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A Sense of Doubt blog post #3510 - On Friday August 28th, 2020 - Fox "News" is a threat to National Security
In my continuing series of what I published on August 20th, here's a reprint of what I published in 2020 on that date.
Thanks for tuning in.
A Sense of Doubt blog post #2019 - FOX NEWS is a threat to NATIONAL SECURITY
I had this post ready to roll and pushed it back a day to publish my post about the shooting of Jacob Blake.
Even though the article from WIRED was published in December of 2019, I felt it was still worth re-publishing here on my blog. It describes the downside-up world of FOX NEWS in which major stories with overwhelming evidence as reported by nearly every news outlet in the world, such as Trump's request that the Ukraine make up scandals about his political rivals in the up coming 2020 election, perhaps like the mysterious "treason" with which he keeps flogging Obama/Biden for supposedly "spying" on his campaign.
Seemed like this article was still VERY RELEVANT.
And then more material came to my attention, as it always does, to fuel the fire.
One of my students wrote about the state of conservatives in our nation, how they are "bullied" on social media and how there is no such thing as white privilege because there are poor white people.
This student believes in equality and stands against bigotry but has been misled by right-wing media that is increasingly divisive, antagonistic, and fanning of the flames of our modern Civil War.
The student shared an alleged incident reported in conservative media that someone supposedly from the Black Lives Matter movement forced a white woman to get on her knees to repent her whiteness and white privilege. The student balked at this egregious and hostile act, but my gut reaction was that it was not real, a stunt likely invented by right wing agitators to stoke the flames of Trump-loving anger and denigrate the largely peaceful protest of the systemic racism of our nation's culture.
I was right. If you read on, you will find clear and accurate, unbiased fact check by Reuters showing that the person in the video of this alleged incident is NOT a representative of Black Lives Matter nor is this an official action of the Black Lives Matter organization.
Disclaimer: I cannot claim that this video and what it shows was reported on Fox News. But it's not unlike many of the things FOX NEWS "reports." According to the Reuters fact check, the video was a prank, trolling, by a social media satirist who sees it as "comedy," depending on his politics it may not be a Right Wing misinformation campaign.
I tried to gently help the student to see this truth and to reaffirm my commitment and the commitment of my college to anti-racism, which means in the face of even a well-meaning person who cares and has compassion (unlike many of the most vocal supporters of the individual occupying the White House), even someone who believes in equality and eschews bigotry, I must speak out. I must rally. I must represent. Because silence is consent. Silence serves only preserving the status quo. The only way to eliminate racism is to always speak out against it, even when it's subversive and the result of misinformation, misrepresentation, and misdirection trickery.
Here's the first message I wrote to the student in response to being told not to "give in to the propaganda" of groups like Black Lives Matter:
And so I fact checked the video and found it to be false. I responded to the student like this:
I consider myself a very open minded person. I investigate news sources to teach my students about bias and misinformation. There's dangerous content being published on the Internet as "factual."
I am so glad you shared this video with me because I was about to go hunting for it to share
in my current blog post.
The video is a hoax, apparently created by a white supremacist group with one of the most hateful Twitter pages I have ever seen:
Nightmare Vision
https://twitter.com/GodCloseMyEyes
Fact check by Reuters confirms that this video is NOT created by anyone involved with Black Lives Matter as my instinct and gut reaction suggested from the moment you brought it up.
Reuters ratings by Media Bias Fact Check, an independent bias rating organization, is very high in factual reporting and among the least biased news sources in the world.
https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-factcheck-blm-woman-knee/fact-check-man-asking-white-woman-to-kneel-and-apologize-is-not-a-representative-of-black-lives-matter-idUSKBN23B359
https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/reuters/
I am open minded, but I refuse to accept this kind of hateful rhetoric from white supremacist organizations passed off as "truth" and how Americans are brainwashed by media outlets with liberal bias.
Thank you for bringing this vile hoax to my attention. It will fit perfectly in mine (and that of my colleagues) teaching this fall.
The Civil War in our America and the accusations of brainwashing, misinformation, fake news, and hoaxes are tearing our country apart, especially with a "leader" (not my "leader") who only stokes the flames, spreads the lies, and makes it all so much worse.
We need to heal.
We need sense, reason, and compassion for one another and from our government.
We need a change.
Please vote.
