Fox News and the poisoning of American political debate

Mowich

Hall of Fame Member
Dec 25, 2005
16,649
998
113
74
Eagle Creek
Fox News and the poisoning of American political debate
John Doyle | Columnist profile | E-mail
From Tuesday's Globe and Mail
Published Tuesday, Jan. 11, 2011 12:00AM EST
Last updated Tuesday, Jan. 11, 2011 12:51PM EST
John Doyle: Television

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.

It’s easy to suggest that the current situation – all that incessant hate and inflammatory finger-pointing – is what the Fox News Channel has wrought. It is easy because it is true. The fact that it is easily done doesn’t make it any less true. What Fox News has sown is now being reaped.

The Fox News Channel arrived in the U.S. in 1996 and instantly ramped up the vitriol. It accused almost all other media of left-wing bias and presented its own clearly partisan coverage and punditry as “fair and balanced.” It was mocked by liberals, but it succeeded in changing the media landscape in the U.S. All the other all-news channels reacted to the presence and ratings success of Fox.


Bill O’Reilly became its star pundit and the most influential fear-monger in the U.S. His blithe disregard for facts and casual use of insults set the standard. That’s a fact. It’s also a fact that when O’Reilly can reduce the most complex of political issue to what he calls a matter of “pinheads and patriots,” as he does almost daily, the template for political coverage is set. And there are consequences. O'Reilly and his pinheads and patriots sloganeering style of TV news empowers every mildly mad, seriously mad or merely inarticulate, bitter American to spew unthinking rage in the most caustic terms. And thus, this is where the political debate and culture in the U.S. is now.


Here, by the way, is the opening of O’Reilly’s recent book, called Pinheads and Patriots: “Hey, you! You, the American! You who believe in life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. This book is about you. No spin. In this age of Obama, all that you take for granted is changing, yet many Americans have no clue.”


At the same time as blame can be laid at the door of Fox News, it is essential to recognize that the style of Fox News is a hit. The channel easily beats CNN and MSNBC in the ratings. So many American TV viewers get exactly what they want and enjoy on Fox News. So while blaming Fox we have to admit that the Fox News channel’s success is rooted in Fox’s intuitive recognition of the inherent aggressiveness of the American political culture, an aggressiveness that is itself anchored in a public that’s fearful of change and hostile to opposing viewpoints.


A few years ago, when I wrote mockingly about Fox News and O’Reilly, I felt the full, Fox-style backlash. O’Reilly called me names on the air, several times, and referred to The Globe and Mail as a “far-left” newspaper. In a matter of days I received thousands of abusive e-mails from Fox News viewers. The language of insult was extraordinarily intense. This being Canada and Fox News being unavailable here, nobody outside my readership was paying much attention. But The New York Times was, and it lavished a feature story on the battle. What I remember, apart from the white-hot hatred expressed by Fox viewers, was a New York Times editor telling me how important this story was – because it suggested that the Fox News viewers represented America itself to the world outside the U.S. It was just that, in this case, the world outside was me.


It has come to pass: Fox News does indeed define the U.S. political culture and the manner of debate inside that culture. It is to blame, but blame must be tempered by our understanding that Fox News is America and America is Fox News. There will be neither silence nor a change of tone until the Fox News Channel changes, or shuts up. That’s not going to happen. Look at the ratings. The ratings don’t lie.



A thought-provoking article,IMHO.



Added Note:

I have to correct Mr. Doyle on one point - anyone with satellite TV in Canada has access to the Fox News Channel.
 

Mowich

Hall of Fame Member
Dec 25, 2005
16,649
998
113
74
Eagle Creek
Whatever. Faux is just the leader. All networks are complicit.

IMHO, eh1eh, PBS should not be included in your blanket statement. I find the reporting - news reporting, not necessarily all their docs - to be quite fair and balanced.
 

Colpy

Hall of Fame Member
Nov 5, 2005
21,887
847
113
69
Saint John, N.B.
Fox News and the poisoning of American political debate
John Doyle | Columnist profile | E-mail
From Tuesday's Globe and Mail
Published Tuesday, Jan. 11, 2011 12:00AM EST
Last updated Tuesday, Jan. 11, 2011 12:51PM EST
John Doyle: Television

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.

It’s easy to suggest that the current situation – all that incessant hate and inflammatory finger-pointing – is what the Fox News Channel has wrought. It is easy because it is true. The fact that it is easily done doesn’t make it any less true. What Fox News has sown is now being reaped.

The Fox News Channel arrived in the U.S. in 1996 and instantly ramped up the vitriol. It accused almost all other media of left-wing bias and presented its own clearly partisan coverage and punditry as “fair and balanced.” It was mocked by liberals, but it succeeded in changing the media landscape in the U.S. All the other all-news channels reacted to the presence and ratings success of Fox.


Bill O’Reilly became its star pundit and the most influential fear-monger in the U.S. His blithe disregard for facts and casual use of insults set the standard. That’s a fact. It’s also a fact that when O’Reilly can reduce the most complex of political issue to what he calls a matter of “pinheads and patriots,” as he does almost daily, the template for political coverage is set. And there are consequences. O'Reilly and his pinheads and patriots sloganeering style of TV news empowers every mildly mad, seriously mad or merely inarticulate, bitter American to spew unthinking rage in the most caustic terms. And thus, this is where the political debate and culture in the U.S. is now.


