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Sat 14 Jun, 2014 08:10 pm
Fox News Must Die
By karoli June 14, 2014 9:00 am - Comments
A new Brookings survey shows just how deeply Fox News influences conservatives, whether or not they call themselves Republicans.
Fox News Must Die
I just finished reading the Brookings/PRRI survey on immigration reform, which has been misreported as proof that Fox News is America's most trusted news source.
What the survey proves is that Fox News is successfully lowering the IQs of millions of True Believing conservatives, whether they call themselves Republicans or not.
From the survey:
Only 42% of Republicans who most trust Fox News to provide accurate information about politics and current events support a path to citizenship, compared to 60% of Republicans who most trust other news sources.
Only 12% of Americans who most trust Fox News for accurate information about politics and current events correctly believe deportations have increased.
Among Republicans, there are major differences in views of immigrants between those who say Fox News is their most trusted news source and those who do not. Six-in-ten (60%) Republicans whose most trusted news source is Fox News say that immigrants are a burden, while one-third (33%) say immigrants strengthen the country because of their hard work and talents.
Those who say Fox News is their most trusted news source are far more likely than Americans who most trust other news sources to say the number of immigrants coming to the U.S. illegally has increased recently. Americans who most trust Fox News are the only group among whom a majority (64%) believe the number of immigrants coming to the U.S. illegally has increased.
Americans who most trust Fox News are less likely (46%) to favor allowing immigrants living in the country illegally to become citizens, while 19% favor allowing them to become permanent legal residents, but not citizens, and nearly one-third (32%) prefer to identify and deport them.
Only 42% of Republicans who most trust Fox News support a path to citizenship, compared to 60% of Republicans who trust other news sources. This pattern is also evident among political independents. Although more than 6-in-10 of independents support a path to citizenship overall, only 48% of independents who most trust Fox News say they support this policy, compared to 66% of independents who most trust other television news outlets.
The most trusted news source for deportation supporters is Fox News, with more than 4-in-10 (41%) saying it is the television news source they trust the most to provide accurate information about politics and current events, followed by a quarter (25%) who say broadcast network news, and 13% who trust CNN the most.
In contrast, identifying as Republican, being a born-again Christian, and most trusting Fox News as an accurate news source all predict opposition to immigration reform that includes a path to citizenship. Among these negative factors, trusting Fox News exhibits the strongest effect, dwarfing Republican identification. Americans who most trust Fox News are about half as likely to support immigration reform as Americans who trust other news sources. Notably, once controls are included for trust in Fox News, being Republican has only a modest impact on opinions about immigration reform.
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There's more. Much, much more. The only reason Fox News gets the highest percentage of trust among all the different news sources is because conservatives trust it above all other news sources on a near-unanimous basis. Liberals, on the other hand, have a variety of news sources they trust, so the percentages are lower overall.
There is one reason this country is stuck in an endless loop of obstruction and hate, and that reason is Fox News. If the results of this survey doesn't prove that, have a look at others with similar outcomes.
Fox News must die. It must either die with Roger Ailes and Rupert Murdoch, or it must die from a lack of current viewers. But however it happens, it must die, because if it doesn't, it will destroy the shreds of American democracy that remain. It's not enough for us to keep shouting about them, or Media Matters to point out how wrong they are on so many levels. Their death must be the result of visceral rejection.
I don't know how to do it yet, but I guarantee you I'm going to give it a lot of thought. We can't afford the stupidity that comes with their echo chamber.
Tags:
Brookings Institute, Fox News, Immigration Reform, survey
@bobsal u1553115,
Wow, this guy really wants immigration reform
@bobsal u1553115,
Everyone is talking about how poorly Fox wantabe MSNBC did, but the real news to me is how poorly PBS does with the left. I know I stopped watching Mcneal Lehrer went I got the idea that Gwen Ifill is an idiot hack who was only on because of the color of her skin, so I personally no longer trusted the show, but it is shocking to me that their trust problems are profound.
