“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.” ― Sun Tzu, The Art of War
When I decided to venture onto the Fox News website this morning to see what lies Trump’s gullible herd of lemmings was about to leap off the cliff over I was struck by the above lead story which sends the message in a photo series that Dr. Fauci considers that George Floyd protests are a “recipe” for disaster. Of course the article itself explains that such gatherings are a ‘perfect recipe’ for new coronavirus surges. But the title with all the images is going to come across to many readers that peaceful protests over police violence is a disease spreading endeavor rather than an exercise of the right of free speech for American values and democracy worth risking infection for many people.
The headline should have conveyed the truth in a headline like this: Peaceful Protestors Risk Covid and Police Violence to Say Black Lives Matter.
Every second or so the images changed showing about a dozen photos of the protest. Below are a few of them:
It is quite clear that by selecting these photos to appear above the words “’Recipe’ for Disaster” in all caps is meant to convey that the protestors are mostly an unruly hoard of angry black people. Very few white people are seen in the images.
Fox decided not to extensively cover the accounts of how many peaceful protesters were seriously injured by the police especially by being hit by rubber bullets or how police hitting peaceful protestors with their batons.
These are some of the images of people hit by one of these bullets during the protests. One woman lost an eye.
Instead they featured these two stories on the top of their website:
The top story shown above has now moved down the opening website page, but a minute ago was on the top of the page being replace with this story: Clinton calls Trump 'failure' in blistering interview, questions how anyone 'with a beating heart and a working mind' supports him
In the split image of Trump and Clinton I am sure they mean the photo of Trump holding the Bible to convey righteousness.
They dutifully report on Hillary Clinton’s remarks but conclude as follows however not included in the story itself, but noted under the video clip is the question “is Hillary Clinton waiting in the wings should Joe Biden withdraw from the 20202 race?”
The story ends with:
Clinton’s public statements have been met with harsh criticism on social media, with those supporting Trump as well as Clinton’s 2016 primary opponent Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., using the hashtag “#STFUHillary.”
Their article ends with these two tweets:
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I have to differentiate the Fox News website from the Fox News Cable station which I never watch. My impression of the website is that they do covered some news objectively even when it doesn’t fit the pro-Trump narrative. For example “Marine Corps veteran shot with rubber bullets by police at protest, ‘I had my hands up’” describes what a rubber bullet can do and reminds us that not all of the protestors are African American. It was written by Lindsay Carlton a senior video producer and writer for Fox Digital Originals. She doesn't seem to have had many other hard news stories published.
The Poll. I estimate I look at the Fox News website about once a week to keep an eye on the enemy. I have a friend who actually tunes in to Tucker Carlson for a few minutes and she then ends up calling me to vent her anger over what he is saying. Below are the websites I look at every morning (two are local Portland, Oregon newspaper websites).
Sunday, Jun 7, 2020 · 4:14:54 PM +00:00 · HalBrown
I can’t say I am surprised at the results of the poll so far. I am disappointed. I was prompted to put the quote from Sun Tzu on the top of the page. It is a reminder that to effectively fight our enemies we must endeavor to know them. This is why I have written extensively about Trump’s psychopathology. By the same token, we do ourselves a disservice by boycotting Fox News. The better we know how Trump’s supporters are being brainwashed the more effective we can be in challenging their belief system whether in conversations or what we publish online, not just on Daily Kos but in letters to the editor in our smaller local papers where they almost certainly will be published. Read how the principles from The Art of War have been used in military and intelligence operations successfully here.