# Do any intelligent conservatives still take Fox News seriously? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 28, 2009, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-intelligent-conservatives-still-take-fox-news-seriously/494649 "2009-04-28T18:25:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2009, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-intelligent-conservatives-still-take-fox-news-seriously/494649/141 "2009-04-29T19:39:05Z")
Geraldo did recant the Satanist Underground crap sometime back in the 90’s. I remember seeing him once on his CNBC show (before it turned into all OJ all the time), talking about how he had bought into the “believe the chidren” argument and said that he now knows it was all “a bunch of crap. I regret that I ever gave it any credence at all.” That doesn’t repair anybody’s life, but at least it was an acknowledgement. I remember it well because I saw that Satan’s Underground special, and found it as contemptible a piece of television as I’ve ever seen. I would have found televised scat porn less objectionable. One thing I remeber in particular about that special was his attempt to somehow implicate Ozzy Osbourne in that whole, imaginary “underground,” because Ozzy was popular with the kinds of kids who killed cats and wore black. He brought Ozzy on as a guest to interrogate him, and of course poor Ozzy was totally out to sea. He tried to stammer out a few bewildered responses to Geraldo’s insinuations, then Geraldo cut him off and went off on some other tangent (I think he was expecting Ozzy to be some kind of snarling, Satan praising wrestling heavy and was disappointed to see how innocuous he really was). I’m surprised Sharon let Ozzy do that. The guy is confused enough when he’s making a sandwich in his own kitchen. Throwing him to Geraldo in full crusader mode is just cruel. ---
**Author:** ![Carl\_Corey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Carl\_Corey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carl_Corey)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2009, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-intelligent-conservatives-still-take-fox-news-seriously/494649/142 "2009-04-29T20:52:40Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > I would have found televised scat porn less objectionable. Yeah, but you say that about _everything_. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2009, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-intelligent-conservatives-still-take-fox-news-seriously/494649/143 "2009-04-29T21:21:44Z")
> [@Scylla](#): > > Will somebody please explain why “european universal healthcare” is bad and “universal healthcare” isn’t? Because it’s European (foreign and not American)? Because of the “not invented here” thing? Hell if I know. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2009, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-intelligent-conservatives-still-take-fox-news-seriously/494649/144 "2009-04-29T21:51:08Z")
> [@magellan01](#): > > I was with you until I viewed the video. He clearly shows Obama reading a question from the screen. I wasn’t confused by that at all. The cropped scene is not at all confusing; it creates a clear impression that Obama is reading a speech written by him or one of his staff to convey his views. Unfortunately, this impression is false, and deliberately manufactured to be false. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2009, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-intelligent-conservatives-still-take-fox-news-seriously/494649/145 "2009-04-29T21:54:17Z")
> [@LilShieste](#): > > I hope I helped clear up the confusion for you. Attempting to clear up **Shodan** ’s confusion is like attempting to clear up the Sargasso Sea with a spaghetti strainer. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2009, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-intelligent-conservatives-still-take-fox-news-seriously/494649/146 "2009-04-30T02:08:49Z")
I was just surfing around a few minutes ago and stopped on Hannity’s show. He was doing some kind of tendentious, retrospective video package montage of Obama’s first 100 days. Underneath it he was playing the theme to _The Omen_. You know? The movie about the Antichrist? You can’t tell me that was accidental. There is no left wing equivalent to that kind of garbage. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2009, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-intelligent-conservatives-still-take-fox-news-seriously/494649/147 "2009-04-30T02:34:54Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > I was just surfing around a few minutes ago and stopped on Hannity’s show. He was doing some kind of tendentious, retrospective video package montage of Obama’s first 100 days. Underneath it he was playing the theme to _The Omen_. You know? The movie about the Antichrist? You can’t tell me that was accidental. There is no left wing equivalent to that kind of garbage. He’s yet to respond to Olbermann’s $1000 per second waterboarding challenge. I wish they’d take that national to make it an amount of money that he couldn’t ignore without seeming a coward. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2009, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-intelligent-conservatives-still-take-fox-news-seriously/494649/148 "2009-04-30T02:36:17Z")
I’m sure you’ll find that it was a complete coincidence, and anyway, to \*\*Shodan’s \*\* trained ear, it sounded like the theme from Star Wars. ---
**Author:** ![BigBertha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d78d45/32.png) [@BigBertha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigBertha)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2009, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-intelligent-conservatives-still-take-fox-news-seriously/494649/149 "2009-04-30T03:28:08Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > the inflatable, idiot fuck doll? Does anyone ever feel informed after watching that show? > > . I’m trying to figure out who that would be. Hannity is getting weird lately i have noticed, what with the 'liberal translation." ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2009, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-intelligent-conservatives-still-take-fox-news-seriously/494649/150 "2009-04-30T03:43:41Z")
> [@Tamara+](#): > > I’m trying to figure out who that would be. Gretchen Carlson. Her qualification is that she’s a former Miss America, and she wears short skirts. She’s also an idiot fundy demagogue. I believe she’s probably the single dumbest person on the network. > [@](#): > > Hannity is getting weird lately i have noticed, what with the 'liberal translation." I think Jon Stewart said it best when he observed that for years we’d though Alan Colmes was doing nothing on that show, but “apparently he was the sandbag holding down the hot air crazy balloon.” ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2009, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-intelligent-conservatives-still-take-fox-news-seriously/494649/151 "2009-04-30T05:04:09Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > Much of my hatred for Geraldo Rivera is that I blame him for a large part of the Satanic Panic (the latter day witch hunts in the late 1980s/early 1990s that ruined many lives). I wasted too much of my life investigating the there that wasn’t there. And I worked across the street from Al Capone’s Vaults and it didn’t prevent my car stereo from being stolen. I blame Geraldo. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2009, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-intelligent-conservatives-still-take-fox-news-seriously/494649/152 "2009-04-30T05:20:05Z")
Dude, Geraldo stole your stereo? Doesn’t anybody pay the guy? Kur Vonnegut’s daughter was married to Geraldo. Said the happiest day of his life was when his daughter told him she was getting a divorce. ---
**Author:** ![magellan01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@magellan01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magellan01)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2009, 7:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-intelligent-conservatives-still-take-fox-news-seriously/494649/153 "2009-04-30T07:17:41Z")
> [@Steve\_MB](#): > > The cropped scene is not at all confusing; it creates a clear impression that Obama is reading a speech written by him or one of his staff to convey his views. > > Unfortunately, this impression is false, and deliberately manufactured to be false. I don’t think it conveys that at all. If it were what you say, the type would be larger, the slide better. And his read would be different. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2009, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-intelligent-conservatives-still-take-fox-news-seriously/494649/154 "2009-04-30T14:00:41Z")
No, I think **Steve** is right. One of Fox’s favorite memes is that Obama “depends on” Teleprompters (thus reassuring their viewers that a black man can’t _really_ be that smart). That’s probably exactly what they were trying to reinforce ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2009, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-intelligent-conservatives-still-take-fox-news-seriously/494649/155 "2009-04-30T14:09:57Z")
I thought the primary message was supposed to be “See? The Dummycrats are just as dumb as us. And our guy didn’t even need a teleprompter.” ---
**Author:** ![magellan01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@magellan01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magellan01)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2009, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-intelligent-conservatives-still-take-fox-news-seriously/494649/156 "2009-04-30T14:33:30Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > No, I think **Steve** is right. One of Fox’s favorite memes is that Obama “depends on” Teleprompters (thus reassuring their viewers that a black man can’t _really_ be that smart). That’s probably exactly what they were trying to reinforce Oh, come on. You’re forgetting that he’s half white. Surely the white side can read.:rolleyes: And can you point to any other instance of any speaker who has ever used a teleprompter where he had to turn his back on his audience in order to read it? ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2009, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-intelligent-conservatives-still-take-fox-news-seriously/494649/157 "2009-04-30T15:47:14Z")
Well, will you look at that. Karl Rove, of all people, in a [Wall Street Journal op-ed](http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124105268584271249.html) seems to have been watching the same FOX clip that so incensed our good **Cynic** : > [@](#): > > From Mr. Obama’s Denver acceptance speech through the campaign, Mr. Obama did not publicly utter the phrase “universal health care.” Instead, his campaign ran ads attacking “government-run health care” as “extreme.” Now Mr. Obama is asking, as he did at a townhall meeting last month, “Why not do a universal health care system like the European countries?” ---
**Author:** ![Tyrrell\_McAllister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tyrrell_mcallister/32/16772_2.png) [@Tyrrell\_McAllister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tyrrell_McAllister)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2009, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-intelligent-conservatives-still-take-fox-news-seriously/494649/158 "2009-04-30T16:21:30Z")
Yeah, but you can tell from Rove’s textual inflection that Obama was reading someone else’s question. ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2009, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-intelligent-conservatives-still-take-fox-news-seriously/494649/159 "2009-04-30T16:22:47Z")
> [@Tyrrell\_McAllister](#): > > Yeah, but you can tell from Rove’s textual inflection that Obama was reading someone else’s question. _snerk_ Good one. ---
**Author:** ![42fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/4/b487fb/32.png) [@42fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/42fish)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2009, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-intelligent-conservatives-still-take-fox-news-seriously/494649/160 "2009-04-30T16:28:46Z")
> [@EddyTeddyFreddy](#): > > Well, will you look at that. Karl Rove, of all people, in a [Wall Street Journal op-ed](http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124105268584271249.html) seems to have been watching the same FOX clip that so incensed our good **Cynic** : Doesn’t quite answer the title question. Does answer the related, “Do any amoral, manipulative conservatives pretend to take Fox News seriously to further their agenda?” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-intelligent-conservatives-still-take-fox-news-seriously/494649.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-intelligent-conservatives-still-take-fox-news-seriously/494649.md?page=9)