Democrats Need To Reintroduce Themselves To Rural America

I reposted a video on Facebook that looks back at the political events of the past week and demonstrates how FOX News distorts, deflects and denies stories critical of Trump and his administration. Regular viewers of FOX News are told over and over again the mainstream media is fake news, journalists are treating Trump unfairly, stories damning to the president have no basis in fact, etc., etc., etc. If your main source of news is FOX, you’re living in a bubble of right-wing fantasies and delusions.

Yet FOX News isn’t the only culprit in the conservative echo chamber. Another factor that on the one hand seems self-evident, yet is vitally important to the future chances of Democratic candidates, is what I call the closed political loop of small-town America.

During my life I have lived in several small rural towns. I found many of the clichés about small town living to be true. Neighbors help neighbors, doors don’t have to be locked at night and there is a real sense of community pride you won’t find in larger cities. In some ways, small towns are like extended families, with all of the good, bad and ugly aspects you would expect. And like many families, political views are generally shared and reinforced within the clan. To no one’s surprise, most rural folks are staunch conservatives, and so are their friends and family. When the men meet at the diner on main street for coffee, they aren’t quoting Marx or praising Elizabeth Warren, they’re parroting FOX News talking points.

I believe this is an important issue for Democratic candidates in all states, but especially red states. The good folks living in small town Arkansas or Georgia or Idaho do not seek out and rarely receive news or opinions contrary to their fixed worldview.  When it does happen on occasion, it is dismissed out of hand. That’s why I believe it is necessary for Democratic candidates to go to the rural towns in their states and meet with people face to face. Democrats have written off rural America for far too long, and the result is a huge swath of the country drowning in a red sea.

Democratic candidates shouldn’t expect a warm welcome in rural areas, but it is absolutely necessary, especially in this era of Mad King Trump, to reintroduce traditional Democratic ideas back into middle America. It is the only hope we have of ever turning red states blue again.

A Divided Country Under Incompetent Leadership

It truly baffles me that there are millions of Americans who seem to live in an alternative information universe. They voted for Trump, somehow convinced beyond all human understanding he would make a good president. If you read their comments on Facebook and other sites, they believe Obama was a horrible president who did nothing for eight years. They believe the lies of Trump’s surrogates without requiring any facts or verification.

Of course, racism, misogyny, ignorance, etc., all play a part in this, but I am still stunned that people who live in my country, live in my city and neighborhood, can be convinced that Santa and the Easter Bunny are real and the earth is only six thousand years old.

How is it that as a country, we voted for Obama twice, and then turned around and handed the presidency to an imbecile like Trump? Can a country be schizophrenic? There certainly is no national consensus on what the “common good” is or how to interpret the Constitution, so how can we possibly mover forward with any kind of national agenda? Millions of Americans can’t even agree on the most basic facts and because of that, Donald Trump sits in the White House.

A big part of the blame has to go to the growth of the conservative media over the last 35 years. FOX News, conservative radio loudmouths like Limbaugh and Imus, and online whack jobs Brietbart, Alex Jones and Matt Drudge, among many others, provide safe places for bigots and religious fanatics, confirming their worst fears and stoking their anger. And the mainstream media must also share blame for failing to challenge the status quo in its thirst for profits and audience share.

How is it possible to change minds when the two sides cannot agree on what is a fact and what isn’t? Our divisiveness is destroying this nation, just as it almost did when Abraham Lincoln was president. Unfortunately for all of us, we don’t have a Lincoln at the helm of state, but a self-centered, mentally ill man/child. The odds of unification in this day and age are not good.

The Dangerous Consequences of Designer News

For all of the amazing, wonderful things the Internet brings us and allows us to accomplish, the election of Donald Trump lays bare a darker side of the digital world. I’m not talking about the Deep Web (although that is pretty dark), but the proliferation of what I call “designer news” outlets and the influential role they play in today’s political arena.

In the wake of Trump’s election victory, you can find numerous interviews with his supporters on Facebook and other sources. To no one’s surprise, they are cringe worthy revelations of just how poorly informed Trump voters are, but further, how lost they are in a parallel universe of false facts. How did they get so bamboozled and befuddled? Designer news.

As the Internet has grown, so has the number of so-called news outlets. You would think that having more news sources would be a good thing, but that really isn’t the case because I’m not talking about “objective” news programs, but designer news tailored to a viewers preconceived ideas of reality. To be fair, the “news” on the Internet runs the ideological gamut from socialism to fascism and every “ism” in between. However, one group has had a particularly powerful influence on the political landscape in American — the far right.

Trump’s surprise triumph in November brought to light just how pernicious and persuasive the conservative megaphone has become over the years. From Glenn Beck’s “The Blaze” to Breitbart to the Drudge Report to FOX News, conservative voters have myriad sources for their daily news intake beyond the corporate media, and myriad opportunities to have their bigotry normalized and their worst fears justified.

Fake news is a hot topic right now, but for millions of Internet news consumers, there is no agreement on what is fake and what is actual news. Again, watch interviews with Trump supporters and you’ll discover that real news for them is whatever they read on a conservative site. Hillary Clinton is a cold-blooded murderer. Millions of illegal immigrants voted in the last election. Obama is a secret Muslim. This is the kind of “news” conservative sites offer, and loyal viewers accept as true, and that helped convince angry hordes of white voters to believe Donald Trump was their savior.

