Faux Noise Fear Factory

Back in June, Paul Krugman said that “at this point, whatever dividing line there was between mainstream conservatism and the black helicopter crowd seems to have been virtually erased.” Upon reading that, my immediate reaction was: there was a dividing line?

Bush was elected by eight years of talk radio Clinton-bashing. Rush Limbaugh shared the same stations with Art Bell and Alex Jones. The segue from Monicagate to Vince Foster-lunacy to Chinese rocket scientists to United Nations troops in Nebraska to black helicopters to reptilian shape-shifters among us...well, it didn't come with a listener-guide. The apocalyptic hysteria was subsidized by apocalyptic marketing: ads reminded us to buy gold, wind-up shortwave radios, and a seven-year supply of freeze-dried food.

Now consider Faux Noise Channel. The segue from hard news (with a right-wing spin) to Negro Obama goons to the "war on Christmas" to character smears doesn't come with a viewer guide. The reality-line is nowhere in evidence. Faux Noise subsidizes Obama Derangement Syndrome with ads for wind-up shortwave radios and gold -- the latter featuring G. Gordon Liddy trashing the dollar.

Do you see a pattern here?

And yes, I'm calling it "Faux Noise" until it starts acting like a legitimate news organization. The White House is well within its rights to deny access because Roger Ailes is running a fear factory, not a news channel.

Every day, disinformation, misinformation, and creative editing are combined to manufacture nontroversy, usually with a nice scary label. There's no better example than "czars:" the term was invented by the media, not Obama -- who has has fewer czars than Bush did. It's just a conveniently foreign word (like his middle name) made scary with Vap-O-Rub tears and breathless chalkboard diagramming.

Roger Ailes hired Glenn Beck to make Faux Noise the cable outlet for right-wing counterculture. The programming lineup elevates ideology over facts on day and night shifts. There is no fact-checking on the Glenn Beck show and precious little during Hannity's hour. In between, O'Reilly uses a propaganda technique every four seconds. There's no daylight between Faux Noise anchors and commentators -- it's a 24-hour continuum of crazy.

What part of that is the fair and balanced part?

"Faux Noise" it shall remain. So I use ridicule: Faux Noise manufactures fear and pollutes the body politic with nontroversy. Which is worse?

The audience responds to the fearmongery because movement conservatives are self-trained to believe in sinister, secretive conspiracies; they want the world to be as simple as their Manichean theology. In cult-like fashion, they swallow the Kool-Aid every single time: death panels, indoctrination, communist art, ad nauseum. Everything, absolutely everything, fortifies their belief-system and convinces them to vote against their own interests.

Nor is Faux Noise alone; rather, it is just the biggest and noisiest part of the fear-industrial complex. The biggest right-wing website today is Wing Nut World Net Daily, which doesn't cover hard news at all but rather swings from spreading birther nonsense to endorsing Sean Hannity for president. Would ABC, NBC, CBS, or CNN stick up for Wing Nut World Net Daily? No way in hell. The fact that Faux Noise covers breaking news shouldn't make any difference.

Moreover, marginalization is the only correct answer. It is not possible to fight the fear factory with fact-based, rational argument because movement conservatives cannot be un-convinced by any amount of evidence; you cannot engage the crazy.

The paranoid mind operates under three rules. First stated by Richard Hofstadter in his famous essay, The Paranoid Style in American Politics, I restate them now:

1) THEY are after you.

2) THEY control everything.

3) THEY are all in it together.

"They" are the strange bedfellows of the global plot to burn the Constitution and install fascist tyranny: communists, ACORN, billionaire capitalists, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Illuminati, Freemasonry... "They" aren't just one thing, but everything. And they want to control your mind.

Of course, all of this fear is about the future. The conservative movement foresees an unholy posthuman dystopia of gay marriage and abortion-on-demand to supply raw material for a generation of microchip-controlled stem-cell clones. They think Obama will usher in this dark age because his middle name is Nicholae Carpathia.

Indeed, the success of the Left Behind series tells us much about why movement conservatives choose fear and loathing over "hope and change." They feel entirely separated from the larger American society, and have shrunk to a regional minority; they reject progressive modernity, and denounce the demographic changes that propel it. They see 2010-2012 as the "last stand" of the holy against the tide of Satan. So in a sense, last November was Judgment Day -- they are already "left behind."

The fear factory validates and empowers their paranoid conservatism, but doesn't stop them from losing. It just warps their reality ever-further from ours. The White House offensive against Faux Noise is not really about their editorial stance; rather, it is about letting the fear factory drift apart from the rest of us to melt in a sea of marginal irrelevance. Obama doesn't have to destroy Faux Noise -- movement conservatism can die at the paranoid fringe of American politics, swamped by unreasoning fear, without his help.

