A new study has found that Fox News is hurting the
Republican Party by brainwashing millions of angry wingnuts with
misinformation.
In a new study of the Fox News effect by Bruce Bartlett, research was collected that demonstrated the negative impact of Fox News on media and politics.
Bartlett described what the founding of Fox News
first meant to wingnuts, and how it shifted into an act of
self-brain washing, “Like someone dying of thirst in the desert, wingnuts drank heavily from the Fox waters. Soon, it became the
dominant -and in many cases, virtually the only – major news source for
millions of Americans. This has had profound political implications that
are only starting to be appreciated. Indeed, it can almost be called
self-brainwashing – many wingnuts 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.”
Mr. Bartlett documented Fox News’ extreme rightward
shift after 9/11 and how the network went from tilting wingnut to
flat out misinformation and propaganda. The study also sums of years of
research that points to Fox News viewers as being the least informed
media consumers.
The dominance of Fox News has led to some extremely negative consequences that are harming the Republican Party:
Although this arrangement unquestionably aids Republicans in winning elections and votes in Congress, it is not without its downsides. One is that Fox now exercises such powerful control over the GOP that it has become the party’s kingmaker in presidential primaries.56 Indeed, during the 2012 election cycle, a number of aspirants for the Republican nomination had been paid Fox commentators, including Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, Sarah Palin and Mike Huckabee. And woe to the Republican who runs afoul of Fox’s top brass or ignores their advice, as Mitt Romney did on one occasion in 2012. Fox is now so important in GOP primaries that candidates must put aside pressing campaign concerns when summoned to a Fox interview, where any error is magnified within the Republican bubble.….Another problem is that 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’s conclusion is that the same attributes that make Fox a strong cable network are harming the Republican Party.
There is little doubt that the Republican Party is
influenced by two interests. The corporations and wingnut
billionaires who fund their campaigns and Fox News. A Republican
candidate can be made or broken by Fox News, but the network also pushes
Republicans to an unelectable wingnut position in presidential
elections.
Viewers have been brainwashed by a combination of
misinformation and constant confirmation of their own biases. Fox News
doesn’t “report” reality. The result is that millions of Fox News
Republicans expect their candidates to carry out what they see on
television, which has led to a party of non-reality based voters
supporting delusional candidates.
The impact is felt on a broken legislative process
where for one party there is no middle and opposing the President at all
costs has become a path to political victory.
The
conclusion is unmistakable. Fox News has not only broken journalism.
The wingnut 'news' network is also destroying the Republican Party.
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