Fox news has made fools out of millions of Americans.

[shockey80]

When I talk to people about current events I can literally tell if they watch Fox news. They have all their facts wrong or they don't know what is happening. Fox news has done a lot of damage to this country. They have proved to me there are millions of very simple minded people in our country. It is really scary and it is going to be something to watch them go into shock when Trump is impeached. They have no idea that's coming. They will tell you Trump will not be impeached.

They have heard about Ukraine from Fox news, but Fox news tells them it's nothing, and these very simple minded people believe it.

I do not know how we fix this problem of millions of Americans not having the ability to educate themselves, to think for themselves. There is something wrong in our culture, education system that is causing this.

[MerryBlooms]

1. they were fools before fox, now they just have a national voice for their foolishness. n/t

[lagomorph777]

68. Fox fools the fools. But there's nobody else listening. The gullibles will never exceed 40%

...Trump's propaganda strategy can never move that needle high enough to survive both impeachment and an election, because nobody out side of the Fox Fools is listening. Even Putin's Facebook and Twitter subsidiaries are only reaching those who are already fooled.

Hacking the voting system, restricting voter access, and gerrymandering on the other hand... those are more scary.

[MineralMan]

2. They were already fools, or they wouldn't watch Fox News.

It's just targeting an existing audience.

[LiberalArkie]

26. I would not call them fools as much as just simple minded people.

People who used to pump the gas at the service station. The guy down town who shined shoes and put new heels and soles on them. The guys across town who we called to fix the TV.

Just people just trying to get by and not trying to get fired..

Probably well over half the population.

[pangaia]

64. I know of some simple minded people in congress.

And I know a very bright guy who pumps gas-- in NJ, where that still happens...

[KPN]

33. I know some very smart, highly educated people who get their news from Fox.

Just goes to show that intelligent people can be fools I guess. The only sense I can make of it is bias; Fox News fits their personal ideological views.

[ZERTErYNOthe]

37. Thank you for saying that

I have worked with many incredibly intelligent people over the years, and have family members and friends who are all over the place in political, religious, intelligence, and education. I haven't really seen much of a pattern, although I will say that many of the people who are strongly Republican or Democratic, or call themselves independent but have strongly Conservative views, often agree with view of the other party, but will support their own team regardless.

A good conservative friend who was a never Trumper in the lead up to the election was VERY vocal about the danger of Trump, much like Lady Lindsey. A few months ago I posted a meme to Facebook about Trump's thin skin regarding Pelosi. He asked if I was calling Trump a snowflake, and I said yes. He immediately unfriended me. The next get together will be interesting, but we are still friends, and I doubt it will be an issue.

I have another friend that I lost touch with, but I worked with him for many years. When I worked with him we had offices with several people in each one, generally organized by team, but in his case he had a big office with people who wanted to listen to the Rush Limbaugh show every day at lunch. It worked, it was a huge office with many desks, and they listened every day. I used to send him Michael Moore's missives and he didn't like that (that was back when Usenet was a thing). However, he was a fan of Mitch Hedburg and did some local stand up as well. He converted to Catholicism when I worked with him, and we had many conversations about religion and the inevitably tangled politics. He clearly had liberal leanings and beliefs, but couldn't get away from team Limbaugh.

I also worked with a former Jesuit, same thing. He loved Laura Ingrahm. We (our fellow employees) used to joke about his love of AM radio. Since he was a former Jesuit I had many conversations with him about religion, and religion vs. science (neither of us could find a conflict).

One more: A navy vet who absolutely hated GWB and what his party had become. He would have voted Dem, but as he told me: He couldn't vote for a black man or a woman.