Meanwhile, enjoy investigating this post. First, promotion of a new book that I am about to read on this very subject followed by the article about the video of the supposed #BLM asking a white woman to repent, followed by the fact check on that lie, the fact-accuracy and bias rating of Reuters (high accuracy and among the least biased) and then the article from Wired, a video from RING OF FIRE about U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr getting a dissenting voice, an anti-Trump voice, that Fox allowed, removed from the network, and lastly, my year in number for 2019, the penultimate post.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/charting-fox-newss-slide-from-serious-news-outlet-to-state-media/2020/08/25/417af504-e555-11ea-bc79-834454439a44_story.html
https://read.amazon.com/kp/embed?asin=B07Z41TM54&preview=newtab&linkCode=kpe&ref_=cm_sw_r_kb_dp_cRQsFbGDC4890
https://www.bizpacreview.com/2020/06/03/white-woman-commanded-to-get-on-her-knees-and-apologize-for-her-white-privilege-929302
https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-factcheck-blm-woman-knee/fact-check-man-asking-white-woman-to-kneel-and-apologize-is-not-a-representative-of-black-lives-matter-idUSKBN23B359
Social media users are sharing a video in which a man says he works for Black Lives Matter (BLM) and has been told by its “CEO” to get a white woman to kneel and apologize for her white privilege. The video – in which the woman is seen complying with the request – has provoked outrage, fueling angry rhetoric against BLM, a movement that campaigns against racism towards the African-American community. The alleged author said it was intended as comedy and confirmed he was not a representative of BLM
Fox’s bubble reality creates a situation where it’s impossible to have the conversations and debate necessary to function as a democracy.
PHOTOGRAPH: DREW ANGERER/GETTY IMAGES
https://www.wired.com/story/fox-news-is-now-a-threat-to-national-security/
Fox News Is Now a Threat to National Security
MONDAY’S SPLIT-SCREEN DRAMA, as the House Judiciary Committee weighed impeachment charges against President Trump and as the Justice Department’s inspector general released a 476-page report on the FBI’s handling of its 2016 investigation into Trump’s campaign, made one truth of the modern world inescapable: The lies and obfuscations forwarded ad infinitum on Fox News pose a dangerous threat to the national security of the United States.
THE YEAR IN NUMBER: 2019
https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2019/12/specials/year-in-pictures/news.html
https://www.reuters.com/news/picture/pictures-of-the-year-2019-idUSRTX7BPNB
2019 was a great year. I fully invested in teaching at three schools, leaving the one, CTU, at which I had taught since 2009 after changes in policies increasingly upped my workload to unmangeable levels, especially for the pay, and made me more advisor than instructor.
Thankfully, I had three other wonderful schools at which I am valued and have more input into the mode of instruction.
I really fully began to adore Portland and all of the PACNW.
Here's a few of the blog posts that best exemplify the glory of 2019.
Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #1145 - Happy Birthday 21st - Ivan
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1419 - TEN THINGS I LIKE- for school - a self introduction pt.2
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1428 - Girls also want to rock a pair of kicks
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1429 - My Birthday 2019 (and again and again and...)
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1439 - Watchmen Assignments English 101 LCC
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1439 - "Comics Are Going Downhill" - NOT!
Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #1150 - How Eerie Magazine changed everything with updates on Creepy
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1454 - Closing of St. Marks Comics
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1469 - Imperialism, the myth of "RACE," and GENOCIDE
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1483 - Ethnocentrism and World Views - More HUM 351 Posts
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1490 - Trains, Pizza, and Self-care
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1492 - Thoughts in water falling - part one
Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #1157 - Pistons-Blazers - 1903.23 - thoughts pt.2
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1503 - Young and the Restless - Kristoff St. John - RIP
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1528 - AVENGERS ENDGAME - THANK YOU MARVEL
Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #1165 (SoD1539) - Spotlight: Park
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1540 - Game of Thrones returns
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1547 - Ani DiFranco wrote a Book and I watched!
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1548 - The Good Weekend: Soriah and Michael Pollan
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1550 - On Gender - Tolerance-Acceptance - and individuating - Choose your labels
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1563 - React Workshop at Home Depot Quote Center
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1584 - Graduation 2019 and other Recent Instagrams
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1585 - Portland Ultimate League Spring Tournament
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1595 - New Monitor and Assorted Photos
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1608 - Walking Dead is Done! LLWD!
