Fox “News” now promotes itself as television’s most trusted network—a dubious honor that is sort of like McDonalds bragging that its arches were still standing along a stretch of the Mississippi Gulf Coast beach following Hurricane Katrina.
According to poll figures, 49% of those surveyed trust Fox, compared with 39% for CNN—the longstanding “most trusted network.” Farther down the trust ladder were NBC, CBS and ABC. The ten point spread between the two leading cable networks is significant. But more noteworthy—at least in my opinion—is the distrust numbers. Thirty-seven percent do not trust Fox, 41% don’t have faith in CNN, and at the low end of the scale, 46% distrust ABC.
Numbers are boring. My eyes glazed while writing the previous paragraph. However, the survey says much about the nation’s collective state of mind. For anyone with a propensity for exploiting the fear, anger and distrust of our fellow countrymen (countrywomen, too, since I want to be politically correct), now is the time to get into the agitating business.
If there is any doubt about the rewards of anger manipulation, consider the success of Fox “News.” It is the home of Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity and a stable of right-wing droolers who run around with pom poms, acting as cheerleaders for conservative movements such as the Tea Party Nation.
Literally.
A Fox producer was recently videotaped stirring the Tea Party crowd into a rah, rah mood prior to a live shot. In my days at CNN, that kind of crap would have been a firing offense—no explanation sought. Indeed, the network even outlawed re-asks, a standard production technique following single camera interviews. For editing purposes, the camera was turned toward the correspondent and he or she repeated the questions previously asked.
Shut up, gunslinger. That’s too much information. Nobody cares.
So, back to the issue at hand—the exploitation of hard times in America. Characters like Glenn, Sean, Rush Limbaugh and a cast of AM right-wing radio agitators share the DNA—metaphorically, if not in fact—of the original broadcasting hate-monger, Father Charles Coughlin.
The Roman Catholic priest took to the airwaves in 1923 in Detroit, just three years after Pennsylvania’s KDKA aired radio’s the nation’s first commercial broadcast. Father Coughlin’s mixed bag of political views gave voice to the fears of listeners. During the Great Depression, his audience was second only to FDR’s fireside chats. At the peak of the cleric’s popularity, he received an estimated 80,000 letters a week.
Coughlin was an early and ardent supporter of President Roosevelt’s New Deal, but later reversed course to become a leading critic of the program. Instead, he embraced Huey P. Long’s populist Share Our Wealth Society, which lost steam in 1935 after the man known as the ”Kingfish” was assassinated in a corridor of Louisiana’s Capitol building.
For four decades, the priest stoked the fires of discontent in the nation. Like an early day Pat Robertson, he even founded a radio network as a venue to proseltyze his outlandish views about Wall Street, New York bankers and an array of other targets. His anti-semitism included leading protest demonstrations against Jews immigrating to America. At the same time, he rationalized the conduct of Hitler and Mussolini.
Father Coughlin departed the airwaves in 1946 to avoid being defrocked by the Detroit Catholic Diocese. He became the pastor of a small church in Detroit and died 1976 in a nursing home.
But there have been many broadcasting successors to Father Coughlin, each more outrageous than the last—especially since the Federal Communication Commission underwent surgery two decades ago for removal of its testicles. Fox “News” now carries forward the priest’s legacy.
In a contemporary era of discontent, the network is a propaganda outlet of Republicans. Fox explains the futility felt by people in superficial and simplified terms, pointing fingers of blame mostly at Democrats. When self-declared clown, Glenn Beck, and former bartender, Sean Hannity, spout the Fox (GOP) party line, 49% of its viewers believe them. Or so states the recent poll. Amazing!
The results of the survey seem to give credibility to P.T Barnum’s famed observation that “a sucker is born every minute.”
Your genius is tainted by your leftist slant. If only YOU could be “fair and balanced” as a glimmer of hope for all wanna-be journalists, you could be a truly great mentor. Instead, your propensity to always default to the liberal, leftist agenda tends to water down many of your potentially great insights.
The story would be more effective if you just reported the news instead of picking on one of the players in the game!
Great comment, Matthew. It re-enforces my “liberal” views. Incidentally, I am no longer a reporter. I retired, which gives me time to read multiple newspapers, books and try to stay informed. I only wish that Fox viewers could do the same. They could develop “potentially great insights.”