Can Fox News make you sick?

[Turbineguy]

Not looking for humorous answers here. It's a serious question.

A woman at work came down with kidney failure and needs a transplant. She takes dialysis while she waits. She can lead a fairly normal life as she has a machine at home and plugs in at night. Now I find out that her husband got her started on Fox News. He listens to RW Hate radio at work.

So my question is: is it possible or even likely that somebody who cannot deal with hate effectively gets sick? Are there any statistics to back such an assertion?

The woman is a total sweetheart and maybe she just internalizes this garbage and it makes her sick.

[mainer]

1. I know some people get agitated and upset and that makes them sick

My good friend (a liberal) had winger parents who watched Fox all the time. They'd get angry and red-faced at the TV and the father eventually got a stroke. And Fox kept playing at his sickbed, making him agitated even though he could barely move.

[DFW]

2. We don't get Fox "News" or National Hate Radio here

That kind of stuff is illegal in my neck of the woods (Germany--I'm here as much or more than I'm home).

Maybe that's why the strain on their health care system has not yet become intolerable?

[Turbineguy]

5. Well the Germans

know a thing or two about fascist propaganda....

And prefer not to go there again.

[DFW]

8. They have definitely had their fill of that, and what it brings. n/t

[RKP5637]

3. The role of the media is to make money. This, is the first line of

the agenda since the media outlets became p&l centers rather than cost. That said, high motivators are fear, anxiety and hatred toward the identified guilty.

Fox is very effective at this, grinding on and on 7x24 stoking the base instincts of humans. For many it creates compulsive viewing. Feeding on this hatred can be very anxiety provoking for some and others thrive on it... hence, we have tabloid news and to many, including myself, a tabloid nation.

Keeping ones body in a continuous state of anxiety/stress will eventually cause side effects, more prevalent in some than others. To me, I have absolutely no doubt there is a cause and effect relationship occurring in the parties you mentioned. In essence, Fox News is a form of psychological warfare, brainwashing and stress inducing. I would not consider Fox News a very healthy.

And someone like Rush Limbaugh, for example, will tell you outright that his only goal is to make money for himself and his sponsors. Period. Fox News is no different. Follow the Money Trail.

[zanne]

4. Anger and stress have been proven to make you sick.

It raises your blood pressure and can really damage your heart.

[NNN0LHI]

6. It didn't do my late father any good

Made him bitter and hateful. And he never was bitter and hateful before he began a steady diet of Fox. He had been one of the nicest people you would ever want to know before that. He would literally give anyone his shirt off his back. I bet it took years off his life.

Thats the truth.

Don

[LeftyMom]

7. Getting pissed off might cause tension headaches or tummy upset. Failing kidneys? No.

[juno jones]

9. When my mom was in her final illness

She took to watching fox. The worse she got, the more she watched and the more fearful she became. I can't say it killed her, cancer did, but it sure fucked with her mind in her last days and I'm sure the anger and fear sapped her will to live.

[madamesilverspurs]

10. Fox is banned in my home,

same for two of my siblings. The younger brother, however, is a devoted fox fan. He has taken on the arrogance and smirking dismissiveness that is so pervasive among that group. He used to be able to converse, now he snarls and accuses. We all miss the sweet and gentle man he used to be.

Our local hospital has the Fox package for the televisions throughout the facility; CNN headline news, no MSNBC, plural Fox stations and the local stuff. Waiting area, cafeterias and rehab gyms are always tuned to Fox. Lousy way to treat sick people.


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