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1629 - WHAT JUST HAPPENED? Too Many Shootings...
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1637 - 1969 - 11 songs for Apollo 11
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1640 - TONI MORRISON tributes via AFROPUNK
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1645 - Kristoff St. John tribute ep - and extras - Young and the Restless
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1655 - Concordia University - my building - and assorted photos
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1676 - Daniel Johnston RIP
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1687 - "The Weight" - 50 years later - BONUS Musical Tuesday
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1697 - National Coming Out Day - I am your ally
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1705 - Satchel's surgery - second of 2019
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1767 - #IMPOTUS - Impeachment - What Just happened - Bitch Magazine
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1772 - Christmas 2019
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1775 - AFROPUNK: Goodbye 2019 and Good Riddance
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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2008.28 - 10:10
- Days ago = 1883 days ago
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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2408.27 - 10:10
- Days ago: MOM = 3374 days ago & DAD = 030 days ago
- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I plan to continue Hey Mom posts at least twice per week but will continue to post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.
COUNTDOWN!!!
Here's the original link to the post I am reprinting below.
Friday, August 28, 2020
A Sense of Doubt blog post #2019 - FOX NEWS is a threat to NATIONAL SECURITY
I had this post ready to roll and pushed it back a day to publish my post about the shooting of Jacob Blake.
Even though the article from WIRED was published in December of 2019, I felt it was still worth re-publishing here on my blog. It describes the downside-up world of FOX NEWS in which major stories with overwhelming evidence as reported by nearly every news outlet in the world, such as Trump's request that the Ukraine make up scandals about his political rivals in the up coming 2020 election, perhaps like the mysterious "treason" with which he keeps flogging Obama/Biden for supposedly "spying" on his campaign.
John Harwood, long one of Washington’s most respected conservative voices in journalism, summed up Fox’s approach Monday night simply: “Lunacy.
Seemed like this article was still VERY RELEVANT.
And then more material came to my attention, as it always does, to fuel the fire.
One of my students wrote about the state of conservatives in our nation, how they are "bullied" on social media and how there is no such thing as white privilege because there are poor white people.
This student believes in equality and stands against bigotry but has been misled by right-wing media that is increasingly divisive, antagonistic, and fanning of the flames of our modern Civil War.
The student shared an alleged incident reported in conservative media that someone supposedly from the Black Lives Matter movement forced a white woman to get on her knees to repent her whiteness and white privilege. The student balked at this egregious and hostile act, but my gut reaction was that it was not real, a stunt likely invented by right wing agitators to stoke the flames of Trump-loving anger and denigrate the largely peaceful protest of the systemic racism of our nation's culture.
I was right. If you read on, you will find clear and accurate, unbiased fact check by Reuters showing that the person in the video of this alleged incident is NOT a representative of Black Lives Matter nor is this an official action of the Black Lives Matter organization.
Disclaimer: I cannot claim that this video and what it shows was reported on Fox News. But it's not unlike many of the things FOX NEWS "reports." According to the Reuters fact check, the video was a prank, trolling, by a social media satirist who sees it as "comedy," depending on his politics it may not be a Right Wing misinformation campaign.
I tried to gently help the student to see this truth and to reaffirm my commitment and the commitment of my college to anti-racism, which means in the face of even a well-meaning person who cares and has compassion (unlike many of the most vocal supporters of the individual occupying the White House), even someone who believes in equality and eschews bigotry, I must speak out. I must rally. I must represent. Because silence is consent. Silence serves only preserving the status quo. The only way to eliminate racism is to always speak out against it, even when it's subversive and the result of misinformation, misrepresentation, and misdirection trickery.
Here's the first message I wrote to the student in response to being told not to "give in to the propaganda" of groups like Black Lives Matter:
I would never bully or denigrate others for reasonable and well-intentioned views, but I will fight hate speech and bigotry with every fibre of my being.The student thanked me for my message and then shared the "proof" of this event in which a woman was forcibly humiliated, forced to repent for being white, something she cannot change.
I find Fox News to be hateful and pandering almost exclusively to hateful propaganda and so this alleged news story about someone made to repent her whiteness sounds to me like a stunt to inflame the very feelings you are having.
We as a department and as a college are committed to anti-racism. I agree with you that equality is the goal. I think all but racists agree with that idea. However, to reach that goal, white people need to examine and understand their own complicity and consent with a system that has continued to perpetuate racism. The evidence is all around us.