The rest of us can face the future, whatever it brings, with courage and hope. It is easier to adapt to change with those values. To reject the future does not stop it from happening.

Osborne Ink is a Website of Media Deconstruction

"News that's fairly liberal, but never unbalanced"

 

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Comments

[Indon]

I'd describe Eisenhower and his time as a respectable era for conservatism.

That said, I'm not calling it "Faux noise", because that doesn't rhyme properly. "Faux" is pronounced "Foe". While this also sounds incredibly accurate, I think it better that our mockery focus on the mockery aspect, and not buy into Fox's "You know we're full of it, so you're one of them now!" story.

[JayDDrew]

"...Marginalization is the only correct answer." That phrase should be America's motto when it comes to Faux Noise. If we could only get camera-hungry Dems and Independents to follow that rule, then Faux can get in the crazy closet with its viewers and they can shut up with the "fair and balanced" schtick.

[stinger3]

Asinine Polls or Propaganda is Working Fine?


Wall Street - Stock Holders - Lobbyists - Republicans - Media - Vs. The People

Vote The Bums Out………….. One Greedy Booger after another, this is the only way to change the toilet water, flush them out and vote them out.


For First Time Under Obama, Majority Says U.S. Is on Wrong Track

http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/wsjnbc-10272009.pdf

Why the rest of the media jumped on the president about Faux Noise Because they are not far behind, being part of the Republican elite that want power back, one lie after another, propaganda is alive and sick………. In America.

[Matt Osborne - Huffpost Blogger]

Yet on specific issues, Americans overwhelmingly agree with Obama. What you're describing is a perception problem, and I'll wager it's already at high tide. Just like the teabagging of August.

You've already lost, stinger3.

[Eris23]

Put them on the defensive right away. I'm all for rational discussions with a number of people. But, when people act like cultists who would rather believe a narrative to fit in rather than discuss something, I've often found that the best response is the short and simple "what are you, stupid?" Set it from the start that they are indeed stupid and, the more silliness they throw at you, the more it proves to onlookers that they are indeed stupid. Obama really shouldn't be dealing with Fox any differently. Call them stupid, let them cry about it while proving it to their prospective audience, and move on.

[dakotawoman]

BRAVO!!!!!!

It's been sad and dismaying to watch our fellow citizens lose their minds, literally before our eyes.

I suppose we will have to endure the fantasy frenzy until December 2012 passes without the Second Coming and/or the Apocalypse. Maybe the truly crazy will get help at that point and those merely misled will come to their senses.

[Matt Osborne - Huffpost Blogger]

Dakotawoman, I wish it was that simple. The Y2K changeover didn't bring civilization to a halt but that didn't end the apocalyptic wingnutery. Neither did the fall of the Berlin Wall or the Soviet Union -- in fact, wingnutery has gotten worse and louder with each stage. Indeed, the bigger the messianic disappointment the more the cultist rallies to the cult. Google "Great Disappointment 1844" for an example.

[jennysez]

Excellent article Matt!

You're absolutely right, you can't fight crazy the best thing anyone can do when dealing with people acting so irrationally as Faux Noise's pundits and commentators is to simply ignore and marginalize them. Besides, every time I try to watch it, I can't keep asking the poor media watchers here to keep taking that bullet, I get massive migraines. I don't think my brain can do the mental gymnastics it takes to believe the convoluted conspiracy theories they come up with. The best thing for everyone, including Faux Noise itself, is to just admit Faux Noise isn't real news, that its nothing more than a tabloid channel and stop watching.

[MED1025]

It is also noteworthy that most cable companies carry FOX in its basic package, but MSNBC is in the premium tier which costs extra if it is available at all.

[Matt Osborne - Huffpost Blogger]

It's also worth noting that MSNBC has a morning show hosted by Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, who is anything BUT a balance to him; that liberal MSNBC are often critical of the administration; and that MSNBC regulars include Pat Buchanan, Clifford May, Mark Halperin, Maria Bartiromo... While the evening lineup is liberal, the rest of MSNBC's lineup is NOT.

[blizb]

I also feel MSNBC is more balanced and I can't think of one Fox host other than Alan Colmes who left Fox that is a liberal or a Democrat.

I wonder if Fox has been investigated for their hiring and firing practices.
I mean how do you hire that many people of one mind??

How do they interview and once hired how do they all agree to present only the Fox view?

