Ex-Reagan adviser: Fox News is ‘self-brainwashing’ Republicans into a radical fringe party

[RKP5637]

He's absolutely spot on!

http://www.rawstory.com/2015/05/ex-reagan-adviser-fox-news-is-self-brainwashing-republicans-into-a-radical-fringe-party/

Economist Bruce Bartlett, a former adviser to both Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, warned over the weekend that Fox News had damaged the Republican Party by creating a bubble for conservatives to brainwash themselves.

In his paper “How Fox News Changed American Media and Political Dynamics” published earlier this month, Bartlett theorized that watching the network was essentially “self-brainwashing” for viewers, making them believe that the United States was a more conservative nation than it actually was. And so the Republican Party had responded by running radical conservatives that representative Fox News viewers, but not the true state of the electorate.

“Many conservatives live in a bubble where they watch only Fox News on television, they listen only to conservative talk radio — Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, many of the same people,” Bartlett told CNN’s Brian Stelter on Sunday. “When they go onto the Internet, they look at conservative websites like National Review, Newsmax, World Net Daily.”

“And so, they are completely in a universe in which they are hearing the same exact ideas, the same arguments, the same limited amount of data repeated over and over and over again. And that’s brainwashing.”

Bartlett asserted that it was a bigger problem for conservatives than liberals because they did not have their own network for a long time, and then they “drank very heavily from the Fox waters.”

[DCBob]

1. They are brainwashing anyone who watches that crap thinking they are watching a real news station.

They are dangerous and a threat to the future of this nation.

[RKP5637]

15. They really are. Fox News is a subversive operation intent on undermining the US as they operate

under freedom of speech. In fact, they are similar to Paul Joseph Goebbels propaganda machine that took Germany down. IMO, we are witnessing similar with Fox News, a slick machine bringing America down and making money in the process.

[reddread]

28. Freedom of speech meaning the SCOTUS protected right to lie?

what they are operating under, just like CNN is the unregulated cable arm of what would otherwise be quite objectionable from broadcast affiliates. Not by accident.
this needs to be changed.
the definition of commons evolves and the freedom to ignore the public interest is a top tier information crime.
When we refuse to allow it, it will stop.

[Caijoe]

59. well...

15. They really are. Fox News is a subversive operation intent on undermining the US as they operate

Actually, only when their team isn't in power. They try to divide the country all the time with their dog whistle BS.

[passiveporcupine]

86. Who is more dangerous?

Their disillusioned base, who will eventually split the party and weaken it, or dems who can't seem to get their base out to vote, so keep losing when we should be winning?

[DCBob]

87. What's dangerous is spewing RW propaganda deceitfully disguised as news.

[passiveporcupine]

88. I can't disagree with you, but I would like us spend more time

getting dem votes out, than complaining about things we can't control, like the propaganda, liies,, gerrymandering, and vote suppression. We need to focus our energy where it can do the most good.

[DCBob]

90. If we dont figure out how to counter the RW media effect..

it wont matter who we nominate.

[passiveporcupine]

94. I believe gerrymandering and vote suppression can be fixed politically

Do you have a proposition on how to fix right wing propaganda and lies? Something that will pass the first amendment?

[DCBob]

95. Of course we cant make it go away but we need to find a way to minimize its impact.

[hrmjustin]

2. K&R!

[GeorgeGist]

3. Only took 27 years to figure it out.

Who says Republicans are stupid.

[NewJeffCT]

4. but, they're still winning in Congress

maybe not at the presidential level, but they're winning governorships and Congress.

[Populist_Prole]

46. Yeah, that is inexplicably maddening

Politics being local and all...like 'baggers looking all of 2 inches in front of them as they bark up the wrong tree and bitch about stupid social issue BS and studiously ignore the robber barons robbing us all....pulling for the bastards no less.

[The Wizard]

49. Gerrymandering has tilted the playing field

The Repubics have gamed the system. The majority no longer rules. In the Senate it takes 60 votes to even have a debate. The Congressional districts are so skewed that with a majority of people voting for Democrats in the last election the Repubics hold a large majority in the House and a slim majority in the Senate. They control 80% of the federal government if you include the Supreme Court, but only 20% of the population is registered Repubic.
We just may need a Constitutional convention and adopt a parliamentary system where a majority sets the agenda.

