# Has Fox news ever gone this far as a propaganda machine? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 3, 2013, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-fox-news-ever-gone-this-far-as-a-propaganda-machine/670284 "2013-10-03T18:24:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![bldysabba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecccb3/32.png) [@bldysabba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bldysabba)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2013, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-fox-news-ever-gone-this-far-as-a-propaganda-machine/670284/101 "2013-10-07T06:27:01Z")
> [@aNewLeaf](#): > > He really does a pretty good job on some stories. Did you see his interview with Richard Dawkins? Get the full version, it’s worth it. You know I looked it up because of this post, and it reduced my respect for Jon Stewart a bit. Sounded like an apologist for religion. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2013, 8:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-fox-news-ever-gone-this-far-as-a-propaganda-machine/670284/102 "2013-10-07T08:27:06Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > Is it too early to forward my resume? Get back in the line, please. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2013, 11:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-fox-news-ever-gone-this-far-as-a-propaganda-machine/670284/103 "2013-10-07T11:35:48Z")
> [@Measure\_for\_Measure](#): > > Terrorized? Maybe. Titillated? If so, Fox News would have more viewers: they choose their anchors pretty deliberately for their pulchritude, to an extent beyond that of the other networks. Pandering to people’s desire to feel self-righteous fury at THE OTHER [sup]TM[/sup] counts as a form of titillation, AFAIAC. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2013, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-fox-news-ever-gone-this-far-as-a-propaganda-machine/670284/104 "2013-10-07T11:43:58Z")
> [@bldysabba](#): > > You know I looked it up because of this post, and it reduced my respect for Jon Stewart a bit. Sounded like an apologist for religion. Would that necessarily be a bad thing, given the context of the interview (I haven’t seen it, but ISTM that asking an author probing questions and making him defend his thesis is more productive than just congratulating him on how good he sticks it to the people you both disagree with)? ---
**Author:** ![aNewLeaf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ac91a4/32.png) [@aNewLeaf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aNewLeaf)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2013, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-fox-news-ever-gone-this-far-as-a-propaganda-machine/670284/105 "2013-10-07T12:22:25Z")
> [@bldysabba](#): > > You know I looked it up because of this post, and it reduced my respect for Jon Stewart a bit. Sounded like an apologist for religion. Sounded to me like his personal beliefs aren’t as agnostic as is usual for ‘left wingers’. But that’s my opinion. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2013, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-fox-news-ever-gone-this-far-as-a-propaganda-machine/670284/106 "2013-10-07T16:04:44Z")
> [@bengangmo](#): > > From time to time, you do hear about “reputable” news sites being taken in by spoofs and parodies - mostly for their “weird news” segments. > > What I have to wonder though - just how does a story, that just screams “check sources” slip like that? Fox & Friends again. Makes me wonder if they’re actually a broadcast version of The Onion and nobody noticed. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2013, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-fox-news-ever-gone-this-far-as-a-propaganda-machine/670284/107 "2013-10-07T16:21:01Z")
> [@bengangmo](#): > > From time to time, you do hear about “reputable” news sites being taken in by spoofs and parodies - mostly for their “weird news” segments. > > What I have to wonder though - just how does a story, that just screams “check sources” slip like that? Same way [this one](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=696385) did. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2013, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-fox-news-ever-gone-this-far-as-a-propaganda-machine/670284/108 "2013-10-07T16:22:43Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > And there’s so many of them, its like a non-stop audition. How many of these talking heads can the egosystem support? All of them saying essentially the same things until somebody gets a moments attention by saying something totally nuts. Or repeats something somebody said that is totally nuts but with the proviso “people are saying…” Which his true, he just said it, and, technically, he’s people. So its a fact, people _are_ saying that Malia is a clone, and Obama sacrificed the original to his Dark Lord. :dubious: Well, they are **now.** ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2013, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-fox-news-ever-gone-this-far-as-a-propaganda-machine/670284/109 "2013-10-07T16:24:06Z")
> [@Measure\_for\_Measure](#): > > Terrorized? Maybe. Titillated? If so, Fox News would have more viewers: they choose their anchors pretty deliberately for their pulchritude, to an extent beyond that of the other networks. That probably accounts for the viewers they **do** have. ---
