I spend a lot of time watching the news. Probably too much. I watch CNN,MSNBC,and FOX. Lately my opinion about FOX has changed. When I first began to watch I was impressed by the coverage of the troops during the war and rallied behind their support for the soldiers and their families. Being more of a independent, I understood the importance of having a network that would cover the more conservative slant of the election.
But now, I’m not so sure. With the addition of Glenn Beck and the hiatus of Alan Colmes , things aren’t so” fair and balanced”. There seems to be a lot of fear being broadcasted. That somehow all of us are about lose everything. At some point shouldn’t we be focused on what we want instead of what we don’t want?
Some of you may love the following article and some of you may hate it. I do think that Deepak Chopra’s blogpost gives us pause to think and that is important. Tell the world what you think. Its important ……
From Deepak Chopra.com-
It’s mysterious how swiftly a society can collectively change its mind. As rapidly as the financial markets crashed, so has Fox News’s credibility. What was gospel to an entire segment of voters and viewers just a few months ago has become a desperate flapping in the wind. Some may view this as part of the swing cycle that politics is heir to. But from the Reagan era forward, certain truths were held to be self-evident, and far from inventing anything, Fox News simply put the high gloss of mass media on them.
If you tune in to Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, or the network’s humbler toilers in the vineyard, their tactics haven’t changed. They must be shocked to find themselves stranded, all the more because it seemed to happen overnight.
In the spirit of Emerson’s dictum that evil is the absence of good, it’s worth recalling where good was absent just a year ago. Here are the working beliefs of the Fox News credo.
Article 1: The worst aspects of human nature are actually cherished freedoms.
This is Fox News’s main rallying cry. Hating minorities, despising gays, ridiculing women’s rights, and slandering the ACLU all fall under the rubric of precious liberties.Article 2: God loves gun owners.
Fox News rabidly seizes the high ground when it comes to law and order, an issue that is seen primarily as a loaded gun under every pillow and a triple-bolted front door.Article 3: Patriotism is the last refuge of ratings wars.
Here the old axiom that patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels has been updated (but by no means abandoned). Every Fox News commentator earns his battle scars by wrapping himself in the bloody flag, without ever personally endangering his own skin, of course.Article 4: Ideology is way better than thinking.
Pre-chewed ideas are more easily digested than actual thinking. But ideology goes one better by answering every doubt in advance. Thus Fox News is never in doubt. Truth is as automatic as a gum ball machine.Article 5: The mind’s primary use is for bellowing.
I advise any prospective guest on Fox News to demand that there be no shouting. This immediately decouples the mind of O’Reilly and Hannity. Their most basic assumption is that any guest, once shouted down, has lost the debate. (I tested this gambit out personally and can vouch for its effectiveness.)Article 6: Shamelessness is next to godliness.
In other words, you can sin at leisure as long as you keep pointing out other people’s sins. Long a tactic enshrined in the Book of Hypocrisy, Fox News has turned holier-than-thou into a moneymaker.Article 7: Don’t bother me with the facts. My mind is already closed.
This is really just a corollary to the belief in ideology, but it deserves its own chapter and verse because of the ironical light it casts on the Fox News logo, “Fair and balanced.”Article 8: The little guy is always mad.
On the whole, Fox News tries to make the little guy feel that he is always right and those pointy-headed educated elitists always wrong. But sometimes the little guy proves tricky, as when he doesn’t like Republican deficits and foreign wars. Luckily, Fox News always has a fallback — the little guy is always blistered about something, and a little kerosene is a marvelous accelerant, as they say in arson investigations.Article 9: “They” are about to get you — watch out!
The bulk of Fox News’s sanctimony rests on its pledge to look out for everyday working Joes. Since there is no record of the network actually protecting something realistic like clean air, freedom from assault weapons, and safety in the workplace, what is really being safeguarded is the right to be freaking paranoid every minute of the day.Article 10: If I just said it, it must be right.
