# What can we do about Fox News? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [October 24, 2012, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-we-do-about-fox-news/638693 "2012-10-24T03:20:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![thunderdog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8797f3/32.png) [@thunderdog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thunderdog)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2012, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-we-do-about-fox-news/638693/21 "2012-10-24T13:36:33Z")
> [@Clothahump](#): > > \*\*What can we do about Fox News? > \*\* > > Simple - watch it. After a while, you’ll realize how badly you’ve been lied to over the years by the mainstream media. > > FOX ain’t perfect, but they are a helluva lot closer to “fair and balanced” than anything else out there. Best answer… There is a reason why Fox actually has viewers, compared to othes cable news channels and the mainstream media. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2012, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-we-do-about-fox-news/638693/22 "2012-10-24T13:47:49Z")
Since this has inevitably devolved into a discussion about whether Fox is all that bad, I offer this tidbit: my work has Fox News on in their lunchroom and when I ate there a couple days ago for about a half an hour, _none_ of the commercials were political. In Florida. This tells me that advertisers, _who know who their target audience is because they are paid to do so_, know that everyone who watches Fox has _already made up their mind_ about politics and will not change it. In other words, viewers of other stations are more open minded than Fox, at least in the minds of political advertisers. ---
**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 24, 2012, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-we-do-about-fox-news/638693/23 "2012-10-24T14:13:59Z")
> [@HoneyBadgerDC](#): > > Conservatives know how to pick out the bullshit just like liberals do. Well, that’s the problem - apparently they are not able to do that. Check out the other thread for examples of how Fox news viewers are significantly less informed about world events and science. They become this way not because of a “bias” on the part of Fox News, but because Fox News feeds them falsehoods and absolute untruths. The other problem is that Fox News does not just present a right-leaning point of view. It feeds paranoia and anger, and whips people up by using exaggeration and falsehoods about politics. They do this to get and keep an audience, and therefore make money. It’s all about the money. It’s a tried and true technique that’s been used to control populations throughout history; get people scared of “the other”. Make sure they don’t ever, ever listen to the “other” side, because it is not just wrong, but evil. Feed them lies and misinformation about the “other”. Tell them you have the only truth. ---
**Author:** ![Lightnin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightnin/32/180_2.png) [@Lightnin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightnin)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2012, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-we-do-about-fox-news/638693/24 "2012-10-24T14:14:42Z")
> [@Clothahump](#): > > \*\*What can we do about Fox News? > \*\* > > Simple - watch it. After a while, you’ll realize how badly you’ve been lied to over the years by the mainstream media. > > FOX ain’t perfect, but they are a helluva lot closer to “fair and balanced” than anything else out there. Oh, so \*that \*must be the reason why Fox News, a few years or so ago, employed almost every potential Republican presidential candidate. _Fairness_. ---
**Author:** ![puddleglum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puddleglum/32/137_2.png) [@puddleglum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puddleglum)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2012, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-we-do-about-fox-news/638693/25 "2012-10-24T14:52:13Z")
The reason that Fox News exists is that half the country got tired of hearing the news with a liberal bias and wanted to hear it with a conservative bias. If the mainstream media were not so liberal there would a much smaller audience for Fox News. The solution is for the mainstream media to hire more conservatives so that they can point out where the news is biased and thus produce a better more fair version of the news. This won’t happen because it would require members of the media to admit they have a bias and associate with actual conservatives who are just NOTD. ---
**Author:** ![BlackKnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eb8c5e/32.png) [@BlackKnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlackKnight)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2012, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-we-do-about-fox-news/638693/26 "2012-10-24T14:55:20Z")
Fox News is mainstream media. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2012, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-we-do-about-fox-news/638693/27 "2012-10-24T15:21:38Z")
