Fear-Mongering and the 'Fox Effect'

Last week, conservative factions within the Republican National Committee circulated an e-mail urging party leadership to brand as a "socialist" anyone who advocates even moderate changes to the government's role in society.

It's clear that the overlords at Fox News Channel already got that memo and decided to ratchet the volume up a notch -- to 11.

According to Politico, RNC member James Bopp Jr. proposed a resolution that would acknowledge that President Obama wants "to restructure American society along socialist ideals" and call upon the Democratic Party to rename itself the "Democrat Socialist Party."

The 'Fox Effect' in Action

"Just as President Reagan's identification of the Soviet Union as the 'evil empire' galvanized opposition to communism," Bopp wrote, "we hope that the accurate depiction of the Democrats as a Socialist Party will galvanize opposition to their march to socialism."

Red-Baiting Redux

And indeed, this has been a season of red-baiting the likes of which we haven't seen since the reign of a certain senator from Wisconsin. The week before Bopp's memo, Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.) insisted that "some of the men and women I work with in Congress are socialists." Bachus says he has already counted 17 of them but that there may be more.

Also keeping a list is Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), who in the final days of the 2008 election season questioned then-candidate Obama's patriotism and called for an investigation of Democratic members of Congress for "anti-American views."

Bachmann didn't rest there. During an appearance late last month with Fox News Channel's Sean Hannity, she reiterated her call for a revolution against the tyranny of President Obama and congressional leadership.

"This is economic Marxism," Bachmann said of their economic stimulus plan. "[Obama] is moving the United States away from free-market capitalism and instead he's imprinting socialism deep into our centralized economic planning."

Like most of Bachmann's ranting in the media and on the Hill, these allegations make zero sense. But reality hasn't stopped her from assembling a political career out of comments that fan the flames of fear among the most militantly conservative.

When Socialism Isn't Bad Enough

Bachmann is by no means America's sole demagogue. That she's been given a national stage to insult our collective intelligence, though, is cause for notice.

Bopp, Bachus and Bachmann's rhetoric has been taken up by the tele-pundits of the right -- especially those prophets of doom who have made Fox News Channel their base of operations. But these knuckle-draggers aren't satisfied with fighting mere socialism.

"We're into socialism now. That's not our final destination," Fox News Channel's Glenn Beck said during his radio broadcast. "Our final destination is happy-faced fascism." In another segment on his cable program, Beck repeated this charge over a video backdrop of marching Nazis.

The 'Fox Effect'

This Beck-Hannity obsession has triggered the "Fox Effect," a media phenomenon whereby the repetitive news framing of one 24-hour cable network seeps into the coverage of other outlets -- and, frighteningly, into the political discourse of society as a whole.

Before long, the cable talent at CNN, CNBC and MSNBC had fallen into step, booking right-wing guests intent on pressing the Marxist fear button.

On MSNBC's "Morning Joe," host Joe Scarborough has suggested that the Obama administration favors "European-styled socialism." CNBC's Larry Kudlow has made our "march to socialism" a centerpiece of several interviews on his evening program.

For its part, CNN dedicated several news shows to sage analysis of America's political shift, including a segment in which Quinn Hillyer, the editor and columnist of the conservative Washington Examiner and American Spectator, compared Obama's actions in his first hundred days to those of Mussolini in fascist Italy.

(The video above gives some indication of the general tenor of comments across cable news).

Missing from all the crowing is any meaningful reporting that provides context for our current economic situation, or analysis of changing public attitudes about increased government oversight of businesses like the banking sector.

Journalism: the Cause or the Cure?

All of this cable news hyperventilating comes at a moment when journalism is in deep crisis. The migration of news audiences to a free-flowing Internet has led to declines in circulation, subscription and advertising revenues for traditional media.

Falling revenues translate directly into budget cuts, which in turn mean more layoffs. More layoffs mean fewer journalists, and a lower-quality product as evidenced by the torrent of fear-mongering above.

Newsgathering institutions may die off or evolve over time, but one thing must endure: We need to sustain a corps of qualified working reporters who can earn a living delivering the real news and information that is the lifeblood of a healthy American democracy.

That's right, I said "American democracy."

If the so-called journalists of cable news really want to protect us against totalitarianism, real or imagined, they'd do well to follow the examples of better reporting that are a part of our long history of newsgathering -- instead of simply aping the latest scare tactics at Fox News Channel.

