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The Left’s Obsession with Fox News
For me, Twitter is less a social-media service than a six-year-long political argument with no sign of ending. In myriad (and meaningless) keyboard battles, I’ve tangled with progressives on economic policy, foreign affairs, elections, pop culture, social issues, education reform and countless other topics.
Obviously, I waste too much time on Twitter. But whatever the subject, my liberal enablers always drop the same line; one they believe will end the debate for good. About every other day since 2008, I’ve been on the receiving end of this withering coup de grâce, always delivered with a supercilious tone of finality.
“Maybe you should stop watching Fox News!” The more clever interlocutors misspell it “Faux News,” adding wonky jargon such as “dum winger” or “tea-tard.”
The fact is, I don’t watch Fox News. Okay, I DVR “Red Eye” (which isn’t really news) and watch the occasional yell-fest when a friend’s on the panel. But cable news in general doesn’t do much for me or most other people I know.
I recently visited two older relatives who watch Fox News non-stop and at high volume to cope with hearing issues. After 12 hours of dire headlines, testy commentators, and panicked “breaking news” alerts covering days-old developments, I wanted to lock myself in a soundproofed room with the Good Book and a fifth of Jack. It was exhausting.
Obviously Fox tops the rankings of TV news, but are most conservatives wedded to the channel? I appreciate it for providing an all-too-rare perspective on world events, but I’d rather be catching up on the game or watching sweaty chefs make a dessert out of cuttlefish, sidewalk chalk and Jolly Ranchers.
When I chat with liberals, I never assume they watch MSNBC because, well, who watches MSNBC? And every time I flip by CNN, they’re playing Anthony Bourdain reruns, most of which I’ve seen four times.
Since Ricochet is made up of highly literate conservatives and libertarians, I had to ask: What do you say when you’re accused of getting all your ideas from Faux News? Do you watch it all the time, a little or not at all? And why does Murdoch’s plucky little network take up so much space in the liberal imagination?
Published in General
Occasionally I will tune in, but for the most part, I’ve migrated away from Fox News. I have grown tired of the same talking points, the same people using those talking points and the pointless attempts for sound bites and gotcha moments. Additionally it grew wearisome to watch some of the hosts talk over their guests, regardless of the topic. I realize it is their show but let them talk…especially if the guest is truly an idiot.
But…there isn’t much else to watch on cable news. I certainly am not going to trade all of Fox’s irritating habits for CNN’s or CNBC’s slanted version of the days events. If I did, I would probably break my TV or be admitted to the hospital.
So what’s a girl to do? I read more (thankfully) and watch less TV.
I also have more time for Ricochet now. The snappy dialog is much more entertaining (and informative) here.
Besides Red Eye, I rarely watch FNC. As far as the network’s place in the liberal’s imagination, it’s simple: The Left needs villains.
Liberals engage in politics like WWE fans. The bad wrestlers rant and rave and the good wrestlers nobly stand up to them. Occasionally the good guys lose, but eventually they come out on top. Like the WWE fan, they know it isn’t real, but it is still fun to pretend.
Because it’s for the most part the lone opposition on all of cable news (Not counting Blaze TV) and because it beats MSNBC and CNN in ratings daily. It’s the easiest target to pick and the biggest. The other of course being #StopRush
I forget who but a national columnist cited in tweet a few months back that say what you want about Fox, but Special Report is the only place anyone can go for an hour of news and adults talking like adults to each other on a panel. That’s the only 30 minutes I personally watch when I can. (paraphrasing). Personally I don’t get the “Faux News” argument much, I don’t know why other than maybe I don’t come across as the average Demographic? Not too many Brooklyn hipster, whiskey drinking, shameless cursing Hannity fans out there.
Fox News July Viewers: 1M
Votes for Romney: 56M
Even assuming Fox brainwashes viewers, you still have 55M votes to explain
(feel free to use this as a response Tweet)
“What do you say when you’re accused of getting all your ideas from Faux News?”
I say “I don’t watch Fox News”. They generally say nothing; they hadn’t considered that possibility, apparently.
“Do you watch it all the time, a little or not at all?”
If I must turn on the TV for news, I do turn it to Fox. That’s a handful of times a year, at most. I’d wager I watch CNN more often in public settings…
“And why does Murdoch’s plucky little network take up so much space in the liberal imagination?”
He broke the monopoly. They hate not having total control, after all. Even worse, it’s popular.
There’s a Fox News Channel? Next thing you’ll be telling me there’s a 5:00 in the morning, too!