**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:** [October 7, 2013, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-fox-news-ever-gone-this-far-as-a-propaganda-machine/670284/110 "2013-10-07T16:32:03Z")
> [@Measure\_for\_Measure](#): > > Terrorized? Maybe. Titillated? If so, Fox News would have more viewers: they choose their anchors pretty deliberately for their pulchritude, to an extent beyond that of the other networks. Pulchritude? what? Is that a fancy word for cleavage? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2013, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-fox-news-ever-gone-this-far-as-a-propaganda-machine/670284/111 "2013-10-07T17:02:26Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > Pulchritude? what? > > Is that a fancy word for cleavage? Yes. Yes, it is. (But see “callypigian.”) ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2013, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-fox-news-ever-gone-this-far-as-a-propaganda-machine/670284/112 "2013-10-07T17:47:53Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Yes. Yes, it is. (But see “callypigian.”) Liar ! It’s just a 10 dollar word for “hot”. Callypigian does more specifically refer to packing junk in the trunk though. ETA : I love, positively _love_, that Wiktionary provides “bootylicious” as a synonym for callypigian. Greeks be gangsta, yo. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2013, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-fox-news-ever-gone-this-far-as-a-propaganda-machine/670284/113 "2013-10-07T18:23:02Z")
Booty aside, > [@kaylasdad99](#): > > Pandering to people’s desire to feel self-righteous fury at THE OTHER [sup]TM[/sup] counts as a form of titillation, AFAIAC. Joe Muto was an assistant producer for Bill O’Reilly. When pitching stories they would try to generate outrage. Because that was the key to ratings. They assumed that their audience was pretty gullible. And all of the production staff was in on the joke: Muto didn’t know how much of the audience was. O’Reilly himself studied the daily Nielsen report very closely. So that’s the keyword at Fox News: outrage. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2013, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-fox-news-ever-gone-this-far-as-a-propaganda-machine/670284/114 "2013-10-07T18:27:48Z")
> [@Measure\_for\_Measure](#): > > Booty aside, Joe Muto was an assistant producer for Bill O’Reilly. When pitching stories they would try to generate outrage. Because that was the key to ratings. They assumed that their audience was pretty gullible. And all of the production staff was in on the joke: Muto didn’t know how much of the audience was. O’Reilly himself studied the daily Nielsen report very closely. > > So that’s the keyword at Fox News: outrage. They don’t seem to understand (or maybe they do?) that, outside their locked-in base of aging white guys who yell at their televisions, they only ever generate rage **at** Fox News. ---
**Author:** ![bldysabba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecccb3/32.png) [@bldysabba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bldysabba)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2013, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-fox-news-ever-gone-this-far-as-a-propaganda-machine/670284/115 "2013-10-07T18:33:19Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > Would that necessarily be a bad thing, given the context of the interview (I haven’t seen it, but ISTM that asking an author probing questions and making him defend his thesis is more productive than just congratulating him on how good he sticks it to the people you both disagree with)? You should see it. The ‘probing’ questions he asks are about how science doesn’t know how abiogenesis happened, life after death, how science can be just as bad as religion, how religion can do some good. Shitty stuff. The pity is, Dawkins doesn’t do a great job answering him, it doesn’t seem like he was expecting so much defence of religion, because the book he had come in to promote was an autobiography. ETA: So yeah, in the context of the interview, this stuff was even worse > [@aNewLeaf](#): > > Sounded to me like his personal beliefs aren’t as agnostic as is usual for ‘left wingers’. But that’s my opinion. I have no idea what is usual or not for left wingers(I’m not from the US), but yeah it certainly seemed like he personally is religious, although not stupid with it. ---
**Author:** ![bldysabba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecccb3/32.png) [@bldysabba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bldysabba)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2013, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-fox-news-ever-gone-this-far-as-a-propaganda-machine/670284/116 "2013-10-07T18:35:17Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > Pulchritude? what? I have always maintained that pulchritude is one of those words that sounds exactly like the opposite of what it means. Reading it always gives me this sense of rot and disease. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2013, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-fox-news-ever-gone-this-far-as-a-propaganda-machine/670284/117 "2013-10-07T18:46:42Z")
> [@bldysabba](#): > > I have always maintained that pulchritude is one of those words that sounds exactly like the opposite of what it means. Reading it always gives me this sense of rot and disease. I’m very sorry, Ms. Jones, but you have a severe head-to-toe case of somatic pulchritude. I can only treat it through traumatic invasive coition. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2013, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-fox-news-ever-gone-this-far-as-a-propaganda-machine/670284/118 "2013-10-07T18:48:49Z")
If more money were to be made pandering to liberals instead of conservatives, how long do you think it would take Fox to do a complete transformation? ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2013, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-fox-news-ever-gone-this-far-as-a-propaganda-machine/670284/119 "2013-10-07T18:49:10Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > I’m very sorry, Ms. Jones, but you have a severe head-to-toe case of somatic pulchritude. I can only treat it through traumatic invasive coition. Oh no, not another breathalyzer! ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2013, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-fox-news-ever-gone-this-far-as-a-propaganda-machine/670284/120 "2013-10-07T18:54:31Z")
> [@Rhythmdvl](#): > > Oh no, not another breathalyzer! No, no, different procedure. Please sign this release . . . [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-fox-news-ever-gone-this-far-as-a-propaganda-machine/670284.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-fox-news-ever-gone-this-far-as-a-propaganda-machine/670284.md?page=7)