# Did Fox News kill this man's mother? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [March 19, 2012, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-fox-news-kill-this-mans-mother/616215 "2012-03-19T11:59:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![magellan01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@magellan01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magellan01)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-fox-news-kill-this-mans-mother/616215/41 "2012-03-19T21:25:25Z")
> [@VinylTurnip](#): > > Had I known you were so eager to hear my opinion, I wouldn’t have tantalized you with the anticipation. Yearn no further, my son, and slake thy thirst: > > 1. Doubt it. > > 2. No. In an ideal world, yes, but we don’t live in an ideal world and Fox News is an amoral entity composed of immoral members. > > 3. No. You confuse any interest in your opinion with my puzzlement of you coming into the thread and commenting on my ability to have divined the thrust of the OP by reading merely the headline—without commenting on the thread itself. But now that you have shared your thoughts, I see that you agree with my assessment. Excellent. I strongly suggest you adopt a strategy of agreeing with my assessments from here on out, as it has served you so well here. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-fox-news-kill-this-mans-mother/616215/42 "2012-03-19T22:15:30Z")
It’s not the OP’s rant. ---
**Author:** ![gunnergoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e95f7d/32.png) [@gunnergoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gunnergoz)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-fox-news-kill-this-mans-mother/616215/43 "2012-03-19T23:07:51Z")
Looks like disinformational agitprop to me…a red herring planted by someone wishing to stir up people one way or the other, then sit back and enjoy the ensuing chaos. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-fox-news-kill-this-mans-mother/616215/44 "2012-03-19T23:08:33Z")
The story sounds like pure BS to me. ---
**Author:** ![Bemused](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/46a35a/32.png) [@Bemused](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bemused)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-fox-news-kill-this-mans-mother/616215/45 "2012-03-19T23:30:16Z")
> [@magellan01](#): > > You know, I’m gonna go out on a limb here and respond without even reading anything but the thread title: no, no Fox News did not kill the man’s mother. > > Note to mods: this belongs in the pit. It’s really just a lightly disguised rant against Fox News. At least in that forum, the poster would be able to get some really valuable feedback. As I read through this thread, I shake my head and again understand why I label modern american liberalism as a mental illness. It isn’t the views the liberal holds, it is how the liberal holds those views. Thus, Fox News promotes hatred, people who listen to Fox News are bigots, or stupid, or don’t have both oars in the water. And some people are willing to give credence to the screed that heads this thread. And then, they insist that they are both rational and intelligent!!! And tolerant. _Tolerant!!!_ ROTFLMAO. Reasonable people can reasonably disagree. Two people can look at the same set of facts and reach very different conclusions from them. The essential - the KEY feature of a Republic is that the people are both tolerant of, and willing to listen to and consider, different viewpoints. But the modern american Left has almost totally lost that ability. In fact, modern american liberalism has become a religion, and modern american liberals are bigots exactly the same way as those on the far religious right are bigots: “if you aren’t with us, you are against us”, and “we’re the good ones, the smart ones, the sophisticated ones, and the best ones, and if you don’t see it our way you are…etc, etc, etc”. They sound EXACTLY like the far-right religious zealots. They sound INDISTINGUISHABLE from them, except, of course, for what they rant about. Too bad. The Republic has probably had it because, in significant part because of the insanity of the Left, there is no longer any rational discussion of the great issues of this society. So the Republic will fall. ---
**Author:** ![magellan01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@magellan01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magellan01)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-fox-news-kill-this-mans-mother/616215/46 "2012-03-19T23:46:11Z")
_Shhhhh, Bemused. Do you want to be taken to Room 101?_ ---
**Author:** ![gamerunknown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6bbea6/32.png) [@gamerunknown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gamerunknown)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-fox-news-kill-this-mans-mother/616215/47 "2012-03-19T23:50:52Z")
> [@](#): > > Looks like disinformational agitprop to me Yeah, I’d go as far as to say Murdoch himself may be behind it. > [@](#): > > And then, they insist that they are both rational and intelligent!!! … So the Republic will fall. Uhm, right. Well, hope you and your Ubermensch buddies are around to pick up the pieces. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-fox-news-kill-this-mans-mother/616215/48 "2012-03-19T23:55:01Z")
> [@Bemused](#): > > Too bad. The Republic has probably had it because, in significant part because of the insanity of the Left, there is no longer any rational discussion of the great issues of this society. So the Republic will fall. I’m confused. Do you think that the question of whether Obama is a Muslim deserves rational discussion? How about death panels? How about his birthplace? How about Bush conspiring to cause 9/11? (Yes, there are left wing kooks also - the difference is that Truthers don’t get sympathy from those in power, unlike Birthers.) Do you think that all questions have two equally legitimate sides? And do you think that Fox actually is dedicated to giving a “fair and balanced” account of the News, as opposed to one side? ---
