In his article, FEAR & UNbalanced: Confessions of a 14-Year Fox News Hitman, Tobin Smith spills the beans. He feels free to do so because Roger Ailes is dead. Back in 2000, when he was first hired at Fox, he had a few questions.
“So Roger tell me…who is your Fox News target audience and what turns ’em on?”
“What does our viewer look like?
“They look like me…white guys in mostly Red State counties who sit on their couch with the remote in their hand all day and night.”
“What do they want to see”
“They want to see YOU tear those smug condescending know-it-all East Coast liberals to pieces . . limb by limb . . . until they jump up out of their LaZ boy and scream “Way to go Toby…you KILLED that libtard!”
It was always and only about money.
But what mattered most at Fox was to create an entertainment product out of political/military/economic news and opinion that
By careful design and staging Fox News manipulated (and ultimately addicted) the most vulnerable people in America to the most powerful drug cocktail ever: Visceral gut feelings of outrage relieved by the most powerful emotions of all . . . the thrill of your tribe’s victory over its enemy and the ultimate triumph of good over evil.
In deed and effect, Fox News turned politics into performance art and efficiently sold the soul of America to the highest bidder in return for 2 minute ad sequences aired during the performance intermissions.
The fix was always in. Facts and Truth were the lowest priority.
But what the mostly older, trusting, small city/rural living Fox News fan never seem to understand about Fox’s partisan performance art programming was this:
The outcomes for Fox’s “panel debates” have ALWAYS been carefully fixed by the producers so that the home team (i.e, the conservative panelists like me) ALWAYS won.
MORE simply: The staged gladiatorial-like rhetorical fight to the death the Fox viewer loves to watch are ALWAYS fixed by the show producers for the conservative actor to win…always.
Any contributor with the least little bit of integrity found their contributing days were over.
Linda Chavez, a long time Fox conservative contributor, basically became a nonperson when she took the position in favor of more legal immigration — even though her position had been consistent for 30+ years and is based on her belief in markets over central planning.
As Linda tells the story “One producer basically told me that it was “confusing” to have me on to discuss the subject because conservatives were supposed to be for less immigration and liberals for more.
Fox practically guaranteed their high ratings because they were feeding an addiction.
Key Point: the viewer’s rage set their brain’s pleasure giving dopamine delivery system into high gear . . .and when their fellow conservative protagonist tribal hero (aka me the hitman) turned the liberal’s own words against them and vanquished the sniveling apostate into living hell on live TV…WOW…the pleasure chemical rushed through the Fox viewer's brain like a deep hit of crack cocaine (btw its the dopamine system in the brain that cocaine stimulates and makes it so addictive).
I tried to save my own mother, but I could not break through. She pooh-poohed my facts,and told me that Bill O’Reilly was the only person she trusted. I was incredulous. “Even more than me, Mom?” Yes, because my “once excellent” critical thinking and judgement had been clouded by the media I chose to consume.
...one part of the Fox News strategy is the tried and true conservative media narrative to insulate their audiences from opposing views — in part, by continually denouncing the mainstream media(i.e., other news sources) 24/7/365 as “liberal, biased, and not to be trusted.”
I haven’t even begun to mention the exploitation of sex, and the demonizing of non-white people.
There’s a bit of buyer beware. Smith was fired in 2013 for promoting dubious and worthless stocks, but he says it was because he refused to obey O’Reilly’s commands.
Well…[O’Reilly] was dead wrong and I told him that and his answer was “Is this the Tobin Smith show? If it is, say what you want. But if this is the O’Reilly show you give what I want.”
OK Bill…and that was the last time I was on The Factor after 40+ appearances.
Conservatives cannot complain that Tobin Smith is an anonymous source. Even better, they and we can review old Fox News videos and see for ourselves the veracity of Smith’s claims.
Finally, a caution Kossacks should seriously consider before hitting the Rec button.
Neuroscience has known for years that “news junkies” or “political junkies” were in fact addicts…junkies…who got their addictive dopamine hit from the emotional roller coaster of unbridled outrage followed by the dopamine releasing experience derived from the thrill of watching the victory/denouement of the ideological apostate.