A Snippet Here…. When You Put Yourself In The Center Of The News..

If Fox New is famous for anything it is about putting themselves in the center of the news. It seems that this behavior is getting one of its stars Mr. O’Reilly in hot water recently. He is getting caught with too many personal embellishments lately. When Brian Williams did that recently he got a six-month non-paid vacation, but I’m sure Mr. O’Reilly won’t even get a slap on his wrist. After all if Fox News were to put him on forced hiatus they would probably have to do the same with almost their entire staff.

But that is not the saddest part of this story. Instead it is about how so many people seem to blindly accept newscasters being at the center of everything on Fox and MSNBC. It just seems to me that the regular viewers of those shows are too lazy to think for themselves so they let their favorite flavor political talking head guide them around by their nose. Shame on any of us for doing that!

Filter Bubbles, Rabbit Holes, and Echo Chambers…

Let me start out with the theme for this post. The Internet is a double-edged sword. It allows the free flow of massive amounts of information but it also allow the free flow of massive amounts of mis-information. The crux of the interview that the PBS Newshour quote below comes from is about how people pick and choose which science to believe. Lets face it much the info you can find on the Internet is without any type of documented foundation. Anyone, including me, can put out their opinions on any topic they choose. Now let’s go to the quote:

I think one of the differences today is just the Internet. It has changed the whole information universe. It’s democratized, small-D, information out there. There are fewer sort of gatekeepers of knowledge.

Instead, people go out and seek information, and they often find what they’re looking for that reinforces their belief. The Internet, you know, it doesn’t facilitate consensus, as anyone has noticed who’s gone on the Internet. Instead, it creates these sort of filter bubbles, these rabbit holes, these echo chambers. And these communities of sort of alternative knowledge develop that are often in opposition to the scientific mainstream….

So that’s part of what we’re seeing, is that there are lots of attitudes that are influenced by longstanding values, religious beliefs, political beliefs, other personal experiences. And that’s actually a longstanding pattern we have seen many years, but we have new issues….

Well, I think that there are people who are demagogues in the media world that benefit from, you know, dividing and conquering. They want to have people who — they want to say, trust only me on this issue think the stakes are large for all of us in this more technological, engineered world, where we need to get this stuff right

SOURCE: Why we pick and choose which science to believe.

If we don’t take the time to parse through what we find on the Internet it can lead us to live our life in filter bubbles, rabbit holes, and echo chambers (I love that analogy). The Internet is kind of like the Bible, if we look hard enough and are willing to ignore everything else we can find a phrase or two to back up our current worldview no matter what it is.  The biggest example of this tunnel-vision mentality is Fox News with MSNBC not far behind. Fox News claims to be “fair and balanced” but most everyone, I’m sure even Fox’s regular viewers, know in their heart there is no truth to that statement. Sadly I do recognize that many get all their news from that source. Will Rogers, my hero, said that if you only have one source of news then you quickly become a fool. I think those words apply  maybe even more so today than they did almost one-hundred years ago when he said them.

Three Charts to Email to Your Right-Wing Brother-In-Law

Problem: Your right-wing brother-in-law is plugged into the FOX-Limbaugh lie machine, and keeps sending you emails about “Obama spending” and “Obama deficits” and how the “stimulus” just made things worse….

 

SOURCE: Three Charts to Email to Your Right-Wing Brother-In-Law Updated | Dave Johnson.

In the old days, that is the time before I gave up on all the cable news channels I used to get a weekly dose of Fox News.  As they say keep your friends close and your enemies closer. It was anything but news……

That’s all I want, or need, to say about this topic. It is too toxic to go any further into the idiocy of it….

Fox News’s Old Viewership Is Getting Even Older

The New York Times took a look at the results for Bill O’Reilly’s show, which remains popular with overall audience of 2.1 million viewers. But in the key demographic, he averaged just 313,000 viewers, a small percentage of his overall pull. His show’s median viewer age is now 72.1, which is a high. That’s part of a trend. Fox News’s viewership is aging out of that key demographic, even as the overall median age of cable news viewers remains high

SOURCE: Fox News’s Old Viewership Is Getting Even Older – Yahoo News.