**Author:** ![LurkerInNJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ed655f/32.png) [@LurkerInNJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkerInNJ)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2012, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-fox-news-kill-this-mans-mother/616215/49 "2012-03-20T00:12:04Z")
This part sounds logical, as in most people know someone who thinks like this, Fox news or not. _People my mother’s age, in their prime years during the age of the Fairness Doctrine, were literally indoctrinated to thinking all news is true or they wouldn’t be able to broadcast it. My mother was uneducated and a lifelong Republican, back when it truly was my father’s Republican Party. About ten days before mother died she tripped and fell and refused to go to the doctor, saying Obama would get her information and use it against her and that his death panels would decide her fate, instead of her. No amount of logic or love could convince her otherwise._ Then he goes on to talk about … State Rape? \*Rape by the state is now in effect in Texas and Virginia, and being proposed by GOPers in several other Republican controlled states. No Democrats are passing laws like this. It is the Republican Party that has become America’s Taliban by methodically assaulting women’s rights. The Texas law does not provide for free and voluntary consent by the woman. The law states that before the sonogram that is conducted prior to an abortion, the pregnant woman must sign a form that is called the “abortion and sonogram election,” which includes the statements that “Texas law requires that I receive a sonogram prior to receiving an abortion,” and that she is “making this election of my own free will and without coercion.” How is this voluntary consent when the ultrasound is mandated by law? When our planet is dying from global warming, over population, pollution, etc., what possible reasons can legislators have to pass laws like this, which is tantamount to state rape. \* ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2012, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-fox-news-kill-this-mans-mother/616215/50 "2012-03-20T00:12:58Z")
Legally contribute to her death? Not in any criminal sense, and not civilly either. Ethically and morally, however, I fully believe that misinforming people on health matters can cause culpability for death. If I told people not to seek medical care and they relied on it, even if they were crazy in relying on it, I would certainly feel partly responsible. News is important business. Sometimes people will die if they rely on bullshit news. Is Fox bullshit news? They’ve reported and I’ve decided that they are bullshit news. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2012, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-fox-news-kill-this-mans-mother/616215/51 "2012-03-20T00:56:48Z")
> [@magellan01](#): > > You confuse any interest in your opinion with my puzzlement of you coming into the thread and commenting on my ability to have divined the thrust of the OP by reading merely the headline—without commenting on the thread itself. But now that you have shared your thoughts, I see that you agree with my assessment. Excellent. I strongly suggest you adopt a strategy of agreeing with my assessments from here on out, as it has served you so well here. Fair enough. I’ll keep exercising reason, you stick to your blind squirrel approach, and occasionally we twain shall meet. > [@Bemused](#): > > As I read through this thread, I shake my head and again understand why I label modern american liberalism as a mental illness. > > It isn’t the views the liberal holds, it is how the liberal holds those views. Thus, Fox News promotes hatred, people who listen to Fox News are bigots, or stupid, or don’t have both oars in the water. And some people are willing to give credence to the screed that heads this thread. > > And then, they insist that they are both rational and intelligent!!! And tolerant. Tolerant!!! ROTFLMAO. > > Reasonable people can reasonably disagree. Two people can look at the same set of facts and reach very different conclusions from them. > > The essential - the KEY feature of a Republic is that the people are both tolerant of, and willing to listen to and consider, different viewpoints. But the modern american Left has almost totally lost that ability. > > In fact, modern american liberalism has become a religion, and modern american liberals are bigots exactly the same way as those on the far religious right are bigots: “if you aren’t with us, you are against us”, and “we’re the good ones, the smart ones, the sophisticated ones, and the best ones, and if you don’t see it our way you are…etc, etc, etc”. They sound EXACTLY like the far-right religious zealots. They sound INDISTINGUISHABLE from them, except, of course, for what they rant about. > > Too bad. The Republic has probably had it because, in significant part because of the insanity of the Left, there is no longer any rational discussion of the great issues of this society. So the Republic will fall. Cool screed, bro. Giving it a test drive while you wait for an on-topic thread to use it in? ---