And so I fact checked the video and found it to be false. I responded to the student like this:
I consider myself a very open minded person. I investigate news sources to teach my students about bias and misinformation. There's dangerous content being published on the Internet as "factual."
I am so glad you shared this video with me because I was about to go hunting for it to share
in my current blog post.
The video is a hoax, apparently created by a white supremacist group with one of the most hateful Twitter pages I have ever seen:
Nightmare Vision
https://twitter.com/GodCloseMyEyes
Fact check by Reuters confirms that this video is NOT created by anyone involved with Black Lives Matter as my instinct and gut reaction suggested from the moment you brought it up.
Reuters ratings by Media Bias Fact Check, an independent bias rating organization, is very high in factual reporting and among the least biased news sources in the world.
https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-factcheck-blm-woman-knee/fact-check-man-asking-white-woman-to-kneel-and-apologize-is-not-a-representative-of-black-lives-matter-idUSKBN23B359
https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/reuters/
I am open minded, but I refuse to accept this kind of hateful rhetoric from white supremacist organizations passed off as "truth" and how Americans are brainwashed by media outlets with liberal bias.
Thank you for bringing this vile hoax to my attention. It will fit perfectly in mine (and that of my colleagues) teaching this fall.
The Civil War in our America and the accusations of brainwashing, misinformation, fake news, and hoaxes are tearing our country apart, especially with a "leader" (not my "leader") who only stokes the flames, spreads the lies, and makes it all so much worse.
We need to heal.
We need sense, reason, and compassion for one another and from our government.
We need a change.
Please vote.
Meanwhile, enjoy investigating this post. First, promotion of a new book that I am about to read on this very subject followed by the article about the video of the supposed #BLM asking a white woman to repent, followed by the fact check on that lie, the fact-accuracy and bias rating of Reuters (high accuracy and among the least biased) and then the article from Wired, a video from RING OF FIRE about U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr getting a dissenting voice, an anti-Trump voice, that Fox allowed, removed from the network, and lastly, my year in number for 2019, the penultimate post.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/charting-fox-newss-slide-from-serious-news-outlet-to-state-media/2020/08/25/417af504-e555-11ea-bc79-834454439a44_story.html
https://read.amazon.com/kp/embed?asin=B07Z41TM54&preview=newtab&linkCode=kpe&ref_=cm_sw_r_kb_dp_cRQsFbGDC4890
https://www.bizpacreview.com/2020/06/03/white-woman-commanded-to-get-on-her-knees-and-apologize-for-her-white-privilege-929302
White woman commanded to get on her knees and apologize for her ‘white privilege’
A viral video circulating on social media shows a young man purporting to be a Black Lives Matter member commanding a white woman to drop to her knees and apologize for her so-called white privilege to “show solidarity for the situation.”
“Excuse me. I work for Black Lives Matter. … Since I work for that company, my CEO has told me to come out today and to bring you on your knees because you have white privilege,” the video footage shows the man saying to the woman.
“So if they see that a white person is getting on their knees, that shows solidarity for the situation. And could you just please apologize for, you know, for your white privilege? Just apologize. It’s big. It’s large in this country.”
The woman eagerly complied, either because she really believed the irrational nonsense being spewed by the man, or she was scared for her life.
The man then concluded his rant by kvetching about President Donald Trump.
“This country, we have that president, Donald Duck, that clown in office. You know he’s brought a lot of bigotry, and you’re not a part of it, right?” he said.
“No,” the woman responded.
The clip ended with the man allowing the woman to walk away.
The video drew mixed responses, with proud white Americans who’re rightly unashamed of their race trouncing the woman for bowing to such appalling ignorance, and others defending the woman by arguing she was just scared for her life.
Look:
The nonsense spewed by the man was irrational because the facts don’t lend any credence to the widely bandied-about and media-adopted theory that George Floyd’s death was the result of racism, or that “systemic racism” is even inherent in American policing. In fact, the actual facts and evidence strongly suggest the reverse.
“A 2015 Justice Department analysis of the Philadelphia Police Department found that white police officers were less likely than black or Hispanic officers to shoot unarmed black suspects,” award-winning intellectual Heather Mac Donald of the Manhattan Institute noted in a piece for The Wall Street Journal this week.
