For reporting that is an embarrassment to the profession
of journalism, and for being beholden to corporate paymasters rather than
the citizens of America.
BuzzFlash began the Media Putz of the Week Awards in June 2007. Then how
come FOX News, the king of corporate Media Putzes, hasn't won one yet?
Easy answer. None of our readers has nominated the propaganda network. So
BuzzFlash took action into its own hands and is giving FOX NEWS its due,
as we did with Roger
Ailes as the BuzzFlash GOP Hypocrite of the Week
on April 18.
FOX NEWS came to mind, again, when we thought about its likely influence,
along with Rush Limbaugh, on the likes of older and non-college educated
voters in West Virginia. It's because of the likes of FOX that such voters
have become known as the "misinformed."
Remember that the purpose of FOX NEWS is not to convey news, but to evoke
emotion and convey a frame, a worldview that compresses "the news" to
conform with preconceived goals. And these goals revolve around the maintenance
of the wealthy and corporate status quo through the Republican Party.
Since Nixon and McGovern, the Democratic Party has had a serious split between
affluent, well-educated liberals and the working class. The GOP -- and until
recently Hillary Clinton -- has exploited this chasm by referring to the
liberal wing of the party as "elitists."
That leaves college-educated and relatively affluent progressives in a conundrum:
we are enthusiastically for raising the living standards and employment possibilities
of the working class and protecting them from corporate predators, but then
they go and watch FOX NEWS and vote for Reagan and Bush, believe Obama is
a Muslim, and that the pandering no-chance-of-happening "gas tax holiday" is
a reason to vote for a candidate. It reminds us of Thomas Frank's "What's
the Matter with Kansas," where he envisions the displaced middle class
marching in mass to a wealthy Kansas City suburb gated-community demanding
that the wealthy get more tax breaks or the blue collar pitchfork rebellion
would go into full swing. In short, it appears that FOX has been a priceless
tool in diverting economic class resentment to emotionally based race, terrorist,
crime, and ineffectual economic promises that won't put a dent in the growing
economic class divide in America. They have succeeded in getting the exploited
working class into believing that tax cuts for the rich will somehow improve
their lot!
And don't forget the endless emotional appeal to using scapegoats as a means
of diverting working class attention from how they are being exploited: "terrorists," illegal
immigrants (Mexicans), peace activists (enemies of "true" Americans),
and blacks. Think of how much time FOX NEWS devotes to searing such emotional
scapegoating into the minds of the misinformed. The goal of FOX is to use
emotional stories and narratives -- most often fictional -- to get a large
group of Americans to avoid confronting the important news and public policy
issues facing this nation.
As we noted, FOX NEWS is not just the propaganda tool of the GOP; it is the
Prozac force-fed to the undereducated working class by the multinational
corporations and the top .1% of the tax bracket. And television is the chief
vehicle for "news" for the misinformed; FOX watchers believe, by
and large, the propaganda that they view repeated over and over again on
FOX.
It is hard for the college-educated political junkies to understand the extent
of the influence of corporate television "news" and the radio (Limbaugh)
as influencers on lower-educated voters. This is not a voting block that
seeks out nuance. And the college-educated, younger Obama type voters don't
appreciate the power of television in the lives of the economic class that
they so heartily champion.
What divides the now college-educated, wealthy, young, black Obama voters
and the older, high school educated Hillary voters isn't really values (no
one is actually intruding on the personal values of such voters); it's in
large part due to television misinformation (propaganda) conveyed to the
latter through outlets such as FOX NEWS.
For that reason, we honor FOX NEWS -- in the tradition of Goebbels, Atwater,
and Rove – as the BuzzFlash Media Putz of the Week.
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