I don’t watch FNC. I don’t watch any cable news. I only watch network news when my wife has it on, and then I don’t really pay attention. The internet is a superior news delivery service: targetable and diverse in viewpoint.
I prefer to watch Sports and Movies on TV, but if I do watch TV news it is exclusively Fox News. I cannot stomach having Socialists and Communists on MSNBC and CNN insult my intelligence. Fox is over-the-top sometimes, but at least they are not State-run media.
Pure jealousy, the liberals have nothing to watch. From the ratings it appears that no one watches MSNBC or CNN .
I watch Fox Bret Baier nightly, pretty straighforward stuff with Krauthammer as a rich profound topping. Switch over to see what PBS is covering at the top , sometimes watchable. That is it though, the rest of them are too screechy. Megyn sometimes. I have often peeked at MSNBC and am routinely shocked at how stupid it is and how bad their talking heads are.
CNN is a joke usually, I mean 24/7 for weeks on a missing plane ? Why ? Their programming is rancid . Who is in charge there ?
Face it, everything changed after 9/11 . Has anyone else noticed that ?
Does anyone bother with the alphabet nightly newscasts ? After all, checking in with Lucianne, Powerline, and Drudge a couple of times during the day will tell you what’s going on ?
We can customize the tv we watch now with Netflix and Amazon, which after any day in Obamaland is a real relief.
I yearn for boring news, things are pretty wild right now .
Jon: I agree with Stephen that libs can’t abide TV competition with their formerly liberal TV network monopoly. How dare conservatives try to use that medium? What’s ironic is that for all their complaining about the conservative bias of Fox News, it has plenty of on-air liberals, from Geraldo, to Shep Smith, and almost always presents the liberal side through various and numerous contributors. Does MSNBC have any balance? Do any of the network news broadcasts ever have balance? What a joke.
And you are correct, they hate Rush, and they’ve had to depict him as something he isn’t in order to gin up enormous hatred against him that influences people who’ve never heard him. They want to muzzle us. Fairness Doctrine, speech codes, etc. We would never do that to liberals, no matter how odious we might find some of their views. But libs always have to have whipping boys, so you’ll notice even their presidents (Clinton and Obama) complaining about Fox and Rush and Hannity. Amazing.
I also want to comment on your interesting point about Twitter, Jon. I was just thinking about this the other day when for the 3 billionth time, some liberal taunted me. As I think you know, I am a frequent user of Twitter and mostly like it a lot. Why? It is most definitely NOT because I want to debate liberals. I see no point in it. Our differences with liberals can rarely be resolved by debates because our differences are more based in worldview differences than factual differences. I’ve always disagreed with those who say if we could just get the facts to liberals they’d come around to seeing things our way. Wishful thinking, but it’s not going to happen in too many cases if they are ensconced in the progressive or secular worldview. Don’t get me wrong — I’m all for trying and not fatalistic about it, but Twitter is not the ideal venue for persuasion.
What I like about Twitter is that it is a place where you can talk to likeminded conservatives with whom you share a Foxhole — a Foxhole dedicated to preserving the Republic and, eventually reversing some of these insane progressive policies. There are so many clever, funny, and witty conservatives on Twitter and it’s gratifying to break electronic bread with them. I realize that’s one of the great things about Ricochet — but they’re very different, and not mutually exclusive, obviously.
So I like Twitter, but find it a bit too addictive sometimes and have to ween myself away from time to time. I find myself blocking more liberals than I argue with. It’s pointless. I have no interest in proving myself to them & know I won’t convince them. So what’s the point?
Alth0ugh I don’t watch as much Fox anymore, I still am a fan of talk radio. I listen to Rush a few days per week, when my schedule allows.
My confession: I was a Democrat until around ’93 or so…it was Rush (which I found by accident one night on the radio) and Newt’s Contract With America that pulled me over to the conservative side.
If you had Good Jack, you’d only get through a fifth of the book…
I occasionally tune into Fox News – but I honestly barely watch much TV- more local news to see what the day has wrought. But, how to counter the bon mot of applying the smear of Fox News? You can’t. Anyone who feels that a Fox News callout is the precursor to a mic drop / walk off cannot be reasoned with. If someone wants to continue to bludgeon with the Fox News hammer, I simply point out that the truth is still the truth, regardless of who tells it.
My liberal friends get their news from the Comedy Channel. Then they tell me I have the facts wrong.
Our local newspaper quit printing national and international news. Maybe they are are afraid of a Freudian Slip – telling the truth.
We watch only Fox for news, but supplement that with web and email sources.
No excuses. Most of this society lives in blissful ignorance. Sad.
