{"id":2392,"date":"2010-08-14T12:39:29","date_gmt":"2010-08-14T19:39:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=2392"},"modified":"2010-08-14T12:39:29","modified_gmt":"2010-08-14T19:39:29","slug":"america-hates-the-media-thank-you-fox-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=2392","title":{"rendered":"America Hates The Media – Thank You Fox News"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new survey<\/a> by the Gallup organization reveals that Americans have all but given up on old media services like newspapers and television. Only about 25% of respondents say that they have a “great deal”<\/i> or “quite a lot”<\/i> of confidence in either. This puts the legacy media on a par with perennially hated institutions like banks, HMOs and congress.<\/p>\n

It isn’t difficult to surmise the reason for this deep distrust. While the media has long been held in low esteem, there was a noticeable decline that began in the mid-1990s. Since that time confidence has dropped about 30%. And just as a point of interest, Fox News launched in 1996.<\/p>\n

There isn’t really anything coincidental about it. Fox News has always had as its purpose the discrediting of news as an institution. I made the case for this last year in Fox News Confidential: The Truth Behind Its Secret Mission<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The real mission of Fox News is [cue trumpets]<\/i> to so thoroughly tarnish the practice of journalism that majorities of the public would recoil in disgust at all of it. Murdoch and Ailes knew that the introduction of a single cable network would have a difficult time enshrouding the whole of the mediasphere in their veil of lies. So rather than try to change people’s minds, they would endeavor to poison the relationship that people have with the press.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Mission accomplished. By trivializing journalism with tabloid-style sensationalism, and diluting its authority with speculation and hyperbolic opinion, Fox has succeeded in producing large majorities of the American public who are now repulsed by the “mainstream”<\/i> media that barges into their homes every day. The lies Fox News spews are secondary to the campaign of defamation that they launched against the media as a whole. As a result, their fictional accounts of current events are more enduring because people are paying less attention overall.<\/p>\n

The saddest part of this scenario is that the non-Fox media have essentially cooperated with Fox’s disparagement of them. Rather than defend themselves and the integrity of their profession, they went along and allowed Fox to create the negative impressions that are now dominant in society. Even worse, they actually helped to reinforce those impressions.<\/p>\n

The Washington Post apologized for not covering more of the fakery of Andrew Breitbart. CNN bent over backwards to endorse the wacko wing of the right by hiring RedState’s Erick Erickson. MSNBC continues to host disreputable characters like Joe Scarborough and Pat Buchanan. And everybody persists in covering non-entities like Sarah Palin and the Tea Party. With respect to the latter, Sarah Palin just came in fourth (pdf)<\/a> amongst Republicans in a preference poll for 2012. And the Tea Party registered a measly (pdf)<\/a> 30% favorable rating with an even smaller percentage (25%) saying they would vote for a candidate with a Tea Party affiliation. Yet these two subjects get wall-to-wall coverage across the media spectrum.<\/p>\n

Perhaps if newspaper and television reporters would cover issues that actually address the interests of their audience they would not be so universally reviled. If they could manage to resist the melodramatic minutiae that Fox News has embraced they could recover some of their lost respect. And above all they need to put objectivity and honesty at the top of their agenda, not ratings and revenue.<\/p>\n

In other words, if they deliver a product that is informative and useful, and contributes to people’s lives, profits and popularity will follow. If they continue to pursue the Fox model they will only succeed in further damaging their reputation and their prospects for the future. To say nothing about the damage they are doing to a country whose democracy relies on a well-informed population.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new survey by the Gallup organization reveals that Americans have all but given up on old media services like newspapers and television. Only about 25% of respondents say that they have a “great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in either. This puts the legacy media on a par with perennially hated institutions […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1,6],"tags":[42,33,22,381,534,241],"class_list":["post-2392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-ratings","tag-cnn","tag-fox-news","tag-msnbc","tag-sarah-palin","tag-tea-party","tag-washington-post"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Ijg-CA","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7129,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=7129","url_meta":{"origin":2392,"position":0},"title":"Desperate Fox Nationalists Launch ‘Obama Regime’ Meme","author":"Mark NC","date":"5\/21\/2012","format":false,"excerpt":"In a textbook example of a biased media enterprise succumbing to desperation, the Fox Nation has taken to employing highly charged words that insinuate evil intent on the part of President Obama and the executive branch of the United States government. When referencing the Obama administration the Fox Nationalists are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3669,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=3669","url_meta":{"origin":2392,"position":1},"title":"America Hates Fox News","author":"Mark NC","date":"1\/20\/2011","format":false,"excerpt":"A new survey from Public Policy Polling shows that Fox News is the least trusted news network in the nation. NetworkTrustDistrust PBS5030 NBC4141 CNN4043 CBS3643 ABC3543 FOX4246 This is the second annual poll on news network trust. Last year had Fox at a higher level overall, but the poll's internals\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7149,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=7149","url_meta":{"origin":2392,"position":2},"title":"Fox Nation vs. Reality: Bashing Bush","author":"Mark NC","date":"5\/23\/2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Fox Nation can now add hypersensitivity to its list of psychoses. In their coverage of President Obama's speech today at the Air Force Academy, the Fox Nationalists spotted an insult aimed at Obama's predecessor, hidden deeply in the President's remarks. Can you spot it? President Obama told Air Force Academy\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":40420,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=40420","url_meta":{"origin":2392,"position":3},"title":"Trump Has ‘No Confidence’ in the Intelligence Chiefs He Appointed, But Relies Heavily on Fox News","author":"Mark NC","date":"1\/31\/2019","format":false,"excerpt":"The United States is undergoing a unique adventure in surreal governance. Its president has assembled a team of advisors and cabinet department heads that he is publicly assailing as ignorant and lacking the knowledge and abilities to perform the jobs to which he appointed them. Donald Trump is literally calling\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"Donald Trump","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-big-mouth.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-big-mouth.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-big-mouth.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":63150,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=63150","url_meta":{"origin":2392,"position":4},"title":"Fox News Trump Flunky Sinks to New Low, Citing Conspiracy Crackpot as an Election News Source","author":"Mark NC","date":"10\/1\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Perhaps the least surprising thing about the 2024 presidential election is that Fox News is working furiously to advance the campaign of Donald Trump and his MAGA minions. Shilling for right-wing politicos has been the mission of Fox News from its inception. So why should anyone expect anything different now?\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Election"","block_context":{"text":"Election","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=152"},"img":{"alt_text":"Fox News, Fake News","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/foxnews-fake-news.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/foxnews-fake-news.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/foxnews-fake-news.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":30272,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=30272","url_meta":{"origin":2392,"position":5},"title":"Roger Ailes Ponders Which GOP Loser Fox News Will Hire After The Election","author":"Mark NC","date":"11\/30\/2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Adweek just named Fox News CEO Roger Ailes their Media Visionary of 2015. Presumably he earned that honor by presiding over a cable \"news\" network best known for being the mouthpiece of the Republican Party and a purveyor of radical right-wing propaganda. In an interview of Ailes he was asked\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Election"","block_context":{"text":"Election","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=152"},"img":{"alt_text":"Fox News Donald Trump","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-baby-foxnews.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-baby-foxnews.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-baby-foxnews.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2392"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2392\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2396,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2392\/revisions\/2396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}