Even more striking is this fact: “[A] police officer is 18½ times more likely to be killed by a black male than an unarmed black male is to be killed by a police officer.”
The man’s words were also irrational because the president’s rhetoric and actions — neither of which have been wrong — had no bearing on what happened in the Democrat city of Minneapolis in the Democrat state of Minnesota, where George Floyd was killed roughly a week ago by a police officer working under a black police chief.
However, reports have emerged suggesting that the guy who recorded the video is a troll. The evidence includes the following clip of the same guy asking another woman — this one apparently not white — to apologize for “what happened to Floyd Mayweather.”
Look:
That people are being so easily manipulated into kowtowing to such ignorance does raise certain questions about just how brainwashed Americans have become.
LEAST BIASED
These sources have minimal bias and use very few loaded words (wording that attempts to influence an audience by using appeal to emotion or stereotypes). The reporting is factual and usually sourced. These are the most credible media sources. See all Least Biases sources.
- Overall, we rate Reuters Least Biased based on objective reporting and Very High for factual reporting due to proper sourcing of information with minimal bias and a clean fact check record.
Detailed Report
Factual Reporting: VERY HIGHCountry: United KingdomWorld Press Freedom Rank: UK 35/180
JUNE 4, 2020 / 1:05 PM / 3 MONTHS AGO
Fact check: Man asking white woman to kneel and apologize is not a representative of Black Lives Matter
Social media users are sharing a video in which a man says he works for Black Lives Matter (BLM) and has been told by its “CEO” to get a white woman to kneel and apologize for her white privilege. The video – in which the woman is seen complying with the request – has provoked outrage, fueling angry rhetoric against BLM, a movement that campaigns against racism towards the African-American community. The alleged author said it was intended as comedy and confirmed he was not a representative of BLM
Examples of posts featuring the video being taken seriously are visible here , here here , here, and here .
Some tweets commenting on the video read, “Disturbing and disgusting” and “Either this is a set up or the woman is terrified. This is fascism’s darkest re-enactments and not at all a freedom that we all must fight against. I understand that people are angry but this has gone too far.” Others attacked BLM directly, with comments calling them “embarrassing and Insulting to Black people” ( here) or claiming “This is an example of why "black lives matter" will never be successful" (here ).
This isolated clip that has gone viral on social media ( here , here ) is part of an almost two-hour video ( bit.ly/2MsgJuw ) posted by a user named Smooth Sanchez. The man filming approaches other passers by and makes similar orders ( bit.ly/2U8LIQI ) . The viral moment is visible at 43 minutes into the video, which was streamed on June 1, 2020.
In the video, the man filming is heard saying, “since I work for that company, my CEO has told me to come out today and bring you on your knees”.
The user who posted the video has since confirmed in an Instagram post that he is not part of BLM ( archive.vn/h3dc3 ).
Moreover, BLM is not a company. “Black Lives Matter Foundation, Inc is a global organization in the US, UK, and Canada” ( bit.ly/373z22H ), its website states. It does not have a “CEO”. Its co-founders, Opal Tometi, Patrisse Cullors, and Alicia Garza started the movement in 2013, after the death of Trayvon Martin. The co-founders recently told the New Yorker BLM “has always been somewhat decentralized” and operates in a horizontal manner: “We have always said the power goes on in the local chapter because they know what is going on”. ( here )
The author of the video, who refers to himself as “Smooth Sánchez” on his social media profiles, has publicly suggested this video was intended as “satire” and “comedy”, clearly implied in tweets (visible here: archive.vn/65YRy , archive.vn/xqq6A , and archive.vn/xeqmL ). In one tweet ( archive.vn/emQtj ) he writes that “I’m The Creator of This Vid” and, “Comedy ..... I Was Trolling” (“trolling” is a popular term defined by Cambridge Dictionary as “the act of leaving an insulting message on the internet in order to annoy someone” ( here ). He confirmed to Reuters that he is not a member of BLM, and he was "just trolling".
Sanchez has posted similar streams of himself "pranking" people on the streets, prior to recent protests. These are visible in his YouTube channel ( here ) and include titles like “Public Prank Trolling IRL [in real life]” and “NYC IRL April fools Live”.
VERDICT
False. The man in this video is not a representative of Black Lives Matter.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our work to fact-check social media posts here .
