Recently I commented on and article about DirectTV dropping Fox News Channel from their lineup. I received a reply telling me that Fox would be back and soon we would all begin to realize how authentic their fair and balanced message really is. I'd heard this BS one time too many. So I decided to correct that impression with the truth. This is how I replied:
Fair and balanced? How long has it been since you watched other sources? They are a propaganda machine of the worst kind. At least CNN and CBS try to report on both sides sometimes, even though they show bias. The Fox Cable News propaganda machine makes its money on vilifying any and all they can characterize as "other."
The scorn Fox pundits heap on the rest of humanity is shameful. Let's see who they don't like. Liberals, and progressives are at the top of the list. Then there are those who are ethnically different, such as African American, Middle Eastern, Slavics, Pacific Islanders, Caribbean Islanders, Eastern Europeans such as Greeks, and Polish, and Ukrainians, and also Asians and other Far Easterners. They recently added French to the list, and Californians are in there too.
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They also hate the unemployed poor, the working poor, the disabled, and dependent children. They hate the homeless, the hungry, and those with retirement accounts that are supposedly draining someone's coffers. They heap scorn on ministers that feed the homeless. They hate anyone who identifies as LGBT. They often promote hate against any religion that is not Evangelical Protestant Christian, including the Pope, (and some Catholics, but not all of them.) They like the Catholics who promote hatred of others, but hate the ones who promote love for all. Muslims and Hindus and Buddhists are of course terrorists according to Fox. They hate women who can't afford to have child after child after child. They hate working women, career women, single women, [female college students, single mothers,] teachers, unions, and anybody with self-determination and intelligence, including scientists, [and] doctors who adhere to current science. Oh, and they don't like comedians either.
I think that covers most everybody who is not an adherent to Fox News propaganda. All the rest (Fox viewers) are delusional, bigoted, or longing for the day when life was simple, women knew their place, and education consisted of the ABCs, addition and subtraction, so Fox loves them.
But Fox pundits think Putin is the finest leader in the world, and that Israel should bomb the hell out of Iran. They think President Obama is too uppity for his britches, and too stupid and lazy to lead the country, (in spite of graduating from Harvard Law School with a J.D. magna cum laude, spending 12 years teaching constitutional law, and being named the first black president of the Harvard Law Review.) They think all schools should be closed, so parents can teach their children their own family-based [Biblical] form of propaganda, and aren't forced to send them to schools with Blacks and Hispanics, or learn about science, history, or any advanced subjects that might make them doubt their parents or talk back to adults. Parents that agree with Fox seem to think the only reason to teach children to read is so they can read the Bible, just like back in the 15th century.
Fox pundits love them some 1%ers. They love rich, white patriarchs, specifically anyone associated with the Koch brothers, or Adelson, or the Tea Party, or far right Republicans. They love anyone who wants to take things away from people who have nothing. They love people who hate people. They love corporations. They love the oil industry. They love Wall Street traders and Bankers. They love Washington lobbyists. They love anybody with loads of money stashed away in off-shore bank accounts.
Fox pundits will tell you that the wealthiest men are the real poor people, and that they are the ones who are really being exploited. They will tell you the minister who feeds the homeless does not care about the poor businessmen and condo owners who must walk past the homeless who are waiting in line for a meal while they walk to the
local park for a jog. (Oh, how my heart bleeds for those poor men in silk jogging suits and high-heeled socialites, whose sensibilities are offended by the sight of dirty, hungry, homeless people. (snark))
I’m sure I’ve missed something in this litany, but you get the picture. The Fox Cable News Channel is not fair and balanced.
I wish I had added the following: "Now get off your high horse and go get an education."