I could give more examples, and I will include myself: Sometimes I see something good with Republicans (although it's been a long long time). My governor is Larry Hogan. I actually agree with him on a lot of stuff. Ouch, that hurts. I never liked Bob Erlich, but he forced through the ICC (inter County connector). For those not familiar with local MD stuff, a roadway that had been on the master plan of the county for decades, but had been delayed for almost as many decades. Bob Erlich got it done, it was needed, and it has been a great improvement to our area. I still dislike Erlich, and Michael Steel (now an MSNBC darling, and he does well), because of their attempts at election manipulation in the neighboring county (Prince Georges). It was disgusting, but typical of Republicans.

So, I apologize for the sermon. Thank you letting me vent a bit.

[Maru Kitteh]

42. Thank you for sharing all of that. II've also seen that many seem to agree with Democratic

ideals and Democratic goals, but they just can't bring themselves to vote against their chosen team. It's bizarre.

[Cetacea]

60. Thank you

And welcome to DU.

It is foolish to ignore the very real power Fox News has, and for that matter, right wing talk radio.

[patphil]

54. I agree. I have two brother-in-laws, and their wives,

whom I have always thought to be intelligent people.
But, their over reliance on FOX News for their national and world views is very disturbing. They have been programmed to only accept a viewpoint they already agree with.
They are still, after all that has gone on, adamant Trump supporters.
My wife, their sister, and I are simply amazed by this.
Their father was a traditional NYC liberal who graduated from The Cooper Union.
The two sons unfortunately learned nothing from this amazing man.

Patrick Phillips

[KPN]

59. They obviously drank the kool aid somwhere along the way and since have turned to

Fox for validation. Hard to understand. The only rationale I can come up with is they bought into the "welfare queens/Obama phones" schtick; the "I did it, I earned my way, so why can't they" attitude toward anyone who hasn't been so fortunate as they are/have been in life. It's a sad commentary on America.

[pangaia]

65. "hey are still, after all that has gone on, adamant Trump supporters."

"reliance on FOX News for their national and world views '

This by itself proves they do not use their brains....

lemmings.......

[Pacifist Patriot]

49. I watched Fox for about a year in the early 2000s because I thought it was just another...

24 hour cable channel. There was enough there to make me think, "say what?" one too many times. So fortunately, I didn't descend into full on Fox-induced Stupor. I can certainly see why seemingly intelligent people might be sucked in. But I fail to see how inherently critical thinkers can't extricate themselves before the suction proves too strong to overcome.

[pangaia]

66. fox is an addiction... a little swig of bourbon one night, then ,then then...

of course good bourbon is a good thing...

[Hermit-The-Prog]

3. just another national addiction crisis

[Bonhomme Richard]

4. I wish there were some sort of class action....

suit possible against Fox for willfully misleading a large population of the country to its detriment. There ought to be a shitload of evidence.

[sop]

32. Rupert Murdoch's propaganda and misinformation organization has done more to damage

our democracy than any terrorist group.

[TheRealNorth]

5. Fox News validates their conservative world view

And creates millions of like-minded Lemmings.

[MissMillie]

6. Here we go round in circles...

"to think for themselves..."

Let's give the top 1% another tax cut and de-fund public education.






All the Trumpers think that the detainees have done something illegal. They have not. They presented themselves at the border requesting assylum. That is a perfectly legal action.


People don't know this stuff.

[OMGWTF]

17. I went to a Catholic grade school in the 1960s and the nuns taught us critical thinking skills.

Then I started asking them questions about religion and the Bible that didn't make any sense to me. Their answer was always, "Some things you're just not supposed to understand and that's where your faith comes in." SMH

[FM123]

7. Fux viewers are holding themselves hostage.

While they are capable of seeking out other sources of information, they remain in that low information bubble by choice. I both pity and despise them.

[Rorey]

9. I only have disdain for them.

No pity.

[BigmanPigman]

14. Me too... remaining purposely ignorant is not a virtue.

[kimbutgar]

8. Sat with a woman from Pennsylvania on an international flight, she said she didn't like Hillary

Because of Benghazi. I knew she was a fox viewer. I guess my face gave away my shock at her statement. She quickly said she didn’t want to talk politics. I said, “I understand the news you get in Pennsylvania is more partisan and right leaning while we in California get more balanced truthful news”. She was speechless after that.