Comments

[Lovepolitics2008]

Interesting article thank you.

I would like to add a point. In the conversation about the media, we talk a lot about the propaganda of Fox, but the right-wing radio ( not just Limbaugh) has enormous influence I think. Talk about a "brainwashing effect"...

[cruzecon]

I can't help but recall an early michael Moore TV show that "proved this theory about the Media NOT investigating before reporting".
In that segment Mr Moore anonymously called in a "report" that the police had found the missing knife from the Nicole Simpson murder.
Within minutes, the "Media" was repeating this "news" and even the LA police showed up to find out what was going on. By the time Mr. Moore with his film crew decided to "cover the story", there was a MOB of police, TV crews, Satellite vans, FOREIGN news crews, Radio and the ever present Paparazzi all converging on an empty field outside of the city- AND NOBODY KNEW WHERE THE KNIFE WAS OR WHO HAD SUPPOSEDLY FOUND IT! The LA police showed up because THEY HEARD the knife was found on the TV!
It is time to really get back to INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM! OF course that costs a lot more than hiring a bar keep as an anchor to start with but, you get better results......sometimes.

[MajorKong]

Red-baiting is sooooo 1956. I better go check the garage to see if my car grew tail fins overnight.

[uursamajor]

I am currently reading "The Gathering Storm" by Winston Churchill. The political conversation in the U.S. currently sounds alot like Britain circa 1930-1938. Socialists/Pacifists/Liberals pushing for peace, less arms, and social causes, versus Fascist-fearing folks ready to stock up on weapons, lock down the island, and prepare for war with Hitler and Mussolini.

Unfortunately, we are gearing up for a war with ourselves, not an outside force.
A Wise Man once said, " A house divided cannot stand." If we don't come to some means of civil discourse on both right and left, we will end up devouring ourselves.

We do not have Aryan pride and the terror of a dictatorship to hold us together as a nation as the Nazis did - we have our Constitutional values and not much else since we are now a "post-Christian nation".

What are the values that now bind us together that both sides think are worthy of unification? It has to be more than Starbucks...

[lvdragonlady]

When is the 'right' going to stop living in the past?
The ONLY people touting this 'socialism' stuff, are the people on the down side of 50 and are still living in the 50's and 60's.
The mention of socialism, does not have the same effect or response today, as it did back in the 20th century.

[NemoNoOne]

Actually, I think you have your demographic mixed up.

People in their sixties were in the streets busting government chops over Vietnam and were staging sit-ins, marches, and demonstrations that make today's look like oatmeal. The real villains are the idiots in their 30s-50s who bought into the Saint Ronald Reagan horse-pucky, and who can't really define socialism, communism, facism, sydicialism, etc. Before the Revered Ronnie, public service was a noble calling and the best and brightest did their civic duty in public service. So long as we continue to buy into the "government is the problem" meme, every single legislative effort will be one kind of -ism or another.

Blame the republic party tactic of wedge issues politics for injecting a spirit of monolithic opposition to any progressive political idea for so polarizing discourse that it's impossible for most of us, me included, to believe that the opposition (so-called conservatives for me) could have a single useful idea, let alone an honorable member. That's bad for fixing problems, politically paralyzing, and ultimately destructive of our social contract.

Nemo

[Diana]

Totally agree--I was there! We're a frighteningly dumbed-down society.

I often blame it on the 'Good job!' meme of the 80s. Great encouragement for babies, but dangerous if they still believe this narcissistic nonsense when they're adults. Someone needs to break the news to them--especially the Wall Streeters--that their doody stinks just like everyone else's.

[RobChattaTN]

don't these bimbos know that
the "march to socialism"
is probably the best thing to happen to them in years????
esp after being r@ ped and pil laged for years by gov't completely controlled by big business!
talk about voting against ur own self-interest!

[atexasdem]

I think we can all agree that Fox is the broadcast arm of the national republican commitee. Having said that and speaking as a liberal democrat I will still support their right to exist and broadcast. The Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter school of thought has to exist. In a free society even the nut job should have the right to speak.
While I hold them in the contempt that they deserve and worry about their effect on the unstable individuals in our society, banning them would be even worse. Of coarse there has to be limits, threatening our leaders, Violence, armed insurrection and the demigods often approach this line, they do seem careful not to actually cross it. Dissent even by the nut jobs, in a free society must be tolerated.

