Fox News poisons America
The fans of Donald Trump are loyal beyond reason. As Trump himself said: “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters.” And now, he’s standing at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, shooting wildly and carelessly, and still hasn’t lost his supporters.
Some supporters are life-long Republicans who will stick with their party at any cost. Some angrily blame an inept and corrupt Congress or liberal elites for cheating the middle class and so they have picked an “outsider” for the presidency. Others simply hate Hillary Clinton.
Most of these people have one thing in common. They watch Fox News. And Fox supplies the fodder to feed and grow their anger. This fodder consists of misrepresentations, assaults on critical thinking and outright lies. And as the viewers are fed misinformation, they grow more and more angry and more dependent on Fox News to justify their emotions and support their beliefs.
By feeding the needs of these “victims,” Fox News has become tremendously popular and profitable. However, the cost to our democracy has been immense. With lies as a foundation, even the most rational among us would reach the wrong conclusions — conclusions that hurt us economically, limit our freedoms and create more wars.
A healthy solution would be for us citizens to access multiple news sources and then reason out the truth. But can people wrapped up in their anger, put it aside? Not yet, I’m afraid. But “while I breathe, I hope.”
Tina Farrell
Bluffton
This story was originally published May 24, 2017 at 8:00 AM with the headline "Fox News poisons America."