Fox news is run by very intelligent politicians and lobbyists who know exactly what they’re doing. They know their average viewer (the ones who largely believe that the propaganda is actually news) are the ones who lack a fundamental set of critical thinking skills.
Do you think Kooiman actually believed Obama would do something so tone deaf as to fund a single museum out of his own pocket? Forgetting about the broader racist content, what would privately funding a museum actually mean? You can’t even get past the first moment’s thought about it before running into enough questions to put the story down as absurd. But that’s not the point. The point is to say it, get the credulous to believe it and even past it’s debunking leave the average viewer with a negative impression that reinforces their malignant viewpoint. He’s a closeted Muslim, after all, so of course it’s something he’d like to do, etc.
This particular lie has gained “legs” beyond Fox News. I was just forwarded this e-mail glurge:
They fixed up the problem of the non-existent Washington Muslim museum by changing it to a real and existing Muslim Museum in Pascagoula*. But that museum isn’t federally funded, so it’s not shut down.
Relevant Snopes site:
*I have to admit that I’m amazed that there’s a Muslim Museum in Pascagoula, MS
I just checked the National Report website, and apparently it DOES identify the International Museum of Muslim Cultures in Pascagoula. Did the earlier “debunking” report in Gawker* screw up in saying that the museum was in Washington DC? Or has the National Report version been changed to fit in with current glurge?
*The Media Matters report Gawker cites doesn’t say anything about the museum being nonexistent, or about it being in Washington DC
For me, the quintessential Fox News is Sean Hannity. He’s the complete package, the genuine article. Used to watch him once in a while, get my blood pressure up and then do some exercise. Trouble was, ten minutes of him makes my tai chi too much like* tae kwan do*.
Anyway, I happened to watch when the shattering news came out that they had FOUND the WMD! There all along, right there in that warehouse. And he demanded…demanded! mind you…that Democrats forward their wretched apologies forthwith, they should grovel for forgiveness at the feet of The Leader.
And then, in the space of a few hours, the news broke that what had been discovered were a bunch of rusty old shells, totally out of date. Dangerous, yes, to be sure, dangerous to anyone who tried to handle them. But they were WMD like Pee Wee Herman is Gandhi.
I figured, I’ll tune in tomorrow, see how he deals with this, what story or excuse will he come up with. Should have guessed, really. Nada. Nothing. Didn’t even so much as mention it, it never happened, poof! gone. What a knob.
Amen. I used to get my lunch break at 7p.m., and would eat in my truck with the radio on. In the waning days of G.W.B.'s presidency, as the Nation was slipping into recession, I heard Hannity parse the definition of the term “recession”, and otherwise spend every day denying that we were in a recession.
As soon as Obama is elected, Hannity want’s to know what’s going to happen with “Obama’s Recession”. What a douchebag. It boggles my mind that he fools anyone.
Haven’t y’all heard ? These days he’s reporting on the Liberal Shutdown. I dunno.
I’m not even American, only see snippets of the guy via Jon Stewart, and already I know that when I’m God-Emperor of the Universe there’ll be an Imperial legate whose only job will be to slap Sean Hannity in his supercilious face every time it looks like he’s going to open his mouth. Can’t deny, the man has a very special gift.
I have a lot of respect for Fox News: they give their audience what they desire: reassurance. I mean you have to be pretty messed in the head or hopelessly doe eyed to watch a network with their record of howling inaccuracies. Normal people watch news to be informed: modern conservatives seek stroke.
Of course there’s a lot of professional jealousy involved: can you imagine having an audience with that level of gullibility? It’s like money in the bank!
Someone I know was using Fox news as a cite for how Christians are being persecuted in America:smack: My response was that Fox was incredibly biased and i posted some links about the same story that included huffington post. Their response was that sure fox is biased but so were all the others especially huffington post:confused: I thought really:confused: Fox posts stuff that are obvious untruths with no cites coz yanno they are not true and Huff posts more accurate info that you can check because they have a shitload of cites - and they are the same:confused:
This thread is filling my heart with Fox nostalgia. IMO Fox peaked with Beck. Ever since he left they just haven’t been as fun. They seem weary.
The socialist creeping sharia death panels miasma gets the most attention but I always liked the smaller controversies.
The apology tour
Bowing to foreign leaders
The terrorist fist jab
Paper clip-gate
Ripping Michelle for trying to make kids healthy
Wooden Easter eggs
Dijon mustard on hamburger
You didn’t build that
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?
And also - is it about time that something was done to hold news organisations to account for stupidity that can’t be anything but wilfull? Is there anybody that would have standing to sue Fox over this story for damage to their reputation?
Part of the problem is that while they are a main cash cow for News Corp (as opposed to Fox Business, which bleeds red) their equipment and perks lag behind their competitors. So while they have a great top and bottom line, and their celebrity anchors receive generous salaries, the quality of the offices have stayed the same since the early 1990s, when they were a young, scrappy and upcoming network. The bathroom stalls have embarrassing gaps in them, the equipment is dated, the suits chintzy.
So if the talking heads seem like they’re phoning it in, it’s probably because they are.
Kinda reminds me of a book I remember fondly, by Donald E. Westlake, of Dortmunder fame amongst the Select. Wrote one called Trust Me On This, built around the premise of reporters and writers who are stuck writing for a rag like the National Enquirer. Well, it is, just transparently disguised.
Anyway, thing is, the rag pays totally great, at least double the money anybody could make elsewhere. The catch is, their credibility is shot, they can’t work anywhere else because nobody will have them after they’ve debased themselves so. Make oodles of money working for crazy rich people and if they get fired, they’re dead.
Fox kind of reminds me of that.
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.
The worst part about the Photoshopping is it isn’t even good. Did they have somebody’s kid do it? The one of Steinberg is laughably terrible. What human face has those proportions? He doesn’t even have a forehead.
As long as fox doesn’t start organizing torchlit marches while chanting “wir mussen den democraters ausridden!” then their contribution to the escelating hyperpolarization will hopefully just reach an absurdist crescendo.
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 said, I stand corrected. Those wishing to be informed get their news from the printed word or if they are doing something else, NPR. Then again, I’ve known people who like watching Anderson Cooper over dinner.