[Weirdwriter]

"...qualified working reporters who can earn a living delivering the real news..."

I've been wondering how many of those we see on TV news really are educated and trained as journalists. Looks and vocal delivery seem to be the overriding factors. The newspapers, with their traditionally underpaid staffs, are giving way to way too many blogs and web sites where there seems to be no standards for journalism -- just lots of of clever but unsubstantiated verbiage.

[TomTheAlmostUgly]

The entire news media repeats, with breathless eagerness, the most absurd RNC talking points. This is news? How about reporting that moderates and independents have tuned this stuff completely out.

[ccairnes]

The above is exactly why I have not owned a television in 25 years. Most of the programs that call themselves "news" are nothing of the sort. With the internet and the new enforcement of the Freedom of Information Act it is easier than ever to read legislation, regulations and other information directly from the source without a so-called journalist giving you an interpretation of what it says to them.

Also, I think it would only be fair if these so-called reporters had to disclose where they went to school or got their training. We expect that from people like the experts that are interviewed in these non-news programs or from government officials. If you knew that the people who are "telling you like it is" got their education at Liberty University, you would be a bit more skeptical about what they're telling you.

[Eric Roberts]

Now my question is: Isn't illegal for a an elected official to call for armed revolt? I am not sure if the sedition laws are still in effect or not, but I do believe the Patriot Act covered that. Why isn't this Bachman chick in jail?

[lizt]

If Republicans were still in power, she would be in jail. Ironically, Democrats support civil liberties and the freedom of speech. Someday she will go too far and it will end. She almost lost the election over her stupid statements. She waited several months before surfacing again.

[RobChattaTN]

surely, she WON'T get re-elected~!

[radiclib]

.
.
Excellent analysis.
A news void has been filled by propaganda, and the right wing is very good at propaganda.
If you tell the same lie long enough and loud enough, people will absorb it.
At the very least, it sets the frame of debate.
Scare tactics need not withstand the test of truth or logic.
To work, they need only be effective on a visceral level.
Fox News and right-wing radio are stoking dangerous flames.
.
.

[lizt]

Actually, I think we need to attack them where it hurts them most....their sponsors. I am beginning today to contact sponsors and tell them I will not support them if they support Fox.

[Layman23]

Excellent Lizt. Actually a list of sponsors can be very useful. I dont watch Fox and i dont even want to peek at it to figure out the sponsors.

[nana4g]

The RNC, Fox, et al, are using Communist tactics, complete with propaganda, to discredit the current Administration. It is just an extension of the past 8 years of that former Administration, proven to have been based on lies and propaganda. I do not believe the destruction of all governmental institutions was accidental or from incompetence alone. I believe it was a plan to marginalize all others except conservative born agains, who can be led like sheep. Enough of those institutions was left to provide for the continued sustenance of those "believers". The rest of us could just go to haedes. They have been working on this for years. Must explain part of the outrage the last two times a Democrat was elected to office with claims of "He's not my President."

[mcthfg]

Fox News is an illegal wing of the GOP.

There is a reason that campaign finance laws exist - so the Dems can ignore them while getting beat up by Repubs. Fox is an extension of the Republican party.

Now, if there were a Dem with any guys (or an actual desire to carry out the rule of law), we could easily remove this station from the air.

Freedom of the press is the freedom to investigate, not to create an echo chamber of the idiots or to brazenly lie.

[KHAAANNN]

Actually, FOX owner News Corp went to the Supreme Court several years ago and SUCCESSFULLY argued that they can broadcast whatever they want, and present it as FACT, whether it is made up out of whole cloth or not!
Basically, they were given the go-ahead to make $hit up and broadcast it as fact, and STILL call it NEWS (on the basis that they were an "entertainment" network.)
So, no, there is nothing illegal about lying to the American public.

[unity13]

I think we can agree that Fox isn't fair and balanced. The network enjoys all the press they need and sponsors all the political events they want while calling it "news". Why does any other network need to cover drummed up issues designed to scare, inflame and promote right wing political propaganda? Just because the neocons have their own network doesn't mean we are obliged to pretend it's legitimate.

[RobChattaTN]

they CREATE news...
faux news
hence their name

[slg]

HuffPost's Pick

An educated and well informed society is a dangerous place for all authoritarians. Keep asking the rabid right, "What part of "We, the People" do you not understand?".