Fox News as Lord and Savior
Dec. 27th, 2004 10:36 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sisabetI gave Cappy a copy of "Outfoxed: Rupurt Murdoch's War on Journalism" (http://movies2.nytimes.com/mem/movies/review.html?title1=Outfoxed%20%28Movie%29&title2=Outfoxed%20%28Movie%29&reviewer=A%2e%20O%2e%20Scott&pdate=20040720&v_id=309213) for Christmas. Several interesting things then occurred. I am here to tell you about those things, but first, some history.
As most of you know, I was raised on a small farm in rural Kentucky. I'd not make the distinction of "rural" since I already said "farm" but this is Kentucky and even in the cities, you can live on a farm. There are many many things that frustrate me about my homeland. The ability to provide a person *space* is not one of them.
Like most of my cohorts I was raised in a conservative household that attended church on a regular basis. The church was a fundamentalist nondenominational Christian Church that was similar to The Church of Christ except we could have musical instruments. Do not confuse our church with The Disciples of Christ who split from The Church of Christ 2 centuries ago over the issue of music as well. As I was told by several relatives when I confided that I enjoyed the Disciples of Christ services I attended while I was in Memphis, "You might as well not even go to church."
So I don't. If the percieved "liberalness" of a congregation means that it is unfit or I am some kind of heathen hell-bound lost soul for daring to think that love and kindness and tolerance are important religious philosophies and central Christian tenants, then I have no comeback for that. Well, actually I do - but no one wants to hear it. I could quote scripture with the best of them and much like paper can cover rock - if you want to get down to the nitty-gritty, then the red-inked parts of the new testament should trounce Paul. If by raising this issue - I am automatically condemned to hell - well then what is the point? My argument is lost right there. Thank you for playing and I'll just be over here, sleeping in on Sundays.
At this point I have just entered into a state of silence about the entire thing. I will believe what I believe and continue to speak out about those things - but if people just don't care to listen, then I'll shut up, because even if they can not afford me the same respect, I'd be a hypocrite to insist that they hear me. Instead I'll try to emphasize the points we do share in common and when the time comes to disagree, point out that they raised me. I get this from somewhere. The fact that I have *always* been like this gives me credibility. I didn't go away to college and come back home all enamored with new ideas and ways of thinking. I have been expressing the same opinions and beliefs since I was four. My mother was big on pairs. She had a brunette daughter and she had a blonde daughter. She had a daughter who was a jock and a daughter who was a bookworm. She had a liberal child and a conservative child. We were into extreme representation of arch and/or stereo- types, I think, down to the fact that I adored brussel sprouts and Dawn hated carrots.
I tell you all this now because confronting the issue of "Fox: News" with my family was exactly like confronting the issue of religion. I am not saying that it was a similar experience - I am telling you it was *exactly* the same. I think this is interesting and useful knowledge to have, because I listen to NPR and sometimes watch CNN. I am more attached ideologically to NPR, but this is more of a theoretical fondness. I like the idea of National Public Radio more than the actual product, if I have to be honest. If you were to tell me that there is a documentary I should watch that systematically addresses some defaults of holes in CNN or NPR; I would naturally want to know the sources and would watch it critically -- but I'd watch it and enter into a debate. It would not *upset* me as a challenge to my belief system.
Perhaps if you wanted me to watch a documentary that accuses Joss Whedon of both plagiarism and xenophobia -- that would ire me to the point of stomach ache. But my love for Joss is very very deep.
This is when it hit me -- for many people (and not just my family) Fox News is their primary fandom - but unlike fandom - this is something way deeper than play. They care about these pundits and "anchors" and this is something you have to know. These people are family members.
Fox is very very good at what it does and the faces it projects are systematically created to make America love them. Not enjoy them or respect them or trust them -- they want so much more than that - they want your love. And they go about obtaining this devotion in very sophisticated ways. Patriotism -- something that is very necessary for any nation-state to survive and something that as a people we are intrinsically wired to feel -- it is a biological drive -- this need to belong to something bigger - to a collective and to believe in its goals as one, this has necessarily evolved in us -- and they tap into that. Attacking FoxNews at this point is akin to attacking America.
