Seeing fox news on the Television, with the loud mouthed anchors, blatant political slant, and hyperactive captions moving on the screen, why does anybody actually watch it?
The same reason racists go to racist websites, and Christians watch preachers ranting about sin, heaven and/or the End Times; in order to feed their own delusions.
It used to be where CNN was the default newscast in places of public accommodation; airport terminals, business hotel continental breakfast areas, and so on. I encounter Fox News in the same context now, but usually in small towns and more “Confederate” venues like truck stop restaurants.
They need to hear the constant, comforting reiteration of their own viewpoints without the interference of nuance, fairness, honesty or balance. They also like the shows where a righteous, conservative crusader screams and yells at some lily-livered liberal. It’s the same reason they listen to right wing radio, really. They have a very low tolerance for other opinions. It’s the same compressed, tribalistic, intellectually fearful condition which causes them to be xenophobic, homophobic, Christo-centric, etc. Basically, it’s all just mental weakness and anti-social isolationism.
All the bluster, fearmongering, and confrontation also serves, in an odd way, to comfort the target viewer by reinforcing his conviction that it’s a jungle out there, and that only the strong survive. The target viewer, having by definition survived (at least enough to watch and pay for cable TV), is thus confirmed as a strong, fit, tough individual.
At first it was because a lot of people didn’t know they were liars. I think up until Olbermann started, no one in the mainstream press was calling them on their BS.
It was just The Daily Show, a couple of radio shows, and that’s about all I can recall.
Some of the stuff that they say doesn’t seem obviously false unless you know they have a history of lies. People aren’t used to fact checking “news” shows on just about every story.
Moving thread from IMHO to Cafe Society.
Sky News in the UK seems to be trying to emulate the format of Fox. They now have a “For Queen & Country” tag when they have bits about Iraqistan.
Once you discount all the liberal paranoia and Nazi propaganda, you can get news stories and slants on news that you don’t get from CNN or MSNBC. The only way to get a “true” balance is to watch/read them all. I read FOXNews online because they cover things CNN doesn’t, and vice versa.
The simple answer is that they perceive FOX to have less bias than other news.
The better question is, why are so many afraid of FOX? The answer, of course, is that they fear and hate any viewpoint counter to their myopic own, and fail to see the bias in their own “trusted” news sources.
You know, since we’re making things up and all…
Since this isn’t the pit, I’ll just say this must be a whoosh.
Which, of course, is a completely false and uninformed perception.
Who’s afraid of it? I monitor it rather frequently. I seek out right wing media far more often than left wing. I don’t need to hear my own opinion repeated back to me, I’m more interested in what the other side is saying.
I watch Fox News when there is a sensationalized story that I am interested in. I can count on Fox not to cut to the Israelis and Palestinians or something when some celebrity has just been found dead or there is a good car chase going.
That and the girl I took to my Senior Prom is a correspondent and I will never stop getting a kick out of seeing her in Baghdad or Moscow.
Ah yes, we don’t like it so therefore we must FEAR it! Booga-booga-booga!
I’m completely open to a variety of viewpoints. Unfortunately, Fox doesn’t represent a “variety”; it is wholly predictable in the stance it takes on just about every news story.
That people watch them doesn’t bother me. That people will watch that news exclusively and believe every word and position it takes–no matter how ridiculously extreme or pandering or false it might be–so uncritically and without reservation should probably scare me. But it just depresses me instead.
I honestly believe you think this way. So, YouTubeducation!
I agree with this. Everybody I know who watches Fox (it’s not an acronym, dear, by the way) watches it primarily because they believe it’s the only news show free of liberal lies. For Fox viewers, the news is not a medium for information, but rather a form of entertainment whose appeal stems from confirming and elaborating upon what they already believe to be true. It’s OK if Fox bends the truth now and then because it’s for America, it’s only entertainment, and they have to counteract CNN, who wants the terrorists to win.
Do you dispute that it’s the reason? I dispute your claim that other news sources are UNbiased, but that’s the not the issue under debate here. The question is, Why does anyone actually watch Fox News? I guarantee the reason I gave is a more valid reason than most of the others here, including, but not limited to:
The key to unlocking my phrasing is, of course, the final line of my post. It’s OK, ArchiveGuy didn’t get it either.
Looking again at the OP, I have to ask the same question about Keith Olbermann. Loud-mouthed anchor? Check. Blatant political slant? Check. Hyperactive captions? Check. Olbermann watchers must be weak-minded delusional racists, then. Or something.
As a side note, I’m real curious why, since you admit to watching right-wing media more often than left wing, and gave reasons, why you didn’t list those reasons instead of being insulting?
ZebraShaSha, what did that have to do with the question about why people watch Fox News?
Does every show on MSNBC spout the same party line? Do you hear the same exact talking points regurgitated by Joe Scarborough and Chris Matthews and (RIP) Tim Russert? Not a chance.
You may not agree with K.O., but there are other commentators, other opinions, other perspectives on the same channel that demonstrate that while those news channels may not be Unbiased (a straw man of your creation; nobody claimed they were in this thread), they aren’t pure arms of propaganda for one singular viewpoint the way Fox quite consistently demonstrates itself to be.
And I “got” your last line, but preferred to give you the benefit of the doubt that you were honestly responding to the debate and not simply being disingenuous for pointless “effect”. Obviously, my mistake.
I never made such a claim. I merely observed that the perception that FNC is less biased is laughable. Fox is considerably more biased than any other American News organization.
Yes, the false and uninformed perception that everything but Fox is part of an evil, secularist, liberal conspiracy is part of the reason its loyalists watch it, but that perception itself is born of weak-minded fear, bigotry, xenophobia, and the personal feelings of inadequacy that arise from intellectual deficiency.
Sometimes Olberman goes over the top into Fox style demagoguery, but at least he doesn’t misrepresent objective facts the way Fox routinely does.