Does anyone here watch Fox? Do they just not

[leftyladyfrommo]

report anything that does not support their rightwing views?

I just do not understand how all these people believe that Covid is a hoax when there are reports every single day on every channel about people dying in ICU wards. People on their deathbeds begging others to get vaccinated.

So many of these people are fathers and mothers with families that love them. Families that depend on them. And they still ignored all the warnings that flood the tv channels.

I just don't understand how they got so brainwashed.

[lagomorph777]

1. Ewwww, NO.

Why would I torture myself like that? I have Fox-blocked all my TVs. It can't even show up in the guide.

[leftyladyfrommo]

2. Sometimes it's good to keep the enemy close

so you know what they are up to.

[Kaleva]

3. About 1% of the adult US population watches Fox

[leftyladyfrommo]

5. That's all? So where do they get people like Alex Jones?

Or the religious nutjobs?

I don't have a television or radio.

[Elessar Zappa]

9. I would say

social media misinformation has far greater penetration than Fox News. People get all their info from Facebook and don’t question it.

[Kaleva]

11. Here are some viewers numbers

"For the week, World News Tonight has 8.86 million viewers, NBC Nightly News had 7.29 million and CBS Evening News had 5.34 million. For the same period a year earlier, World News Tonight averaged 9.92 million, NBC Nightly News was at 8.46 million and CBS Evening News posted 6.07 million. Those are declines of 11%, 14% and 12% respectively."

https://deadline.com/2021/03/network-evening-news-ratings-shutdowns-1234716004/

"In total day, Fox News averaged roughly 1.2 million viewers, and 204,000 in the A25-54 demo. In prime, FNC averaged nearly 2.2 million viewers, and 347,000 in the demo. FNC claimed five of the top six cable news programs in overall viewers, seven of the top eight in the key 25-54 demo and comprised 39 of the top 100 cable telecasts."

https://www.adweek.com/tvnewser/q2-21-ratings-fox-news-is-americas-most-watched-cable-network-but-sheds-viewers-from-2020/481904/


There are about 253,768,092, as of 2018, adults in the US

[machoneman]

12. Thanks for the details. Fox gets far more media mentions than they deserve for small audiences.

I swear, if major media and we here at DU didn't ever mention Fox again, their numbers would shrink even further. Now, the hard-core R's would not be affected but others may elect to skip FNC if they hadn't heard about their warped reporting.

[Kaleva]

13. Fox has been made out to be some boogeyman which has brainwashed half the country.

Article after article talks about how FNC dominates CABLE news but it's not often when it is compared to the big 3 broadcast news networks or when compared to the adult population as a whole.

[maxsolomon]

14. Fox has brainwashed those who consume it regularly.

Add the brainwashing of 30+ years of RW Talk Radio, and the below-the-radar brainwashing of Sinclair or Fox affiliate local news, and the casual consumption of FNC mind poison in restaurants, bars, & airports, and you have a significant, malignant Propaganda machine working every day to misinform and prejudice.

It's not as simple as those nightly numbers.

[Kaleva]

17. They were brainwashed before that.

People listen to RW Radio and watch Fox news because they put out news that reinforces their audiences already developed world view.

I dare say that all of us here at DU could listen to RW Radio and watch Fox News every day for a year and we wouldn't be "brainwashed' because what they put out conflicts with our world view. We'd reject it. Likewise, one could have Magahats watch ABC, CBS or NBC for a year and after that time, they'd still be Magahats.

Also, Fox News viewership is small compared to the Big Three of ABC, CBS and NBC.

[maxsolomon]

19. It changed both my Parents. My Dad watches no other news.

But I see your point.

[Kaleva]

21. MY FIL will only watch Fox News and he's been anti-liberal and anti-D as long as I've known him.

He won't watch any other news because they "lie" in his view.

Interestingly, my FIL will sometimes take what he hears on Fox and embellish it. An example is the story Fox reported about the prisoner Gov. Cuomo granted clemency to. David Gilbert, age 76, has been in prison since the early 80's for his role in the Brinks robbery. He was the getaway driver and was unarmed during the robbery. Cuomo granted him clemency so he became eligible for parole this year instead of having to wait till 2050 something for a chance at parole. My FIL heard it as Cuomo letting free a man who shot and killed cops and a guard.

The belief that Cuomo let walk out of prison a man who killed 3 people supports his worldview that Democrats are soft on dangerous criminals.

[doc03]

15. It has to be far more than that since 9 out of 10

people I know watch it. Some 24/7.

[Kaleva]

16. I'm going by the actual ratings.

[eShirl]

23. I'd add to that the percentage that listen to RW talk radio all the time.

Maybe even the attendees, viewers and listeners of certain churches known for their ideological affinity with Wingnuts.

[Kaleva]

24. I'll have to search again but IIRC, that percentage is also in the low single digits.

[Kaleva]

25. This doesn't give exact numbers but talks about Rush's audience

"Also keep in mind that eight-digit number is what's known in radio as the “cume” (short for cumulative). It in no way reflects the actual audience size like the way television shows are measured minute by minute or half-hour by half-hour. Instead, the cume number represents a very large -- and generous -- umbrella covering the number of people who, in theory, tune into a program at any time during the week, even if it's for just two minutes.