[maxsolomon]

19. I'm trying to hide my initial eye-roll and ask them leading questions.

Often, it turns out they know absolutely no relevant facts about the topic they hold such strong opinions on. Or false facts.

"MS 13 is invading!" "Like how many are invading, like a 1,000?" A hundred?" "Bah, I don't want to talk politics".

Etc.

Fox is literally brainwashing the elderly with blinking lights, leggy blondes, and speeding chyrons. It worked on my Dad.

This woman made a movie about her Dad: http://www.thebrainwashingofmydad.com/

[marlakay]

34. Whenever someone says to me knowing I am liberal

They don’t want to talk politics, ding ding, I know they are a republican.

Democrats never say that, nor do Independents unless they lean to the right.

[42bambi]

10. Oh, but it's so much easier to have someone else think for you! nt

[rockfordfile]

11. Fox News viewers are un-American. They were already there from listening to limpballs

[Flaleftist]

12. That believe anything that contradicts their great leader is fake news.

I think Trump could start promoting the flat earth conspiracy and if Fox News supported him, millions of people will suddenly buy into it.

I don't know how you can get through to people like that. It would take some expert psychiatrists to come up with a plan to deprogram them.

[D_Master81]

13. It's true

Went on an annual camping trip with long time friends that have always been moderately RW leaning and they asked me when I got there if I thought Trump should be impeached. I said if what’s been alleged by the whistleblower is true I think you have to. They exploded with a “whhhaaat???! Really?” Being the former Social studies/government teacher they were curious what I thought. They said what if he was just getting rid of corruption and hadn’t even heard it was on a top secret server. Said that’s where Presidential records probably go normally. It was stunning. These are smart people. But RW media has so slandered Democrats they believe anything Fox puts out pretty much cause it’s “their side” I’m sure.

[bucolic_frolic]

15. You combat brainwashing with truth

but they are brainwashed from cradle to grave, from pulpits, textbooks written by entrenched interests, tv and newspapers, talk-hate radio, internet, and monied outreach to voters and organizations and even communities and families.

I'm not sure it will ever be solved. But truth - raw, naked reality - and economic conditions and relationships is the antidote.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

21. 100%: True, Fast, Clear, at same audience lie was told to.

Problem is how to reach them. Social media is a good way.

Repetitive counter-propaganda is needed. And it has to be repetitive to get the media and the trumpanzees and everybody mentioning it. The propaganda is repetitive so the counter-propaganda has to be repeated too. Often. Again and again. Redundantly repetitively redundant.

Counter-propaganda works when it is:

* fast
* clear
* true
* targeted at the audience the propaganda targeted

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counterpropaganda

[Baked Potato]

38. This will work better

Than anything else.

[Baked Potato]

39. Yes, this

[TygrBright]

16. With the enthusiastic cooperation of those same Americans. n/t

[NRaleighLiberal]

18. they were well on their journey before Fox!

[Kurt V.]

20. the fix was laid out in skinner's Beyond Freedom and Dignity

[Texin]

22. Conservative-brained people prefer authoritarian thinkers and doers.

They want Big Daddy to tell them what to do and how to think and feel. It's hardwired in their brain chemistry. Couple that with the fact that school children have been trained away from critical thinking and questioning, and you've got a bunch of people who prefer not to question what they hear and believe on Fux Spews whose mission statement at its inception was to be the *news* broadcast station for the rethugs.

[mudstump]

23. It will take a massive de-programming effort to...

reverse 30 years of propaganda. As long as Fox is on the air it will be impossible.

[notinkansas]

41. And also Limbaugh

He broadcasts on so many radio stations - particularly in the south, I think. And he is soooooo toxic.