[hifiguy]

81. This. A thousand times this.

The electoral system is so rigged and dysfunctional it may be beyond repair.

[Art_from_Ark]

89. Gerrymandering affects House races, but not Senate or gubernatorial races

And Parliamentary systems aren't always what they're cracked up to be. Just look at all of the Parliamentary systems in major English-speaking countries-- Australia, Canada, the UK, New Zealand-- they all have right-wing governments. And Parliamentary systems usually result in a splintering of left-wing parties so that even when the left does gain power, they can only wield it with a fragile coalition that usually does not last very long. And here in Japan, with at least 7 different political parties, the right-wing has firm control, as it has had for all but a few years since 1955.

[Gothmog]

5. Fox News is not a news organization

[Historic NY]

63. Its a propaganda operation....the crave it like a drug.

my observation of viewers in a private organizational setting is the first thing they do is click it on as soon as they get in the door. It is almost like they can't leave it for any length of time. They will click back and forth to it, if others leave the room they will leave it on.

[MisterP]

6. see, it's not just that it's a corporate arm (with several fundies attached) kicking out any liberal

Pubs: we're faced with an Orwellian, deranged, cultish, dysfunctional mess that would rather cry in the dark about the commie hordes than greenlight infrastructure and stop attacking countries at random

[xfundy]

7. Remember "faxblasts?"

The Greedy Old Pigs send out talking points daily and the voices repeat them in every media. It's obvious when the tee vee pigs say something and all their sites say the same thing, as do their plants in newspapers, radio, and news sites, simultaneously, like magic.

It's orchestrated and effective brainwashing.

[brewens]

11. I was watching C-SPAN Washington Journal the day the shit hit the fan. I think it was

leading up to the election for Clinton's second term. Brian Lamb was hosting and within maybe 20 minutes or so, two callers read the same talkng points word for word! Brian was not amused and that confirmed what they had suspected was going on and led to new rules and seperate lines for callers.

Brian explained it one day. They were being overwhelmed with conservative callers. The only thing was that every veiwer survey they ever did showed 1/3 each of Republicans, Democrats and independants. They knew something weird was going on. It was a coordinated attack by conservatives at phone banks or with speed dialers trying to hog all the call-in time on the show. It wasn't just his network though. I remember one guy really well that would pop in on C-SPAN like clockwork and when Larry King had Jesse Helms on one night, there he was again. He had to have help doing that.

It's like any special interest group that wants us to believe they have more support than they really do. Religions are probably the best example, so many of them believe, how can they all be wrong? I'm glad that kind of thing has never really effected me.

[reddread]

29. C-SPAN is the conservative devil

they were screening out callers.
I was a fairly regular bitch there, and at some point all the phone did was ring.
then a new number and they answered. its not like i was getting on and making obscene comments.
Seems like one of the last times I spoke to Lamb as host I pointed out he was perpetrating support for the top 2%
and he more or less said yeah, so what?

[Enthusiast]

33. I agree. I have reason to believe C-Span was/is screening callers based on ideology.

Additionally the hosts continually quotes right wing sources like the WSJ and Heritage Foundation. They do this with a completely straight face as if we are to consider them unbiased.

The entire media has been compromised, not just Fox. Fox serves as a big distraction so we won't notice how biased the rest of the media has become.

[The Wizard]

51. Pox blatant propaganda

provides cover for the big three and CNN which are more subtle and sophisticated, and thus more dangerous with their soft propaganda. C-Span really isn't a factor as their audience is very limited.

[RKP5637]

18. I see Fox News as a national security risk! n/t

[jwirr]

8. faux "news" is the teabaggers cheerleader.

[zentrum]

9. Cheney once said...

...that all he watched was FOX.

I also remember reading that RW radio is the only radio our armed forces overseas can get.

