Does Fox "News" promote animosity towards minorities or do they bring out what already exists?

[Dawson Leery]

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/more-on-the-fox-effect-part-4

" I've been reading your Fox Effect posts with interest, but I think you may be missing an important, if more sinister, point here. The people your correspondents are discussing -- usually their parents, and older ones at that -- grew up at a strange time in American history. The 1930-1960s were decades of shocking and profound changes in America and the world. And nowhere were those changes more evident than in race relations. And while the country has evolved, as one correspondent has it, I am not sure that evolution took with many people from that generation. And I think Fox News has liberated latent anger, dislike and prejudice that simply did not have an acceptable outlet in polite society in the pre-Obama days.

Let's take my grandmother, for instance. She's 93, grew up in Washington, DC, where she has lived all her life, and always had what one might term "antiquated" views on race. She wasn't racist in the Archie Bunker way, but she clearly retained Washington's Old South views on race relations, though until recently she covered it quite well. Fast forward to the Obama years -- and her turning on Fox a bit too much -- and the old, suppressed racism is on full display. She is also angry at "immigrants," conveniently forgetting that she was born in Eastern Europe.

But here's the thing: I don't think Fox changed her in any serious way; I believe Fox has changed what counts for permissible rhetoric on race and social ills in this country. And I think that the old, suppressed views on race from the childhood of older Boomers and the remaining Depression-era generation are liberated by that permissiveness. It's not Fox spewing hate that makes these people hate. They already hated, but for decades it just wasn't ok to say it out loud, and you saw little of it in the mainstream media. Now, however, it's ok to say it out loud because the guys on TV say it, and so others must also believe it. Scary stuff."

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

1. Both

[JI7]

2. both

[2naSalit]

3. Both.

[Brigid]

4. Another vote for Both.

[11 Bravo]

5. They intentionally exacerbate a problem which already exists.

Anything which frightens or angers old white people is playing to their base.
(Sadly for them they aren't as effective as they would like to be, because this old white person thinks that they are totally full of shit.)

[Gothmog]

6. Both

The TPM editorial on this issue is well reasoned.

[trof]

7. Also 'both'. The 'old south' dies very, very hard here in Alabama.

Occasionally one of my redneck friends lapses and forgets that 'nigger' is no longer socially acceptable.


Yes, I have redneck, racist friends.
We share other interests.

Such is life.

[alp227]

8. Connect the dots:

Nixon campaign -> Southern strategy (thinly veiled bigotry in more generalized, abstract code words)

AND the 1970s GOP-TV project -> the predecessor of FNC

[Old Codger]

9. What they do

Basically is give the racists permission to act out

[butterfly77]

10. If you let Bill O'Lielly tell it...

any and every problem in the world is due to black people and whites are virtuous and the angels of the world. He also believes the only way to solve everything is charter schools,private schools,orphanges,jails and really slavery,O'lielly is in his 80's if you didn't grow up in Levitown you are just fucked up...

[Arugula Latte]

11. I'd say both, but I'd add rightwing hate radio into the mix.

Also, in the case of many very old people, let's face it, their filters tend to go. So perhaps when they were in their 50s and 60s they were better at hiding racist tendencies, by the time they're in their 70s, 80s, or 90s it is pretty much a direct connection from the brain to the mouth. They say half of people age 85 or older have some form of dementia.

My mom dates a mid-70s racist whose filter seems to be getting weaker all the time.

Disclaimer: I am NOT saying that all old people are racist, or have dementia, or have lost their filters.

[Jamaal510]

12. Every single

one of their anchors is a professional propagandist. They all get paid to parrot easily-refuted talking points in order to scare their viewers on a regular basis.