How much harm has Fox News done to the US over the last 20 years?

[dutch508]

Chasstev365 (2,789 posts) http://www.democraticunderground.com/10028788002

How much harm has Fox News done to the US over the last 20 years?

I believe it has been the single most destructive force in this nation since its inception.

Star Member SharonAnn (10,669 posts)
19. Rush Limbaugh destroyed my work environment within a year.

Some of the me began listening to him raging about shit and decided to adopt that thinking and the behavior that goes with it. It became awful.

Star Member CrispyQ (21,911 posts)
50. Back in the early 90s my mother got a job where they listened to Limbaugh in the back room.

Within 18 months she was a different woman. Everything that was wrong was the fault of the liberals, minorities or feminists. Even teachers were bad.

Those two were sort of bouncy-lite stories... sort of.

Star Member Dem2 (5,575 posts)
44. I sometimes mock them by simply saying "sieg heil!" loud enough for them to hear "under my breath"

 oh... that's so brave of you...

ChoppinBroccoli (2,346 posts)
45. I Can Always Tell When My Father-In-Law Has Been Watching Faux News

My wife's father is retired. Usually when the weather is good, he spends his days outside working in the yard. But when the weather is bad, he sits in the house and watches Faux News 24 hours a day and just gets mad at stuff. Whenever we visit, I can always tell when he's been sitting around watching Faux News all day. On the days he hasn't been watching, he's pleasant, will joke around with you, you can have actual conversations with him, and everything is fine. On the days he's been cooped up watching Faux all day, he will literally wait by the door for us to come in and will ambush us with, "Did you hear about........." whatever latest "outrage" Faux has been pimping that day, and then he becomes nasty, combative, and borderline unhinged. I've discovered over the years (after much trial and error and many knock-down drag-out arguments) that the best/only way to defuse this is to refuse to engage. I usually either say, "I don't know anything about that," and immediately change the subject, or I just smile and nod until he runs out of gas. And it's like clockwork; predictable as the tides.

He loves to do this to us because his family is all hardline, right-wing, the Republicans can do no wrong types, and I'm the dirty liberal who corrupted his daughter and caused her to "change sides" (my wife describes it as, "he apparently doesn't think I'm smart enough to make up my own mind about things, so it must have been you corrupting me.") In short, he's Archie Bunker and I'm Meathead. That's actually a pretty darn accurate description.

 

Azathoth (2,653 posts)
4. I've seen middle-of-the-road, independent-minded people turn into psychopaths because of it

Living day-to-day with Fox is like living with asbestos or radiation. The poison is insidious and the damage is permanent.

Star Member pat_k (7,136 posts)
60. The power of FOX is truly amazing. With my MiL changes began to manifest after she retired to community in FL. We figured out that FOX was usually on in the clubhouse (it was a community of little manufactured homes on a golf course). For whatever reason, she started watching at home too. The danger of injecting FOX into a community like that is that everyday conversations start mirroring the crap on FOX, and the whole place starts getting more and more disconnected from reality.

She was a lifelong Democrat and very smart person, so it was shocking to hear her parroting propaganda. After several clashes of real reality v. FAUX "reality" she got it in her head that FOX was not exactly a reliable source. But it took a bit of effort to deprogram -- and this was with a highly intelligent person. (We had to work on one of her friends too -- a tougher case.)

That experience gave me some perspective. And some compassion i think. We are up against powerful forces. It won't be easy, but I am an optimist at heart. I believe there are ways to challenge, reframe, and breakdown the FOX group think that has pulled so many over to the "dark side."

 

Star Member titaniumsalute (3,169 posts)
8. Remember this though

350 million people live in the US. 6 million people watch Fox News every day. That's 2% of the population. By the way...about 4 million people watch MSNBC every day.

 

sharedvalues (41 posts)
14. MSNBC and Fox ARE NOT analogous

MSNBC would be like the left wing version of Fox if MSNBC spent the last year repeating "Russian Trump screw workers poor businessman bankrupt".  MSNBC is fairly left of center compared to Fox News's crazy right wing disinformation. It is not useful to equate the two.

doc03 (18,708 posts)
23. I say it is far more than 6 million, every damn Republican I know watches it and how many votes did that orange faced asshole get? They may not sit and watch it 24/7 like some but they watch
and everywhere you go it is on the TV, hotels, malls, gyms and offices.

dalton99a (3,526 posts)
13. Between Fox and AM hate radio, millions have been thoroughly brainwashed

Star Member AJT (437 posts)
28. Gee, thanks St. Ronnie for getting rid of the "Fairness Doctrine"

Hulk (4,578 posts)
31. Them and reich wing talk radio.

The scourge of the nation. They should ALL be tarred and feathered.

Saboburns (1,029 posts)
39. My dream is...

I learned to hate Fox News in the run up to the Iraq War II Invasion 2002/2003.

S
As i watched how much damage Fox News was doing to the people in this country I wondered what I, a mildly patriotic Democrat could do to stop the madness of Fox News and the un-repairable damage its doing to our country.

The only thing I could come up with was to build a rocket to blow up their orbiting satellite. Now I know this wouldnt actually cause long term problems for them, but damn it would make me feel good. And be a helluva news story in itself.

I still dream about doing it. Lol

kacekwl (1,394 posts)
51. I agree wholeheartedly.

Fox is the biggest reason for the spread of racism and the biggest cause for the division destroying the country. They are why we can't have nice things.

Star Member raven mad (2,268 posts)
61. I can think of ONE ban I'd support -

Faux calling itself News.

[FlaGator]

How much harm has Rachel Maddow done to the liberal cause tonight?

[Movie buff- The Sequel]

"I believe it has been the single most destructive force in this nation since its inception."
I personally believe that title goes to gangsta (c)rap music.
That revolting excuse for music has directly led to a massive rise in the murder rate, the rape rate, the drug use rate, the teen- pregnancy rate, the high school dropout rate, and so on. It's a genre of music in which the only measures of talent are how fast its artist can talk, how blatantly its artists glamorize murder, rape, misogyny, and drug use, and if you hear the "B" word and/ or the "N" word at least once every five seconds in their songs.
It directly helped to birth the incredibly toxic "Ghetto" mindset which has infected so much of the black community nationwide like the virus it truly is. A mindset in which drug dealers, gang members, pimps, and others who a couple decades earlier were rightly condemned as the scum they are are instead praised as badass urban heroes, while blacks who work hard in school, respect their elders, stay out of trouble with he law, and find success in any career not directly related to sports or entertainment are condemned as "Selling out to the white man."
I can guaran- damn- tee that gangsta (c)rap music is a far more destructive force than a simple news station could ever be.