As a radio trade reporter confirmed to MSNBC last week, common industry shorthand to determine the actual size of a radio audience at any given moment is to cut the cume figure down by a factor of 10, which would mean Limbaugh's 20 million becomes 2 million. Or, if you take the more modest cume number of 14 million, which some inside the industry have used to judge the talker's audience, Limbaugh's rating becomes 1.4 million, which is roughly the same size audience that Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann get each night on cable TV. So why doesn't the press treat them as the ultimate kingmakers?....

The truth is journalists only have a faint idea of how many people listen to Limbaugh's program each week."

https://www.mediamatters.org/rush-limbaugh/why-dont-we-just-pretend-rush-limbaugh-has-50-million-listeners

[sarcasmo]

4. Facebook brainwashing is more powerful than Fox News brainwashing.

[Diamond_Dog]

6. They just don't believe in facts.

I have heard many a right wing lemming say that the Covid death numbers are overblown. Why it’s no more lethal than the flu! News media inflates the numbers to get ratings! And doctors get paid more money if they write down Covid on a person’s death certificate, no matter what they died from!

You just can’t convince them of the facts!

[tblue37]

7. They'd call them crisis actors.

[onethatcares]

8. very infrequently and for very short times

just to see how bad and backassward they are.

[WarGamer]

10. I catch it here and there...

Their "straight news" is fairly straight forward and factual...

The problem comes from the "shows" and the guests they invite.

I mean, Hannity, Tucker, Five, etc... are all WAAAYYY out there.

[Caliman73]

18. Fox is right wing propaganda.

There are a couple of reporters who tend to report along the line of the mainstream media, but the channel is inherently designed to push rightwing propaganda. They intersperse their "opinion" shows with more "news" related ones so there is a blurring of the lines. All of their opinion hosts will typically repeat the same talking points, using almost exactly the same framing.

It plays upon a person's sense of belonging and their questioning of "authority" and expertise. People are vulnerable when there is general discontent and anxiety around economic, political, and social problems.

Typically, someone will go "seeking answers" to a complex social problem. A public health pandemic would fit the bill nicely, especially if the vector is not well understood. The NOVEL Coronavirus SARS-COV-2 is just such a virus. The nature of science is such that "certainty" or what people expect with certainty, is not typically possible. Scientists use phrases like, "The data currently supports..." or "There is a consensus of studies the indicate..." Neither are the best for people who "need" definitive answers.

Fox News preys on people like this and does so in much the same fashion as other groups that serve to promote a particular ideology.

1. They try to isolate people from other sources of information.
2. Set themselves up as the "truthteller"
3. Give definitive answers regardless of the accuracy.
4. Promote questioning of "the establishment" or "authorities"
5. Everything is emotional. They rely on fear, anger, and a sense of grievance (someone is gaming the system at your expense).

For people who are dissatisfied with the complexities of life and problems that don't seem to go away, they can be persuaded to "get the truth" from Fox.

Once you are in the Fox Bubble, all other media is "liberal media" (see step 1). They basically convince people already pre-disposed, but sometimes just lost people, into the idea that they are getting "the real news, that the liberal media don't want you to hear".

There was a study done during the Bush Jr. Administration or the transition to the Obama administration that showed that 75% of people who identified as conservatives were receiving their news from one source (Fox News) while self identified liberals listed at least 6 sources for their news habit. Sources for conservative "news" have grown, though Fox is still the whale, but all of the sources repeat the same propaganda, just with varying levels of crazy.

[Whiskeytide]

29. Very good analysis. BMing for future arguments. n/t

[FakeNoose]

20. The stealth Q people on Facebook are very lethal

I don't even know if they're members of Q-Anon, but they're part of the "hive" thinking that Q espouses. They're online 24/7 and they're always spouting the conservative/libertarian Repuke BS. Sometimes they bend the truth to be convincing, sometimes it's just outright lies. (Somebody is paying them to do this, you can be sure.)

You'd be amazed at how effective that is, not so much for the older set, but the younger ones who live online because they have no other "friends." Facebook has enabled this brainwashing and it happens continually. Older Americans get brainwashed by watching Faux Noise on TV, while the younger ones are all online.

[Kaleva]

26. Do you worry about being brainwashed? If not, why not?

[FakeNoose]

28. Not myself, however my sister has been thoroughly brainwashed

... and it happened exactly as I described above. It was all done by stealth. Luckily her husband (my BIL) saw what was happening, and Facebook is banned in their household.

[Kaleva]

30. Your sister was probably already quite open to accepting what was posted on Facebook

People tend to accept with little question that which reinforces their already formed worldview and to reject that which challenges it.

Very religious Christians would be more prone to accept that a piece of toast shows the image of JC while atheists would laugh at the idea.

[Roisin Ni Fiachra]

27. Nope. Never. Why would I?

Fox is a fascist propaganda media outlet that spreads lies, because it is dedicated to destroying democracy the United States, and has negative value as an information source.

I don't need to watch Fox to "know my enemy". I know full well who and what my enemy is, and Fox is one of the most powerful weapons in my enemy's arsenal

[Lady Freedom Returns]

31. Fox Sports? Yes. Fox News? No.

Just no.