> [@puddleglum](#): > > The reason that Fox News exists is that half the country got tired of hearing the news with a liberal bias and wanted to hear it with a conservative bias. If the mainstream media were not so liberal there would a much smaller audience for Fox News. The solution is for the mainstream media to hire more conservatives so that they can point out where the news is biased and thus produce a better more fair version of the news. > This won’t happen because it would require members of the media to admit they have a bias and associate with actual conservatives who are just NOTD. Nope, as it is now the evidence shows that it is/was a good number of people with ignorant ideas that yearned for an outfit that justified them. ---
**Author:** ![Jas09](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d07c76/32.png) [@Jas09](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jas09)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2012, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-we-do-about-fox-news/638693/28 "2012-10-24T15:48:08Z")
Just ignore it as best you can and go on living in the real world. Form opinions from facts, not from other people’s opinions. Rebut stupidity when you see it. The usual “good citizen” stuff. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2012, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-we-do-about-fox-news/638693/29 "2012-10-24T16:49:40Z")
In discussions like this it is important to point out how broken the bias compass is with many posters from the right. Opinionated and clearly biased sites like [DemocraticUnderground.com](http://DemocraticUnderground.com) are to be avoided and I do when discussions on many subjects take place here, and this is because more than once their unreliable evidence “burned” me. However, there is one time when paradoxically those sites \*\*are \*\*evidence, and it is when we have to see that in heck their opinion is on this media bias, there is no need to rely on what rightists think the left thinks. The left in the USA does not see the corporate press as liberal or that they are “their” news. And this has been a position many on the left has had for ages, the condescending part from many on the right here is that while leftists do understand that FOX and right wing radio (almost all of it BTW) are seen as in tune with right wing causes (And fair and balanced :rolleyes: ), very few on the Right see the point of the left that the corporate press is not friendly to left wing causes. Claiming that the left has the mainstream in their pocket is indeed very condescending as well as baseless, as mentioned before this is one of the few cases were opinions are evidence, and in places where leftist opinion rules the consensus is that the left does not see the mainstream media as fair or balanced or an outfit for their causes. [http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=forum&id=1174](http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=forum&id=1174) Some examples of their threads: “Press Gave Romney A Pass On Using Fabricated Quote, So Other Campaigns Doing Same” “GOP won the messaging wars over Health Care reform - with Media help - Greg Sargent WaPo” “In his interview of Nancy Pelosi, Charlie Rose parrots GOP Propaganda … AGAIN!” And yes, I know already that one can do the same bias exercise with the mainstream media coming from the right, that is not the point (although it demonstrates that the mainstream continuously tries to be fair but fails mostly on telling the people what side is more accurate), the point is that people on the right are even denying the evidence that there is no friendship of the left with almost all of the mainstream media. It wasn’t until MSNBC decided to give a voice to clearly leftist voices that we got some balance, but still, most of the press remains slightly right of center when one takes into account their corporate makeup. ---
**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:** [October 24, 2012, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-we-do-about-fox-news/638693/30 "2012-10-24T16:51:12Z")
> [@Reyemile](#): > > So how do we, the educated elite (mostly liberal, but I hope that some conservatives will acknowledge the harm Fox is doing to their own side and to the nation), fix this problem? How do we prevent future misinformation, and undo past harm, caused by the Fox News channel’s shameless agenda? Link to Snopes and move on. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2012, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-we-do-about-fox-news/638693/31 "2012-10-24T16:57:28Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Another believer in the supposed natural law that states that it is impossible for one side to be worse than the other? Pure intellectual laziness. Maybe, but the main point stands…left wingers who want to ‘do’ something about Fox News are a hell of a lot scarier than Fox itself. I’d go with the point and laugh thingy, or better yet, calmly and rationally (and factually) point out the flaws, lies and distortions when and where they happen. It works the same as discussions with CTers…you aren’t ever going to convince the true believers. If that’s what you want to do, then it’s epic fail every time. But what you CAN do is educate those on the fence, a non-zero percentage of who will, especially through repetition, realize the facts when they are presented and be able to make their own minds up. BTW, I do actually believe that both sides are bad. Worse? That’s in the eyes of the beholder, and certainly today right wing blather gets more traction than left wing blather in the popular media like Fox News, which is what really gets folks goats on this board I think. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2012, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-we-do-about-fox-news/638693/32 "2012-10-24T16:58:32Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Link to Snopes and move on. My crazy Hispanic relative that sends me racist and tea party posts in Facebook (Yes, he is voting for Romney in Florida :rolleyes: ) already has that covered, “Snopes is also part of the liberal media”. :smack: ---