Here, as in several other places, Fox News is indistinguishable from a drunken frat party where not only is bellowing a sign of intelligence, but never backing down, however cockeyed your last statement may be, shows that you are a man.I am not a communicant in this particular creed, so I’m sure I’ve left out some key passages in the gospel. For full knowledge one would have to delve deep into the Old Testament of Fox News (i.e., the minutes of the John Birch Society 1958-date). Daily viewing will keep one abreast of new anathemas (i.e., socialism) and potential saviors (Sarah Palin). Or you could take the easy way out and celebrate the waning of Fox News’s belief system and the cleaner air left behind.
Stumble It!
[...] P2P Foundation placed an interesting blog post on Deepak Chopra Takes on the Gospel of Fox News…Here’s a brief overviewArticle 3: Patriotism is the last refuge of ratings wars. … In other words, you can sin at leisure as long as you keep pointing out other… [...]
Undoubtedly my favorite:
Article 7: Don’t bother me with the facts. My mind is already closed.
This is really just a corollary to the belief in ideology, but it deserves its own chapter and verse because of the ironical light it casts on the Fox News logo, “Fair and balanced.”
Truly, I’m that way about certain things: beets, brussel sprouts, people who don’t pull over for emergency vehicles – oh, and abortion.
mine are similar…but it deals with The Beach Boys and Pop-Tarts…by the way really enjoying your blog!
Who would have thought that Deepak Chopra would object to someone having a thought that didn’t agree with him?
As a founding member of the “hate america first” group, one could expect nothing less.
In the past it was amusing to note the difference between the new as presented. Now, as CNN/MSNBC/ABC/CBS/NBC are tiling to the left like palms in a hurricane, the uprightness of FOX makes it stand out even more.
FOX hasn’t moved to the right. It’s just that the others are barely visilbe in the distance to the left.
If you also stand so far the the left, perhaps they appear as getting closer. For me they are moving away.
I stand in the middle there is more room there…
however you’re going to have to give me the proof on when and where Deepak Chopra became one of the founding members of the “Hate America First Group”.
Thanks for your comments.
“On the whole, Fox News tries to make the little guy feel that he is always right and those pointy-headed educated elitists always wrong.”
A Brahman speaks of the Dalits.
the little guy can’t always be right and pointy heads can’t always be wrong…not much balance there and it might not be very “fair”.
There are many outright lies here, & in DeeVoid Choke-paux’s Kool-Aid/Oz diatribe manifesto of inane musings. He is a SP new-world-orderist of the highest disorder, & a “false prophet” to boot. 1 of the many lies I noticed here (which if you can spot even ONE, then the whole content is rendered suspect & un-usable until further investigation, which is probably going to be found to be a waste of valuable time, because you know the continuous leftist spin/web of deceitfulness has already arrived, as leaven to bread to quote a “far more trustworthy” source), was the lie about Fox news __//”Hating minorities, despising gays, ridiculing women’s rights, and slandering the ACLU all fall under the rubric of precious liberties.
Article 2: God loves gun owners.
Fox News rabidly seizes the high ground when it comes to law and order, an issue that is seen primarily as a loaded gun under every pillow and a triple-bolted front door.”// __These are outright, bold-faced liesm the very same lies those of you on the left (communists, i suppose) continually spew as a form of hate crime. Fox has NEVER done those things despite the fact that those of you THINK they do. They don’t ever “ridicule a woman’s rights,” they just question the ethic & moral dilemma of aborting a fetus, especially in the late late term, for selfish monetary gain (which is the “root of all evil”) – note that this is NOT saying that people of luxury are not entitled, which might be your next thought, but you’d once again be clearly mistaken, but then that is the mark of a tue spinning-out-of-control leftist parrot/magpie-hole. They don’t preach hate to gays; this is a damnable lie, as O’Really himself often has the guts to tell you pinkies if you were watching even last night. But you just parrot what you’ve heard over & over: tell lies often enough & the little guy (viewer/hearer) will eventually believe it,” which is a spirit of strong delusion for the enemies of the Constitution, the true American way of freedom & HONEST capitalism, & the Founding Fathers credos. Often the self-appointed so-called “elitist intelligentsia” on EITHER side fancy themselves a little smarter than the rest of us, an elitist mentality of “I’LL tell you what’s REALLY best for you,” – which is the old evil of marxist, socialist AKA communistic credo. You can put a t*rd in a pretty little box with pretty little tissue paper wrap & a nice purty little curly-Q PINK bow, but it’s still a t*rd. So, when I opened the box, i found the ACLU, NBC, CNN, MSNBC, NY Times, etc all in there in the toilet tissue paper, which I wouldn’t use to wipe an ENEMY COMBATANT AKA war-criminal terrorist’s behind – even with plenty of water(board) to flush out their silly, deluded minds… (bad news for you lefties: the Geneva Convention doesn’t treat battle-enemy-combatants whether on our soil or abroad with the same rights as a free common citizen. Idiots. Get your heads out of the sand & stop parroting your lies you’ve been told enough; which is saying the same thing about you as you say about conservatives, only the former is true.
