Fox News is an America I want no part of

[Aerows]

It has poisoned our discourse. If they told the truth, I'd be all for their "fair and balanced" tagline. They are *incapable* of telling the truth, though, and poison the minds of our nation.

I'm fed up with attempting to discuss issues with Fox News watchers, because they are so ill-informed, or straight up LIED to, that you can'd even have discourse with them.

I don't mind people spreading bullshit, ultimately, but it is going to poison our national conversations well for good if we don't stop shitting in it.

I know. First Amendment. I ranted.

[NRaleighLiberal]

1. agreed - k&R

[Aerows]

2. Sorry for the Fox News Rant

You are in Raleigh, and understand exactly why people like me are ranting

[NRaleighLiberal]

3. I do your rant daily to my friends and family!

[Aerows]

5. LOL

Thank you for the understanding and support, my friend!

[RKP5637]

4. Well said!!! n/t

[Aerows]

6. Just tired of the bullshit

and you can't even have a conversation with family members anymore that isn't laced with lies. THAT is what makes me upset. Straight out, proven lies, and you can't even enjoy dinner without lies from Fox sprinkling the table. It's sad.

[RKP5637]

12. Fox, has done an incredible disservice to this county. As far as I'm

concerned, Fox is a terrorist organization. Fox has focused hatred in this country, created lies and falsehoods to create dissonance, and fostered an un-American agenda for this country.

[dballance]

7. The FAUX news BS has nothing to do with the First Amendment

The First Amendment protects citizens from being censored or silenced by the government. It has no bearing on private corporations like FOX lying or making their anchor's lie.

So that is why you might notice FAUX news is such BS.

I wish all of us luck trying to help the FAUX news watchers see reality.

[polichick]

8. Fox is nothing but a propaganda network...

...cooked up in a right-wing think tank.

It's no surprise university studies show that Fox viewers are uninformed, and the more they watch the less informed they are.

What IS surprising is that Dems haven't come up with messaging that shows the propaganda network for what it is - imo they should hire first-rate Madison Avenue ad people to do that work and lots of other messaging, if they really want to get the message out.

[Aerows]

10. Hell yes

And discredit Fox for what we have all discovered it is - a right wing propaganda outfit.

You said it. If RW is too scared of their message, they shouldn't be scared to have Faux News called out for what it is - PRWovda.

[RKP5637]

13. That, IMO, has always been a problem with the Dems, lack of good

messaging. You are exactly correct, "they should hire first-rate Madison Avenue ad people to do that work and lots of other messaging, if they really want to get the message out." The Pubs alway steamroll the Dems when it comes to messaging.

[polichick]

16. These days I wonder if Dem leaders really want to get out the messages that...

...we supporters believe they do - I'm not sure anyone could be so bad at it, especially when they have access to so many Hollywood power brokers who know better.

More and more I think it really is one corporate party with two faces - and the manipulation of voters happens on both sides.

[RKP5637]

34. Sadly, I think it is one corporate party with two faces. We pretty much see

that over and over.

[polichick]

42. It makes things pretty depressing - something has to give...

Maybe social media will help create the kind of change this country needs - this two party system is a waste of time and energy for supporters; activists will have to come together in a new way.

[RKP5637]

48. Yep! I think in many areas, those involving money, corporatism and

all that goes with that, there is a lot of commonality between the two parties. It is, it's frustrating and depressing, because "we the people" whom this country was once about, are left out of the equation for the most part by most politicians regardless of the party affiliation.

[calimary]

17. ABSOLUTELY!!!! Damn that frustrates me so much!!!

Yes it's superficial. Yes the American people shouldn't have to be force-fed truth. Yes as so many naive Dems keep saying - "...but, but, but... the people will KNOW! The American People will see what's going on and they'll understand!" And DAMMIT, they're just WRONG!!! The American people WON'T see what's going on. And they WON'T understand. They're too lazy to look, particularly when they've heard some fat-ass windbag bully on the radio telling them for multiple years that they don't even have to think - he'll do the thinking for them! Hell, that asshole grover norquist just recently said it's just fine if they have that in a president, because all he ever really has to worry his pretty little head about is taking the pen they hand him and using it to sign the bills that they put in front of him.

