APP - Are Newsmax, OANN, and Fox Media threats to American Democracy?

midcan5 said:
Most of the information presented by Fox OAN and Newsmax pretends to be news but is opinion. Opinion that appeals to a segment of society that already agrees. Opinionated presentation targets divisive issues rather than reporting or analysis. It is an internal political correctness that sees news or politics through an agreed upon lenses that is often anti-democratic, anti-science, and even anti-intelligence. These media sources pretend to be conservative they are not. They conserve nothing, they posture, dismiss, and divide.

It is an irony that Fox has become worse in an attempt to keep OAN and Newsmax at bay. Viewers are money. Modern American so called Conservative media now vies for the ridiculous if it feeds a bias, a hate, or criticizes. Add to this the death of local media along with the repeal of the Fairness Doctrine, Citizen's United, and the goose is cooked. Dark Money now rules.

Add online media sources that appear in searches and news feeds. Many of these are dark money supported sites pretending to be news when they are agitprop. Political power and corporate power do not like democracy. Democracy too often muddies the water, a citizen sees the world differently than a government bureaucrat or a profit seeking corporate officer. How does that corporation control democracy, it controls the information media presents and it targets information based on the social profiles of its viewers, often white and rural. Dog whistles dominate.

Democratic government is the favorite bogeyman of autocratic government. Lesser players in this game of deception include Breitbart, Townhall, and a host of sites that can be found in Internet searches - questionable sources are covered in links below. Online trolls have also proliferated in online social media. Some even gravitate to conspiracy sites or ideas of secession. This divisiveness takes many forms such as private schools, religious separation, and isolated rural community settings. Public education is too democratic, too open. How for instance could a pandemic become something other than a pandemic. Gaslighting from Fox ET AL have created a world of doubt. America leads the world in Covid-19 deaths, misinformation has consequences.

So how do we understand the topic question when media is opinion, distortion, dog whistles, targeted, oppositional, using loaded words, words meant as pejorative or audience specific? Content without thought, words like 'cancel' 'woke' 'leftist' 'liberal' 'socialist' 'border' 'trans' 'guns' etcetera. What do they really mean outside the club? Their appeal is to tribe, to emotion, not content or analysis. Misinformation and distortion weaken a nation's political conversation. Ask always who benefits, what is its purpose, and is the information news or opinion. Seek sources that explain without always pointing fingers.

Daniel Pipes wrote. "First, democracy is more than holding elections; it requires the development of civil society, meaning such complex and counter intuitive institutions as the rule of law, an independent judiciary, multiple political parties, minority rights, voluntary associations, freedom of expression, movement, and assembly. Democracy is a learned habit, not an instinctive one, that requires deep attitudinal changes such as a culture of restraint, a commonality of values, a respect for differences of view, the concept of loyal opposition, and a sense of civic responsibility."

'The Five Biggest Threats Our Democracy Faces'

https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/five-biggest-threats-our-democracy-faces

And the SCOTUS threat:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2...-biden-expand-supreme-court-trump-republicans

Information Sources to check:

https://iffy.news/
https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/fake-news/
http://politics.flackcheck.org/patterns-of-deception/

One online news site I recommend: https://www.theguardian.com/us


"Let us wage a moral and political war against the billionaires and corporate leaders, on Wall Street and elsewhere, whose policies and greed are destroying the middle class of America." Bernie Sanders
Click to expand...

I feel that these demagoguery news sites are a threat to the American way of life.
 
midcan5 said:
Most of the information presented by Fox OAN and Newsmax pretends to be news but is opinion. Opinion that appeals to a segment of society that already agrees. Opinionated presentation targets divisive issues rather than reporting or analysis. It is an internal political correctness that sees news or politics through an agreed upon lenses that is often anti-democratic, anti-science, and even anti-intelligence. These media sources pretend to be conservative they are not. They conserve nothing, they posture, dismiss, and divide.

It is an irony that Fox has become worse in an attempt to keep OAN and Newsmax at bay. Viewers are money. Modern American so called Conservative media now vies for the ridiculous if it feeds a bias, a hate, or criticizes. Add to this the death of local media along with the repeal of the Fairness Doctrine, Citizen's United, and the goose is cooked. Dark Money now rules.

Add online media sources that appear in searches and news feeds. Many of these are dark money supported sites pretending to be news when they are agitprop. Political power and corporate power do not like democracy. Democracy too often muddies the water, a citizen sees the world differently than a government bureaucrat or a profit seeking corporate officer. How does that corporation control democracy, it controls the information media presents and it targets information based on the social profiles of its viewers, often white and rural. Dog whistles dominate.

Democratic government is the favorite bogeyman of autocratic government. Lesser players in this game of deception include Breitbart, Townhall, and a host of sites that can be found in Internet searches - questionable sources are covered in links below. Online trolls have also proliferated in online social media. Some even gravitate to conspiracy sites or ideas of secession. This divisiveness takes many forms such as private schools, religious separation, and isolated rural community settings. Public education is too democratic, too open. How for instance could a pandemic become something other than a pandemic. Gaslighting from Fox ET AL have created a world of doubt. America leads the world in Covid-19 deaths, misinformation has consequences.