There is no easy answer to this problem. The Internet should remain a free and open source of opinions of all kinds, and I’m certainly not in favor of censorship, but when you have a sizable population under the thrall of liars and misinformers, the problem needs to be addressed. Yet it all comes back to one’s perception of reality. What will it take to change a person’s concept of reality when objective facts aren’t enough?

BREAKING: Racist Right Wing Media Denies Americans are Racist

The Right Wing media’s reaction to the murder of nine black churchgoers in Charleston, SC by an avowed white racist has been horrifying, embarrassing and predictable.  They have spun out and discussed every possible excuse for Dylann Roofs’ killing spree, from drugs to mental illness to an anti-Christian bias, except the correct one; Roof is a virulent racist intent on starting a race war pitting whites against blacks. Whether Roof even understands the Christian Identity roots of his beliefs, they were watered and nurtured by the insidious, coded racism of the mainstream conservative media, from FOX News to Limbaugh to the Drudge Report.

America’s favorite crazy uncle, Bill O’Reilly, went on a tirade recently claiming anyone who thinks we are a racist country is anti-American, and that the actions of Roof do not reflect the feelings of the vast majority of whites. As a Salon writer points out, that same argument doesn’t seem to hold much water when the perpetrator is Muslim or a minority.

The attempt by conservatives to whitewash institutional racism in America is disingenuous at best, as day in and day out they continuously use broad brush strokes to characterize immigrants, Muslims, African Americans, etc. as all members of the same herd with the ultimate goal of destroying traditional (white) America. This theme is incessant and no one who understands the code words and inferences believes it is anything other than thinly cloaked racism. That’s why the term “bully” is so appropriate for people like O’Reilly and Limbaugh, because like their schoolyard counterparts, they tease, harass and verbally insult their victims on a daily basis, yet when the person being persecuted finally turns around and punches them in the nose, they whine and cry that “I didn’t do nothin’.”

Institutional racism continues to exist in America, and there are libraries of research and data to confirm this. That the Right Wing media is working so hard to deny this makes them look even more out of touch with reality than ever.  Dylann Roof is no Lone Wolf, but the product of a conservative media machine that feeds its consumers a steady diet of hate and anger and victimization that is bound to be acted on by one of the tribe. And, if nothing changes, there is no reason to believe it won’t happen again.

New poll says FOX News is the most trusted news coverage in America

As if we needed any further evidence that the end times for America are nigh, results of a poll conducted by Quinnipiac University found that FOX News provides the most trusted news coverage among cable and broadcast news programs.

If you’re like me, you just spit coffee all over your laptop. Only slightly reassuring is the fact that the results run along partisan lines, with 58% of Republicans and 25% of Independents voting for FOX, while Democrats heavily favored CNN and only 3% voted for FOX News.

Still, this is messed up. How are there so many people willing to admit they trust FOX News? FOX News isn’t even news! It’s the right-wing propaganda channel. Its viewers are consistently at rock bottom on the scale of best-informed audiences for news shows. There are libraries filled with the lies, half-truths and distortions that FOX News barfs out on a daily basis. Why in the name of all that is holy would anyone rely on FOX for their news?

Maybe this is an Onion piece that slipped through the cracks. I don’t know anyone who would watch FOX News for anything other than a good laugh. John Stewart just finished up a 14-year career exposing the lies of FOX News night after night after night.

Excuse me while I curl up into a tight ball and cry myself to sleep.

Bill O’Reilly: A profile in courage

Some are saying that Bill O’Reilly lied about his past, claiming he was in life-threatening war-time situations as a journalist when he wasn’t. I find this hard to swallow. How can a man who maintains such sterling moral standards, who is an example to everyone of sincere compassion and tolerance, who epitomizes the humble humanitarian, be a liar? This makes no sense.

The Bill O’Reilly I know is a man of unquestionable honor and decency, one of the good guys on cable TV. He’s known throughout the industry as an interviewer who treats his guests with the utmost respect, allowing for a free and open discussion of all viewpoints, even those with which he disagrees. And his fact checking is vigorous and goes far beyond industry standards. It’s a rare day at FOX when O’Reilly gets something wrong.

And when O’Reilly champions an issue, you know it is one of great importance to the country he loves with all his heart. Unlike others who will remain nameless, this humble host would never dredge up controversy where there was none before, or blow up minor issues into worldwide battles pitting good against evil. That’s just not who he is.

Now under attack from liberal extremists, O’Reilly is handling the controversy in his usual steady handed way, keeping calm and under control, while his enemies hurl their lies and insults. Stoic, standing tall and proud against the tide of accusations, Bill O’Reilly is without question a profile in courage.

Why Conservatives choose to attack the messenger so often

There’s a good article in today’s Salon analyzing why conservative pundits so often turn to attacking individuals as opposed to attacking their ideas. The short answer is that conservatives resort to ad hominem attacks because their arguments against issues like climate change, feminism, gun control and many others are so obviously weak they have no other choice but to try and redirect attention by crucifying the messenger. 