Like millions of others, we’ve decided to drop cable entirely. Part of it was the dreadful programming, but mostly the high cost. When we did maintain cable, Fox was my choice when I wanted news, but I found myself watching less and less. Megyn Kelly was a very welcome addition, she reminded me of what Bill O’Rielly used to be, hard hitting, fair, sharp, quick witted. Bill seems to be most interested in…Bill more than anything else, but you can’t deny the ratings he pulls in.
I agree, David. Every medium has its own strengths and weaknesses; detailed policy debates simply do not work on Twitter.
Very few Twitter liberals are interested in a civilized debate. Of those rare few who act polite, 95% are just pulling some passive-aggressive tactic. Lengthy debates at 140-characters a pop are so many pearls before swine.
I use Twitter as the blunt instrument it is. You can immediately respond to biased reporting, factual errors and the talking points of the day delivered by the Democrat-Media Complex. It also is one of the few mediums where conservatives can effectively counter — and ridicule — the opposition.
Liberals are used to owning all media. In print and on television (and even pop culture outlets like film and music), they talk and the audience quietly listens. First on talk radio and now on Twitter, the audience not only talks back but also can change the topics of discussion.
This is still jarring for the Left, many of whom have never encountered conservatives in the wild. It’s my job to disabuse my lefty betters of the notion they are the smart, hip, “reality-based community” the media tells them they are.
I think it’s a shame that Bill O’Reilly is still the face of conservative news. I actually agree with him on most of his points, but his demeanor and tone reinforce negative stereotypes of conservatives. I’m also not a Hannity fan. I agree with Special Report being the best current events show on air, because you get guys like Krauthammer and Jonah Goldberg, along with Juan Williams, who provides sincere, decent points from the other side.
When people hate on Fox News, though, I usually just say: isn’t it eerie that people from the left are so intolerant of the only channel that leans right? I’m not going to defend Fox News because I don’t watch it much, if at all, but I will say that people on the left might want to think about why they hate the only conservative news outlet so much. It sure seems to me like they would like to shut down the opposing point of view.
I wish there were more right-wing alternatives to Fox News, though.
I get the “Fox News” accusation often. My FB friends recently expanded thanks to a grade school reunion and connecting with out-of-the-country relatives.
It usually takes a comment or two, but Fox inevitably comes up. BTW, I never comment on their liberal posts, but they can’t keep their own counsel on my posts; minimum wage and Israel have stirred things up quite a bit lately.
The irony is that I’ve NEVER watched Fox. I haven’t had a TV for nearly 30 years. A cousin recently accused me of sounding like Nancy Grace. I could walk by her in the street and not know it.
Odd that a Canadian (and not close to the border) has watched more Fox than me.
If you’re a progressive liberal why would anyone disagree with you? Their answers?
FNC fits the last category. Before that there was Rush and Richard Mellon Scaife.
There’s always a bogey man.
Most of the people who carp about Fox News are the same ones who carp about Rush Limbaugh: they’ve never watched or listened to the shows, but they know they’re stupid/hateful/etc.
Bret Baier’s Special Report is THE single best daily hour of news on television. Period. I don’t think there are reporters on TV who can hold a candle to Catherine Herridge, Jennifer Griffin, James Rosen, or Carl Cameron. The opinion panels are also good and substantive, not hollering and sloganeering.
Chris Wallace’s Fox News Sunday is also top notch. Closest thing to the old “This Week With David Brinkley” when that was Must See TV for anyone interested in politics and world affairs.
If I never watch Meet the Press, Face the Nation, or This Week ever again, I doubt I will have missed anything .
Red Eye is fun, but not news. It’s edgy and funny opinion and is very useful as such.
Some of the other Fox shows are unwatchable in whole or in part, but that’s little different than 99.99% of TV.
And BTW thank you for your Twitter troll hunting service to the nation!
I’m always amused by the charge that Fox lies and makes stuff up, but there are never any examples given of this ‘lying’.
Scaife! He was the Koch Brothers before the Koch Brothers were the Koch Brothers. I think they may have had him bumped off to clear their path to world domination.
Come on, sheeple! Don’t you know that George W. Bush’s cousin was working their election decision desk in 2000?!? He called FLORIDA for Bush and that SUPPRESSED Democratic votes!
(It’s like the Diebold electronic voting machines. They sent a software update to Georgia Election officials and labeled it “FIX_GEORGIA” so obviously they were “fixing” the outcome of the vote. Diebold’s chairman was a Bush Ohio 2000 donor/volunteer.)
“I have my proof! I subscribe to MEDIA MATTERS!!!!!!”