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Fox’s bubble reality creates a situation where it’s impossible to have the conversations and debate necessary to function as a democracy.
PHOTOGRAPH: DREW ANGERER/GETTY IMAGES
https://www.wired.com/story/fox-news-is-now-a-threat-to-national-security/
Fox News Is Now a Threat to National Security
The network’s furthering of lies from foreign adversaries and flagrant disregard for the truth have gotten downright dangerous.
The facts of both dramas were clear to objective viewers: In the one instance, there’s conclusive and surprisingly consistent evidence that President Trump pushed Ukraine to concoct dirt on a domestic political rival to affect the 2020 presidential election, and in the other, Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz found that the FBI was proper to investigate Trump’s dealings with Russia in the 2016 presidential campaign.
But that set of facts is not what anyone who was watching Fox News heard. Instead, Fox spent the night describing an upside-down world where the president’s enemies had spun a web of lies about Trump and Ukraine, even as Horowitz blew open the base corruption that has driven every attack on the president since 2016.
Sean Hannity, who had long trumpeted the forthcoming inspector general report and expected a thorough indictment of the behavior of former FBI director James Comey and other members of the “deep state,” had a simple message for his viewers during Fox’s Monday night prime time: “Everything we said, everything we reported, everything we told you was dead-on-center accurate,” he said. “It is all there in black and white, it’s all there.”
Except they weren’t right and it wasn’t there. But Fox News’ viewers evidently were not to be told those hard truths—they were to be kept thinking that everything in their self-selected filter bubble was just peachy keen.
Over on Fox Business, Lou Dobbs said the mere fact that the IG found no political bias in the FBI’s investigation of Trump and Russia in 2016 was de facto proof of the power of the deep state.
John Harwood, long one of Washington’s most respected conservative voices in journalism, summed up Fox’s approach Monday night simply: “Lunacy.”
It’s worse than lunacy, though. Fox’s bubble reality creates a situation where it’s impossible to have the conversations and debate necessary to function as a democracy. Facts that are inconvenient to President Trump simply disappear down Fox News’ “memory hole,” as thoroughly as George Orwell could have imagined in 1984.
The idea that Fox News represents a literal threat to our national security, on par with Russia’s Internet Research Agency or China’s Ministry of State Security, may seem like a dramatic overstatement of its own—and I, a paid contributor to its competitor CNN, may appear a biased voice anyway—but this week has made clear that, as we get deeper into the impeachment process and as the 2020 election approaches, Fox News is prepared to destroy America’s democratic traditions if it will help its most important and most dedicated daily viewer.
The threat posed to our democracy by Fox News is multifaceted: First and most simply, it’s clearly advancing and giving voice to narratives and smears backed and imagined by our foreign adversaries. Second, its overheated and bombastic rhetoric is undermining America’s foundational ideals and the sense of fair play in politics. Third, its unique combination of lies and half-truths has built a virtual reality so complete that it leaves its viewers too misinformed to fulfill their most basic responsibilities as citizens to make informed choices about the direction of the country.
In the impeachment hearings, former National Security Council official Fiona Hill and other witnesses made clear how those who, like Fox News hosts and the president, advance the false narrative that Ukraine meddled in the US election are serving the Kremlin’s interests. Russia is playing a weak hand geopolitically—its economy is sputtering along and its population shrinking—and so its greatest hope is to stoke internal discord in the West. Robert Mueller warned of this; James Clapper has warned of it; and now Fiona Hill has done the same. “Our nation is being torn apart,” she said. “Truth is questioned.” Yet Fox, and the GOP more broadly, has warmly embraced almost every twist of Kremlin propaganda, up to and including the idea that Russia never meddled in the 2016 election to begin with.
Fox’s clear willingness to parrot the wingnuttiest ideas in service of the president, long-term implications to the United States be damned, should worry all concerned about the state of the United States. The Ukraine myth is hardly the only example; for years, it has repeated false conspiracies about the murder of Democratic staffer Seth Rich, a conspiracy literally cooked up by Russian intelligence and fed into the US media. (To say nothing of Fox’s long-term commitment to undermining and questioning climate science, leaving the US both behind in mitigating the worst effects of climate change and also ill-equipped to face the myriad security consequences of a warming planet.)
