Fox News has a whole generation of seniors brainwashed.
Tried and True Bill O'reily shouts at any thing he doesn't want to hear.
Well, my dad just spent the weekend here. He is a man who loves to debate politics which is to say that he loves to repeat every negative item about Democrats and Liberals that he hears on Fox News. I love my dad, but there are times when our political discussions drive me towards the brink of insanity.
It's not like I'm hearing my dad sometimes. I'm hearing Fox News coming out of a persons mouth. I ask around, and this is not a limited phenomenon. There are many seniors that sit in front of Fox News and eat it up 24/7. Fox News even has a wikipedia page dedicated to it's controversies. The wiki entry goes on to suggest that Fox spins it's news so much that people have referred to the network as "Faux News", "GOP-TV", "Fox Noise Channel", and "Fixed News."
Perhaps every Fox News fan's biggest hero is Bill O'reily. I've seen his show on occasion. It tends to give me a large headache. Type Bill O'reily into Google and you will see a negative site like O'reily Sucks float near the top. O'reily claims to be fair and balanced, but it's clear that when he doesn't like a response, he will fire off several questions and never let a guest answer. My dad says, "Oh, well he has to keep these liberals in line because they waver off." How the hell can you ask a question and not even give a person a chance to answer? I found another site mocking O'reily found here. My favorite part is the Bill O'reily Bingo card. Some of my favorite squares are:
- Asking rapid fire questions without giving the guest a chance to reply.
- Use of the word "Ideologue".
- Unfunny quip about bums followed by nervous laughter.
- Aligning himself with the working class while he wears a $3,000 suit.
The mockery sites are good fun. They wouldn't be hardly as funny if they weren't so close to the truth. Of course Fox News has several other wonderful pundits who find ways to make anyone outside the republican side look ridiculous. One the funniest things my dad says is, "The reason the SUV's are such a problem is because of these damn democratic labor unions who kept wanting to build big vehicles." I thought about that statement. I can't be convinced that SUV sales or the gas crisis can be formed down party lines. Perhaps that's what bothers me most about Fox News viewers. It's always somebody's fault, and usually it's something the democrats have done badly.
Currently, seniors and the internet generation find their news sources differently.
Around the late 90's we saw something on TV that was very exciting—so we thought. We started to get 24 hour news networks. Now instead of watching a summery of the day's events with Peter Jennings at 6 o'clock, we had news all day long. People thought this was exciting to keep up with the latest events as they unfolded. Something became apparent to me. There isn't enough quality news to fill the day on a 24 hour news network. In order to fill that time, the news has to be spun up, doctored, embellished and twisted to make it more exciting. It reminds me of that funny scene from The Shipping News:
Billy: Tell me the headline.
Quoyle: Horizon Fills With Dark Clouds?
Billy: Imminent Storm Threatens Village.
Quoyle: But what if no storm comes?
Billy: Village Spared From Deadly Storm.
Fox News appears to be the worst. I wont let the other networks off the hook either. The thing that bothers me the most is that Fox News tends to create a church. Viewers watch only Fox News and begin to describe other networks as overly liberal and so on. It's a 24 hour march. The show must go on or advertisers will pull their money from the network.
As two people well entrenched in internet technologies, my wife and I don't watch cable news. In fact, we don't have cable at all. We are internet people who get information online. This pushes us to find stories in many different places whether the source has a liberal or conservative slant. There are advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is that you get news and opinions from many people and countries. It's more democratic. The bad news is that any wacko can write a blog and make opinions without checking their facts.
The truth is bent all around.
Both liberal and conservative political circles have wackos and extremists who bend the truth. You have to weed through it all and make your own decisions. People like Bill O'reily don't like the internet because they can't control it. A news network's owner wants to spoon feed you a set message. When O'reily writes his book, it's a set message. When several bloggers voice their opinion about O'reily's book, well . . . now we have something closer to an open debate.
I don't want to point fingers anymore. I want to solve problems in this country. Modern television media has us looking at modern politics like a ball game. It's the red team against the blue team. Networks get you to take a side on the bleachers. Then, instead of discussing an issue, we say things like, "We can't fix the problem until the other side sees things our way." So much of the time, we stray away from talking about the issues and how to solve them. I told dad, "One of the the things I like about Obama's message is that he wants us to join together into groups and discuss solutions for our country. He encourages public participation in government, not negativity." Our country is fractured and sinking into a state of idiocracy.
We need to discuss the issues and the internet is a fantastic vehicle to accomplish that. To my dad's credit, I have him talking more about alternative energy sources like wind and solar. He shows a genuine interest in new technology. There are still things we disagree on like drilling in protected wildernesses like Alaska's ANWR area. Every now and then I'll hear something about, "If the damn democrats would have let us open up Alaska, we would have cheaper gas now." My point is that if we drill Alaska, we will never change our bad habits. We wont learn to conserve energy and find alternative sources." This is one of the moments when I fell like I'm hearing a debate on Fox News.
How about using "The Daily Show" as "your trusted news source"?
I remember putting on an episode of The Daily Show for my dad one day. He says something like, "but this isn't real . . ." Apparently, he missed the whole point of Jon Stewart's tirades. The Daily Show is a spoof, so it has a license to bend the truth. However, if you look around, you'll find many people feel this comedy news cast is more substantial than news networks that pretend to be serious. He's always showing you a story and then showing soundbites from all the news networks. It's usually hilarious to see the various idiot newscasters trying to appear fair, balanced and on top of their game. Jon usually has a serious interview at the end of his show. I think The Daily Show is as good a source for substantial political news as any network.
Talk your seniors about modern media.
If you have a friend or loved one who is addicted to Fox News, or even CNN or MSNBC, I encourage you to discuss alternate news sources with them. With our busy lifestyles we have become lazy when it comes to getting the story. We need to work hard at getting the truth just like anything else in life. News networks go to great lengths to make you feel like they've done all the hard work for you. Each network wants you to believe they are fair and balanced. The truth can only come from hearing all the arguments and then making a choice for yourself.
