Krauthammer: Fox News Created An Alternate Reality

The Eric Breindel Award for Excellence in Opinion Journalism is a creation of Rupert Murdoch, who endowed the foundation that administers it. How convenient then, that this year’s honoree is Fox News favorite, Charles Krauthammer.

Krauthammer is an unrepentant defender of torture, war, and the conservative economic model dedicated to excusing the rich and fleecing the poor. Thus, he is an obvious choice for an award bestowed by News Corporation to one of their own. I wonder what Sean Hannity would have to say about an award created by General Electric that was presented to Keith Olbermann.

In his acceptance speech, Krauthammer graciously praised the heads of News Corp. and Fox News who are, of course, also his bosses:

“I said some years ago that the genius of Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes was to have discovered a niche market in American broadcasting — half the American people.”

There is little doubt that Murdoch and Ailes are adept at marketing (i.e. propaganda) and that their enterprise serves a niche market (i.e. dittoheads). However, to say that it is half of the American people is evidence that Krauthammer must have failed remedial math. There are about 360 million Americans and Fox’s audience rarely exceeds 3 or 4 million. Krauthammer seems to regard 1% and 50% as essentially the same. But that isn’t even the point at which he truly sails over the edge of his flat earth. For that he had to exhibit a bit more honesty:

“What Fox did is not just create a venue for alternative opinion. It created an alternate reality.”

Can’t argue with that. Fox News creates an alternate reality on a daily basis. They misrepresent the statements of Democrats and progressives. They edit videos to produce false and negative impressions. Studies show that Fox viewers rank lower with regard to knowledge of current events and, even worse, are far more likely to believe things that are demonstrably false.

It’s a good thing that Fox invents their own awards because they aren’t going to be winning any from reputable institutions.

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3 thoughts on “Krauthammer: Fox News Created An Alternate Reality

  1. To be fair to Krauthammer (which it goes without saying he hardly deserves) his “half” citation no doubt refers to the 50/50 nation consisting of 50%conservative, 50%liberal. Which, if it ever existed, is no longer the case. Then again, if that’s what he means, he should have said “potential market niche.” He’d still be inaccurate, but not quite as delusional.

    • I’m not particularly concerned about being fair to Krauthammer. When was he ever fair to me?

      And as you noted the population is not split 50/50 liberal/conservative. So no matter how you look at it, Krauthammer is wrong.

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