The Fox Con

We all know Fox News's credo: "Fair and Balanced." We also know that their channel is anything but fair or balanced, as they're the self-professed answer to the traditional mainstream media which in their eyes is "left" or, in other words, the mouth-piece for the Democratic Party.

I know, as I'm sure most of you do as well, some of the origin story of this cable-news channel, and we all know it's still the most watched channel in America. Now I don't want to offend, but I'm sure I will when I say that this is one of the main the reasons why there are so many misinformed Americans who vote against their own interests in every election. There have been so much polls that show how uninformed and misinformed Fox News watchers are; they think climate change isn't man-made, or a hoax even, they think covid-19 isn't real and they count among their numbers the majority of anti-vaxxers and QAnon believers, and I could go on.

The channel has perfected the art of focusing their audience's attention on meaningless and made-up controversies, most of those to do with the made-up "culture war." If it's not Dr. Suess children's books, it's Mr. Potato Head's genitals, if the anger about Critical Race Theory being taught to toddlers is dwindling, they start a fire around transgenders who suddenly all have become "groomers" who threaten your children and family. Tucker Carlson, the host presenting the single most watched program every night, actively pushes racism and "Great Replacement" conspiracy theory. They started the trend of the "ticker" in the bottom third of the screen showing short news-blurps, and they also started with the use of national colors and the American flag in their on-screen graphics, both intended to solicit a psychological effect. It's a mess. A dangerous mess.

It all started in the mind of Roger Ailes and with the money of media mogul Rupert Murdoch. Murdoch's rise to moguldom started when he inherited, at age 22, a daily newspaper in Australia from his father. continued to buy up newspapers in Australia and New Zealand. His empire expanded into the United Kingdom with the 1969 purchase of the now-defunct News of the World, followed closely by The Sun. Murdoch's first major purchase in the U.S. was in 1976 when he bought the New York Post. Because of the legal requirement in the U.S. that only citizens could own U.S. television stations, Murdoch became a citizen of the country in 1985, and soon after, he bought 20th Century Fox, which eventually evolved into the Fox Broadcasting Network.

Roger Ailes was the perfect candidate to run Fox News as a propaganda platform. Ailes had previous experience with television and had very specific ideas about communicating political messages. You see, Roger Ailes worked on the campaign to reelect Ronald Reagan and was credited with guiding George H. W. Bush to victory in the Republican primaries. And before that he guided Richard Nixon towards electoral success with the explicit use of television and appearances:

Nixon's successful presidential campaign was Ailes's first venture into the political spotlight. His pioneering work in framing national campaign issues, capitalizing on the race-based Southern strategy and making the stiff Nixon more likable and accessible to voters was later chronicled in The Selling of the President 1968 by Joe McGinniss.
_{source: Wikipedia}

All this I assume is more or less general knowledge, but I would like you to watch the below linked video by Then & Now; it's a really deep dive into the history, methods and messages of this wildly successful channel. I hope some of you will pass this video on to people you know who get their news from this highly deceptive propaganda machine. If you think America's as deeply divided as it's ever been, it's good to know how that happened and who's responsible for much of it.

Thanks so much for visiting my blog and reading my posts dear reader, I appreciate that a lot :-) If you like my content, please consider leaving a comment, upvote or resteem. I'll be back here tomorrow and sincerely hope you'll join me. Until then, stay safe, stay healthy!