My personal Fox News nightmare: Inside a month of self-induced torture

[DonViejo]

I'm a card-carrying member of the ACLU. Here's what happened when I watched 3 hours of Fox every day for a month

JOHN HAGGERTY

One October evening, in the midst of the 2013 government shutdown, I watched Bill O’Reilly work himself into something of a state. He sat at his desk, his hands palms upward, fingers slightly curved, as if cupping something in them. “I want Hagel.” he said, staring into the camera. “I want Hagel. I want him.”

A casual observer might interpret this moment as O’Reilly expressing his fierce but tender desire for Chuck Hagel, the Secretary of Defense. More experienced O’Reilly viewers, however, will recognize it as a signal that the unfortunate Hagel had plummeted downward in O’Reilly’s estimation from pinhead to evildoer. (There are only three kinds of people in Bill O’Reilly’s world: good hardworking Americans, pinheads—people who are not actually malevolent but who are too stupid to understand the way the world really works—and evildoers.)

I know these things about O’Reilly because, for the entire month of October, I watched Fox News for approximately three hours every day, while at the same time strictly abstaining from any other sources of information about current events. The reason I engaged in this self-induced Fox News torture was that it had become clear that the right-wing media in general, and Fox News in particular, were constructing an alternate reality than the one I live in. Fox is, of course, a great driver of public opinion.

On this occasion, in which the government shutdown had resulted in death benefits not being paid to the families of soldiers killed in action, the problem was so egregious to O’Reilly that it could not possibly result from pinheadedness. No, instead there must have been heinous forces at work, and one of the devil’s minions was Chuck Hagel.

Bill O’Reilly, it should be noted, is a man whose mind is entirely undarkened by doubt. I have seen him refuse even to consider the arguments of a Notre Dame theology professor who took exception to his interpretation of the life and message of Jesus.

When Juan Williams told him that Jonathan Gruber from MIT had calculated that 80% of American citizens would find their health insurance unchanged under Obamacare, O’Reilly responded, “I don’t believe that for a second…That’s what some pinhead says. That’s not a fact.”

more
http://www.salon.com/2014/01/28/my_personal_fox_news_nightmare_inside_a_month_of_self_induced_torture/

[frazzled]

1. Haven't we agreed that ...

we need to get over this fixation on Fox News? That the reason we exert no power is because we're more interested in what these crazy "bad guys" are doing than in disseminating and explaining our own policy ideas?

I'm sorry this guy lost a month of his life, but I'm sorrier that it was such a colossally unproductive thing to do for the rest of us--that is, for anyone wanting to advance a more progressive agenda in this country.

I really didn't want to waste ten minutes reading it.

[DonViejo]

3. I must have missed the vote, when was it held? nt

[frazzled]

4. Here?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=4393383

[DonViejo]

5. I see some talk about it but no real agreement. However;

I'll stop entering OP's about FOX if folks feel that is appropriate.

[frazzled]

6. There's no rule about it

So post away, if you like.
It's just that you should expect a growing number who feel that it's not worth a lot of our time anymore.

PS: I'm not trying to be catty, just to have a real discussion about our priorities.

[DonViejo]

7. I don't feel you're being catty at all...

But, I don't have a problem not posting articles about FOX, I can leave that to others who choose to do so.

[pipi_k]

8. In case you missed it...

there's this wonderful feature here on DU3 called "Trash by keyword"


Anyone not wanting to waste their time reading threads on Fox News (or any other disturbing topic) can make them all go away...POOF!

Imagine that!

[packman]

2. My favorite

The tide goes in, the tide goes out - Bill, explaining the mysteries of the universe and the hand of God at work to an atheist.