Re: Do you trust the media?
HBO's John Oliver dedicated his entire 21-minute show on Sunday night to a deep dive into false information being peddled by Fox News and other conservative media outlets about the coronavirus, and the impacts those falsehoods are having on President Donald Trump and his decision-making.
John Oliver described Fox News' coronavirus coverage:
"They only pretend to believe these things on television for money."
The point Oliver was making was that even as many Fox News anchors were pushing the idea that coronavirus was less virulent than the flu and that it was the product of a hyper-partisan media trying to "get" Trump, the company was warning its employees to stay at home and "reducing the staff footprint at our headquarters in New York."
Why the contrast between what their anchors were pushing and the internal guidance being given to staff?
Because, as Oliver rightly notes, Fox News is in the business of selling a certain kind of news to its largely conservative (and very large) viewer base. And that "news" is generally speaking, centered around the idea that the mainstream media is in cahoots with Democrats to screw, frighten and otherwise mistreat the average Joe and Jane out there.
Or, as Oliver put it: "Many in conservative media have found it easy to fold this virus into narratives that they have been carefully building up for decades."
Fox News played the coronavirus story as they play virtually every other story -- as an indictment of the media and its biases.
The truth here is that Fox News knows exactly what it's doing. It has created a brand that revolves around its viewers' distrust in societal pillars like government, the education system and, yes, the media. Every story -- and I mean every story -- is funneled through that lens.
The most noxious part of all of this is that Fox News is covering the story this way not because it agrees with with known facts or because they believe it's the "real" narrative but rather because they know that covering the coronavirus pandemic this way means more viewers -- and more money to sell ads.
Fox News has spent years conditioning their regular viewers to believe that anything "the media" -- or any other establishment institution (other than them), of course -- must not be telling the whole truth about anything. And that the reason the establishment isn't telling the truth is because the truth is somehow bad for them.
It's an incredibly vicious cycle -- and has been for a long time. But it's never been as clear as it is right now.
HBO's John Oliver dedicated his entire 21-minute show on Sunday night to a deep dive into false information being peddled by Fox News and other conservative media outlets about the coronavirus, and the impacts those falsehoods are having on President Donald Trump and his decision-making.
John Oliver described Fox News' coronavirus coverage:
"They only pretend to believe these things on television for money."
The point Oliver was making was that even as many Fox News anchors were pushing the idea that coronavirus was less virulent than the flu and that it was the product of a hyper-partisan media trying to "get" Trump, the company was warning its employees to stay at home and "reducing the staff footprint at our headquarters in New York."
Why the contrast between what their anchors were pushing and the internal guidance being given to staff?
Because, as Oliver rightly notes, Fox News is in the business of selling a certain kind of news to its largely conservative (and very large) viewer base. And that "news" is generally speaking, centered around the idea that the mainstream media is in cahoots with Democrats to screw, frighten and otherwise mistreat the average Joe and Jane out there.
Or, as Oliver put it: "Many in conservative media have found it easy to fold this virus into narratives that they have been carefully building up for decades."
Fox News played the coronavirus story as they play virtually every other story -- as an indictment of the media and its biases.
The truth here is that Fox News knows exactly what it's doing. It has created a brand that revolves around its viewers' distrust in societal pillars like government, the education system and, yes, the media. Every story -- and I mean every story -- is funneled through that lens.
The most noxious part of all of this is that Fox News is covering the story this way not because it agrees with with known facts or because they believe it's the "real" narrative but rather because they know that covering the coronavirus pandemic this way means more viewers -- and more money to sell ads.
Fox News has spent years conditioning their regular viewers to believe that anything "the media" -- or any other establishment institution (other than them), of course -- must not be telling the whole truth about anything. And that the reason the establishment isn't telling the truth is because the truth is somehow bad for them.
It's an incredibly vicious cycle -- and has been for a long time. But it's never been as clear as it is right now.
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