It’s possible to paint Fox with too broad of a brush—Chris Wallace remains one of the toughest and best interviewers on television and has repeatedly stood up to vapid GOP talking points, and Bret Baier is a talented journalist and historian—but it’s clear from this year that something fundamental and meaningful has tipped inside the network.
While propagandizing has long been a key facet of Fox’s business (Stephen Colbert debuted his own Fox News host alter ego, in dedicated pursuit of “truthiness,” all the way back in 2005), the situation is clearly getting worse: the lies deeper, its always-tenuous commitment to “Fair and Balanced” unraveling further. Whatever loose adherence to a reality-based world the Fox worldview once possessed, whatever guardrails on truth the network might have once installed, are now gone. Shep Smith, long one of the network’s biggest names and best reporters, literally walked out of the Fox building this fall, departing abruptly after apparently deciding that he couldn’t in good conscience be part of a “news” operation that treated facts so fungibly.
Indeed, as the year has unfolded, Fox’s evening talk shows and its presidentially endorsed morning show have proven to be a particularly egregious and odious swamp of fetid, metastasizing lies and bad faith feedback loops that leave its viewers—and, notably, its Presidential Audience of One—foaming at the mouth with outrage and bile.
It’s hard not to think that the increasingly odd behavior and untethered-to-reality pronouncements of the president’s two top lawyers—Attorney General Bill Barr and personal defender Rudy Giuliani—have not been deeply influenced by the filter bubble on the right created, fostered, and fertilized by Fox News. As Lawfare’s Susan Hennessey tweeted after Barr set out on his Quixotic quest to prove the deep state was behind the FBI’s 2016 investigation, “The Attorney General is a fully-committed Fox News conspiracy theorist.”
The network’s pantheon of Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Lou Dobbs, and the rotating couch-cast of Fox & Friends’ morning show dunces-by-choice together represent a level of ill-informed demagoguery that would make Father Coughlin and Huey Long wince.
More than simply embarrassing themselves by spouting obvious falsehoods, though, Fox News’ incendiary, fanatical rants serve to delegitimize to its viewers the very idea of a political opposition. Every Democrat is evil. Every person who disagrees with President Trump is an enemy of the state. Every career federal employee is a member of a deep state opposition.
As writer Gabe Sherman, who authored a history of Fox News, tweeted over the weekend, “Been thinking a lot about why Trump will survive impeachment when Nixon didn’t. For 20+ years Fox News (and rightwing talk radio) has told GOP voters that Democrats are evil. As lawless as Trump is, Republicans believe Dems are worse. That’s the power of propaganda.”
These pronouncements—uttered around the clock on weekdays and doubled down on weekends by hosts like the president’s favorite, Jeanine Pirro—are an attack on the very ideals and foundations of the American experiment.
The founders settled on political parties as a mechanism to institutionalize channels for ongoing debate. As historian Joseph Ellis wrote in American Creation, political parties “eventually permitted dissent to be regarded not as a treasonable act, but as a legitimate voice in an endless argument.” It is that willingness to view opponents as legitimate that has long allowed America to hold together even under trying political times and to deal with political disagreements in the political arena, rather than resorting to violence against national leaders. For all of Fox News and President Trump’s daily declaration of coups and attempted coups against the administration, American history has actually been shockingly free of actual coups.
Part of what drives the unique national interest in the rivalry of Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr was that their fatal showdown represents the only case of a founder taking another founder’s life. It was one of only a handful of times in our entire national history where we’ve seen political figures fight each other and inflict real wounds. (The caning of Senator Charles Sumner in the pre–Civil War Capitol comes to mind as another such rare instance.)
In the midst of his own presidential run in 2008, John McCain stopped one of his own supporters in her tracks attacking Barack Obama as a Muslim to defend the Democratic nominee: “No ma’am,” McCain said. “He’s a decent family man, a citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues, and that’s what this campaign is all about.”
That tradition and idea of American politics as an ongoing conversation, an endless argument, is key to preserving our democratic experiment. The idea that you will be in power sometimes, and out of power other times, is what preserves norms and traditions, and curbs the worst abuses and impulses; politicians traditionally understand that actions taken in the majority could serve to bite them if and when they return to the minority.
Donald Trump, who rose to prominence trumpeting the very “birther” falsehood that McCain once batted away, seems bent on undermining that tradition; he has proven he’s perfectly willing to burn down political norms for short-term gain. Fox News seems intent on helping him—and on a daily basis, they’re telling their viewers he’s right and anyone who disagrees with him is less than human. Trump’s lies are the one constant and consistent position of his presidency (13,000 and counting!), and Fox News has gone all in.
