Fox News viewers don't know.
Worse, they don't know that they don't know.
They think Democrats are picking on him over nothing.
This helps explain why people who consider themselves loyal U.S. citizens, who think they support the Constitution and American form of government, are perfectly OK with supporting Trump. How can they possibly do that, in the face of his multi-pronged effort to overthrow the government by artifice, pretext, and then violence? Answer: A great many Republicans get their news from Fox News and they know almost nothing about Trump's sedition plot.
The House January 6 Committee outlined the facts of the case against Trump, a case mostly built on the testimony of Republicans appointed by Trump. Yesterday the Committee made a formal criminal referral to the Department of Justice, based on that evidence. Six hours after the hearing I reviewed the Fox News website to see their take on the events of the day. I post the results at length. I need to post them at length because I needed to scroll down, and then down further, to find something about it.
The silence itself is a message with consequences. Fox News viewers get snippets of information from outside the silo that Democrats seem to care about something involving Trump and the election. They are inclined to draw the conclusion that Democrats are making a mountain out of a molehill.
Fox News reporting helps explain why Republican candidates make unforced errors in blue and purple areas. Their home base voters think people are picking on an innocent Trump. Candidates need to cater to that. Democrats, too, need to recognize that references to "democracy in peril" sound overblown to Republican voters. They think Trump simply wondered aloud if the election was correctly counted and that Mike Pence caved to Democratic pressure amid a peaceful protest. Republican voters in the silo aren't excusing or approving a flagrant effort to overthrow the government. They don't think that happened.
Observe:
Fox Website Page One:
Fox Website top stories continued
Webpage sidebar
Stories continued
Yet more stories.
17 comments:
Fox News viewers are less informed than people who watch no news. The latter is not selectively avoiding facts so they link into their awareness. Fox News is old people driven because young people get their news sources elsewhere. I wish Fox News would be forced into being fair and balanced since it is broadcast on public airwaves.
Millions of Americans support Trump because they can relate to his hateful brand of ignorant white nationalism. As far as they’re concerned, he was justified in trying to overthrow the government. They have no interest in the mountain of evidence against him, but the facts speak for themselves.
Making Trump president was a disaster for the Republican Party and for our Republic. Failing to hold him accountable for his sedition could set a precedent that would be even worse.
Looking over those headlines I'm reminded of my late uncle who continually ranted about how "They" should do this, or that...blah blah blah...nobody ever did anything right, especially the government. FOX caters to everyone's know-it-all uncle who rules the World from his La-Z-Boy. I'm surprised there isn't a headline about Jennifer Aniston's space alien love child.
Also nothing on the documents case, or any other of Trump's investigations, actually no coverage of anything Trump on way or the other. It seems that FOX has pivoted, for the moment, away from Trump and is concentrating on criticizing the Biden administration. I suppose we can gauge how important a story is by seeing if FOX doesn't cover it.
"Democracy in Peril", is absolutely right. A democratic society depends on an informed public and FOX undermines that fundamental principle.
All the more reason to indict everyone involved. That would be hard to ignore.
To quote the former guy: “I love the uneducated.”
Ageist hate speech
I almost never listen to Fox News. I heard all about what happened on January 6, 2021 at the Capitol. I watched it unfold in real time.
My main reaction was, and still is, outrage at the incompetence of a government that allowed a mob of morons and malcontents to invade the seat of government. Why were there so few police? Where was the National Guard? Why were the groups involved not infiltrated by the FBI?
If you could show me that the Trump administration was somehow responsible for purposely creating that lack of planning and effective response, I would be happy to advocate that everyone responsible for that lack be taken out and shot for treason.
But there has been no evidence of an organized conspiracy like that. Instead, what we have is vague allegations that Trump “encouraged“ the rioters. There was no “smoking gun“.
It would take a lot more than that to change the minds of Trump’s supporters. It would take much more than anything the January 6 Committee found.
I am not a Trump supporter, I am well-informed, and I was not convinced. Blaming Fox News’ choice of coverage for Trump’s continued support misses the point, in my opinion.
For the record:
In the critical minutes before rioters had breached the Capitol building around 2 p.m., the chief of the U.S. Capitol Police force and the mayor of Washington, D.C., put out urgent requests for guard backup. But it took more than an hour to get formal approval for their deployment, and then nearly three more hours for the first guard reinforcements to arrive.
The D.C. National Guard reports to the president.
The president takes the role of a governor in the District of Columbia. Only the president calls out the National Guard. The Jan 6 Committee revealed this point as part of the articulation of Trump’s intentional failure to protect the Capitol and to be sure the laws are faithfully enforced. Trump was implored to do so. He did not. This is part of the “neglect” case against him. Trump and Fox are trying to somehow say this was Nancy Pelosi’s job. It isn’t.
