Over the first 90 days of 2007, Fox devoted 15% of its daytime "newshole" to Iraq and 10% to Anna Nicole Smith compared to CNN’s 25 and 4% and MSNBC’s 31 and 6%. To the firing of the U.S. Attorneys, a hot story in March, Fox gave 2% of its air time, CNN 4%, and MSNBC 8%, four times the Fox total. On talk radio the PEJ report found that while "conservative hosts" gave 3% of their air-time to the firings, "liberal hosts" gave 7% of theirs to "Gonzogate." (To be sure, as a study by the Center for American Progress recently documented, 9 out of 10 talk shows are conservative.) Thus, whether on Fox or on Rush & Co., the quantity of bad news about Bush is restricted and, when acknowledged, spun in a pro-Bush way.
The Fox glow is something new in the American media world, comparable to a party-run medium like Pravda. Right to the end, Pravda and its ilk kept faith alive in the Communist party regime, feeding lies to the hungry believers, readers may recall a massive survey out of the University of Maryland revealing that viewers fed mainly on Fox News were far likelier than CNN or CBS viewers to believe myths about the Iraq War—for example, that the still-missing weapons of mass destruction had been found and that Saddam was behind 9/11. That myth has persevered: 40 percent of Americans still believe it, which testifies to the pernicious power of the "news" carried by Fox and other party organs. Like Pravda for Communists, Fox News performs cognitive therapy for conservatives, sustaining a presidency that, now more than ever, is "faith-based."
No comments:
Post a Comment