I’m sure that anyone who has read anything on this blog knows that I just can’t stomach Fox News. It is too blatantly biased to be called a news network. So, it did my heart good when I saw this article. It seems that their viewership consists mainly of old white folks who have just not given up their ingrained prejudices from the twentieth century. If we are patient, which is not one of my strong suits, they will eventually go the way of the dinosaur that they so much resemble.

If you believe the loyal viewers of this network you would think that most of the world, or at least the U.S. watches Fox News.  But then you see the statistics above where Bill O’Reilly, who is one of the biggest ranters, has only 2.1 million viewers on any given show. That amounts to over 99% of us Americans who DON’T watch.

Half of the viewers are over 72 years old and the other half don’t contain many of the millennials. Time is not on their side.  Maybe Rupert Murdock needs some new hobby….

All About Fox News……

“If you are going to write, talk, comment, or argue over any public question, don’t do it by just reading one newspaper….You can tell in a minute a person that only reads one paper.” – Will Rogers, 18 March 1934

Some more words of wisdom for today spoken by WIll Rogers almost eighty years ago. I can say for a fact that many of my conservative friends and past classmates have Fox News running in their homes throughout the day.  I am also sure that is the only source of news many of them expose themselves to.  Well not quite,  some probably get a regular dose of Mr. Limbaugh and his bigoted rhetoric.  I just can’t understand how some can, or even want, to stay in that mode? Loving,  instead of hating or maybe just fearing your neighbor, is a much more satisfying life.  Yes  Will,  even today you can tell in a minute a person that  watches Fox News as their only source of information.

Differing Opinions Have Become Worst Enemies……

We’ve lost something as a nation when we can no longer look at one another as people, as Americans, and — for people of faith  — as brothers and sisters.  Differing opinions have become worst enemies and political parties have devolved into nothing more than petty games of blame….

It is not about Right and Left — or merely about partisan politics — but rather about the quality of our life together. It’s about moving beyond the political ideologies that have both polarized and paralyzed us, by regaining a moral compass for both our public and personal lives — and reclaiming an ancient, yet urgent and timely idea: the common good.

Source: On God’s Side: For the Common Good – Jim Wallis | God’s Politics Blog | Sojourners.

I always look forward to the weekly emails from Jim Wallis about our times. The words above from his March 29 emailing which I believe strike at the heart of our current problems. They seem to be the core cause and solution to our problems today. We are no longer able to view those who differ in their political views as Americans like us.  Our politics has devolved into nothing but a petty game of blame. I don’t know exactly how this happened but I kind of have an idea of some of its causes.

Rush Limbaugh came on the national political scene in 1988. His rhetoric shocked many of us as blatant bigotry and hatefulness.  He is plain a simply a school yard bully on the national scene. But it seems bigotry and hatred sells as his most recent contract was for $400 million for an eight year period. That money has spurned hundreds of look-alikes over the years.  I simply can’t understand how Mr. Limbaugh became a major spokesman for the GOP.  I can’t understand how so many who call themselves conservatives are so fearful of denouncing his rhetoric? He has been married four times; seems to have no family values, and shows a putrid disrespect for almost everyone. Is that really the face that conservatives want to be identified with?  I think not but they seem still listen to him in great numbers and “ditto” almost anything that spews out of his vulgar mouth.

Fox New came on the national scene in 1996. It is very obvious that Rupert Murdoch who owns this media is very much in the same mindset as Mr. Limbaugh. MSNBC came into existence in 1996, some say as a response to Fox News but in a much smaller framework.  These three things I think are the major contributors to the reason we can no longer look at one another as fellow Americans but instead now as the enemy.  I like to call these contributors the “Limburger Affect”. It put a putrid stink on all our political processes!

I pray that something can happen to allow us to get back to looking at the quality of life in both our personal and public lives. If only we can get back and “reclaim an ancient, yet urgent and timely idea: the common good.