The author goes into detail about why this approach is on the one hand illogical and offensive, yet on the other hand has proven effective, especially in areas where the average person has little real knowledge, like climate change.

Anyone who has seen clips of FOX anchors in action has been exposed to this nauseating tactic. Bill O’Reilly is a black belt in personal attacks. But I recently saw a video where attacking the messenger was ratcheted up to new levels of absurdity.

A documentary filmmaker brought his camera to a street fair sponsored by the Church of Scientology. Security guards prevented him from entering, even though the event was open to the public. Soon, however, three “civilians,” obviously members of the Church, approached the man and began verbally harassing him. Their tactic was interesting. Instead of simply telling the man to get the hell out of there, they tried incessantly to turn the conversation from questions about Scientology to an indictment of the cameraman.

“I think you look like a pedophile,” said one thug.

“You have problems, Mike. Let us help you with your problems,” said another.

“This is all about you, Mike. Not us.”

This attack went on for probably fifteen minutes and the cameraman proved a worthy adversary, meeting the verbal assaults with specific questions about the Church, to which the thugs never responded. One of the desired goals of these kinds of attacks is to make the recipient so angry he loses control and looks like a shrill lunatic. The cameraman never fell victim to this ploy, and the thugs eventually figured out they weren’t going to get the results they wanted and left.

Attacking the messenger is always a loser’s tactic, yet it continues because it can, unfortunately, be effective.

Dear FOX News viewer

Dear FOX News viewer,

Honestly, I’m just trying to help.

Lost amid the ongoing Charlie Hebdo coverage is the release of yet another survey, this one conducted by World Public Opinion, a project managed by The Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland, that finds that regular FOX News viewers are more misinformed than consumers of other news sources. This is only the latest of a number of surveys in recent years that have found the “fair and balanced” news organization is anything but.

To put it plainly, you are being fed a daily dose of bull manure mistaking it for hot dogs and cheap beer. FOX News is conservative propaganda, not actual news. If you choose not to believe the surveys that confirm this, it’s your business, but please don’t try and convince the rest of us you know what you’re talking about, because you don’t.

FOX News isn’t telling you what you need to know to be an informed citizen, it is telling you what you want to hear. It gleefully stokes your anger, your fears and your bigotry so that you feel better about the noxious views you were raised with (and stay tuned in). I’m sorry that the real world doesn’t fit neatly into your personal version of reality. I know that it makes you very angry. I’ve read your fact-free diatribes and schoolyard insults in the comments section of many online articles.

Change is hard. I understand this, but it doesn’t help anyone, especially you, to continue living in a world that rejects science and is untethered from reality. There’s room for everyone under the umbrella of reason if you just make the effort by turning off FOX News, Limbaugh and Beck. Your brain, your heart and your fellow citizens will thank you.

Sincerely,

John

FOX News rewriting Bush era history

All written history is subjective to a point. As humans, we can’t help but bring our biases and prejudices to accounts of the past, even when it comes to what we choose to leave out. A problem arises, however, when you try to revise well-established historical evidence for purely ideological reasons. This was the work of Orwell’s Ministry of Truth in 1984, but there is a parallel organization operating right now with the same agenda as Orwell’s fictional government office, and it’s name is FOX News.

Examples of FOX News’ historical revisionism are too numerous to list, but the latest foray into turning the past on its head is a recent interview with former president George Bush. As if being broadcast from a television studio in the bowels of the Ministry of Truth, sycophant Brian Kilmeade praised Bush for his handling of the Iraq war and focused on a Bush comment that there would be problems if the military left Iraq too soon. Treating him as if he was a wise political sage instead of the man who opened the Pandora’s Box of death and destruction in the Middle East, Kilmeade and FOX News ignored reality altogether, never broaching the subject of WMDs or the missing billions of dollars or the devastated country he handed over to Obama in 2008.

It’s just one more example of why regular viewers of FOX News are the least well-informed consumers of television news.

News or Propaganda? Who Cares?

If you missed the story late last week, Breitbart.com editor at large Ben Shapiro broke a story indicating Defense Secretary nominee Chuck Hagel took money from a group called "Friends of Hamas.”  The “scoop” was picked up by FOX News and reported as fact. Unfortunately for everyone involved, there is no group called Friends of Hamas and the story was blown up from a joke made by someone to a GOP source. What’s interesting in the aftermath is that a) Shapiro and Breitbart.com reject the idea that they did anything wrong by publishing the story as an allegation, and b) FOX News had the sketchy editor Shapiro on a show acting as a knowledgeable Washington pundit.

What the Media Matters article fails to point out is that in the conservative media bubble, news and propaganda are the same thing. What we consider news; reasonably objective stories based on verifiable facts, is not what the conservatives consider news. For them, it’s only news if it embarrasses Obama, makes liberals look bad or makes America look good. Facts are not part of that equation. Studies have clearly shown that FOX News viewers are the least well-informed consumers of television news. So it should come as little surprise that Shapiro sees nothing wrong with his unfounded smear of Hagel.