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Speaking before a standing-room-only crowd at the National Association for Television Programming Executives' conference today,(1) Turner compared the Fox News Network's popularity to that of Adolf Hitler before World War II.
According to Broadcasting & Cable's Jim Finkle, Turner said although Fox is now the largest news network, it's certainly not the best. Turner pointed out that "Adolph Hitler got the most votes when he was elected to run Germany prior to WWII."
Turner said Fox is a Bush Administration propaganda tool, and poses problems for democracy by "dumbing down the news, leaving voters without critical information on politics and world events and overloaded with fluff."
Can't argue with that. But if Turner spent a bit more time watching his own brain child, he'd realize that CNN is rapidly becoming a Fox clone, much preferring rip-and-read administration talking points, monotonous "CNN Presents" specials, and pharma-sponsored "Dr. Sonjay Gupta" productions over hard news.
Viewers of both Fox and CNN are being conditioned to accept the "reality" of Republican views. For example, Media Matters for America recently inventoried(2) the coverage of both cable stations, and MSNBC as well, of the January 20 inauguration. Right-wing blathering heads outnumbered those holding progressive views on Fox 19-7. CNN came in with a shameful 10-1, and MSNBC stacked the right side with a whopping 13-2.
I guess that's why most Americans can't seem to think of anything better to do but sit in front of the television like a bunch of monkeys and wave their flags. Like Orwell said, "the people believe what the news media tells them they believe." They know, like Ted Turner, that the war in Iraq is "obscene and stupid," that there is no reason for 1,400 Americans and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and Afghanis to have died -- they know it was all a huge, hideous joke.
They know it, but they won't believe it until Fox or CNN tells them that's what they believe.
(1) http://www.broadcastingcable.com/ca499014.html
(2) http://mediamatters.org/items/printable/200501210001
Sheila