This explains to me why there is such an extreme adverse reaction to a discussion about the failings of this media to adequately do what it says it is doing, which is to report the news and let the viewer decide what to believe. Addressing the fact that this is just a lie told to make the viewer feel better about allowing a corporation to cookie cut out their entire perception of the world -- it would be like wanting to discuss if Mary truly was a virgin. It is pointless because just by bringing it up -- you are coloring yourself as an Anti-American leftist who probably wants to move to France.
So I am back at the drawing board as far as attempting to find ways open up a discussion. There is a way - there is a solution to any and all problems and I really believe this. I just have to figure out what that is -- and why my credibility is less than that of Bill O'Reilly to people who have known me my entire life. Perhaps that is it - familiarity and all -- but they have to know by now that while I am easily swayed on many little things -- my opinion on the big stuff has been carefully considered and evalutated. I have lists. I used logic. They *taught* me to look at things critically and to avoid fallacies. Well - someone taught me to do these things.
And unlike Cappy, who is exercising her adolescent right to "stir up shit" like wishing people a happy "Solstice" within earshot of my uncle. I asked her later if she even knew what Solstice was and all she knew was that Pagans celebrated it and yes - she said that to get a rise out of a conservative family member. She has not learned to choose her battles and much like Michael Moore, she does me no favors.
So it is frustrating. But it is a frustration that is familiar. At least no one calls me a Commie to my face anymore.
As most of you know, I was raised on a small farm in rural Kentucky. I'd not make the distinction of "rural" since I already said "farm" but this is Kentucky and even in the cities, you can live on a farm. There are many many things that frustrate me about my homeland. The ability to provide a person *space* is not one of them.
Like most of my cohorts I was raised in a conservative household that attended church on a regular basis. The church was a fundamentalist nondenominational Christian Church that was similar to The Church of Christ except we could have musical instruments. Do not confuse our church with The Disciples of Christ who split from The Church of Christ 2 centuries ago over the issue of music as well. As I was told by several relatives when I confided that I enjoyed the Disciples of Christ services I attended while I was in Memphis, "You might as well not even go to church."
So I don't. If the percieved "liberalness" of a congregation means that it is unfit or I am some kind of heathen hell-bound lost soul for daring to think that love and kindness and tolerance are important religious philosophies and central Christian tenants, then I have no comeback for that. Well, actually I do - but no one wants to hear it. I could quote scripture with the best of them and much like paper can cover rock - if you want to get down to the nitty-gritty, then the red-inked parts of the new testament should trounce Paul. If by raising this issue - I am automatically condemned to hell - well then what is the point? My argument is lost right there. Thank you for playing and I'll just be over here, sleeping in on Sundays.
At this point I have just entered into a state of silence about the entire thing. I will believe what I believe and continue to speak out about those things - but if people just don't care to listen, then I'll shut up, because even if they can not afford me the same respect, I'd be a hypocrite to insist that they hear me. Instead I'll try to emphasize the points we do share in common and when the time comes to disagree, point out that they raised me. I get this from somewhere. The fact that I have *always* been like this gives me credibility. I didn't go away to college and come back home all enamored with new ideas and ways of thinking. I have been expressing the same opinions and beliefs since I was four. My mother was big on pairs. She had a brunette daughter and she had a blonde daughter. She had a daughter who was a jock and a daughter who was a bookworm. She had a liberal child and a conservative child. We were into extreme representation of arch and/or stereo- types, I think, down to the fact that I adored brussel sprouts and Dawn hated carrots.