Do they fire anyone who doesn't go along with what they want to present??

[Aly M]

Great work! As a non-american with an avid interest in US politics, I have to say Fox astounds me. The fact that people watch it, believe it, defend it... it's something I just can't understand. I cheered when it was decided Fox wouldn't be added to our cable lineups... So did my Father, who is amazingly right-wing (by our standards, anyway. In the US he'd be a socialist by Beck's).

I have to believe, for the sake of sanity, that the people who watch and believe and engage in this Fox crap are a very vocal, very visible, very mind-boggling minority. I just don't have it in me to believe that a huge portion of Americans, on the left OR right, are that racist, paranoid and just plain nuts. I don't believe it. And I truly hope that they do just implode, with as little bother to anyone else as possible, as soon as possible. All they are spreading is disinformation (and it IS dis, not mis), lies, hate and fear. This helps no one and nothing, it only serves to drag the discourse to the lowest possible level. And validating them in any way just encourages it. I find all too often, the people who are way out there but way vocal end up setting the tone of discourse. Don't allow it anymore!

Again, great article. I enjoy your stuff!

[Eris23]

"And validating them in any way just encourages it. I find all too often, the people who are way out there but way vocal end up setting the tone of discourse. Don't allow it anymore!"

Exactly. This directly relates to my post above. Rather than letting them set the tone, where you attempt to prove their assertions wrong, directly imply that they are stupid first and foremost, and let them work on proving that they aren't. It changes the message from the get go.

[dakotawoman]

"I have to believe, for the sake of sanity, that the people who watch and believe and engage in this Fox crap are a very vocal, very visible, very mind-boggling minority."

You, me and millions of Americans do too, my friend. We are hoping and believing that with all of our might.

I am embarrassed for my country in front of the rest of the world. Most of us Americans, really, truly are not consumed with irrational hate, fear or anger. And we are trying our best to cope with, reason with, heal, and persuade back into sanity those who ARE so consumed. At the very least we are attempting to limit their impact upon our political process during the time that they remain insane. It is very much the last gasp of a world view that is, deservedly, dying out of the culture. But, it isn't going easily and so we struggle.

Just sorry the rest of the world has to witness it, or worse, suffer because of it.

[Matt Osborne - Huffpost Blogger]

Someone sent me an email about the song at the end of this blog. The song is "Linchpin" by Fear Factory and you can get it here for 99 cents:

http://www.amazon.com/Digimortal-Special-Edition/dp/B001ONRHK8/ref=sr_shvl_album_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1256710017&sr=301-2

Cant take me apart!

See the light, a new day has arrived for us / Genesis of our evolution
A linchpin holds within a means to an end / Cant you see that we are one?

Cant take me apart! / No you cant!

We see no end to the dream
We will never see the end / We will never be the end
All my life Ive felt discarded / Never feeling a part of it

No you cant!

Without me you will fade, you will not remain
We are one, and of the same future machine!
A linchpin holds within a means to an end
Cant you see that we are one?

Cant take me apart!
No you cant!

We see no end to the dream!

We will never see the end / We will never be the end
All my life Ive felt discarded / Never feeling a part of it

No you cant take me apart

You cant change me now

[devadasi]

Bravo. I agree with you completely. Fox Noise it is.

[Matt Osborne - Huffpost Blogger]

Faux Noise: because we should call things by their proper names.

[Wayne1ea]

Great Article! How do you fight crazy? No matter how much you hold up the truth they just keep believing nonsense. The 24 hr news cycle has created a monster in Fox news. I have always known they were a propaganda machine, because they don't follow journalism rules at all. All they seem to do is lie for profit and push for a radical GOP agenda with just scatterings of real news, here and there, in order to be called a news organization.

The Obama Administration is absolutely justified in pointing out their behavior, but the sad part is their followers won't listen to reason, just Fox and a few nit wits on the radio.

[Matt Osborne - Huffpost Blogger]

All such movements eventually collapse. So will this one. The only question is how much damage it will do in the process.

[Lovepolitics2008]

No, the saddest part is that many people in media are saying that the WH is WRONG to call out Fox.

[Eris23]

Strategically, I think they are to a degree. They've gone a bit overboard with it. I'd much rather see the White House getting their hands dirtier in a public battle for good healthcare reform than making comments about Fox or Kanye West.

[xenofile]

"Nontroversy"
I like it!

[Matt Osborne - Huffpost Blogger]

I made it myself! :)

[Shoalanda Speaks]

I'm just envious that I didn't coin the word...

[JohnnyChristmas]

I rather enjoyed 'wingnuttery'.