The Obama Administration is absolutely right about the Fox News Channel (FNC), the problem is that the White House didn't go far enough when it described the network -- established by Richard Nixon's former media consultant -- as an arm of the GOP. What it ignored noting is that FNC is also a cult comprised of devotees of conservative points of view that are often so extreme that they cross the boundaries of fantasy and delusion.
I'm reminded of a segment in an early episode of The Simpsons during which Homer, while driving, glances into his rear view mirror just in time to notice an out-of-control vehicle heading directly towards him. He screams briefly, but quickly addresses his dilemma in the most simplistic of ways: by promptly adjusting the mirror until it reflects a more tranquil scene. Only then does Homer breathe a "you're doing a heck of a job" kind of sigh of relief.
In so many ways, that scene seems to aptly sum up the personality of the die-hard Fox News Channel viewer. If you are a news junkie addicted to crackpot journalism laced with deception, distortion, thoughtless, knee-jerk patriotism and of late, high-octane, over-the-top Obama hating, then the network built by Republican political consultant Roger Ailes to be a part of Rupert Murdoch's worldwide multi-media cartel is truly your drug of choice. Truly, the only thing missing from this outfit is Kent Brockman.
Jon Stewart offers fake news for 30 minutes five nights a week; the Fox News Channel kicks it out 24-7. The difference is, Fox is audacious enough to claim it provides "real" news that is "fair and balanced." Yet, we all know who's viewers have been polled as better informed. For those who don't, it's Stewart's.
It's been said that relying on Fox as your only source of information is like using Mad Magazine as a legitimate news source. Quite frankly, as news organizations go, Fox News Channel represents the genre's toy department.
Far more than simple advocacy journalism, Fox News Channel is intellectual dopamine for those inclined to adjust the mirror on life's harsher truths rather than turn around and face them, be it the neo-con deception that drove the nation to war with Iraq, the notion that America would be better off if George W. Bush was still president, or the conviction that Bush's former FEMA Director Michael D. Brown did, in fact, do "a heck of a job" during Hurricane Katrina.
By and large, Fox News' most supportive viewers share an impenetrable belief that a rightward slant in news delivery assures factual credibility. They are unflinchingly convinced that any information that is sourced from the � ���"liberal� �� � media is unlikely to rise above unsubstantiated, unpatriotic � ���"socialist� �� � dogma.
Thus, on the heels of White House Communication Director Anita Dunn's charge that Fox News operates like the "research" or "communications" arm of the Republican Party, the network's zealously devoted, yet demonstratively clueless viewer base has managed to again reveal -- via their wholly unsustainable defense of Fox as an upfront, "fair and balanced" news organization -- the perils that foreshadow cult-like allegiance to a single source of information.
Consider their conundrum. Certainly, the Fox slogan, "We Report, You Decide" provides its viewers the opportunity to pass judgment on what it reports; it's just that the network fails so miserably as a place to turn for accurate, objective and unfiltered content that truly is "fair and balanced." After all, how many other news organizations are known for generating mass protests against the President of the United States as has Fox's Glenn Beck-inspired "9-12" protest? Moreover, what news organization broadcasts a morning eye-opener that offers a level of mind-numbingly vacuous and transparently partisan chatter of the kind found on Fox and Friends?
Launched in 1996, the network's history of distorting news to influence public opinion is so well-documented that it's now become shop-worn. Fox News' journalistic follies run the gamut from statistical distortions and altering images, to delivering news analysis designed to convey Republican Party talking points.
Ask the avid Fox News supporter why the U.S. invaded Iraq and the likely answer will be "because of September 11!" Ask what's most to fear about "Obama-care" and you'll probably hear "death panels!" By and large, they are people who simply cannot fathom how something as "refreshing" as a good water-boarding can be construed as torture.
Still number one
Indeed the expression of deluded, tortured logic by many Fox News viewers is hardly surprising considering from where their primary source of "facts" originate. Bill Maher once stated that Christianity used to be a cult until it gained enough followers to become respectable. As such, in the case of Fox, if respectability is measured by high ratings, then the network can legitimately argue that it deserves a bit more respect than it receives from the journalistic community at-large. For some time now, the Fox News Channel has been the number one cable news network. As for overall ratings, currently only the USA Network, the Disney Channel and ESPN pull in more cable television viewers than Fox.
From the onset, the network's adamant pro-America bluster has been specifically targeted to those politically-susceptible devotees of a narrow-minded � ���"my country, right or wrong� �� � type of thinking. And, in terms of market share and ratings, it's an approach that continues to serve the network well. According to Reed Business Information, during this year's third quarter, Fox ranked fourth in total viewers among basic cable networks.
By and large, the network's viewer core of older white males -- the average age of a Fox viewer is 65 -- has no interest in accepting the notion that other than liberalism, there's anything wrong with America that would warrant the time it would take to have a debate about it. Perhaps this is why someone who can manage to come off both vapid and outlandish like Beck has thrived on Fox, or why someone like CNN's churlish in-house xenophobe, Lou Dobbs belongs on Fox.
Once a formidable and knowledgeable presence, Dobb's credibility has been overwhelmed by his increasingly strident immigration stance. As most of us know, former Fox sports reporter Keith Olbermann, of MSNBC's overtly anti-Fox news program Countdown, can rant like a 21st Century Howard Beale, but at least he gets his facts straight. The pretentious Dobbs on the other hand, simply rants; channeling a spirit that leans more toward Ted Baxter than Howard Beale. What Dobbs offers is tailor made for the typical Fox News viewer.
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