//”the little guy can’t always be right and pointy heads can’t always be wrong…not much balance there and it might not be very “fair”.//__You’ve conveniently & subtly spun here. What you SHOULD HAVE said, IF you were REALLY “fair & balanced,” is, “the little guy can’t always be right and (sometimes) pointy heads can’t always be right either,” or, sometimes the little guy’ is right, but so may be a ‘pointy head’”( to quote you), which makes for you being: “…not much balance there and it might not be very “fair”. Shows your slant, eh?
Besides, (to use a lefty tactic:) are you prejudiced/racist against book-smart” people AKA your “pointy heads?!” That’s “NOT very SP-PC,” let alone “nice,” which is contrary to your whole credo, making you yourself invalid. If a conservative made this statement you lefties would be all over it like stink on same-said t*rd, above. But then, hypocrisy is the name of the game with this new administration (there’s really nothing new here “under the sun”) & those of you future communists on the left. Had to be said, straight up, no pulling punches. Read it & weep, if the poo-pile squishes up around your crooked toes, then wear it proudly.
If Fox indeed continues to “ridicule women’s rights,” then why do they have so many obviously smarter, beautiful women employed in their staff? Jesus, get a clue you dullards. That’s not meant to be an insult; it’s just a discernable stating of the facts. & the gay thing? It’s about “marriage” title-classification. Why don’t gays just call it another name & they can be give the same breaks they want, the same that a “married” or “union” couple gets? 1 of the many double-standards here is, they can call their mate a “significant other,” a somewhat objectifying their mate, yet if we find the word marriage denotes simply a man & woman as it always has, it’s attacked & ridiculed. They can call it wreckage for all i care, as both M/F AWA F/F & M/M often end up being these daze anyway. Zing. After all, it’s about the $$. I say give it to ‘em, but they won’t cease until they usurp the very language to suit their needs themselves. Note that I have no animosity towards gays nor minorities – which are the whites, now. Which is for me to say, anyone, because of their color, religion, or spirituality, unless it imposes on others’ same rights. TRUE spiritual people & TRUE Christians don’t EVER trod on others like this as the L constantly does, we uphold indy rights. However, if those of you gang up & try to tell US what to do in our own private “religious” undertakings, well, THAT is going to be met with the most ferocious of opposition, which is the double standard always employed by the L, & your actions will eventually always fail in the long run. Just look at Russia, Cuba, & many parts of the middle-E. Sorry to “Truthify” you. Extremists on any side are BAD. If a hardcore far-RW zealot tries to tell you how to believe & “worship,” they’re no more a Christian than the person fighting to weaken the Constitution or dilute indy rights, in fact, they’re probably really NOT a true Christian at all. If someone “says” they’re “Christian” & murders an abortion doctor – THEY’RE NOT CHRISTIAN – THEY’RE LIARS. Even tho i detest abortion, & feel it is shameless, SELFISH act of murder of babies in the womb. The most UNSAFE place to be in this world today is NOT Iraq, or N Korea, nor Afghanistan; it is THE WOMB. (Or the Christian conservative R.)