[certainot]

55. talk radio is the real problem. fox is part of the democratic free speech spectrum and there are alt

ernatives a click away

there's a new book - "talk radio's america. how and indusstry took ove a political party that ook over the united states of america" - all about limbaugh, talk radio - altho it may have ssome defects the title says it all

[NCcoast]

24. We need a law....

that makes it illegal to knowingly mislead the public in the guise of a new organization. I understand that Canada has such a law, which Rupert was unable to get overturned, and so he stayed out of the Canadian market.

[TryLogic]

25. Some years ago Murdock was asked/challenged regarding his right wing tv channel...

He quickly said it is all about ratings. Too quickly.

[Alpeduez21]

27. Fuck them

[BigDemVoter]

28. Quite frankly, Fux News should be taken off the air and banned.

I'm being somewhat hyperbolic, but then again, I can't help but smile when I think how nice it would be not to ever hear Fucker Carlson flap his whining pie hole ever again.

[Funtatlaguy]

29. I think a few countries have banned it. Not sure though.

[oldsoftie]

48. There was one of those memes about NZ and Australia doing that, but its false.

They probably got a sweet deal with north korea though!

[oldsoftie]

47. Thats not how we do things in this country.

[Cosmocat]

30. It ... isn't ... "education."

It is the willing decision to reject decency and reality in favor of indulging a grievance mindset.

It's a choice.

[barbtries]

31. they must be brainwashed.

i swear my older brother and sister are not total morons. but these days you'd hardly know it. we can't talk politics at all for fear the relationship will be irreparably harmed.

[Evolve Dammit]

35. Blinded by hatred fueled by decades of propaganda. First heard Rush 30 years ago. He is the model.

Think of the proteges over the decades; they all follow a similar model, demonizing libruls and stoking fear. When I became aware that Pence (Manafort's VP pick) filled in for the Laura Ingraham Nazi radio show, that summed him up for me. We need to purge both Trump and Pence if we want to restore any semblance of sanity.

[JHB]

45. There were others before Rush...

Bob Grant, Barry Farber, Joe Pyne, and others, in the 60s, 70s, and early 80s. I know Grant, who was NYC-based, gained a following far outside his station's normal broadcast range due to late-night shows. At night the atmosphere bounces AM signals in a different way than during the day, and form what I've heard Grant could sometimes be picked up as far as eastern Ohio.

By the early 80s, thought, AM radio was in decline as more and more things moved to FM frequencies. Stations needed to fill time, talk radio was relatively cheap, and call-in formats allowed a level of interactivity that was relatively unique at the time. Them during that time, deregulation lifted some of the restrictions on media ownership, making it easier to have the same shows play live in different markets.

Combine that with elimination of the Fairness Doctrine, and it created conditions ripe for someone like Rush to flourish. Combine that with his rallying the conservative faithful after Bush lost the 92 election, treating Clinton's plurality win as if it were merely technical and wasn't really legit.

Combine those with other conservative media that had been built, like The Washington Times in 1982, and Roger Ailes bringing his Nixon-era idea of GOP-TV to life as FOX News in 1996, plus hundreds of conservative religious stations, and that propaganda becomes the background radiation which affects everything.

[Evolve Dammit]

58. JHB- Thanks very much for this post. I was not listening talk radio in my early years (1960's)

so I was totally unaware of the "founders" you mention. The model has been refined and now has incredible reach. I still cannot understand why it is a staple on Armed Services Radio?

Your entire post needs more exposure for the detailed historical perspective that younger audiences may be unaware of. Fellow DU'ers? "...that propaganda becomes the background radiation which affects everything." Well said.

[underpants]

36. Repetition works

These fools, they are, hear the same thing ALL DAY LONG.

[FormerDittoHead]

40. The thing that's so sad is they have many choices... but they stay on the same channel (R)...

[appalachiablue]

43. Fox and Hate Radio have done enormous damage to this country

and how their influence is dismissed I can't comprehend.

Father Coughlin, the raging, anti-Semite 1930s radio priest in Michigan was finally taken down in the late 1930s when WWII started.