[RKP5637]

24. I recall hearing similar. And also that Rush Limbaugh was aired a lot on armed forces radio, etc. nt

[former9thward]

43. Both left and right are aired on Armed Forces radio.

http://myafn.dodmedia.osd.mil/RadioStation.aspx?c=15

[RKP5637]

69. I see, thanks for the link! n/t

[SeattleVet]

38. It tended to lean heavily that way...

when I was stationed in Germany (this was the 1979-81 timeframe - under Carter and Reagan). I used to bring a shortwave radio in to the shop when we were on swings or mids. The main English-language news and entertainment source we generally had was Armed Forces Radio/Europe (part of AFRTS - Armed Forces Radio & Television Service). We knew that the news we were getting was slanted in a particular direction. So, we'd tune in to Radio Moscow for a while, which was biased about the same amount, in the opposite direction. We figured that the truth was somewhere in the middle of the two.

For a pretty straightforward news report without a noticeable bias we'd listen to Deutsche Welle or the BBC. For something that was *way* out there in those days, we could get Radio Tirana (Albania). They were still in the mode of referring to 'the American running dog lackeys of capitalist-imperialist oppressors' at least once or twice every 15 minutes and they put together some pretty good rants.

[zentrum]

55. That's fascinating. Thank you n/t

[lutefisk]

41. He had FOX News turned on in hotel rooms before he even arrived

So when he entered that was the first sound he heard.

[zentrum]

56. Yes. Heard that.

Frightening to think how they need to bolster their delusions.

[former9thward]

44. That is false.

Both left and right are aired on AFR. http://myafn.dodmedia.osd.mil/RadioStation.aspx?c=15

[zentrum]

57. Thanks for the information.

I know there was a time in the middle of the Bush years when only RW broadcasting was available. This was during the "Air America" days. But I think there were then some Congressmen who did something about it. I just wasn't clear on whether or not it actually had happened. Glad it did.

[Blanks]

10. It's beginning to show in other social media...

At least what I see. When someone posts some kind of right wing bullshit on facebook, it doesn't get much in the way of likes or conversations in my circle.

Sure, the republicans did pretty well in 2014, but more republicans vote in the 'mid-term' elections.

I think there's going to be a bubble burst. Kind of like disco, nobody admitted to listening to disco. In two years (or so) nobody will admit that they watched Fox News or voted republican.

Of course we are going to have to point out that the democrats have a better record because I'm not seeing it in my horrendous mass of emails from the various democratic party money raising organizations.

[brewens]

13. Someone posted a pro Duggar link on FB and it got one like and sank like a stone.

I think it was from the Blaze. Even some of the staunch conservatives didn't want to touch that one!

[Blanks]

19. I spent quite a bit of time responding...

To a guy from my hometown when he posted a bunch of right wing crap like the blaze. Initially, he got a lot of likes on these posts and a few 'amens', but as time went on, friends that he and I had in common didn't 'like' his posts.

When it got to the point where the only people involved in the threads were people that I had never met (I expect that they were working together on some kind of 'click bait' scheme upping the hits so that the site got more advertising money) I took his 'stuff' off my news feed.

I have another high school friend that likes Bill O'Reilly, when she posts what is obviously right wing crap, nobody pays much attention.

I think people are becoming aware of how others are being led astray by Fox News. Hopefully those who are being led astray will wake up soon.

[brewens]

22. One of my left-wing buddies got to bugging me and I had to take him off my feed.

It was just too much and really just the same few right-wingers responding that he was never going to get through to anyway. That guy alone was burying all kinds of other posts I'd be interested in. Now I see very little political stuff on FB. I think everyone kind of backed off.

[Blanks]

26. That's pretty much what I'm seeing too...

and I don't post much anyway. I respond to some posts, but I don't share a lot of stuff, and I rarely start new discussions, and I try to stay away from stuff that's political and especially really partisan stuff.

Its like a party, avoid politics and religion. I felt the need to get out front with my liberalness because I have so many conservative friends on facebook (having grown up in Idaho and currently living in Arkansas) I wanted my friends to know (a lot of them people that I haven't seen in decades) that I am not conservative.

Most people don't seem to taunt me with their right wing talking points as a result. The ones that chose to taunt me are no longer showing up on my news feed.

I think others saw how ugly they were being and backed off. Of course, I could be delusional about the whole thing, but the republicans control both houses of congress, and they aren't doing much to brag about.

[ToxMarz]

12. Bartlett asserted that it was a bigger problem for conservatives than liberals

"Bartlett asserted that it was a bigger problem for conservatives than liberals because they did not have their own network for a long time"

The Liberal Media IS AND ALWAYS HAS BEEN A MYTH!

