Mental Gymnastics With a Fox News Viewer

Hello again and welcome back.

Change of plans. Today, (instead of Wednesday) we tackle my 4 hour discussion with a Fox News Viewer. I felt bad only posting the interview yesterday. And, then giving you a short post on robotics today. I figured it would be best to go from yesterday’s short post, to a heavy one, back to a short one tomorrow. Anyway, let’s look at my discussion. I can tell you this is an exercise that tests the limits of patience, self-discipline, self-control, and sanity. Since this discussion happened while I was at Occupy Syracuse, I did not want to flip out on the guy. A reaction like that is against the whole spirit of these occupations. That being said, my patience paid off. I tore up each one of his points and hopefully he left reconsidering everything that was pumped into his head. There’s a saying in liberal circles, that the facts have a liberal bias. Hopefully I helped just one person on this evening. Here are the details:

First off, in case this blog reaches you as someone unaware of just how bent Fox News is, it’s been studied by many outlets. If interested, you can take a look at Media Matters for America. MMFA is dedicated to fact checking media outlets. Film director, Robert Greenwald, had a documentary that went into what happens at Fox News. It’s called “Outfoxed” if you ever want to read up on the documentary. If interested, you can also watch “Outfoxed” yourself, here, free. It’s about 80 minutes, but save the link. It’s definitely worth it. It uses empirical data to show that Fox News viewers are less informed about large issues. There are interviews with past employees, that talk about how things worked behind the scenes. The most inflammatory point in the documentary, I found, was that George Bush’s 1st cousin worked for Fox during the 2000 election. And, you guessed correctly, if you said Fox was the first network to call the election for Bush. This caused the other major networks to call it for Bush as well, causing massive confusion, the perception he actually won once the recount got underway, etc. The rest is history and 8 years misery for the U.S. My point is, this isn’t something I made up. And, it isn’t just Fox. Other media companies are bad, but Fox is the worst offender. Onto the discussion.

I mentioned in an earlier post, that I think you can tell what network a person watches, by their answers to certain questions. This was no different. This gentleman told me his thoughts on gay marriage, unions, regulations and I immediately knew his point of view. The thing with talking to a Fox viewer, is that it’s like arguing in an alternate universe. You’re arguing against someone who has an inflated value of some minor information he/she knows. Or, you’re  forced to argue Fox lies against actual facts. I wish I was exaggerating.

Exhibit A: Solyndra

My debate opponent seemed to really have a problem with a loan to a solar panel company called Solyndra. Now, if you have a life, you will never have heard of Solyndra. So, don’t feel bad. Solyndra was a company that got a loan from an Obama administration program designed promote green energy ideas. I admit, the loan looked a bit shaky because it was pushed through very quickly. The head of Solyndra also was a big Obama donor. So, something didn’t smell right here. But, the amount of the loan was 500 million dollars. Of course, it’s a whopping, unfathomable amount of money for regular folks. What if I told you this green energy loan program had a 10 billion dollar budget? This 500 million is not even 1% of the program it exists within. The Afghan war costs 300 million dollars per day. And, the cost of the Bush (then extended by Obama) tax cuts in 2010 costs just under 350 billion dollars. When trying to find answers to the country’s big problems, should we be focusing on a 500 Million dollar loan or 2 policies that cost around 450 Billion per year? We spent about 40 minutes on Solyndra. I could not get him off this topic. I don’t know how many times I said to, “stop worrying about the pennies and nickels. (in the US budget)” Like I said earlier, it does your head in.

But, that is what happens when talking with a Fox viewer. The thing is, it’s not their fault. Let me introduce to you, one of the first ever charts to hit “Amorphous Thoughts.” This one shows the mainstream media focus on the Solyndra story. Fox spent over 8 hours on this story, MSNBC a little less than one hour, and CNN almost 2 hours. You see it that much, you figure it has to be a big deal.

Exhibit B: Unions

Most Fox viewers will hate unions as well. When you call them on it, they don’t seem to know why. My debate opponent and I are in the same tax bracket, so you would think we would feel the same on this stuff. I tried to explain to him all the things we have thanks to the union movement. Here are 36 of them. They include communist plots such as the weekend, 40 hr work week, sick leave, paid vacations and other things I’m sure you all hate. On top of the 36 items listed, they commanded/ created a true living wage. Even if you’re not in the same industry, businesses had to match those salaries to attract employees. It helps us all eventually. Hopefully, he left our discussion thinking differently on this. He had crazy, intricate ideas that I can’t explain without this post getting to the 3,000 word mark.

Exhibit C: Trust

In the midst of our discussion, I noticed another thing. There was one point he was dead wrong on. I immediately stop him in his tracks, pull out my phone, show him articles proving I was right. Instead of saying that he made a mistake, he looked at every website where the article appeared. He claimed some were “liberal” news outlets. We got to the (no exaggeration) 12th site that referenced it before he accepted my point. Fox has done an amazing thing. They’ve created this alternate universe where a 500 million dollar loan is the worse thing that could ever happen. The cost of war, tax cuts, and government corruption is an after thought. On top of that, in this constructed world, you can only trust Fox News. Everything else has a liberal slant. And, for the record, the point we were discussing was a point-blank, yes-no, “was it or wasn’t it?” fact. There was no opinion to have in this case, and he still needed 12 sites to believe me. Can you imagine what it takes to break through with someone like this on complicated, detailed laws/policies?

Exhibit D: Regulations

Fox viewers seem to have a real tough time with any regulations on businesses. They have a real desire to kill the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Somewhere along the line, they’ve connected rules for businesses with burdensome costs and eventually fewer jobs. But, a recent study by the Economic Policy Institute shows that the EPA is actually a modest job creator and a big money saver. Think about it, if businesses have to comply with stronger environmental rules, they will make more investments in cleaner technologies. The investment can spur new discoveries and efficiencies and yield healthier workers. Conversely, if you let the regulations go, you have dirtier air, dirtier water, and eventually sicker people. In fact, President Obama recently backed down on tougher smog standards that would have prevented 12,000 deaths, 58,000 asthma attacks, and 21,000 hospital visits.

What is the cost of 12,000 lives and countless others getting sick? I’m not certain. I just know it doesn’t matter in a Fox viewer’s world. But, its consistent meme from them. Rules = fewer jobs.
We’ll leave it there for today, I’m approaching 1,400 words here. It could have been so much longer. I didn’t expand on some of his other thoughts on unions, taxes, voting, social security going broke (it isn’t, that’s a separate post), health care or gay marriage. Trust me, his ideas on those were off the deep end as well. This could have a been a 3 part series. And, again, if you you’re curious yourself or think I’m embellishing, please check out Robert Greenwald’s documentary “Outfoxed”, or the Media Matters website. They systematically break down what goes on over there.
 
And to finish up, more proof that I'm not the only one who onto Fox. Here is Geraldo Rivera getting shouted down by the folks at Occupy Wall Street.

See you next time,

James