Fox News and the poisoning of American political debate

[CHIMO]

Almost lost in the cacophony of voices over the last few days was U.S. president Barack Obama’s call for a moment of silence: “I call on Americans to observe a moment of silence to honour the innocent victims of the senseless tragedy in Tucson, Arizona, including those still fighting for their lives.”

Now there’s an idea – silence. It’s one of those times when blunt meaning can be extrapolated from a politician’s bland statement. In this case, maybe, it’s “Everybody just shut up.”

The disinclination of American politicians, pundits and all the wannabe politicians and pundits to actually shut up is, of course, the core issue in the wake of the horrific mass shooting in Arizona. The world is now awash in talk about “a climate of hate” and “inflammatory right-wing rhetoric” being either tangentially or directly responsible for the shooting of congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and the deaths of six others at a public political event in Tucson. All that talk is about the danger of talk. Much of it is nonsense, but some if it has the sting of rightful blame.

For some time now, the very core of the U.S. culture has been located at that place where politics and media meet. And where they meet is the all-news cable TV channel. As the news of the shootings sank in on Saturday, there was a numbness to the TV coverage – the reporting of the plain facts of what happened. Then the story evolved into something else. That happened as soon MSNBC anchor Keith Olbermann took to the air to allege that Sarah Palin played a significant role in raising the volume of vitriol in the U.S. and to blame Bill O'Reilly and Glenn Beck of Fox News for the level of extremism in partisan political argument. As a result, this story is about television and its impact.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/television/john-doyle/fox-news-and-the-poisoning-of-american-political-debate/article1864663/

[JBoy]

1. I remember John Doyle's commentary in 2004 about Fox News, and how it made Bill O'Reilly go apeshit

http://www.johndoyleblog.com/fox/

When John Doyle was talking about Fox News potential being carried on Canadian cable, he made fun of them by saying:

Beauty. Bring it on, I say. We’re all in need of a good laugh. The barking-mad Fox News Channel is something that most Canadians have only heard about. It’s time we saw it for ourselves, and made up our own minds about the phenomenon. We’ll find out if this Bill O’Reilly fella is as stupendously pompous and preening as he appears to be in the rare clips we see of Fox News.

and

The Fox News Channel is the new Man From U.N.C.L.E. Bill O’Reilly is the new Napoleon Solo. Seriously. No wonder the channel is so popular in the United States. It is superbly entertaining in an old-fashioned, operatic way. It’s camp, it’s dramatic and as a viewer you are in a constant state of bless-my-soul excitement because you’re wondering just how angry the people playing journalists on Fox are going to get.

In response, Billo featured Doyle in one of his "pinhead" segments, calling the Globe & Mail a "far left newspaper", and the CBC the "Communist Broadcasting Corporation".

[certainot]

2. i think fox depends on the radio to set the low bar

fox exists in the alternate reality that only the talk radio monopoly can create. only the talk radio monopoly is capable of blasting the coordinated repetition to tens of millions of people across the country, enough to make the lies and distortions real and acceptable.

then fox puts a rugged blockhead or permed blond face on it. for media analysts radio is the giant stinking pile under the rug and dupnik is a hero for lifting the corner of the rug.