TDPS: IS Fox News Making People Stupid?! Short Answer: Yes. Long answer: Yes

Run time: 10:45 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TddyTINk1wQ   Posted on YouTube: December 21, 2010 By YouTube Member: MidweekPolitics Views on YouTube: 382   Posted on DU: December 22, 2010 By DU Member: celtics23 Views on DU: 676

 
From: www.davidpakman.com | Subscription: www.davidpakman.com/membership | YouTube: www.youtube.com/midweekpolitics

David: All right, so it seems every week it's something new with Fox News. We talked last week about the leaked email where Fox News was using Republican health care talking points as matter-of-fact reporting on their hard news, we talked on Thursday about Glenn Beck's show using scare tactic infomercials for his sponsors without even disclosing that they're sponsors. Now, I got an interesting email from Alex Wickersham, who does our transcripts and captions for the show. He actually mentioned that the food storage thing, not only is it one of Glenn Beck's sponsors, it's a Mormon thing, too. Mormons say that you should have a year's worth of food storage, and this is not the first time that one of Glenn Beck's on-air, what would we call them, bizarre things, ties back to Mormonism. I didn't know that.

Louis: Neither did I.

David: But it makes sense. Hey, I looked it up, and it was certainly there. The latest thing is Fox News ordered... a Fox boss ordered staff to cast doubt on climate science. Here's a quote: "Refrain from asserting that the planet has warmed or cooled in any given period without immediately pointing out that such theories are based on data that critics have called into question." We could do another rant like last week on the health care talking points, but I won't, because it would be the same rant, and we actually have a study to look at that is really going to shed some light on something, let's be honest, Louis, most people who listen to this show probably already knew.

We have an empirical study that shows the more one watches Fox News, the more likely they are to believe things that are flat-out false. Surprised, Louis?

Louis: No.

David: First thing I thought when I read this was yeah, obviously. The more Fox News you watch... but then I thought wait a second, I watch a lot of Fox News. Now, I do watch it to know what's going on, as a critique, I'm watching it with a critical eye, it might still be having an effect on me, though. What do you think? I haven't heard myself parroting Fox News talking points, but I don't think anybody's immune to it, are they?

Louis: Hard to say. I don't know. I think you're getting into something that may be impossible to determine.

David: Let me know if you hear me repeating any Fox News talking points without knowing it.

Louis: Oh, I'll definitely let you know.

David: This is World Public Opinion, it's a project managed by the University of Maryland, and the fact that it's the University of Maryland is going to become a factor at the end of this story. It's incredible. They did a survey of American voters, OK, voters, that show Fox News viewers are significantly more likely to have completely wrong ideas about reality, they're just flat-out wrong. And it also actually shows that the more you watch Fox News, the less informed that you are, right?

Now, to say the more you watch the less you know, it's technically true, but it's worse than that, Louis. That doesn't even get the scope of it, because these people don't know that they don't know, right? The more you watch, the more you think you know that is actually wrong, so it's actually a lot more ominous than just saying the more you watch, the less you know.

Louis: Could be, yeah.

David: Do you think Fox... we'll get to the study in a second, I have all the numbers here. Could Fox News be legally pursued for doing harm to the general public because they're not disclosing that a lot of what they're saying is not actually news, it's not actually based in fact?

Louis: But are they... I mean, legally, could they get in trouble for that? I mean, look at the quote here from the boss that ordered their staff to cast doubt on climate science.

David: Right.

Louis: He's not telling them to deny that there's climate change.

David: Not in this particular case, you're right.

Louis: I mean, I think they're very careful about what they do, how they say things...

David: They're not that careful.

Louis: As careful as you can be.

David: As we saw from the health care incident, "government-run", they're not that careful. The previous study, there's a study we talked about in the early years of the show from PIPA that basically said the same thing. It really focused on the Iraq war, and the more people watched Fox News, the more likely they were to believe things that were flat-out wrong, like for example, we found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. If you watched Fox News a lot, you were more likely to believe that.

This new study is similar. Here's a bunch of different questions they asked. On eight of the nine questions, which I'll read to you, Fox News places first, not a coincidence, not a couple questions. They place first by a lot in terms of viewers who are misinformed on that issue. The only question that they placed second on was on TARP. There was actually one other news network that had people even less informed on TARP than Fox News. That's a pretty damn high batting average for journalistic fraud, is it not, Louis?

Louis: Should we go through this list?

David: Yeah. Here's the list of things people-- things Fox viewers believe that just aren't so. 91% believe that the stimulus legislation lost jobs. Wrong. 72% believe the health care reform law will increase the deficit. Just wrong. $130-something billion, it'll reduce the deficit. 72% believe the economy is getting worse. On every issue, from stock market to consumer confidence to jobs, the economy is getting better. Just a fact. It's not an opinion, it's not we report, you decide, it's just fact. And 72% of Fox News viewers are getting it wrong.