@hawkeye10,
Nice graph. The Bush administration successfully pulled support away from public broadcasting news. Around the time of Juan Williams leaving it certainly seemed/seems to me there's been a right alignment of news on NPR.
@hawkeye10,
I don't think this chart means PBS is not trusted, only that it is not the "most trusted". For all we know PBS (or any of the others) is everyone's second most trusted news source. I think it is more likely that PBS is a relatively small outfit and not a lot of people listen to them in the first place. I don't think I've ever seen a PBS news broadcast although I listen to NPR regularly.
A better plot would be to ask if each outlet is "trusted, somewhat trusted, not very trusted, distrusted." I think that would be an interesting chart and PBS would do better.
@engineer,
Good point.
Of more import, I would say, is that self-described "independents" believe Fox is more trustworthy than Broadcast News by a healthy margin.
That self-described "moderates" do not, helps to confirm by belief that "independents," in the main lean right. Still a 15% rating for Fox among "moderates" is not bad and compares closely to the 17% rating for Broadcast News among "independents"
I would like to meet the 7% of "liberals" who find Fox most trustworthy and not because I doubt their self-description and assume them to be actually conservative, but because I think they have rightly figured out that Fox reports on all stories, including those that Broadcast News ignores due to political bias. I suspect they feel confident enough to identify and discount any bias they find in Fox's reportage, and they haven't made the mistake of conflating Fox News news shows and Fox News opinion shows.
I still maintain that there is more diversity of opinion on Fox than on Broadcast news. The News Hour on PBS, in my opinion has always been very good about this too. Their anchors sometimes show their liberal colors,(Ifel really more so than anyone else), but it isn't anywhere close to being flagrant,and they generally have a diverse panel of guests to discuss most topics.
Although their choice of David Gergen as the conservative counterpoint to Mark Shields was laughable, and bringing in David Brooks was only marginally better, they did have Paul Gigot for a while and I loved when they had Stuart Taylor as their legal analyst. Taylor was let go for injecting opinion into his analysis but this seemed pretty sketchy and particularly since they still employ Nina Totenberg (she who infamously wished AIDs on Jesse Helms grandchildren; albeit on a different PBS show)
The show was better when McNeil and Lehrer were at the helm, but it's still an excellent source for in-depth news coverage.
@engineer,
NRP is much less trustable to me than it was pre-W.
@bobsal u1553115,
All things were corrupted by George W. Bush. I understand that while he was in office the Mona Lisa frowned, and kittens and puppies were no longer cute.
@bobsal u1553115,
bobsal u1553115 wrote:
I just finished reading the Brookings/PRRI survey on immigration reform, which has been misreported as proof that Fox News is America's most trusted news source.
What the survey proves is that Fox News is successfully lowering the IQs of millions of True Believing conservatives, whether they call themselves Republicans or not.
How could you possibly determine that??
@georgeob1,
Your questioning it certainly speaks to the general ignorance of a Fox viewer.
@bobsal u1553115,
You don't know what news sources I frequent, and you do very well by yourself in portraying yourself as a not-very-bright and largely ignorant ass.
@georgeob1,
I don't think you read anything on paper past the back of your Capt'n Crunch box. And the reading you do online is all blog all day all the time until your mother calls you up from the basement to go to work at Circle K. I don't know what you read? You don't read. And then there's Fox. I watch it, but other than Shep Smith and Combs, I know better than to believe too much of it. Too bad you get your information from such limited RW sources.
@bobsal u1553115,
One can always count on Bobsal to quickly confirm any suggestion that he is close-minded, poorly informed and a bit stupid.
@georgeob1,
That's your brain talking to you. Its what makes you such dud. Ever notice how nobody like you very much. That's because I'm stupid? Gad but you're an ass. Isn't it time for you to wipe your Slurpee Machine down, junior?
@bobsal u1553115,
Who doesn't like georgeob1?
You're not going by thumbs down are you? You're probably responsible for the majority of them.
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