Friendly Fire at Faux News

[*michaelsean*]

(03-23-2018, 03:14 PM)Dill Wrote: Michael, you questioned whether Fox viewing could effect voting. There are many studies on the "Fox effect." continuous from 1996 to the present; I just gave you one.  Before you are too swayed by "places without Fox", check the conclusions.

When you say that people who watch Fox are already "converted," no doubt some are. But a great many who are on the bubble, or easily swayed by misinformation, and come to rely on Fox News, will be drawn more firmly to the Right.  When Fox first appeared in the '90s, there were still many centrists and Right-leaning people whose political views were not solidified and focused. The MSM still a certain authority for them.  Fox has "converted" those folks, in part by undermining the MSM.

So far as I can tell, studies of Fox tend to concentrate on bias in the reporting and misinformed beliefs of the viewership.  The latter is especially important, when considering topics like climate science and the Iraq war. One generally doesn't believe climate change is a hoax and Bush DID find WMDs--and then pull the lever for a Democrat.

So there is an interesting issue here. I wonder how many people believe, and to what degree, that the daily political information pumped from news sources has little or no effect on political beliefs. Hopefully no one argues that political beliefs have no effect on voting.

But remember my essential point--you can't just point to prime time viewing numbers, guess voter percentages, and assume you have closed the case on Fox's influence.  That one news channel has become a veritable think tank for U.S. domestic and foreign policy.  No news organization has EVER had such direct influence on U.S. politics in the history of the Republic. One of its worst, most biased and histrionic commentators now heads the Security Council of the POTUS.

Well like I said I only read about half of the one you posted, and that wasn’t at all convincing, but I’ll get to the rest. I really don’t care either way, people have a right to do any of this, it just doesn’t seem plausible

But let’s say you are correct, do you think something should be done about it on a government level?