What - is it considered beneath the Democrats to do messaging and Madison Avenue salesmanship and media shtick and gimmicks? Well, they better damn well get over that attitude, but fast. Otherwise we're just gonna keep getting rolled by these slick sickies.

Just frustrates me to no end - how THIS particular message never seems to get through. And without it we won't succeed. It's not enough to have good ideas, or the wisest solutions. All the great ideas and noble proposals in the world don't mean dick if you don't know how to sell them to people. ESPECIALLY when your opponents are so good at blocking those ideas.

[teddy51]

9. Funny that you mention Fox News and the truth, because I haven't heard any Republican

that knows what the truth is. This obviously tells us that Fox News is a Republican talking head.

[spanone]

11. they mock the 1st amendment.

[Towlie]

23. You mean "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State"?

That's the First Amendment. The Second Amendment is "the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."

Or, at least, that seems to be the way they see it.

[Gregorian]

14. That IS how important the First Amendment is.

I know I'm sticking my neck out on a board that tends to be somewhat less than cordial to those who believe. But I believe that choice is all we have. It is what makes life be life. People often ask that if god loved the world, then why did Auschwitz happen. My answer is that we have to put up with Hitlers if we want to have true free choice. What conservatives have done is try to decrease our choice. They literally want to make our lives not worth living. The answer is education. The answer is honesty. In the meantime, we have to put up with Limbaughs and Fox lies.

[Aerows]

15. I offered the opinion that I hate Fox News

and think they suck for the national discourse.

I also stated that they are welcome to spew their toxicity. Cue someone climbing all over that statement as though an opinion on a statement violated a right. While they exercised their first amendment rights to complain about the dialogue of someone else exercising their first amendment rights.

You are free to say it. You are not free from criticism when you say it.

FWIW, I appreciate the irony, love the ironic, and even though I detest the lies, at least they are thinking. For many that is a monumental task.

[Gregorian]

18. Um, I was agreeing with you.

I guess it came across differently. I feel exactly as you do. I was just stating that it's one of those things that living in a free society we unfortunately have to put up with. The alternative is horrible. I hate Fox more than anything.

I think we're on the same page. I'm sorry to have riled you. Please don't feel animosity towards me.

edit- hell, I even recommended the thread.

[Aerows]

26. Sorry, my friend

Time to put down the coffee cup LOL

Please forgive me.

[Gregorian]

46. Thanks!

That's what I love about this place. It has been a real learning curve for me. I'm a very sensitive person. I needed tougher skin, and a lot of learning to know what the truth is.

Well, back to studying for my new job. I have a planet of carbon dioxide emissions to save.

[sabrina 1]

40. You are right about education. But Fox and the whole rightwing noise machine were allowed

to go completely unchallenged for almost two decades. No effort was made to refute them from our side, until finally Keith Olbermann appeared on MSMBC and was a very, very lonely voice for a while. We were like people without water in the desert when he started his show airc.

But the Dems totally ignored that vast propaganda machine and did nothing to counter it and now, with that much of an advantage, at least two generations who grew up under the spell of their cult-like indoctrination, it's going to be hard to turn it around.

What I'm hoping for is that the entire Murdoch empire falls, which will discredit them totally and at least some of the indoctrinated might begin to wake up. At least their 'fix' will be cut off.

Then there should be a supreme effort to return to a system where there are some standards for news and for who uses the airwaves, back to something like the 'fairness doctrine'.

[Gregorian]

45. Absolutely right on.

We Dems never thought we'd need to fight to save our own country from itself. There's an evil in everything, it seems. And fight, we must. At least everyone sees it now. Even if it is 25 years too late.

[Zoeisright]

32. I don't believe the First Amendment extends to deliberate lies.

And FUX is using the broadcasting system to lie and deceive.

And yes, this board is less than cordial to those who believe LIES. Because they are destroying this country. You want us to be polite to those who wish us evil??

[Arkansas Granny]

19. I find it quite puzzling that the people I know who watch Fox News get their info exclusively

from Fox. They never do any fact checking or look for another source on a story and they won't accept any other opinion if you try to show them. They just swallow the Fox News story hook, line and sinker. I guess that they hear what they want to believe and look no further.

[Jamaal510]

38. That's what happens when you have the GOP and conservative talking heads

deliberately spreading the myth of a liberal bias in any non-FOX network. The average FOX News watcher believes that every other news network spreads liberal propaganda and wrongly smears conservatives.