I tell you all this now because confronting the issue of "Fox: News" with my family was exactly like confronting the issue of religion. I am not saying that it was a similar experience - I am telling you it was *exactly* the same. I think this is interesting and useful knowledge to have, because I listen to NPR and sometimes watch CNN. I am more attached ideologically to NPR, but this is more of a theoretical fondness. I like the idea of National Public Radio more than the actual product, if I have to be honest. If you were to tell me that there is a documentary I should watch that systematically addresses some defaults of holes in CNN or NPR; I would naturally want to know the sources and would watch it critically -- but I'd watch it and enter into a debate. It would not *upset* me as a challenge to my belief system.
Perhaps if you wanted me to watch a documentary that accuses Joss Whedon of both plagiarism and xenophobia -- that would ire me to the point of stomach ache. But my love for Joss is very very deep.
This is when it hit me -- for many people (and not just my family) Fox News is their primary fandom - but unlike fandom - this is something way deeper than play. They care about these pundits and "anchors" and this is something you have to know. These people are family members.
Fox is very very good at what it does and the faces it projects are systematically created to make America love them. Not enjoy them or respect them or trust them -- they want so much more than that - they want your love. And they go about obtaining this devotion in very sophisticated ways. Patriotism -- something that is very necessary for any nation-state to survive and something that as a people we are intrinsically wired to feel -- it is a biological drive -- this need to belong to something bigger - to a collective and to believe in its goals as one, this has necessarily evolved in us -- and they tap into that. Attacking FoxNews at this point is akin to attacking America.
This explains to me why there is such an extreme adverse reaction to a discussion about the failings of this media to adequately do what it says it is doing, which is to report the news and let the viewer decide what to believe. Addressing the fact that this is just a lie told to make the viewer feel better about allowing a corporation to cookie cut out their entire perception of the world -- it would be like wanting to discuss if Mary truly was a virgin. It is pointless because just by bringing it up -- you are coloring yourself as an Anti-American leftist who probably wants to move to France.
So I am back at the drawing board as far as attempting to find ways open up a discussion. There is a way - there is a solution to any and all problems and I really believe this. I just have to figure out what that is -- and why my credibility is less than that of Bill O'Reilly to people who have known me my entire life. Perhaps that is it - familiarity and all -- but they have to know by now that while I am easily swayed on many little things -- my opinion on the big stuff has been carefully considered and evalutated. I have lists. I used logic. They *taught* me to look at things critically and to avoid fallacies. Well - someone taught me to do these things.
And unlike Cappy, who is exercising her adolescent right to "stir up shit" like wishing people a happy "Solstice" within earshot of my uncle. I asked her later if she even knew what Solstice was and all she knew was that Pagans celebrated it and yes - she said that to get a rise out of a conservative family member. She has not learned to choose her battles and much like Michael Moore, she does me no favors.
So it is frustrating. But it is a frustration that is familiar. At least no one calls me a Commie to my face anymore.
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no subject
Date: 2004-12-27 09:40 pm (UTC)It is set in a sunny schoolroom. The kids are about 2-3rd grade and all of a sudden a very pretty and young dark haired woman enters the room and says she is replacing their teacher. Their teacher had to go on a long trip. She does some subtle things like stops the kids from reciting the pledge of allegiance because it is not fun and then they all talk about how pretty the flag is and since it is so pretty then they should all come up and cut a piece off of it so they can each carry a bit of the pretty material around.
Then several men enter the classroom and whisper with the pretty teacher for a while. She turns back to the class and tells them that she has wonderful news - all of their parents have just given the school permission to take the kids on a wonderful field trip! They are going to travel overnight to a camp and it will just be the kids and they will have so much fun!
We were shown this film so that in the event of a communist invasion we would recognize the signs. After the movie shows there is a bit where the narrator comes in and goes over all of the little insidious things the teacher did to start the children on the path of becoming brainwashed.
My 6 year old brain took this to mean that all nice substitute teachers were communists and not to be trusted.
no subject
Date: 2004-12-27 11:06 pm (UTC)I remember watching that movie and thinking it was rather similar to what my parents/teachers already did - not about political topics - just in general.