Peter Sage
From yesterday's Washington Examiner and its venerable correspondent, Byron York,interpreting the disquieting results of a new Harvard-Harris poll:
"How is it that so many people are ignorant of what is happening? Might the answer have something to do with the fact that so many news organizations have ignored the problem? Ignore the story and you'll have ignorant viewers."
Is York bemoaning Fox News viewers concerning the 1/6 Committee's toothless, symbolic criminal referrals, somehow including lurid reference to "insurrection" when not one single 1/6 rioter of the 800+ charged has been charged with insurrection?
No, he's referring to viewers of non-Fox news sources, who per the polling have no clue that 3 million or so migrants have crossed America's southern border illegally just this year, with that number now likely to increase exponentially because of Biden policy.
That's because the story has been ignored in the MSM because politically inconvenient for Democrats, until its sudden triumphal return this very week as a full-blown "crisis". Advocacy-driven news siloes for the goose are news siloes for the gander.
Fox News is what it is. Years ago, most legacy media sources concluded, "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em", and now comprise the other side of the same advocacy journalism coin. It's itself a silo that many Democrats still indulge conceits to the contrary.
FOX News, created after Watergate, has one purpose, divert attention from Republican malfeasance while tearing down Democrats. The Border is their visual distraction from the steaming pile of horse manure that was the Trump Presidency.
For those that are scratching their heads over the question of why Trump isn't now in an orange jumpsuit in Federal prison need only sit through one jury trial watching the prosecution present their case followed by a full-throated presentation by the defense attorney. Then and only then will the impaneled jury consider whether there was a crime proven. The 1/6 Committee simply gathered evidence for the prosecution. The DOJ has the evidence now and must determine if it constitutes evidence of a crime beyond a reasonable doubt they wish to take to trial. This now rests in the hands of Special Prosecutor Jack Smith.
Back to the subject at hand, if Republicans gave a rip about facts or the Constitution, we wouldn’t even be having this conversation because they would have accepted Trump’s election defeat whether he did nor not. Instead, they aided and abetted his coup attempt.
Trump rerun of attempted overthrow of USA government during late 1930's and early 1940s. Recommend anyone who hasn’t already done so Google Rachel Maddox ULTRA. Today's insurrectionists even took the older insurrectionists' name: “America First”.
I am disgusted that this near disaster was never even MENTIONED in any of my innumerable history classes, nor their requisite history textbooks. WTF???
Question: why doesn’t Justice Department file conspiracy charges against FAUX NEWS?
Worth mentioning in this connection is that the closest to genuine populist transformation America has ever seen, in my opinion anyway, was Trump’s all-around superior in unscrupulous demagoguery, Huey Long. Without the assassin’s bullet he very well could have defeated FDR in 1936, at the height of the Great Depression, and amid Hitler’s rise across the pond. WE dodged a bullet even if Long didn’t.
As a student of history and previously certified secondary history teacher, I can tell you that it is not possible to include every notable, significant and interesting event, person or fact in history textbooks.
Furthermore, everyone has a different opinion about what should be included. Individuals and groups debate and argue over these matters.
What students are taught in school is only a foundation of knowledge. It is the responsibility of parents and graduates to build on that foundation.
As to "well informed" not really. Evidence has revealed much incitement by the former guy. He predicted election fraud in 2020 as early as when he took.office, still claiming that 3,000 ,000 votes were stolen in 2016
Regarding the fact that not one of the 700-800 criminal trespassers yet have been charged with sedition., that is a tribute to a lenient or cowardly justice system that has undefined political or image reasons does not want to exact a full measure of justice on the incited, ignorant, ill-informed manipulated crowd. If the Courts were defined as seditious by the system there would be rows of gallows on the Capitol steps, refreshed frequently.
Better step up and read the report if you.missed the hearing evidence.
As for Fux News let's fall back on the old trope that it is illegal to shout fire in.a crowded theater. Would it not also.to.be criminal and immoral to be aware of a fire and fail to make others aware of it
Anon @ 5::01–
Since you premised your comment on the value of being well-informed, I find it necessary to inform you. Several 1/6 rioters were indeed charged and even convicted of sedition crimes; none, however, as already noted, have been charged with insurrection.
That crucial distinction, the latter barring federal office for Trump, the point of the exercise, along with your odd conception of the federal criminal justice system, and your rather bloodthirsty expectations, akin to those of the worst rioters, does speak to Information.
My reference to.gallows was of course hyperbole, of which you are familiar.
I apologize for an unfortunate failure to distinguish insurrection and sedition.
Indeed my chronic hope has been for his being held.accountabilefor his continuum of bad acts, conviction and actual punishment administered and ulti.ately inability to hold public office
As a former Air Force officer carrying a Top Secret Crypto privileged access to need to know I find his handling of and unknown distribution of the contents of empty Classified folders in and if itself treasonous and evidence of ignorance of his respobsibilities, incompetence intended accomplishment of his duties or malfeasance in the order of high crimes..
Post a Comment