Fox News, the GOP, and the loss of a generation

[carlfense]

To continue the tangent just a bit further; if you're interested in Radiolab here are a couple great episodes to kick off your new addiction:

 

Sex, Ducks, and the Founding Feud. ~22 minutes for the politically inclined.

What does a jilted lover’s revenge have to do with an international chemical weapons treaty? More than you’d think. From poison and duck hunts to our feuding fathers, we step into a very odd tug of war between local and federal law.

 

When Carol Anne Bond found out her husband had impregnated her best friend, she took revenge. Carol's particular flavor of revenge led to a US Supreme Court case that puts into question a part of the US treaty power.

 

Producer Kelsey Padgett drags Jad and Robert into Carol's poisonous web, which starts them on a journey from the birth of the US Constitution, to a duck hunt in 1918, and back to the present day … it’s all about an ongoing argument that might actually be the very heart and soul of our system of government.

http://www.radiolab....-founding-feud/

 

Oops. ~1 hour for the science inclined.

Oops. In this hour of Radiolab, stories of unintended consequences.

You come up with a great idea. You devise a plan. You control for every imaginable variable. And once everything’s in place, the train hops your carefully laid tracks. In this episode, one psychologist's zeal to safeguard national security may have created a terrorist, while one community's efforts to protect an endangered bird had deadly consequences. And against all odds, a toxic lake spawns new life.

http://www.radiolab....ory/91721-oops/

[tschu]

http://www.psmag.com/navigation/politics-and-law/conservative-television-congress-politics-fox-news-effect-88847/#.U_ZfwL8GDdg.twitter

 

[Creighton Duke]

^^^^^

the point?

[carlfense]

Unreality TV

Is it strange that, of all the current-events products currently on television, it’s often Fox News that feels most like a “Weekend Update” bit? Critics are constantly asking why there’s no conservative Daily Show, but there is; it just won’t admit it’s a joke. The structure of Fox News is so deeply and basically comic that it’s impossible not to read it into the tradition of news satire. All those weeping paranoiacs! The fist-shaking curmudgeons! The gun-toting robo-blondes! Like “Weekend Update,” Fox succeeded by taking the elements of a normal news broadcast and exaggerating them to ludicrous proportions. Only instead of Opera Man, it has Angry Immigration Crusader; instead of Mr. Subliminal, it has Jowly Operative Insinuating Things About Hillary Clinton’s Health; instead of Gay Hitler, it has Outmatched Token Liberal; instead of “Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead,” it has Benghazi. And I mean:
. . .
“How can anyone think this is real?” I found myself murmuring when this aired. But who gets their news from real news anymore? We get our news from morning-after viral videos attacking the real news, or from videos attacking the videos. Our entertainment becomes a kind of horror. Our horror becomes a kind of entertainment. The lines between irony and truth blur in ways we barely notice.

http://grantland.com/features/weekend-up-date-fake-news-tv/

[carlfense]

^^^^^

the point?

My guess is that it adds to the idea that the GOP is lost in a self-reinforcing news bubble.

[tschu]

 

^^^^^

the point?

My guess is that it adds to the idea that the GOP is lost in a self-reinforcing news bubble.

 

Democrats seem to somewhat get that MSNBC is biased, Republicans don't acknowledge one bit that Fox News is biased. Pretty interesting.

[Husker_x]

 

 

^^^^^

the point?

My guess is that it adds to the idea that the GOP is lost in a self-reinforcing news bubble.

 

Democrats seem to somewhat get that MSNBC is biased, Republicans don't acknowledge one bit that Fox News is biased. Pretty interesting.

 

 

I saw the chart was from 2006. After the work Jon Stewart and other comics have done and the even more hysterical failed predictions of the 2012 election, I think Faux has lost its Bush-era mojo. It is true that Republicans reside in an alternate reality of their own making, but as far as the general electorate is concerned, more of them are in on the joke.

[tschu]

I definitely agree with that.

[Creighton Duke]

But you also have a plurality of independents who feel that way so the vast majority of non-affiliated people find Fox News to be the most balanced. What does this say about independents?

[Junior]

But you also have a plurality of independents who feel that way so the vast majority of non-affiliated people find Fox News to be the most balanced. What does this say about independents?

 

People that think they are independents really aren't.

[knapplc]

But you also have a plurality of independents who feel that way so the vast majority of non-affiliated people find Fox News to be the most balanced. What does this say about independents?

I'd say that probably has a fair amount to do with the fact that Fox is the most-watched news outlet. They sell their product better than their competition, and those who consume that product are more likely to view it favorably.

 

Specifically, this is how they sell that product. And business is, clearly, quite good.

 

[Creighton Duke]

^^^

The above montage involves Ann Coulter. 2/10 WNB!!!

 

But your point just goes to show how meaningless such a poll is when people are equating "fair" with "what I watch" with "I watch it because there are attractive womenz!!!"

[Abdullah the Butcher]

And here's how Hannity got bumped down..

 

 

[knapplc]

^^^

The above montage involves Ann Coulter. 2/10 WNB!!!

 

But your point just goes to show how meaningless such a poll is when people are equating "fair" with "what I watch" with "I watch it because there are attractive womenz!!!"

It's not meaningless if the people polled believe it. All that matters is where their eyeballs end up. We're not really concerned with Is Fox News actually 'fair,' we're concerned with who's consuming the news, and what they're getting out of it. "Fair" is a buzzword. We all know Fox isn't "fair and balanced," they're GOP shills.

 

And because you would not make sweet love to Ann Coulter isn't really relevant. You're a virile 20-something young man - hardly the demographic Ann Coulter is meant to appeal to.

 

 

 

 

@BrayWyatt - is that a real picture of Megyn Kelly? Source?

[Creighton Duke]

 

^^^

The above montage involves Ann Coulter. 2/10 WNB!!!

 

But your point just goes to show how meaningless such a poll is when people are equating "fair" with "what I watch" with "I watch it because there are attractive womenz!!!"

It's not meaningless if the people polled believe it. All that matters is where their eyeballs end up. We're not really concerned with Is Fox News actually 'fair,' we're concerned with who's consuming the news, and what they're getting out of it. "Fair" is a buzzword. We all know Fox isn't "fair and balanced," they're GOP shills.

 

And because you would not make sweet love to Ann Coulter isn't really relevant. You're a virile 20-something young man - hardly the demographic Ann Coulter is meant to appeal to.

 

 

 

 

@BrayWyatt - is that a real picture of Megyn Kelly? Source?

 

So what are we getting out of the poll, what do we know about the people consuming the news, and who do we know what they are getting out of it? Like I said, it seems that going off of what you posted, many self-identified Republicans and Independents are watching for the trim. By this logic, is Michael Brown was replaced by Gabrielle Union, Fox News viewers would be up in arms and protesting in the streets!

 

As far as Coulter goes, it was more of a joke, but thanks for the "virile" observation!