Oh, I don’t know. I see lots of truth in Southpark, even reruns.
I like Special Report a lot. Think about it … George Will and Charles Krauthammer are given nightly soapboxes. Tough to beat that.
But let me offer this tangent. Why do you watch a series show on TV? It never the plot. You watch a series for the characters. The plots may come and go, but good characters are always interesting.
Fox has a bullpen of interesting characters, and the shows are just excuses for letting those characters work off each other.
Case in point: Bill O’Reilly. By himself, he’s an embarrassing, self-promoting bore. He’s Ted Baxter. But O’Reilly’s fun to watch when he’s paired with someone. I love to watch Krauthammer with O’Reilly. Krauthammer clearly hates it when O’Reilly just interrupts and spouts off some populist nonsense, but Krauthammer deals with O’Reilly calmly and respectfully. (As does Brit Hume.) Never mind the ideology, Krauthammer, Hume, Will, etc., are all paragons of keeping their cool and showing respect.
Fox News is a series of characters. Lucky for them they have some heavyweight characters going at it every night. The shows are just excuses for characters interacting. That usually makes fun TV.
I would have to say, “I don’t have cable, or Fios, so I can’t watch Faux News. Plus my silly little government mandated analog transformer thing-y for the quasi-new digital signal doesn’t pull in some channels, including the local Fox. What really ticks me off is I miss all my cooking shows on PBS. It’s peanut butter and jelly for me, but that’s not so bad, less dishes and more time for Ricochet.”
I tend to ignore it… If you say you watch, they think you are an idiot. If you say you don’t, they don’t believe you. Why waste energy on the argument?
I still will watch Bret and the 6:00 news from time to time. Very sporadic on the other shows unless something big is going down…like an election. I refuse to watch during a hurricane though if I know Geraldo is out in the storm I might check it out to see if that is really his own hair.
Truth be told, all news is bias, but some is less bias then others. You need a lot of different sources to really keep up. And you need to be able to think for yourself.
Seems like my Fox Viewing habits are like most of the Ricocheti….Occasional Special Report and Red Eye. When I watch special report, I get caught up on the news and hear the perspective from a few folks that I respect on the Roundtable.
On most other Fox shows I get poorly informed attitude. Drives me crazy that they don’t seem to spend the small amount of money to get a guest that can teach me something. I mean the Ricochet podcasts are filled with articulate, knowledgeable people. They should be on Fox…..
When confronted with the Fox News/reliable news source blarney, if I bother to reply at all, I make the following points: Fox news is not a viable option here in Japan. It’s not on my cable service and I can’t be bothered to try to find it on the WWW. The only “news” I watch is the weather on NHK. Years and years ago, when I was in junior officer training for the US Foreign Service, one session was on how the media were totally unreliable, agenda driven, and had difficulty distinguishing fact from fiction. Don’t trust them to report accurately. Several clips from each of the evening news shows from the alphabet soup companies were presented to demonstrate the point. Since that time, I have personally noticed several occasions of gross mistranslation/distortion of something a foreign speaker said so that it would fit with the preferred narrative. Let those without the same sin cast the first stone. Don’t talk to me about reliable news sources.
The only thing on any cable news network worth watching is “Special Report.” But most of the time, during this part of the year, my telly is firmly fixed on MLB Network for “MLB Tonight” to get me prepared for the upcoming Nationals game and to get me caught up on what happened during the day in baseball. I would hardly say that I get my news from TV. The tellies that are on at work touch on most of the big “news” outlets and when they are not droning on about some trending YouTube video that is “popular” they are telling you about some stupid celebrity. Occasionally you will get some hard news in there. (HLN is the worst in this regard.) My news comes from legitimate news sources on the internet and I am my own editor. The Real Clear franchise, Drudge, occasionally The Corner, Rush Limbaugh, and various news services like the BCC are my go to places.
Liberals don’t understand this, but Liberalism is fundamentally a religious outlook on life and politics. They conceive of political positions in the way normal people conceive of morality. When they encounter a conservative, they understand the conservative’s thought process as well as a well-adjusted person understands the thoughts of a sociopath. They just can’t understand why someone would reject their morality. Liberals instead grasp at several explanations that allow them to dismiss the conservative’s arguments without a thought. E.J. Hill gave us some of their explanations:
There’s no room in the Liberal’s worldview for someone to consider an issue logically and reach a position inconsistent with Liberalism.
Sometimes this is funny. It leads to the Vox boys getting basic facts wrong in their soi-disant explainers and the wonks to completely miss the case behind the Halbig decision.