I know that a lot of people here have nothing but disdain and/or hatred for Fox. I was surprised and interested to learn that a lot of your liberal compatriots don’t completely share your views.
Monitoring enemy transmissions?
I lean left (fiscal conservative, social liberal, which in the Trump era apparently means socialist), and used to actually get news feeds from Fox News. Specifically, the actual ‘news’ stuff, that while it had a heavy lean, was often factually correct.
But that’s the segment that has been gutted by Fox for their Newstainment segments that they keep trying to say are news . . . . riiiiiight up until they get sued, and then it’s “obvious no one would take it seriously.”
And no, I’m not entertained by people screaming lies, racist crap, or misinformation that gets people killed, so nope, it got curated out of my feeds.
Know thy enemy.
There is a difference between “laughing with you” and “laughing at you”…unless of course you are so desperate for attention that you don’t really care how you get it.
For as nakedly contemptuous as the modern right is of their political opposition (“Dummycrats,” and all that), it’s very weird to me to see the insecurity inherent in desperately seeking the validation of their attention.
I’ve watched it in airports/bars/waiting rooms. I laugh.
For a long time I kept them in my RSS feed because it can be genuinely useful to see how they’re ‘reporting’ on news. Eventually I couldn’t stomach it anymore, especially when half of their articles just became reporting about the rantings of their own pundits.
The newstainment stuff would be funny if there weren’t so many people who take it as deadly serious journalism, so it just makes me dismayed and then sad.
I watch JoJo’s Bizarre Adventures, Marvel movies and horror films too. So?
Does this bring you some kind of hope? Is Fox winning the soul of the country?
I wonder if the discussion has gone the way the OP hoped.
A significant chunk of the ‘old’ Republican party has atrophied during the Trump years - they may now be Democrats, but still watch Fox News. I’m guessing that is where most of the numbers come from.
~Max
I should also note that the numbers cited in the Politico article come from Nielson, as reported in The Wrap, Forbes, etc. I don’t believe the numbers reflect the American population at large, only the TV-watching audience. A subset of America, and possibly a smaller subset of liberals than conservatives.
And this revelation that Democrats watch Fox News network isn’t news.
I think it is more likely that less Democrats are watching TV news at all - and the ones still watching are more likely to be right-leaning Democrats.
~Max
Certainly.
I don’t watch Fox generally; but I do make a point of sometimes reading people I disagree with.
Why would I only want to hear from people who I agree with?
(Well, I guess there are a lot of people who do only want to hear from people they agree with. I’m just not one of them.)
Part of the story may be that some liberals have spouses or other family members who are more conservative.
In addition, some people are not as focused on their political ideology as other people. So if they are asked for their political allegience they would say Democratic, and they would vote along the same lines, but are not passionate enough about if for it to dictate their choice of news source.
People who read and post in the Politics & Election forum of this MB would typically be more passionate about politics, so this is something that they might not relate to, but it’s actually pretty widespread.
I don’t know of any truly objective news sources, so I want more than one perspective on issues. It’s informative to see how the different news sites frame any given topic, what they include, and what they omit. I want as much information as I can get and that requires a variety of news sources.
I notice that Fox television news here in the bay area of California (KTVU) tones down their right-wingedness, as they probably wouldn’t get as many viewers if they didn’t.
But I’ll never forget that even as the insurrectionists were climbing the Capitol steps and erecting lynching platforms, KTVU was airing this story: “Newsom wants to extend benefits to illegal immigrants!”
So I try never to tune in their channel, though I like their weatherman.
There’s a rather material distinction to be drawn between Fox News and Fox affiliates:
https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-affiliates-we-are-not-fox-news-channel
There’s a difference between reading an alternative viewpoint (that is still legit, just opposite-biased) and reading total garbage.
Even as recently as ten years ago, Fox News still had some legit stuff to offer. Not anymore.
It’s one thing to taste a cuisine you don’t like, it’s another thing to eat crap.