That is what these freaks used to discredit the media BEFORE they had FOX news. (because no one serious can take them seriously). Now they do it because it worked AND they have FOX news!

MSNBC came along much later, and isn't nearly as myopic. Actually not myopic enough! And the New York Time and Washington Post (then) were not liberal, just news. Yes they would report liberal topics, as well as conservative.

[cstanleytech]

16. To Republicans any news agency is liberal if it isnt biased in favor of Republican candidates

and Republican talking points.

[brewens]

17. There was quite a period where newspaper and TV news people did tend to be liberal.

It's kind of obvious that they would be but they did a good job of reporting news fairly. Conservatives just think that anything that isn't hard right is full on left.

Of course the kids that went to go to school and took jounalism and radio/TV would tend to be liberal. It's not the kind of thing wealthy people or even small busness type conservatives would steer their kids toward. Graduate and go to work for low wages with really crappy hours. You had to really want to be a newspaper reporter, disc jockey or TV reporter. It's one of the things that sucks the most about TV now. All those news shows that have political personalities running them that never had any journalism training.

[Jackpine Radical]

20. I noticed that little gem as well,

and the WaPo & NYT have never been "liberal" on economic or war issues.

[Blanks]

23. TED Turner is liberal...

And there was a time when CNN was liberal. That was quite a long time ago, but when people claimed that there was a liberal media AT THAT TIME there may have been a hint of truth to it.

But, CNN is no longer the liberal media, and it wouldn't hurt to point that out every once in a while.

As far as MSNBC, it's owned by NBC which is part of the General Electric family of military products. They are not going to be extremely liberal on any war topics.

My problem with MSNBC has always been that they are supposed to be kind of the equivalent to Fox News, but that ain't gonna work because liberals <> conservatives. Liberals don't get their marching orders, more like herding cats.

I think that's one of the reasons why Keith Olberman doesn't seem to get a lot of support. He's like the anti-Rush. Rush would suck if he were a liberal, so Keith kinda sucks.

[BumRushDaShow]

47. "it's owned by NBC which is part of the General Electric family"

No.

There is no GE involvement anymore, as DUers must be reminded about over and over and over. Comcast owns NBC and MSNBC (and all the rest of the NBC Universal properties), and apparently is out to own everything else broadcast. The Justice Dept. all but terminated Comcast's attempt to buy Time-Warner, which essentially forced Comcast to back away from their plans.

But GE has been gone since 2013.

[Blanks]

54. Are you telling me that there is no defense contractor...

Among the NBC corporate family.

On edit: But thanks for pointing that out.

[BumRushDaShow]

64. I don't think the Roberts family has gone that far.

Yet.

IMHO, Bryan Roberts (the son of the original founder and current CEO) is a fucking meglomaniac. His father (the founder Ralph) was more old school and sortof rolled into big corporate life in a manner not unlike Turner, starting with small outlets and eventually building to a media empire. When Ralph handed over control to Bryan, I think everyone here in Philly (where the Comcast HQ is - with the tallest tower in the city soon to be surpassed by Comcast's new tower that will be even taller) knew what was coming.

NBC-Universal Studios (and their properties - television/cable/movie studios/theme parks/music) - is just that now - media/internet. GE took their "military" side with them... And the irony is that I remember when GE declared that they were "getting out of the consumer product" business (which had originally been their core) and they dumped their corporate finance biz, so there ain't much left other than their military (engines) and health (large medical devices)... seemingly celebrated through bizarre commercials.

I do think we are experiencing GE's identity crises, as they have really lost their way after trying to chase the "fad" industries during the push in the '90s for companies to "diversify" (defense, finance, media). At this point, many that did this have shed or are starting to shed, their "non-core" businesses.

[Blanks]

67. There are still a lot of advertisers...

That have defense contracts. Even though the contractors aren't advertising those defense products, they pay the network to run those commercials and it would be foolish to assume that defense contractors have no 'sway' over the direction of the news.

I had forgotten that GE and NBC had been separated, but the only thing that changed is the actual ownership. I don't believe the influence has been reduced at all.

If we are going to have any kind of trustworthy news source it has to be separated from defense industry advertisement revenue.

