Faux News

I found this article on the Internet on December 15th.  It’s by Mark Howard.  It quotes an independent study by World Public Opinion, a project managed by the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland.  Mr. Howard wrote, “The study shows that greater exposure to Fox News increases misinformation.

Mr. Howard writes: “So the more you watch, the less you know. Or to be precise, the more you think you know that is actually false. This study corroborates a previous PIPA study that focused on the Iraq war with similar results. And there was an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll that demonstrated the break with reality on the part of Fox viewers with regard to health care. The body of evidence that Fox News is nothing but a propaganda machine dedicated to lies is growing by the day.

In eight of the nine questions below, Fox News placed first in the percentage of those who were misinformed (they placed second in the question on TARP). That’s a pretty high batting average for journalistic fraud. Here is a list of what Fox News viewers believe that just ain’t so:

91 percent believe the stimulus legislation lost jobs

72 percent believe the health reform law will increase the deficit

72 percent believe the economy is getting worse

60 percent believe climate change is not occurring

49 percent believe income taxes have gone up

63 percent believe the stimulus legislation did not include any tax cuts

56 percent believe Obama initiated the GM/Chrysler bailout

38 percent believe that most Republicans opposed TARP

63 percent believe Obama was not born in the U.S. (or that it is unclear)

The conclusion is inescapable. Fox News is deliberately misinforming its viewers and it is doing so for a reason. Every issue above is one in which the Republican Party had a vested interest. The GOP benefited from the ignorance that Fox News helped to proliferate.

By the way, the rest of the media was not blameless. CNN and the broadcast network news operations fared only slightly better in many cases. Even MSNBC, which had the best record of accurately informing viewers, has a ways to go before it can brag about it.

This is not an isolated review of Fox’s performance. It has been corroborated time and time again. The fact that Fox News is so blatantly dishonest, and the effects of that dishonesty have become ingrained in an electorate that has been purposefully deceived, needs to be made known to every American. Our democracy cannot function if voters are making choices based on lies. We have the evidence that Fox is tilting the scales and we must now make certain its corporate owners do not get away with it.”

There’s not much doubt in my mind that Fox is really not a news organization as much as a propaganda arm of the Republican party.  The bedeviling part is that so many intelligent people would allow themselves to be duped into believing their noise.  I think it has to do with the fact that our politics are very confusing and we want to be affirmed in our beliefs.  So if you can find a news source that reinforces what you already believe and does it with snazzy graphics and pretty ladies, why not watch Fox?

But if you still doubt my claims and don’t accept Mr. Howard’s representation of the University of Maryland’s study, here’s two good sources that can be used to verify what you read:  www.politifact.com and www.factcheck.org

In a nutshell, an ill-informed voter will not help us get out of the mess that we’re in.  A partisan voter won’t either.  We need more facts and less propaganda.  They’re out there but you have to “dig em” up yourself.

Robert DeFilippis