**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:** [October 24, 2012, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-we-do-about-fox-news/638693/33 "2012-10-24T16:58:34Z")
> [@XT](#): > > Maybe, but the main point stands…left wingers who want to ‘do’ something about Fox News are a hell of a lot scarier than Fox itself. Why? The OP specifically notes that legislative/judicial action is not an option. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2012, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-we-do-about-fox-news/638693/34 "2012-10-24T17:09:45Z")
Why do you need to ‘do’ ANYTHING about it? I mean, as a group (presumably left wingers)?? ETA: Sorry, posting from my iPad, which is always a trial. Here is the part I find ‘scary’: > [@](#): > > As much as I’d like to believe that “the truth will prevail,” frankly, I don’t think that’s the case. No matter how much the “liberal” media points out the hypocrisy and inaccuracy of the claims put forth by Fox’s opinion shows (and even it’s “news” segments), every bit of it is dismissed by Fox’s followers as part of the liberal conspiracy. So, the people are just too stupid to get it, so we need to ‘do’ something about that. But, yeah, that First Amendment stuff prevents us from doing anything drastic (damn the luck), so… ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2012, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-we-do-about-fox-news/638693/35 "2012-10-24T17:16:56Z")
> [@XT](#): > > Maybe, but the main point stands…left wingers who want to ‘do’ something about Fox News are a hell of a lot scarier than Fox itself. I’d go with the point and laugh thingy, or better yet, calmly and rationally (and factually) point out the flaws, lies and distortions when and where they happen. It works the same as discussions with CTers…you aren’t ever going to convince the true believers. If that’s what you want to do, then it’s epic fail every time. But what you CAN do is educate those on the fence, a non-zero percentage of who will, especially through repetition, realize the facts when they are presented and be able to make their own minds up. > > BTW, I do actually believe that both sides are bad. Worse? That’s in the eyes of the beholder, and certainly today right wing blather gets more traction than left wing blather in the popular media like Fox News, which is what really gets folks goats on this board I think. Well, I agree with you on the first amendment and all that jazz, but it has been my experience that right now the right is worse as they are, as we speak, enforcing ignorance and attempting to make it law. > **[Voices: Defending science: The link between creationism and climate change](https://www.earthmagazine.org/article/voices-defending-science-link-between-creationism-and-climate-change)** > [@](#): > > What do creationists and climate change deniers have in common? Over the past few years, this riddle has been on our minds a lot at the National Center for Science Education, a nonprofit that has fought for more than a quarter-century to defend the teaching of evolution in the public schools. Now, we’re expanding to defend the teaching of climate change — and with it, science in general. > > What originally brought this riddle to mind was the poorly named 2008 Louisiana Science Education Act. Intended primarily to encourage creationism-leaning teachers to use their classrooms as pulpits, the bill identified three topics in addition to evolution for special treatment: “the origins of life, global warming, and human cloning.” A handful of similar bills in other states followed in its wake, most recently in Tennessee and Oklahoma. > > The answer to the riddle is that creationists and climate change deniers have a lot in common — most especially in their assertions about science itself. In addition, they are often the same people! For example, Answers in Genesis, the young-Earth creationist ministry that runs a creation museum where animatronic dinosaurs cavort with humans in the Garden of Eden, also produces a DVD entitled “Global Warming: A Scientific and Biblical Exposé of Climate Change.” In another case, Roy Spencer, a climatologist featured in the film “The Great Global Warming Swindle,” has written that he regards “the theory of creation” as having “a much better scientific basis than the theory of evolution.” The point here is to remind all of that old fashion “eternal vigilance” thing. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2012, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-we-do-about-fox-news/638693/36 "2012-10-24T17:17:39Z")
> [@For You](#): > > “Watch”? Is watching television news common amongst netizens these days? Seems like most of us get real news from the series-of-tubes rather than the tube. _\_ I wouldn’t know, I don’t even _own_ a monitor. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2012, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-we-do-about-fox-news/638693/37 "2012-10-24T17:21:55Z")