There's too much flag waving and throwing around of the word 'hero' and I think it distracts people from the fact that we run a huge deficit from defense spending. I'm just rambling now.

[BumRushDaShow]

71. Huh?

Every company that uses a commercial advertising business model is going to get what they can get in terms of advertising.

You would do better making your argument using "big pharma" as an example of "influence", as they are probably the number one advertiser on every media outlet - Viagara, diabetes drugs, incontinence drugs, allergy medicine, etc., etc. "Defense" is probably a tiny tiny fraction, and if anything with that category of ads, I see more U.S. military recruiting propaganda than the Hughes or McDonnell-Douglas types.

[Blanks]

73. So you think that when GE advertises...

Some kind of medical equipment or the Koch Brothers advertise how wonderful they are, or when Boeing advertises (even though they they aren't advertising a consumer product) that those ads are not purchasing influence over what news the networks are or are not covering and the angle that they're covered.

Perhaps I'm overly suspicious, but when I see a GE ad and then read somewhere else that they built the Fukushima nuclear power plant turnkey - there's a connection. When I see a whole bunch of Koch commercials here in Arkansas but no news reports pointing out how they're poisoning communities (that are featured in documentaries) right here in Arkansas. I think to myself "there's a connection". If I were the billionaires - that is EXACTLY what I would be doing.

I'm not saying you're wrong, but I sure see a lot of pro-military stuff on the TV and I don't see a lot of pro-military stuff in the world around me. Somebody is influencing the media to do that. I don't think they're doing it for ratings.

If we had an arms length law preventing the connection between the press and defense contractors, there would be no talk of war. Ever.

[BumRushDaShow]

74. No - I don't see it that way

They don't need to "advertise" to "buy influence". They just send lobbyists directly to our legislators with check in hand. The media doesn't directly pass laws that enable the MIC, Congress and the state elected officials do. IMHO, the "ads" are just a distraction directed at the common people to hide the real action - K Street's swarming of the elected officials and those officials employing K Street staff in kind . Those are the people in power who would do a corporation's bidding regardless of how much the media may pump for it.

[Blanks]

77. I suppose we'll just have to agree to disagree...

I expect that they recognize that too many upset americans would result in a few of their candidates losing, they can only keep their candidates in office by 'greasing the skids' and making what their candidate is doing popular.

If enough people were upset over a single issue at any time, it would be difficult to completely prevent some kind of action. A lot of 'shiny stuff' is thrown out there to distract people from focussing on a single issue, plus we see issues exploited and kept alive (like the TPP) that pit would-be allies against one another.

That's just my guess, they've got people keeping a close eye on the media to make sure that no single issue is allowed to stay on top for long. When it looks like an issue is emerging with a majority, they switch the media's emphasis to something else and control that message.

[BumRushDaShow]

79. That's fine

What is happening I think, is that a different, much younger demographic is coming along and they are eschewing "traditional media" that tends to run in a "linear" fashion with a fixed format of programming and advertising, and are consuming news and information in a manner that is very different from what the honchos running the corporate media and other corporate businesses understand. In essence, the youngins are using what is essentially an "underground" advocacy" method to alert to something that they feel should rise to the level of garnering their attention. Although this demo doesn't own or control "the media", they will one day, and we might not even recognize what would be called "media" at that point. And it's up to them to change the narrative once they leave their "underground" universe.

Basically, the generation who grew up with television as youngsters - the WWII babies and Baby Boomers (my parents were born in the '20s and '30s and they most certainly weren't them) learned to manipulate that format effectively. Now the children of those television babies (who are 40+ and younger) are more digitally oriented, so the current model is not going to be effective at all with them. And so far, they've been able to call out the manipulation by corporate neophytes using their "media" (Twitter, Snapchat, etc - I'm not counting Facebook because that skews much older and is populated by those who also consume "traditional" media), most likely because their "media" has always been "interactive" and not 1-way, and requires more of their resources to be effective... On the distaff side, the digital media can spread bad info just as quickly too.

[cstanleytech]

14. Well no shit. Hell I remember years ago when Fox News first started out and I was talking to

my mother about it and I remember telling her that if the Republicans were not careful and began to rely on it as their sole source that it would end up biting them in the ass.