**Author:** ![artemis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/91b2a8/32.png) [@artemis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/artemis)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2012, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-fox-news-kill-this-mans-mother/616215/52 "2012-03-20T02:53:39Z")
> [@DoctorJ](#): > > My grandmother is 82 years old and has never shown any signs of dementia. She lives by herself, takes care of her own affairs, etc. > > She keeps Fox News on for most of the day and sort of half-watches it. She doesn’t pay enough attention to really understand what they’re talking about, or to question it. (Like many in her generation, she believes they couldn’t say things on TV if they weren’t true.) What she gets from it is an impression, and the impression is pretty much a parody of Fox News… Your grandmother sounds like my late grandmother - except she wasn’t watching Fox News, but listening to shortwave radio broadcasts. And you absolutely couldn’t convince her that the government wasn’t secretly building concentration camps in which all the HIV-positive people in the US were going to be incarcerated. (That’s the only one of her crazy conspiracy theories I remember right now, but I know she had several, and they were all just as whacked.) For some reason many elderly people who aren’t technically demented seem to be unusually susceptible to paranoid conspiracy theories, and I can certainly see how in some cases that paranoia could be dangerous or even fatal. I don’t see how we can hold Fox News (or any other media outlet) responsible for any resulting tragedies, but I do wish the media in general would remember that not everyone watching has a full set of bulbs in their chandelier and take that into account when they write their broadcasts. ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2012, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-fox-news-kill-this-mans-mother/616215/53 "2012-03-20T03:59:44Z")
No doubt that Fox News traffics in misinformation. But if this story reeked anymore of bullshit, you’d think you were in the middle of a stockyard. And even if this story were true (and that’s a Mt. Everest-sized _if_), then it would mean simply that this woman was an idiot of the highest order. ---
**Author:** ![Acid\_Lamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Acid\_Lamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acid_Lamp)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2012, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-fox-news-kill-this-mans-mother/616215/54 "2012-03-20T12:01:05Z")
> [@Bemused](#): > > As I read through this thread, I shake my head and again understand why I label modern american liberalism as a mental illness. > > It isn’t the views the liberal holds, it is how the liberal holds those views. Thus, Fox News promotes hatred, people who listen to Fox News are bigots, or stupid, or don’t have both oars in the water. And some people are willing to give credence to the screed that heads this thread. > > And then, they insist that they are both rational and intelligent!!! And tolerant. _Tolerant!!!_ ROTFLMAO. > > Reasonable people can reasonably disagree. Two people can look at the same set of facts and reach very different conclusions from them. > > The essential - the KEY feature of a Republic is that the people are both tolerant of, and willing to listen to and consider, different viewpoints. But the modern american Left has almost totally lost that ability. > > In fact, modern american liberalism has become a religion, and modern american liberals are bigots exactly the same way as those on the far religious right are bigots: “if you aren’t with us, you are against us”, and “we’re the good ones, the smart ones, the sophisticated ones, and the best ones, and if you don’t see it our way you are…etc, etc, etc”. They sound EXACTLY like the far-right religious zealots. They sound INDISTINGUISHABLE from them, except, of course, for what they rant about. > > Too bad. The Republic has probably had it because, in significant part because of the insanity of the Left, there is no longer any rational discussion of the great issues of this society. So the Republic will fall. Consider me **Bemused** by this post. 😉 Pretty much everyone who has posted in here has come down against the rant in the OP. That would seem to indicate that the Left is a little more sensible then you may have thought, or you are just going to move the goalposts around until the results suit you. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2012, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-fox-news-kill-this-mans-mother/616215/55 "2012-03-20T14:52:59Z")
> [@Bemused](#): > > The essential - the KEY feature of a Republic is that the people are both tolerant of, and willing to listen to and consider, different viewpoints. But the modern american Left has almost totally lost that ability. Either the US stopped being a Republic [a really long time ago](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preston_Brooks#Sumner_assault), or you totally made this up. ---
**Author:** ![D\_Odds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/d_odds/32/2882_2.png) [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2012, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-fox-news-kill-this-mans-mother/616215/56 "2012-03-20T20:59:53Z")
> [@joebuck20](#): > > And even if this story were true (and that’s a Mt. Everest-sized _if_), then it would mean simply that this woman was an idiot of the highest order. Though there are plenty of people with tons of stupid to spare, this is exactly what I was thinking. Probably not true, but if it is, I believe that there really is a thing as “too stupid to live” and this crosses that line. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2012, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-fox-news-kill-this-mans-mother/616215/57 "2012-03-22T06:32:56Z")
Fox News is reprehensible but not responsible. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-fox-news-kill-this-mans-mother/616215.md?page=2)