So how do we understand the topic question when media is opinion, distortion, dog whistles, targeted, oppositional, using loaded words, words meant as pejorative or audience specific? Content without thought, words like 'cancel' 'woke' 'leftist' 'liberal' 'socialist' 'border' 'trans' 'guns' etcetera. What do they really mean outside the club? Their appeal is to tribe, to emotion, not content or analysis. Misinformation and distortion weaken a nation's political conversation. Ask always who benefits, what is its purpose, and is the information news or opinion. Seek sources that explain without always pointing fingers.

Daniel Pipes wrote. "First, democracy is more than holding elections; it requires the development of civil society, meaning such complex and counter intuitive institutions as the rule of law, an independent judiciary, multiple political parties, minority rights, voluntary associations, freedom of expression, movement, and assembly. Democracy is a learned habit, not an instinctive one, that requires deep attitudinal changes such as a culture of restraint, a commonality of values, a respect for differences of view, the concept of loyal opposition, and a sense of civic responsibility."

'The Five Biggest Threats Our Democracy Faces'

https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/five-biggest-threats-our-democracy-faces

And the SCOTUS threat:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2...-biden-expand-supreme-court-trump-republicans

Information Sources to check:

https://iffy.news/
https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/fake-news/
http://politics.flackcheck.org/patterns-of-deception/

One online news site I recommend: https://www.theguardian.com/us


"Let us wage a moral and political war against the billionaires and corporate leaders, on Wall Street and elsewhere, whose policies and greed are destroying the middle class of America." Bernie Sanders
Click to expand...

As your article implies, this is all profit driven, and it is not just on the right, the left has their share, although not as dominant. It is all about the buck, infotainment, and nothing sells better than melodrama, good guy’s vs bad guy’s.

Always been there, but with erasing the Fairness Doctrine it took the handcuffs off, or as Limbaugh observed, that day made his career. Talk radio evolved into cable “news” into now social media, and the drama has escalated, which were once the other side is now evil and unAmerican

Ain’t changing anytime soon, as I noted, as long as there is a dollar to be made, it will occur
 
ThatOwlWoman said:
I know probably twice as many evangelical whites as I know evangelical blacks. The whites are 100% Trumpanzee; not a single one of the blacks is. Yes, it's a small statistical sampling yet there is no denying it. Can you think of a single white evangelical that you know IRL who isn't politically to the right or the far right?

I think Cypress's reply on this issue says it all -- one group calls themselves Christian while the other actually practices it for the most part.
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Consider that an Evangelical who doesn't hold some conservative views isn't an Evangelical. :)

While it's true Jesus would be defined as a liberal by today's standards, being an adherent to a religion is conservative in nature.

Also consider that the best group to become the backbone of the Republican party is religious, traditional and family-oriented but since they are mostly brown-skinned, the modern Republican party has rejected them in favor of racist politics.

Note that gop.com hasn't even maintained the link to the Growth and Opportunity project AKA 2012 Republican Autopsy nor did they seek to follow the recommendations after the results:
https://gop.com/growth-and-opportunity-project/

Following the 2012 Election, the American people sent a clear message that it was time for the Republican Party to grow. In response, Chairman Priebus issued an assessment of the party by the Growth and Opportunity Project task force. Reaching out to hundreds of party leaders and grassroots activists across the country, the task force issued a list of recommendations to the RNC to help pave a path to victory. This project is an ongoing commitment to get input from people all across the country on ways to grow our party. We have hired new staff and have put millions of dollars into Demographic Outreach and data and technology improvements. Read the full report below:


The report itself: https://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/RNCreport03182013.pdf

Another working link: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/624293-republican-national-committees-growth-and.html
 
Dutch Uncle said:
Facts need no rebuttal, but opinions do. If people understand the difference between a fact and an opinion, then there'd be less confusion.

Is there any doubt that some news businesses are more factual than others? That some are more entertainment than news? More theatrics than education?

Only people with critical thinking skills can tell the difference....and JPP is full of people who can't tell the difference.
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It isn't simply a question of the difference between facts and opinions. It is often the difference between select facts disseminated to create/support an opinion vs the complete set of facts.
Then it is a question of knowing one's audience and how diligent they will be in reading the entire article. Click bait headlines that don't really represent what is in the 4th and 5th paragraphs are a great way to sway opinion while reporting the facts knowing 90% of your audience will never read the whole story.
 
