Americans Choose News Networks That Tell Them What They Want to Hear

Real News is hard to find, but fake news is everywhere and uninformed Americans choose networks that tell them what they want to hear. My promise has always been “the truth lives here.” However, this is rare in America. Once labeled the Fourth Estate, and protected by the first amendment, it is rare to read or listen to facts without opinion on any news broadcast today.

The beginning of the end for legitimate news sources began in 1995. Billionaire Rupert Murdoch hired Republican strategist Roger Ailes, and together they created Fox News. This was a misnomer. Its purpose continues to be the creation of stories filled with sensational but unsubstantiated “information,” which increase viewership, and therefore advertising revenue. The truth never was and never will be of importance to the fake news network. What Fox has accomplished is a division within our nation acting as the right-wing propaganda machine.

Over the last 27 years, every television “news” network, and many of our print publications joined in their desire to place profits before the truth and adopted Fox’s philosophy. Half-truths are far more harmful than blatant lies, and this became standard policy on every television network in America.

Based on the failure of mainstream media to cover the 2016 campaign fairly, on Nov. 9, 2016, I vowed to never watch television news again. I have kept that promise, and spend hours every day searching for the truth, stories I can offer my readers.

Since 1995, Fox has employed many men and women who are nothing more than paid liars. The most successful over the early years was Bill O’Reilly. He claimed to be a successful journalist who reported significant stories, and an equally successful author who penned several books based on historical facts.

Eventually, we learned that he lied about nearly everything. However, the management at Fox refused to discipline their most successful paid liar. It was only after Roger Ailes was charged by dozens of women for sexual harassment, followed by charges from multiple women that O’Reilly committed acts of sexual assault, that he lost his overpaid job at Fox. He was not fired for his crimes, he was fired because Fox would be forced to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in out-of-court settlements.

It is an irrefutable fact that more men and women who call themselves “conservatives” watch hours of Fox and Newsmax daily. Like Trump, “they learn everything they need to know from television.”

Recently, Bill O’Reilly could not resist defending a current Fox fake journalist, Tucker Carlson after it was reported by Mother Jones that the “Kremlin Broadcasting System” received orders from Putin to feature Carlson’s pitiful broadcast because his words support the invasion of Ukraine.

O’Reilly called Mother Jones a “left-wing rag,” and then revealed that he cannot read, also much like Donald Trump. “Bull***t Bill” stated that the article claimed the source was someone in the Kremlin. He should read more carefully.

It seems as if O’Reilly has lost a step or three. The article did not say that the memo was leaked by the Kremlin. It stated that the document “was provided to Mother Jones by a contributor to a national Russian media outlet who asked not to be identified.” That’s a big difference. Maybe O’Reilly didn’t reach this line. It was in the third paragraph of the article.

Fox may not survive until the end of this decade, but the harm it has accomplished will live on forever.

Op-ed by James Turnage

Sources:

The Economist: Fake news is fooling more conservatives than liberals. Why?
Mother Jones: Bill O’Reilly Defends Tucker Carlson—and Makes One Big, Embarrassing Mistake; by David Corn

Featured and Top Image Courtesy of Gage Skidmore’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
Inset Image Courtesy of Justin Hoch’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License