Something has to be done about the consolidation of US corporate media into 5 major conglomerates and the loss of the Fairness Doctrine since 1987.

With Hollywood and LA as huge resources, why isn't there more truth based, balanced media?

Hold the usual- radio is a dying industry and only for old, cranky people-- false; nothing can be done because of the 1st amendment; we shouldn't create a 'left, Limbaugh style ranting broadcaster'- not saying that, and more.

[Wounded Bear]

44. It is far easier to fool someone than to convince them they've been fooled...

Sam Clemens, I believe. I may be wrong.

[yellowdogintexas]

46. Faux is just validating everything they have believed

for most of their lives. Now they have 'permission' to be open about their prejudices and racism etc in ways which were not socially acceptable after Brown v Board and the Civil Rights & Voting Rights Act.

[certainot]

57. it mainly validates the unchallenged repeated lying that only talk radio can do

that democrats and the left stupidly ignore

[Lock him up.]

50. And they still remain a shrinking minority.

Stop worrying about them. They're lost forever.

Work to register new Dem voters from the 100 million who aren't and never vote instead.

[Mike Nelson]

51. They are against education...

... it's one of their main goals. It's explicit when Tucker Carleson tells his viewers not to attend college. It's implicit 24 hours in that how they play up any story that makes education look bad. Uneducated, uninformed people are easier to persuade and control.

[cstanleytech]

52. Only way to stop Fox is to cut them off at the knees which means boycotting any advertisers

on Fox as only if they are starved for revenue will they be stopped.
Furthermore we need to also pressure other channels like CNN and MSNBC to reject those advertisers that tout their products on Fox because we need to really apply the pressure.

[Garrett78]

53. Mandatory media literacy curriculum in every school.

Teach kids how to check and verify sources, how to think critically, how to identify tactics such as 'projection' and Gish gallop, etc.

Public education reform and media reform must become top priorities.

[certainot]

56. fox is not the problem. fox is the cartoon cliff notes for talk radio and everyone has easy free alt

alternatives a click away. and it started 9 years after talk radio

there's a new book - "talk radio's america. how and indusstry took ove a political party that ook over the united states of america"

democrats have to stop ignoring the real cause of this shit and boycott the hell out of rw talk radio - and protest the 87 universities that support 260 limbaugh stations

without talk radio fox would fall apart. fox is a decoy, a symptom of a dysfunctional democracy caused by an unchallenged talk radio monopoly

[Progressive Jones]

61. A common tactic of FOX News and right wing radio is

repeatedly telling the viewer/listener that they are "under attack" by "the left".
Another often repeated statement goes something like "You are just hard working Americans.
Why do "they" hate you so much?"
This tends to lead to "group think", and division, which is exactly what the right wing wants.

[Aussie105]

62. Rupert Murdoch

tried his particular brand of Flavor-Aid dissemination to the masses in both Australia and England, and got his fingers severely scorched.

He's made his home in America, and doing very well. Unfortunately.

Seems that some Americans - lots of them, unfortunately - soak up everything without any critical thinking skills or fact checking applied.
Their brains must be a collective wasteland of random impulses and contradictory 'facts' and emotions.

I have noticed over the years, that if you want to start up a cult or religion based on distorted and/or unreal facts, the American countryside is the place to go if you want to succeed. Sorry to say that, but I believe that sincerely.

Heavy and healthy doses of scepticism and 'prove it!' needed, there.

[roamer65]

63. I think we will eventually find out Murdoch is on the Kremlin payroll.

[bucolic_frolic]

67. people are simple-minded and accepting in their daily lives

and that extends to politics and is spoon-fed by Fox News. Most incumbents are re-elected. "My Congressman" syndrome. You can hardly unseat a Senator. These people don't associate an incumbent with any policies or even their own lives. Politicians are like the milk man in their minds. Steady, reliable, ho-hum. It's like they're on a permanent dose of Xanax.