Quote Originally Posted by ThatOwlWoman View Post
....Why are these two groups -- white evangelicals and black evangelicals -- so politically different?
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lets face it.....you refuse to listen to what either group actually says and rely on what the DNC and MSNBC tell you they say......
 
goat said:
TOW summed it up perfectly, critical thinking boils to question authority. Dissent is criminalized and locked away in a cage.
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Critical thinking comes down to knowing which authority to trust. No one can be well versed on all topics so at some point you have to rely on authorities on topics to be your source. Ultimately critical thinking is being able to discern which authorities are being completely truthful and which are not. Sometimes that involves questioning them to figure out how complete their truthfulness is but it isn't a case of blindly questioning all authority.

in the end as humans we all have confirmation bias so many people resort to trusting the authorities that agree with us. Critical thinking means you need to question your own positions and try to find reasons to not believe them.
 
Poor Richard Saunders said:
It isn't simply a question of the difference between facts and opinions. It is often the difference between select facts disseminated to create/support an opinion vs the complete set of facts.
Then it is a question of knowing one's audience and how diligent they will be in reading the entire article. Click bait headlines that don't really represent what is in the 4th and 5th paragraphs are a great way to sway opinion while reporting the facts knowing 90% of your audience will never read the whole story.
Click to expand...

Agreed that people can lie-by-omission but they usually include spin based on those half-truths, which goes back to passing opinions off as facts and too many people not seeing the sleight of hand.

Agreed on "knowing one's audience".

Part of the problem is cognitive bias. Cable news uses both knowing their audience/niche and people freely choose to fill their heads with whatever flavor of bullshit they like most.

Liberals don't watch Fox and Conservatives don't watch MSNBC to with open minds. Some people choose to watch both, but with an eye to separating the facts from the bullshit. The spin. The red meat for their respective niche audiences.
 
Poor Richard Saunders said:
It isn't simply a question of the difference between facts and opinions. It is often the difference between select facts disseminated to create/support an opinion vs the complete set of facts.
Then it is a question of knowing one's audience and how diligent they will be in reading the entire article. Click bait headlines that don't really represent what is in the 4th and 5th paragraphs are a great way to sway opinion while reporting the facts knowing 90% of your audience will never read the whole story.
Click to expand...

Bingo. I'm sure we've all seen partisans here post articles that purport to validate whatever lurid thread title the OP came up with. But when you read the article, you find out that in reality the facts say just the opposite. It's kind of amusing. Except for that whole part that for every one partisan posting a mistaken story here, there are a thousand who swallow it whole -- and share it with their incurious and equally dumb friends and family.
 
Dutch Uncle said:
Agreed that people can lie-by-omission but they usually include spin based on those half-truths, which goes back to passing opinions off as facts and too many people not seeing the sleight of hand.

Agreed on "knowing one's audience".

Part of the problem is cognitive bias. Cable news uses both knowing their audience/niche and people freely choose to fill their heads with whatever flavor of bullshit they like most.

Liberals don't watch Fox and Conservatives don't watch MSNBC to with open minds. Some people choose to watch both, but with an eye to separating the facts from the bullshit. The spin. The red meat for their respective niche audiences.
Click to expand...

And some of us choose neither one.
 
Poor Richard Saunders said:
Critical thinking comes down to knowing which authority to trust. No one can be well versed on all topics so at some point you have to rely on authorities on topics to be your source. Ultimately critical thinking is being able to discern which authorities are being completely truthful and which are not. Sometimes that involves questioning them to figure out how complete their truthfulness is but it isn't a case of blindly questioning all authority.

in the end as humans we all have confirmation bias so many people resort to trusting the authorities that agree with us. Critical thinking means you need to question your own positions and try to find reasons to not believe them.
Click to expand...
I see little difference between Trump news and legacy news, both are manufacturing consent. The problem with crypto-fascism is they want us to believe authority has been consecrated. No psychology can be the correct authority for me. I like Jung but it was Freud who helped me better understand myself -- yet Freud was wrong about everything.

You said we need to question our own positions but we don't need authority for that.
 
Dutch Uncle said:
Like this forum? LOL

Have you ever taken a Khan Academy course? I've gone over a few for fun. A few years ago I was helping my niece catch up in school with math being her weak point. We covered geometry.


Are you saying you never used Youtube to learn how to disassemble a weapon? Build a fence? Anything? A lot can be learned from a 10" screen. :)
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I'm not saying things can't be learned. It's the fellowship with other kids and adults that's been missing. Playing outdoors with friends. That's what I'm saying.

Yep. I look things up all the time. It's how I found the engine builder I want to build the motor for my car.
 
RB 60 said:
I'm not saying things can't be learned. It's the fellowship with other kids and adults that's been missing. Playing outdoors with friends. That's what I'm saying.

Yep. I look things up all the time. It's how I found the engine builder I want to build the motor for my car.
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Those are all good things. If it was up to me, kids would be in school a quarter or semester at a time with two weeks off in between. They could do 2-3 days at school and the remainder telecommuting. More education for less cost. Class rooms would be full 5 days a week with alternating kids; less kids per class. Teachers work full time with the same two week breaks.

Still, the American public needs to up its education game if they hope to compete in an increasingly technical world. Buggy Whips and riveting cars by hand aren't returning except for custom shops.
 
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