[sorefeet]

20. I got a buddy

Who says FOX news is the ONLY place to get the truth. It's the only one he will listen to. That tells ya how smart he is.

[HughBeaumont]

44. More like "it's the only place to get the narrative he wants to hear".

[Towlie]

21. One of my favorite responses to conservatives: "If I want YOUR opinion, I'll watch Fox news."

[apocalypsehow]

22. Then do what I do: don't watch. n/t.

[Towlie]

24. Are you the one in the middle?

[apocalypsehow]

25. Are you the one who didn't read the OP, nor the subsequent replies to it? n/t

[Towlie]

39. It was just a joke - "See no evil." Get it?

[Skittles]

51. that one doesn't "get" ANYTHING

[Skittles]

31. it is not as simple as that

I do not watch Faux News, but increasingly I have noticed that many of the people I know - especially here in Texas - are SERIOUSLY misinformed - this kind of shit is helping to drag America down, our futures along with it

[Daniel537]

36. I'm afraid it is as simple as that.

If people want to voluntary bring themselves to believe the nonsense on Fox, then so be it. We have free will in this country. As much as i despise the bias and hatred on that network, i would never call for it to be shut down just because i don't like what it stands for. The answer to speech you don't like should be more speech, not less.

[Skittles]

37. who called for it to be shut down?

[Daniel537]

47. Well what are you calling for then?

The other poster said don't watch, yet that doesn't seem to suffice to you.

[apocalypsehow]

50. Yes, it is as simple as that. In a free society, anyway. Perhaps you believe the 1st amendment

should be repealed, but the vast majority of us do not, even though it permits even obnoxious outlets like FOX news to put forth their dubious views.

Again: don't like it? Don't. Watch. It. Problem solved.

[Aerows]

27. Putting down the coffee cup for now

But thank you to all who replied and get the gist of this message.

Oh, and I have to run play Diablo 3 before the Open beta ends.

[Taylor Smite]

28. Oh, and I have to run play Diablo 3 before the Open beta ends.

yeaaahhhh.

I cant believe it has taken them this long.

[Aerows]

29. Thanks to those of DU that responded

If you are not of DU, well you are welcome to comment. We welcome you along with the people that make buttheads of themselves, alike.

[Initech]

30. Just remember: all the major networks called Florida for Gore. One didn't.

And that one? Yup - you guessed it - Fox. If they hadn't called Florida for Bush we'd be a completely different country.

[Zax2me]

33. It's blocked on my cable.

Well, I just use all channels in my favs, and omitted it.

[RZM]

35. There is constant criticism of Fox News. I don't think it's lacking

The whole LW blogosphere does it, not to mention media matters, which spends more time talking about Fox than anything else. The pundits at their rival networks get their digs in regularly as well, as does much of the print world. And of course there's also Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert. Even Miss Piggy dissed Fox recently.

Tonight was the Fox Network's 25th anniversary celebration and they re-aired the pilots of both the Simpsons and Married With Children. At the end of the Simpsons episode, the show ran a message congratulating the network on 25 years and how they still love the Fox Network but also said 'this statement does not apply to Fox News.' And that was ON Fox

If anything all of this criticism probably helps them get even more ratings. A lot of people probably think that if these lefties hate Fox news much, they should make an effort to like them even more.

[just1voice]

41. After years/decades of lying to the public, anyone who believes Faux news...

deserves to be lied to. There are 2 possibilities: 1 is that Faux creates dumb/misinformed people and 2 is that dumb/misinformed people like to watch Faux lie to them to reinforce their numerous ignorant hatreds.

It's largely number 2 now as everyone who has cared to learn a thing over the last 12 years knows that Faux is nothing but RW propaganda. The people are the problem, not the corrupt propaganda network.

[truebrit71]

43. I recently went into a doctor's office that had Faux Spews on....

..I said "oh i can't watch this crap" asked the receptionist for the remote, and she just handed it to me...the other folks in the waiting room thanked me, and said that they hated that shit too...

WIN!!!!

[Cleita]

49. For one thing, they aren't news.

First amendment rights or not, I don't believe they should be allowed to misrepresent who they are. They are a propaganda outlet for the Republican Tea Party and should be made to acknowledge that every hour they broadcast. I believe we once had laws about truth in advertising. Why doesn't it apply to them?