[QUOTE=GIGObuster] Well, I agree with you on the first amendment and all that jazz, but it has been my experience that right now the right is worse as they are as we speak enforcing ignorance and attempting to make it law. [/QUOTE] Like I said, worse is going to be all about who’s gore is getting oxed. I have no love for the right (contrary to what appears to be popular opinion), but it’s hard to say that the left isn’t bad as well, especially on some of my own hot button issues (say, nuclear power). It’s all a matter of degree. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2012, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-we-do-about-fox-news/638693/38 "2012-10-24T17:47:14Z")
> [@XT](#): > > Like I said, worse is going to be all about who’s gore is getting oxed. I have no love for the right (contrary to what appears to be popular opinion), but it’s hard to say that the left isn’t bad as well, especially on some of my own hot button issues (say, nuclear power). It’s all a matter of degree. And I see most of the democratic leadership in favor of nuclear power, [http://www.nei.org/resourcesandstats/documentlibrary/safetyandsecurity/advertising/nei\_ad\_leadership\_supports](http://www.nei.org/resourcesandstats/documentlibrary/safetyandsecurity/advertising/nei_ad_leadership_supports) You are missing the main point that it is what politicians are doing with legislation what counts here, and while FOX is not AFAIK against nuclear power it is however doing the proverbial tossing of the (nuclear) baby with the bathwater by supporting many on the right against clean energy efforts, bills that support wind and solar power also includes support for research or upgrade of nuclear plants, guess who are opposed to that? > **[Clean Energy Standard Act of 2012 Introduced - OurEnergyPolicy](https://www.ourenergypolicy.org/clean-energy-standard-act-of-2012-introduced/)** > > Senate Energy & Natural Resources Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) has introduced the Clean Energy Standard Act of 2012, which would require electric utilities to derive increasing percentages of their supply mix from low-CO2 sources. The bill would... > [@](#): > > Sources eligible under the legislation include: renewables, such as wind and solar, “qualified” renewable biomass and waste-to-energy, hydropower, natural gas, **and nuclear**. Facilities with CO2 capture and storage, and some combined heat and power facilities, are also eligible. The bill establishes a market-based credit trading scheme, within which utilities could purchase compliance credits from other utilities. > [@](#): > > **The Act was introduced with no Republican support.** Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), the top Republican on the Energy & Natural Resources Committee has said that she will “only get behind such a standard if it replaces federal climate regulations.” [The Hill] To keep in on the subject, I do not think FOX and friends complained a peep about that lack of support from the Republicans. ---
**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 24, 2012, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-we-do-about-fox-news/638693/39 "2012-10-24T17:51:46Z")
> [@XT](#): > > Like I said, worse is going to be all about who’s gore is getting oxed. I have no love for the right (contrary to what appears to be popular opinion), but it’s hard to say that the left isn’t bad as well, especially on some of my own hot button issues (say, nuclear power). It’s all a matter of degree. That’s so easy to say, isn’t it? Specific examples are shown over and over concerning the problems with Fox News, and all you have to do is say that the other side does it too, without showing any equivalent examples, and suddenly the books are balanced. If the other side supposedly does the same thing, why doen’t you start a thread showing it, because frankly “They do it toooo!” just doesn’t cut it any more. ---
**Author:** ![fumster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9c0ed/32.png) [@fumster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fumster)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2012, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-we-do-about-fox-news/638693/40 "2012-10-24T18:11:34Z")
The healthcare debate shows how useless the media is. Every other industrialized country in the world has some form of universal healthcare. They all spend less on healthcare than the United States does and they cover everyone. This is just a fact. Every time UHC is covered in the media this fact should be mentioned. There should have been wholesale coverage of other countries’ health care systems so that people US voters could look at the various options they chose and make an educated decision on what to adopt here. Instead we had phony debates on death panels and socialism. If a politician tried that death panel crap in England the news presenter would have laughed their head off and pointed out that it was a lie. The media has bent way over to be “fair to both sides”. Instead they should be presenting facts: What % of GDP do other counties spend on healthcare? How do they compare with regard to longevity and infant mortality? What are the wait times for medical attention in the various systems, how does that compare to the US? How much support is there for UHC in counties that have implemented it? What do people who have lived in the US and abroad think about the differences? What is the overhead of the various systems and how do they compare with the US? How do Medicare and private health insurance compare in the US? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-we-do-about-fox-news/638693.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-we-do-about-fox-news/638693.md?page=3)