We, as a democratic society, cannot survive such consequences-be-damned, winner-take-all, facts-don’t-matter politics. Fox News has upended Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s famous proclamation that “everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts.” Its daily programming seems driven by the idea that everyone might be entitled to their own facts, but that there is only one correct opinion: President Trump’s.
In 1984, George Orwell wrote his imagined dystopian regime “told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears,” but Fox News has actually figured out a tactic even more pernicious: Fox News’ own masters of Orwellian doublespeak, its Hannitys, Carlsons, and Doocys, the ones who smugly declare down up and up down, aren’t even bothering to tell their viewers to ignore their eyes and ears, because the truth never even approaches their airtime.
Let’s hope that Fox News today, unlike in Orwell’s world, doesn’t manage to succeed in transforming our country from a functional democracy into an authoritarian cult.
THE YEAR IN NUMBER: 2019
https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2019/12/specials/year-in-pictures/news.html
https://www.reuters.com/news/picture/pictures-of-the-year-2019-idUSRTX7BPNB
2019 was a great year. I fully invested in teaching at three schools, leaving the one, CTU, at which I had taught since 2009 after changes in policies increasingly upped my workload to unmangeable levels, especially for the pay, and made me more advisor than instructor.
Thankfully, I had three other wonderful schools at which I am valued and have more input into the mode of instruction.
I really fully began to adore Portland and all of the PACNW.
Here's a few of the blog posts that best exemplify the glory of 2019.
Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #1145 - Happy Birthday 21st - Ivan
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1419 - TEN THINGS I LIKE- for school - a self introduction pt.2
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1428 - Girls also want to rock a pair of kicks
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1429 - My Birthday 2019 (and again and again and...)
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1439 - Watchmen Assignments English 101 LCC
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1439 - "Comics Are Going Downhill" - NOT!
Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #1150 - How Eerie Magazine changed everything with updates on Creepy
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1454 - Closing of St. Marks Comics
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1483 - Ethnocentrism and World Views - More HUM 351 Posts
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1490 - Trains, Pizza, and Self-care
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1492 - Thoughts in water falling - part one
Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #1157 - Pistons-Blazers - 1903.23 - thoughts pt.2
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1503 - Young and the Restless - Kristoff St. John - RIP
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1528 - AVENGERS ENDGAME - THANK YOU MARVEL
Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #1165 (SoD1539) - Spotlight: Park
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1540 - Game of Thrones returns
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1547 - Ani DiFranco wrote a Book and I watched!
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1548 - The Good Weekend: Soriah and Michael Pollan
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1550 - On Gender - Tolerance-Acceptance - and individuating - Choose your labels
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1563 - React Workshop at Home Depot Quote Center
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1584 - Graduation 2019 and other Recent Instagrams
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| Redacted 2019: left to right (back) Ethan, Joe, Roxy, James, Chick, me, Garrett, John, Taran, Maria. Front: Woody (captain), Sarah (captain), Hoppe (Jessica), Mac, Peach, and Casey. |
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1585 - Portland Ultimate League Spring Tournament
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1595 - New Monitor and Assorted Photos
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1608 - Walking Dead is Done! LLWD!
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1629 - WHAT JUST HAPPENED? Too Many Shootings...
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1637 - 1969 - 11 songs for Apollo 11
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1640 - TONI MORRISON tributes via AFROPUNK
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1645 - Kristoff St. John tribute ep - and extras - Young and the Restless
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1655 - Concordia University - my building - and assorted photos
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1676 - Daniel Johnston RIP
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1687 - "The Weight" - 50 years later - BONUS Musical Tuesday
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1697 - National Coming Out Day - I am your ally
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1705 - Satchel's surgery - second of 2019
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1767 - #IMPOTUS - Impeachment - What Just happened - Bitch Magazine
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1772 - Christmas 2019
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1775 - AFROPUNK: Goodbye 2019 and Good Riddance
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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2008.28 - 10:10
- Days ago = 1883 days ago
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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2408.27 - 10:10
- Days ago: MOM = 3374 days ago & DAD = 030 days ago
- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I plan to continue Hey Mom posts at least twice per week but will continue to post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.
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