In a recent study, authored by Bruce Bartlett, a domestic policy advisor to Ronald Reagan and Treasury Department employee under George H. W. Bush, viewers of Fox News tended to be less informed about current events than people who watch mainstream news – – and even people who watch no news at all.
In other news, Captain Obvious, spokesman for Hotels.com, reported that when it rains, you tend to get wet.
“Republican voters get so much of their news from Fox, which cheerleads whatever their candidates are doing or saying, that they suffer from wishful thinking and fail to see that they may not be doing as well as they imagine, or that their ideas are not connecting outside the narrow party base,” Bartlett said.
“It appears that right-wing bias, including inaccurate reporting, became commonplace at Fox.” Bartlett observed.
The situation has gotten so bad, said Bartlett, “many conservatives now refuse to even listen to any news or opinion not vetted through Fox, and to believe whatever appears on it as the gospel truth.”
The really bad news (or good, depending you your perspective) for Fox News is that the average age of their viewers is 68. In Frank Rich’s New York Magazine article, ‘Stop Beating a Dead Fox’ he calls Fox News a politically conservative ‘retirement community’ that’s losing young viewers at a faster rate than it’s competitors.
What is particularly hard to understand about Fox News is how it can continue to call itself “news.” Owner Rupert Murdoch has acknowledged that his Fox News Channel is part of his company’s entertainment division. I imagine that is how the network is able to get away with being the propaganda wing of the Republican Party.
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