Not all of them are righties so why worry? Just enjoy the impotent tantrums.
They also push for the 11th and 12 the amendment :
Thou shalt not condone abortions and thou shalt not condone stem cell research.
Nah, they consider those to be the first and fourth amendments, since in their own minds they have already thrown those two out....
Thank you Mr. Chopra, this is a wonderful article.
Everyone it seems, save actual Fox viewers, know that "network"
is pure GOP - corporate propaganda 24/7. The real question is
why their viewers can't see the obvious distortions and outright
lies they propagate?
Self-imposed blindness. It's easier than thinking.
See Article 7. All the Articles... Every now and then I check into foxnation.com and every time I do, I feel sick, sad, angry, down at heart. There is no dialoge; there is mindless, unthinking ideology (the root "idea" missing and presumed dead). It is a gathering of sound and fury that feeds on itself. The people don't understand that there is something missing inside themselves and it's not curable unless something (I don't know what) wakes them up. They may stay in that angry helplessness forever, waiting for a God who thinks just like they do "raptures them up". Hope it's soon, before all their progeny take up the cause and become lost to themselves as well.
I love it! The Ten Articles of the Fox News Credo are priceless. Great job, Deepak! Informative and entertaining as always.
Why do you think they call themselves FOX news? I know I am playing semantics but some of the many definitions of fox are: to trick or fool by ingenuity or cunning; outwit, to baffle or confuse.
I don't think it's a coincidence that they decided on this name for their station. They like to manipulate, deceive, and stir up anger and fear in people. Almost EVERY story they have on their station is to scare people about something.
People need to stop watching. I know some people watch it to entertain themselves and laugh at the ridiculousness of the channel but all that does is give them ratings.
Brilliant! That's a great catch in the implications of the name Fox....It fits so well that it does seem it was by design.
Thanks for pointing this out.
Fox plays to the uninformed (because of lack of international coverage in US media) American and plays on their fears and on the black and white thinking that has always permeated US attitudes..."you're either for us or against us!".
Subtlety and introspection are not important when you can figuratively kick your viewers in the stomach to get their attention and the naturally following advertisers' dollars....which, after all, is what it's all about, isn't it?
Terrific. Nail on the head. Witty and insightful.
What's so puzzling about Fox is that it pretents to be patriotic but obviously hurts America in that it promotes a provincial and paranoid mindset. To wit, it was an ardent supporter of the Bush administration which did more to damage the US both domestically and abroad than (arguably) any other administration in US history.
Fox has been on my cable (here in Thailand) for a few years; when I found it one late evening while zapping, I thought for a moment I was watching a Saturday Night Live parody (it turned out to be Hannity and Colmes).
Deepak, you must not be watching the same Fox News that I am. Despising gays? Hating minorities? Ridiculing women's rights? Are you kidding or just hallucinating? The only hate speech I hear is coming from those "other networks." Why, just the other night, Jeaneane Garafolo called me a "racist" just because I attended the Chicago Tea Party and the MSNBC host let her get away with it. He didn't even have the guts to say, "Jeaneane, don't you think you are generalizing too much?"
It is the mainstream media that has lost all credibility since they seem to swoon and wet their pants every time Obama makes some pronouncement from on high. Fox is not drinking the Kool-Aid and neither am I. When dust settles on these massive deficits our current president has planned, the American people will be in bondage. It's all about the massive spending and entitlement increases.
By the way, Fox is crushing all of its cable competition and it's no secret why. Americans are tired of their "journalists" acting as cheerleaders.
I always find it interesting when people say that everyone else is "drinking the kool-aid" and Fox News is the ONLY one telling the truth. What are the odds of that? ...and the reason it has higher ratings is that all those who believe the "news" Fox presents watch it- and everyone else is split between every other news station and program (or watching several- you know, so that they can get more than one view on an issue). If you want to think of it as Fox vs everyone else- Add up the total ratings of all the other stations, compare that to Fox's numbers, and you'll see a different story.
You say Jeanine was generalizing so I read on to see if in your support of Fox you would be fair and balanced since no person, entity or organization can always be right: Nope. You, just like FOX just know how to point fingers.
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