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We Hate Ourselves [View all]
https://digbysblog.net/2024/04/21/the-right-wing-media-has-destroyed-our-confidence/We Hate Ourselves
Published by digby on April 21, 2024
Kevin Drum noted something very interesting in a recent Economist article about Americans’ lack of trust in institutions. As he says, we are all aware of this but draws our attention to this:
Kevin draws the correct inference in my opinion:
Collapse of trust in government is a purely American phenomenon. Why? Because we have Fox News and the others don’t. Oh, they have tabloids and conservative newspapers and so forth, but nothing like Fox News, which makes its living by spreading outrage over the way the country is run.
The power of Fox News is truly spectacular. Outrage sells, and the fact that one of the two major parties amplifies Fox uncritically means it has a surprisingly large influence in setting the agenda for the mainstream media too.
snip//
Has there ever been an institution like Fox News that works so relentlessly from within to destroy faith in a country by its citizens? It’s a real-life version of what conservatives thought the Communist Party was in the ’50s. And we all just let it happen.
The power of Fox News is truly spectacular. Outrage sells, and the fact that one of the two major parties amplifies Fox uncritically means it has a surprisingly large influence in setting the agenda for the mainstream media too.
snip//
Has there ever been an institution like Fox News that works so relentlessly from within to destroy faith in a country by its citizens? It’s a real-life version of what conservatives thought the Communist Party was in the ’50s. And we all just let it happen.
That timeline says it all. Yes, the left has had mistrust in certain government institutions since the 1960s but it didn’t completely decimate the public faith in all of them across the board. Some of us, including Kevin, tried to warn the country that something toxic was happening in our culture thanks to the right wing media ecosystem for a quarter century. But the political leaders it benefits and the mainstream media didn’t want to admit so Americans didn’t adequately see the threat.
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