Don't blame Facebook: How Fox News became the beating heart of the white nationalist movement

[marmar]

Don't blame Facebook: How Fox News became the beating heart of the white nationalist movement
If you want to know what's fuelling right-wing extremism, look no further than Fox News

By HEATHER DIGBY PARTON
MARCH 29, 2021 1:52PM


(Salon) Political analysts are still trying to figure out just what has caused the Republican Party in this country to move so far to the right in recent years, and there are many theories. Much has been made of the Trump-loving white working class's perceived loss of economic success due to outsourcing and international trade and we've endlessly discussed their various grievances about losing the status and privileges they believe they are entitled to. We try to understand their confusion about changing cultural norms and the cascading disinformation that permeates social media. In the end, all we really know is that they are very upset and Donald Trump gave voice to their overwhelming anger and disdain for their fellow Americans.

Last week there was yet another congressional hearing with the top social media executives, this one focusing on the role of their companies in promoting extremism, misinformation, and cyberbullying. Republicans were most concerned about the companies censoring right-wing voices (although interestingly, they didn't complain much about Donald Trump's expulsion from all the platforms) and Democrats complained about disinformation and extremism being allowed to flourish on the platforms.

We don't really know at this point how much of that affected the 2020 election. As Kevin Drum pointed out, we are still awaiting data to tell us just how much people relied on social media for their political information during the election but judging by past analysis of election campaigns, it really isn't as influential as we might assume. There's no doubt that Facebook and Youtube and to some extent Twitter can lead people down the conspiracy rabbit hole, and there's little doubt that right-wing extremism has had a very comfortable home on all those sites. But according to the analysis that Drum cites, TV and talk radio are still where the action is. Fox and OAN and Newsmax may pick up ideas that percolate up through the fever swamps to social media. But really, it mostly goes the other direction.

....(snip)....

Throughout the Trump administration, there was an ongoing question about whether Fox News was the president's brain or vice versa. I came to believe that it was a feedback loop with disinformation coming from both sides. There were numerous examples of Trump tweeting out some outlandish insult or idea just seconds after it had aired on the network. And the Fox News universe was dedicated to ensuring their audience saw Trump as their savior, often cleaning up his misstatements and amplifying his most effective messages to the faithful. They were a team. .............(more)

https://www.salon.com/2021/03/29/dont-blame-facebook-how-fox-news-became-the-beating-heart-of-the-white-nationalist-movement/

[lagomorph777]

1. Sorry - I still blame Fascistbook. Too many numbers and stories about it to pretend otherwise.

Nice try, though.

Fux, Fascistbook, and Twit all play their parts.

[Midnight Writer]

2. I'll go with Talk Radio for the win.

I hear crap on Hate Radio that is far worse than anything I've heard on FOX, and I know more people who are glued to their talk radio shows than watch FOX.

FOX's flagship shows may get 3-4 million viewers. Rush used to get 20 million for 3 hours a day. Hannity and Levine also put up numbers far higher than FOX, and there are hundreds of these type talkers around the country.

The biggest mistake Democrats ever made is ceding the public airwaves to the Right Wing.