[Aptorian]

Continuing my query about American media in the "Carlin thread" take a look at this.



I don't understand American news media. Is there no such thing as laws against just spouting bullshit as truth in news media? Why is there no organisations or government bodies that keep this kind of stuff in check? Punishing a TV station for false propaganda or bad research?

POR QUE!?

This post has been edited by Aptorian: 06 November 2010 - 04:25 PM

[Beezulbubba]

Ha ha ha!

"Rachel Maddow is a vampire. We are let'n a lesbian vampire comment on America"

'merica! yehew!

Seriously though. The third guy on the video (the one that says to "look it up on the internet" - - - I think his name is Eric Bolling) basically ruined a show on the Fox Business channel called "Happy Hour". Happy Hour launched with the Fox Business channel and was not political at all. It had interesting interviews with entrepreneurs and covered the business topics of the day. Sure some of it touched on the political, but the show itself was neutral. Well, then this Eric Bolling jerk off joined the show and every segment he was involved with was so right leaning political it was sickening. Every chance he got he criticized Obama, alternative energy (he's a big supporter of oil companies), health care reform.... and on and on. I think the show aired for less then a year after he joined before it was cancelled.

It's also interesting how the lies that Fox News hammers into their viewer's heads transforms into an even more ridiculous reality for them. There's examples in the video, but one that I remember is when they were saying Obama is Muslim during the campaigning leading up to the 2008 vote. At one of John McCain's rallies, a nice, elderly lady (Fox's main demographic) stood up and said: "I don't trust Obama, he's Arab"

[worry]

The laws that regulate broadcast news don't really apply to cable news (broadcast vs. cable channels in general are completely different, the former regulated by the FCC), so in cable-land the rules are basically set by the market. Show what people will watch and advertisers won't reject.

[Icarium Kalam]

sigh.... most people should be sterilized for the greater good. I like Rachel Maddows she's good.

[Defiance]

Did you guys hear Obama is taking a trip to India that is going to cost 200 million dollars a day, and he's being escorted by 1/10 of the navy? zomgwtfbbq I can't believe my taxpayer money is going towards this!!!11111

[Aptorian]

I was more amused by the "Obama is smuggling in small groups of muslims into the US" as though this would have any effect on the population of tens of millions of muslims that already live in American society.

[Cause]

Makes me feel better about my own countries incompetent goverment

[amphibian]

Aptorian, on 06 November 2010 - 08:37 PM, said:

I was more amused by the "Obama is smuggling in small groups of muslims into the US" as though this would have any effect on the population of tens of millions of muslims that already live in American society.

Having the right company at Tea Parties is essential.

It still boggles my mind that the most listened to source of political debunking is a show on Comedy Central. And not only is it frequented by the same politicians and commentators that they debunk, but the politicians and commentators still go out there and put forth bunk.

Is bunk inescapable? I wouldn't mind if the bunk was Bunk Moreland, but the bunk is just bunk.

[Beezulbubba]

Bunk beds

[champ]

unbelievable... just bewildered, how does that even get on tele?

[Primateus]

It's a good question though, how do you talk to those people?

[King Lear]

My God. I think I'm in love. Why have I never seen her before? Clearly I've not been paying enough attention.

If I were a vampire, I'd bite that.

[Gothos]

It's not only the USA that this is happening I must say. The political scene in .pl seems to be taking this type of newsforging to heart. I stopped regularly following what's happening in this country several years ago and I don't miss a thing. It's fucking ridiculous, and the contagion is spreading.

[Adjutant Stormy~]

There should be a secret organization dedicated to, not today, not without significant precision and coordination, the simultaneous and total elimination (preferably via high-powered rifle) of the media engines that do this crap.

[Sindriss]

I see these tendencies in several countries and it quite frankly worries me. Hopefully we can right things up before it escalates too much for future generations..

[Aptorian]

Adjutant Stormy, on 09 November 2010 - 02:23 AM, said:

There should be a secret organization dedicated to, not today, not without significant precision and coordination, the simultaneous and total elimination (preferably via high-powered rifle) of the media engines that do this crap.

Well, you can do that easily enough, you just need to remove Ruport Murdoch. But first you need to destroy his Horcruxes.

[Shinrei]

Unfortunately, I don't see that anything can (or should) be done about this. It's up to the public to educate themselves and understand their sources and simply adhere to the rule my mother taught me "Don't believe everything you read or see on TV." Otherwise, how can there be freedom of the press if government laws decide what is "truth"?
If people are not following my mother's wise words, they are pretty simpleminded. This begs the question - how many people are there who are informed entirely and only by this RightWingBubble (RWB)?

I also feel the necessity to point out there is a fair heavy irony hanging about in this thread...

[Morgoth]

Shinrei, on 09 November 2010 - 08:34 AM, said:

Unfortunately, I don't see that anything can (or should) be done about this. It's up to the public to educate themselves and understand their sources and simply adhere to the rule my mother taught me "Don't believe everything you read or see on TV." Otherwise, how can there be freedom of the press if government laws decide what is "truth"?
If people are not following my mother's wise words, they are pretty simpleminded. This begs the question - how many people are there who are informed entirely and only by this RightWingBubble (RWB)?

I also feel the necessity to point out there is a fair heavy irony hanging about in this thread...

Oh, are you trying to make another equivelance argument here? Do expand.

[Shinrei]

Basically, Icarium Kalam and Stormy's comments do not add to the discussion and are sentiments that are simply aimed to "sound good" to people who hate Fox News etc.

Apt speaks of the government stepping in with laws, but why should we believe that the government always tells the truth? And political "truth" is not objective anyways.

I'm not going to argue that "Obama smuggling muslims" isn't one of the dumber things I've heard recently, but whatare we going to do about it? Really sterilize and kill people over it?

Not to mention the Maddow clip itslef is a nice bit of fearmongering. Obviously everyone who listens to Fox News no longer recognizes the difference between fantasy and reality! Be very very afraid!


I'll echo the sentiment "thank goodness for the daily show!"

[Morgoth]

Well, my general impression is that the average viewer of Fox News do not recognize the difference between fantasy and reality. If they did, why would they chose to get their news from Fox?

I mean, I didn't watch television when I lived in Chicago, and so cannot really say much about the quality of MSNBC or CNN in comparison (though the CNN we get here is generally pretty good). However, I do look into Fox's news pages and can comfortably say that those are pretty far away from what I would call quality journalism. No, I'd be willing to argue that what is to be found on Fox news' web pages is objectively bad journalism.

So, considering their written parts and all the nonsense we see quoted on a regular basis I find it hard to believe that any rational person can argue that Fox qualifies as anything but a propaganda machine for the right with little or no regard for truth.

I guess your main question though, is whether the government should be doing something about this, and to that I'd say no. In Norway we've got a sort of media watchdog organized and run by the media itself, but I wonder if that would ever work in the polarized environment of the US.