[sendero]

21. I agree ..

.... and it is not just Fox News. Some churches seemed to have fallen into the same routine.

I see examples of this everywhere. Take that Jade Helm 15 nonsense for example. These people are so embedded in the echo chamber they actually fell for some ridiculous shit like that.

The good side is that it has created a virtual clown car full of Repub candidates that all subscribe to this mindset to varying degrees. When these people talk, only the anointed echo-chamber participants hear anything useful, and fortunately these folks make up a relatively small (20% or so) segment of the population.

[butterfly77]

37. Now they wonder why church attendance is down..

[Novara]

25. Fox news viewers are less infromed than those who watch no TV news

Seriously: Fox News viewers less informed about current events than those who don’t watch news at all, study finds

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

27. Yet so many of them think they're well informed

That's the scary thought. They're all useful idiots.

[Iliyah]

30. fake news preaches "hate" for anything or anyone that does not toll the line

[Spitfire of ATJ]

31. I can hear it now,...."But MSNBC!!!"

[paleotn]

34. Has Joe Scarborough on....

...every freaking day. That usually shuts them up. At least for awhile.

[Jamaal510]

96. I said that

to one troll on MediaMatters, and his response was basically along the lines of "Scarborough is a RINO". Pretty much any Republican who works for MSNBC (whether it's him, Michael Steele, or Abby Huntsman) is a fake, according to people like that troll.

[vkkv]

32. Most of us already KNEW that, it just takes conservatives LOOONG time to figure it out. n/t

The GOP is just about toast.

Covered California numbers are out and shown as a success, much like in Mass. The GOP will be seen as the LIARS that they are by voters.

The GOP will then in 2016's election bids spout about how ObamaCare is actually ROMNEY Care and that Republicans were only fighting about additional spending or trying to "make it less government run" - which it is not, only more lies.

The Republican-lead House has now voted more than 50 times to repeal it... hard to defend those votes as a mistake. Citizens in GOP lead states that have no ACA health insurance exchanges are now taking a closer look at just how good of a job their Congressmen are doing... POORLY is the answer.

ObamaCare is going to be the fatal blow to the GOP that will take a beating for 10 or 15 years.

It's a NO WIN situation for the GOP. To paraphrase Grover Norquist: it won't be long before the GOP "is shrunk down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub."

[delrem]

35. It isn't just FOX. It's the entire MSM. We all should know that by now.

Focusing exclusively on FOX is itself part of the problem.

[tabasco]

60. Absolutely correct

The entire mega-corp mass media is owned by the right-wing and works to further their agenda.

Others are more subtle than Fox "News" and attempt to present a veneer of objectivity. But as a whole, it is all garbage right-wing propaganda. I always urge people to turn off cable/sat TV.

[SoapBox]

36. Duh!

Like we don't know that it's a brainwashing machine.

[rhett o rick]

39. This fits the Oligarchs plan. Run the Republicon Clown Car off the cliff and

then buy the Democratic Party. $2 BILLION dollars to ensure a Clinton win. The people have an uphill battle to fight the Plutocratic-Oligarchs.

[world wide wally]

40. As Marshall McCluhan pointed out and George Orwell before him in fiction, the media is capable of mass

brainwashing and is very effective at it. Fox bullshit has permiated the entire media. Just listen to NPR. I am glad to see so many people here aware of this. Now we need some kind of mass opposition from the people with public platforms to help point this out.
I though Fox would be toast after the Cliven Bundy/Sean Hannity fuckup, but it was like water off a duck's back. We can't let this crap go on for much longer and not pay the consequences.

[delrem]

42. FOX isn't orchestrating it.

FOX is a symptom of a general condition.

[Cosmocat]

48. BINGO!

I keep telling people this and they just don't get it.

Its the symptom, not the root cause.

The STUPID is the problem.

There is literally nothing that Fox and most "conservative" media, hell the general media, spews that doesn't smell like utter bullshit.

You have to WANT to believe their bullshit.

[Backwoodsrider]

78. yep just a symptom

The thinking Fox and talk radio reflect is primitive, immature and emotional. When we hear something that matches how we feel(selfish and fearful for the Fox viewers), we love whoever said it. "YOU SPEAK MY LANGUAGE!"