What's another one? Half believe income taxes have gone up under Obama. Are you kidding me? Half believe income taxes have gone up under Barack Obama? How could you possibly believe that? Didn't Fox News just spend months making a big deal out of are they going to let the Bush tax cuts expire or not? Are taxes going to roll back to where they were or not? And half believed taxes have gone up under Barack Obama? I can't even look at... this is just incredible, Louis. I just, I'm not even going to read the rest of them. What can I say? Imagine what the rest... you know what the rest of them are, Louis.

Louis: I do, I'm looking right at them.

David: It's complete fraud. The saving grace, the only thing I can think of is that Fox News's audience makes up a tiny percentage of the entire population of the country.

Louis: Right.

David: That's the only thing I can think of. However, it spreads, right? I mean, not only people who watch Fox News will believe these things. This also tells us... some of the others are good, I shouldn't have ripped that paper up. Actually, I should've kept it, because there's a couple other good ones. Let me just read one more off my screen. 63% believe Obama was not born in the U.S. or that it's unclear. That'll tell you something about what's going on over there.

Fox viewers are people who want to hear stories that are slanted this way. It confirms their worldview, it gives them validation. The other networks, I hate to say it, not as bad, but in some ways, are following the lead. It's easier, it's cheaper, it's safer than doing real news that educates viewers. Louis, you know what I was thinking about, imagine if all news networks actually did report what was happening in the country in a sober and accurate way.

Louis: The cold, hard facts.

David: That's right. If people actually knew what was happening, if we were getting Wikileaks-level sober, bottom-line information all the time, there would be riots daily, would there not? I mean, imagine if we were actually getting responsible reporting as a whole from the mainstream media. Just imagine. I mean, I think regardless of what most people say, they don't really want to know how bad things are.

Louis: You're right.

David: And news stations really don't want to be the first ones that have their stations burned down by angry mobs.

Louis: Ignorance is bliss.

David: This does beg a question, though. Does Fox News create uninformed people, or the obvious, do uninformed people gravitate to Fox? What do you think?

Louis: I think it's both.

David: You think... I think it's a combination.

Louis: Yeah.

David: Yeah. I mean, I'd like to see a controlled study where they let one group of people self-select what cable news they watch, they have another group that's randomly assigned. Then we can see are stupid people choosing Fox News and being made dumber, or can Fox News actually take completely normal, competent people, Louis, and turn them into uninformed people? We need a scientific study on this. We need people in labs. This is so extreme what's going on, Louis, we need people in labs, we need doctors with lab coats and stethoscopes, analyzing how Fox News affects people's brains. That's what we need, that's the point we're at.

And it's clear from the leaked emails that Fox News is purposely misinforming people, they're doing it as a business decision in great part, because when all other media is reporting basic facts accurately... Not all.

Louis: Not all. Not all.

David: I'm not saying every story reported, but you know what I'm saying. A great way to stand apart is just report stuff that's false or frame it in a misleading way. It's brilliant. Differentiate yourself...

Louis: That's what they're doing it. They're framing it in a misleading way using language carefully, using numbers and statistics very carefully.

David: Differentiate yourself by making your news deceptive. It's great for ratings. People will say hey, everything's the same except for Fox, that must be the real news. Even though it's not all the same, just I'm being facetious here.

And not that the results of this study haven't been corroborated everywhere, but Fox News is criticizing this study, you're gonna love this, by pointing out that the University of Maryland, which did the study, it has a reputation for being a party school. So the study must not be valid. This is, part and parcel, an example of how Fox News will distort, right? It's a scientific study done by a professor with a great reputation at the University of Maryland, it couldn't possibly be valid, Louis, because the students of the school voted and made it get listed on a list of party schools, on a list nobody cares about. But people are falling for it. Two people parroted that talking point. You believe that? The University of Maryland's a top party school. What on Earth does that have to do with the program on international policy and attitudes? I mean, come on!

Louis: And you know what, UMass is a party school. Didn't you go to UMass?

David: Yeah, that's right. Undergrad only. I mean, what has happened to critical thinking here? It's a party school, so the study must not be accurate. I mean, come on, ladies and gentlemen, is this really where we're at?

Louis: Like we just talked about, Fox News does not cater to critical thinking.

David: That's right. I think that that's made abundantly clear, and it's not me saying it, ladies and gentlemen. The paper I ripped up and that now is six feet from my desk proves it. It proves it.



Transcript provided by Alex Wickersham. For transcription, translation, captions, and subtitles, contact Alex at directtranslation@gmail.com.

BAck then, he asserted proof Fox News viewers were more ignorant on political matters than the rest of the nation.

WTF is up with that? It goes beyond false advertising. It is in a category by itself now. Why the HELL can't we at least get them to drop the "News" part? If they even had a shred of honesty, they'd voluntarily call themselves the FOX 24x7 GOP Commercial Channel. It wouldn't reduce their viewership.