Here, by the way, is the opening of O’Reilly’s recent book, called Pinheads and Patriots: “Hey, you! You, the American! You who believe in life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. This book is about you. No spin. In this age of Obama, all that you take for granted is changing, yet many Americans have no clue.”


At the same time as blame can be laid at the door of Fox News, it is essential to recognize that the style of Fox News is a hit. The channel easily beats CNN and MSNBC in the ratings. So many American TV viewers get exactly what they want and enjoy on Fox News. So while blaming Fox we have to admit that the Fox News channel’s success is rooted in Fox’s intuitive recognition of the inherent aggressiveness of the American political culture, an aggressiveness that is itself anchored in a public that’s fearful of change and hostile to opposing viewpoints.


A few years ago, when I wrote mockingly about Fox News and O’Reilly, I felt the full, Fox-style backlash. O’Reilly called me names on the air, several times, and referred to The Globe and Mail as a “far-left” newspaper. In a matter of days I received thousands of abusive e-mails from Fox News viewers. The language of insult was extraordinarily intense. This being Canada and Fox News being unavailable here, nobody outside my readership was paying much attention. But The New York Times was, and it lavished a feature story on the battle. What I remember, apart from the white-hot hatred expressed by Fox viewers, was a New York Times editor telling me how important this story was – because it suggested that the Fox News viewers represented America itself to the world outside the U.S. It was just that, in this case, the world outside was me.


It has come to pass: Fox News does indeed define the U.S. political culture and the manner of debate inside that culture. It is to blame, but blame must be tempered by our understanding that Fox News is America and America is Fox News. There will be neither silence nor a change of tone until the Fox News Channel changes, or shuts up. That’s not going to happen. Look at the ratings. The ratings don’t lie.



A thought-provoking article,IMHO.



Added Note:

I have to correct Mr. Doyle on one point - anyone with satellite TV in Canada has access to the Fox News Channel.

Yep. And the thought is "What BS!!!!"

The guy that did the shooting in Arizona was a screaming looney, a dope-head, a man that could not make a face like he had a coherent political thought..........the target was hardly a left-wing looney, but a middle-of-the road Democrat, one of the shrinking number of US politicos capable of reaching across the divide, and a determined supporter of gun rights.

The judge killed was a Republican.

The language of war and conflict is used by all sides in political "campaigns".........Sarah Palin used surveyors' marks that looked like rifle sights, the Democrats used targets.....on the very day I first heard this stupid argument I went to the Canadian newspapers and found articles from that day on both the Conservatives and the Liberals "targeting" specific ridings.

What I begin to suspect is a campaign by American leftists to seriously degrade not only the power of the second amendment to their Constitution.....but the First as well.

Oh, as for the Globe and Mail being "far-left"??? Well, that terminology is silly, but I advise one to read their comment on social issues such as gun control and this foolishness, as well as take a look at the letters that get printed.........

Mr. O'Reilly's accusation may be far out.....but it is not without basis.
 

Glenfilthie

Time Out
Feb 15, 2011
45
0
6
FOX is now getting more viewership than CNN and MSNBC combined. The other networks don't even pretend to be objective anymore, and the same can be said of the Globe and Mail and the CBC. More Canadians watch FOX than the CBC. The reason for that should be obvious - people are sick and tired of the liberal propaganda coming from the other networks. They want intelligent, objective reporting, they want the tough questions to be asked - and answered. Many want to hear opposing viewpoints too - and you can't get that from the media outlets that are infested with hard left reporters.

The message to these faltering media giants is clear - do your jobs, or be irrelevant.
 

gopher

Hall of Fame Member
Jun 26, 2005
21,513
65
48
Minnesota: Gopher State
I cannot honestly blame the Fox liars for causing this mess - as I have said before it is the passivity and cowardice of the other networks as well as liberals in general that is the cause.

You want an end to the problem? You fight fire with fire, not with passivity. Libs and others could have told Fox to f*ck off a long time ago and they would have done so as happened with other far right radicals like Coughlin, McCarthy, Wallace, and the Klan. The truth hurts. And it would easily destroy these radicals. But it is of no value if the opposition is too timid to use it.
 

talloola

Hall of Fame Member
Nov 14, 2006
19,576
113
63
Vancouver Island
FOX is now getting more viewership than CNN and MSNBC combined. The other networks don't even pretend to be objective anymore, and the same can be said of the Globe and Mail and the CBC. More Canadians watch FOX than the CBC. The reason for that should be obvious - people are sick and tired of the liberal propaganda coming from the other networks. They want intelligent, objective reporting, they want the tough questions to be asked - and answered. Many want to hear opposing viewpoints too - and you can't get that from the media outlets that are infested with hard left reporters.

The message to these faltering media giants is clear - do your jobs, or be irrelevant.

people watch them because they are drawn to 'smut', just as they read the 'enquirer' and other such
garbage.