And on the flip side we have Rachel Maddow and Michael Moore.

[Cosmocat]

91. I don't get it

I know general, selfish asshat republicans, and I get how they get sucked into it.

But, I know a lot, and I mean a LOT of really decent, good, giving people who are totally sucked into the bullshit, too.

I tried to understand it and I just can't.

Best I can do is love them and maintain the friendships that we have and separate the politics/policy from it.

Watching how things have unfolded the last quarter century, I have actually seen the thinking become more ingrained and accepted.

The whole thing is wrong on nearly every issue, clearly and beyond any rationale thought, but it does not matter.

It just is what it is ...

[Backwoodsrider]

93. kind of like watching a car wreck in slow motion

I think we are just going down the Oligarchy road ie the ruling class is using the media to address us on an emotional level. Making us feel threatened by outside 'terrorists' and afraid the foodstamp users will get more stuff than we got has moved us away from the truth and on to the downward slide of all past empires.

That is what I see this morning but hopefully during the day I can help some people who are suffering, that's the best I can do and just let society go wherever its going.

[Major Hogwash]

45. Assuming some Republicans have brains to be brainwashed, he may be right.

But, having lived several decades of a wonderful life surrounded by many, many, brain-dead Republicans, I can attest to the fact that many of them do not need to be brainwashed for very long in order to be mesmerized by the radical fringe element that comes from within their own party.

Because most of them were raised in an environment at home where they learned to hate liberals, gays, minorities, and anyone who speaks with a foreign accent, or who may have come here from another country.

The Republican's fondness for over-the-top nationalism, the kind that lead to the creation of the seemingly innocent, patriotic cheer of "USA! USA! USA!", which first began during the hockey games of the 1980 Winter Olympics . . . has since been co-opted by the GOP's radical fringe element to form some sort of sick meme to be used against anyone disagreeing with them.
Faux Snooze is infamous for promoting this simplistic mindset.
With George Dubya Bush as the Cheerleader-in-Chief.

This sick meme was even used to protest the idea of people demonstrating against white cops killing black people, such as what happened in Ferguson last year.
I was kind of shocked by watching the video of all of those white people gathered as a crowd shouting "USA! USA!" to the blacks that had formed there to demonstrate peaceably.
Until I realized that's all they've got.
There is no sense, nor rhyme nor reason for it, it's just all they know what to do, cheer like wet behind the ears 8th graders for the good ol' US of A.
Plus the fact, there's only 3 letters for them to remember to cheer.

I mean, how otherwise would one cheer about white cops killing black men?
By shouting a cheer like "Kill them all, they're all black, Kill them all, they're all black"?
That isn't going to work.
There just isn't a good reasonably-sounding racist cheer that they are able to shout that doesn't come out sounding like it isn't openly racist.

"They're black, shoot them in the back! They're black, shoot them in the back!"
See what I mean?
That just doesn't come off sounding so good that someone like Sister Sarah would approve of shouting it in public.
Behind closed doors, sure, just as long as it doesn't wind up on YouTube.

The last thing the GOP needs now is for another one of their white guys having his "Macaca moment" go viral on the internet!
As far as I'm concerned, I don't think Bartlett's right.
Watching Faux Snooze is not as much about brainwashing the GOP base as much as it is about reinforcing the prejudices their base has towards minorities, gays, liberals, and people with foreign accents.

[Omaha Steve]

50. Thanks for posting

K&R!

[BumRushDaShow]

52. This is because Murdoch and Ailes

made sure that their station was available on every cable and satellite outlet across the U.S., and was even included in special commercial packages that supply hotels, restaurants, bars, and other commercial businesses where the public might gather like fitness centers and some retail stores (even at a loss). I don't think I've ever been in a hotel (and I've been in many across the U.S.) that had MSNBC on the lineup. But they had Fox ("News&quot and CNN.

By capturing the sports crowd via Fox Sports (with their football game broadcast agreements), and bundling their propaganda station with that (and the rest of their properties),"Penetration, penetration, penetration" became their equivalent to the marketing jargon of "Location, location, location". They worked it not unlike Ted Turner attempted before and as they came into existence - you have your entertainment piece (TBS/TNT/TCM/WB now CW), your sports piece (TBS w/Turner Sports), and your "news" & business pieces (CNN & CNNfn, etc) - no need to go outside of the brand.

