Fox News's propaganda isn't just unethical -- research shows it's enormously influential

[babylonsister]

Fox News’s propaganda isn’t just unethical — research shows it’s enormously influential
Without the “Fox effect,” neither Bush nor Trump could have won.
By Matthew Yglesias@[e-mail] Mar 4, 2019, 12:30pm EST


Jane Mayer, the New Yorker’s longtime star investigative reporter, has a fantastic new longform piece out detailing the extent to which the Fox News Channel has become propaganda television for the Trump administration.

Many of the basic points — like Fox’s bending of ethical standards to accommodate Sean Hannity, the collaborative relationship between Fox and Trump in shaping the news agenda, and the extent to which Trump at times seems to take his policy cues from Fox & Friends - will be familiar to Vox readers. But Mayer adds critical new insights into the arc of change at the network during a period when CEO Roger Ailes was deposed and then died, vice president Bill Shine left to become White House communications director, and the company’s owner Rupert Murdoch has restructured his media holdings and prepared to pass the baton to his son.

She also adds a couple of key scoops, including:

A Fox reporter named Diana Falzone had pieced together the entire Stormy Daniels story before the election, but network executives killed the story, demoted her, and then, after she sued them, reached a settlement with her that included a nondisclosure agreement.

“Trump ordered Gary Cohn, then the director of the National Economic Council, to pressure the Justice Department to intervene” and sue to block AT&T’s proposed takeover of Time Warner. (The DOJ did sue, though they denied this was due to improper interference from the White House, and ended up losing in court.)

“During the Bush Administration’s disastrous handling of Hurricane Katrina, Fox’s ratings slumped so badly, a former Fox producer told me, that he was told to stop covering it.”

Fox’s propaganda broadcasting matters. It’s a somewhat underexplored topic in political science research, but the information that’s available suggests that right-wing propaganda broadcasting — led by Fox but also including Sinclair Broadcast Group — has a decisive influence on American politics.

more...

https://www.vox.com/2019/3/4/18249847/fox-news-effect-swing-elections

[NoMoreRepugs]

1. Without Faux and ReichWing radio how would Deplorables know what to think?

[duforsure]

2. So is trumps propaganda ,

And other networks showing him repeating it when they know its lies. That needs to stop, and all false statements need to not being aired anymore. Along with his tweets too. Stop showing and helping promote propaganda , and his lies.

[unblock]

3. "somewhat underexplored topic in political science research"?

ffs, i would have thought there would be hundreds if not thousands of doctoral theses on this by now.

[FakeNoose]

4. Maybe so, but it would have to be written by an older scholar

... somebody who remembers back to the days of the fairness doctrine, which was banished by Ronald Reagan in the early 1980's. Today's poli-sci majors have no idea how different things were then.

[unblock]

5. well, i did say doctoral theses.

besides, it doesn't take much study or paying attention in class to pick up on something like that.

or the internet, for that matter. any remotely serious political junkie should be aware of foxnew's and hate radio's bias and have an understanding that they are a comparatively recent phenomenon in this country.

i suppose i can agree that there may be plenty of undergraduate poli-sci majors who are oblivious to quite a lot of fairly basic stuff....

... especially if they're republicans....

[FakeNoose]

6. Most doctoral candidates are in their mid- to late-twenties

So they were mostly born after Reagan was already gone.

[unblock]

7. and how do you figure any research gets done at all about the civil war or the american revolution?

not to mention ancient rome or whatever.

more doctoral students are capable of at least minimal research....

[VOX]

8. Fascism. A shopworn term, but this IS what it looks like.

Merriam-Webster defines fascism thus:
“A political philosophy, movement, or regime that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition.”

Sad to say, the shoe fits. Snugly.

[Joe941]

9. I've said it many times. Fnc and hate radio need to be made illegal.

[Poiuyt]

10. Research has also shown that people who watch Fox News are less informed about current events than

people who watch no news at all. This is because of all the erroneous information that they put out.