The nation is now totally infested with the Fox brand. And their side-kicks on RW hate talk radio just feed the beast.

[tularetom]

53. They've brainwashed a lot of Democratic office holders into thinking the same thing

They've got a lot of our senators and congress people believing the country is full of foaming at the mouth nutty religious wackos to the point wher they're scared to vote like democrats.

[BumRushDaShow]

65. Not quite. Unfortunately, the vast majority of DINOs

are in states full of the brain-dead and got elected from a combo of Dems willing to vote at all and independents, as a true liberal/progressive had no chance to win in a gerrymandered red state or purple state, or in a red district within a blue state. And at one time their being elected meant the difference between whether Dems would then control a legislative chamber (and get the chairmanships) or the GOP would. But now it's irrelevant. And unfortunately there is still enough of them to torpedo good progressive legislation. However they do tend to still vote at least 80 - 90+% of the time within party, versus 0% if the GOP had the seat. But they often buck it during high-profile legislation, and that's when we need them the most.

[Jefferson23]

58. "The same limited amount of data repeated over and over again." That is a kind way to

say, they're lying their asses off.

Good for him.

[Cosmocat]

61. It isn't a problem - POLITICALLY

There is, as most here see, a problem in terms of creating a conservatism on steroids that hurts the country.

But, lets be clear, that this is NOT a problem "politically."

It makes it hard at the presidential level, where they have not YET figured out how to game a national election as effectively as they can at the state level.

But, outside of that, this whole process works for them, and it works very well.

End of the day, all they care about is winning elections, and by extension winning the great, epic war against the evil liberal boogyman.

That is it, and any means toward that end is justified.

[Gothmog]

62. Bruce Bartlett was on Reliable Sources this weekend

[IHateTheGOP]

66. Fixed news is America rotting from within

[certainot]

68. the most important thing he said is not fox, it's talk radio

without that free speech free ride talk radio gets from the left fox would be more like a tv version of the washington times instead of a major player. fox assholes and liars know or feeel that the crap they read and repeat on fox and on the floor of congress has been or will be pounded into the earholes of 50 mil people a week- and a lot of that audience is practically captive

fox has a smaller audience

like print and the internet there are many free political alternatives (within limits) available with a click- in most parts of the us there are no free easy alternatives to talk radio while driving or working

there can be a lot more repetition and it's reinforced by many different hosts

talk radio can go a lot further on the sexism and racism

talk radio is easier to use for local politics

those 400 radio hosts can lie all they want knowing the left is not listening or can't get past their call screeners to challenge them in real time. and there is no record of what is being repeated

[raindaddy]

70. Only 25% of Americans still identify themselves as Republicans...

They already are a fringe party because they no longer serve the majority of the people. It's the corporate media that maintains the illusion the Republican Party represents middle America, they don't.

And the truth is the Democratic party is losing support as well, down from 36% to 30%. The new Democrats might have support of global corporations and Wall Street but they're losing the poor and middle class....

[valerief]

72. Duh. nt

[RKP5637]

75. He must be doing catch up! Yep, a real duh!

[valerief]

76. And they've been doing it since 1996! Helped along by RW radio, too, of course. nt

[cui bono]

80. It's damaging the Democratic Party as well.

Moderates are joining the Dem Party and the Dem Party has shifted further right to fill the center position.

There are actually people here on DU arguing in favor of corporations' profits over the rights of the people to know what they are consuming. Arguing that their hard money should not be taxed to pay for other people (freeloaders) to get an education.

It's a big problem. Huge.

[eppur_se_muova]

82. It's a bigger problem for conservatives because liberals think for themselves.

They can, do, prefer, and insist on thinking for themselves.

Conservatives only *want* to be reassured that whatever they already believe is correct. Actual thinking -- that is, rational critical analysis, not merely feeling -- is not necessary; it is contraindicated.

[Doctor_J]

83. a radical fringe party that's completely taken over

we're all living in their sewer now

[RKP5637]

84. ... basically, propagandistic mind control. And IMO, many Americans still don't get it! n/t

[red dog 1]

85. K&R

[R B Garr]

92. woo me with foxnews