FOX News Beats the War Drum Once Again

[SeeGeeWhy]

http://foxattacks.com/iran

Highlights of the page include the youTube video made by the site's creator compairing FOX News coverage leading up to the war in Iraq to what they are airing currently with respect to the situation in Iran.

As an aside, check out the wicked graphic of the fighter jet shooting sidewinder missiles turning into a Bald Eagle around 0:56 left in the video. Do Americans seriously view themselves like this? Like awesome fighter jets that morph into equally awesome and heroic eagles? Wow.

[simmer2]

Good post. That eagle was absolutely hilarious. I catch Fox news the odd time and just shake my head at how right everyone's views are. It's not like the guests have any common sense, they just spout off as much right-wing pro-American military bullcrap that a large portion of Americans buy into it. And when I mean large portion, I'm referring to the percentage of Americans who voted George Bush back into power.

[Bingo]

Thanks God!

We've never had a Fox News post on this site to argue about. Finally the topic appears and can be discussed once and for all!

67% of Americans were pro the Iraq war before it happened, that's a lot of right wing loonies!

[Ozy_Flame]

Speaking of sensationalism, we met two Americans last night at Kyoto on 17th, both from Los Angeles. They were surprised they didn't have to carry knives / guns on them, and could carry on a friendly conversation with random patrons at a restaurant. I think they were considering claiming refugee status!! lol...

[mykalberta]

You are all right, we should all get together with peaceful and funloving Iran and get in a non homogeneous sharing circle and sing Kumbaya and eat smores (fat and animal free with no carbohydrates) while debating how to combat global warming.

Oh wait, while you do that, Iran does this...

http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/1385.htm

Here is a little excert:

Today throughout Islamic Iran, From South to North and from East to west

There is one cry only...

Death to America
Death to America
Death to America

You go sing Kumbaya while the rest of us live in reality.

MYK

[CaramonLS]

Originally Posted by Bingo

Thanks God!

We've never had a Fox News post on this site to argue about. Finally the topic appears and can be discussed once and for all!

67% of Americans were pro the Iraq war before it happened, that's a lot of right wing loonies!

Because the Iraq war was marketed to the American people with 100% accuracy, correct?

[worth]

The media sold the Iraq war. The media will try once again to sell an Iran war if the administration so wishes. The US government would be stupid not to use propaganda to further their agenda, whatever it may be. If they had an agenda of getting everyone to knit blankets, you'd be watching knitting propaganda. It happens everywhere. People were essentially brainwashed during the lead up to the Iraq war, the question is will it happen again?

[theikon]

Originally Posted by mykalberta

You are all right, we should all get together with peaceful and funloving Iran and get in a non homogeneous sharing circle and sing Kumbaya and eat smores (fat and animal free with no carbohydrates) while debating how to combat global warming.

Oh wait, while you do that, Iran does this...

http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/1385.htm

Here is a little excert:

Today throughout Islamic Iran, From South to North and from East to west

There is one cry only...

Death to America
Death to America
Death to America

You go sing Kumbaya while the rest of us live in reality.

MYK

You might want to ask yourself how it got to that point. Pick up some history books...

Not that I agree with it, but people don't go around screaming that without reason.

[Bingo]

So I guess we are going to walk out the same old tired crap again huh?

Man don't you guys get tired of this?

The media sells everything, and if the Iraq war was your clue in on that you must have been living in a closet. They need to find a story because every one of these networks has 24 hours to fill on a daily basis. They all do it.

I hate these strings. I look at all news agencies, and everytime people over react on Fox I find myself pushed into a corner as a Fox lover when I find good and bad with all of them.

And the idea that I need a history book to find Iranians shouting "death to America" is ok is completely insane to me. American is comprised of 260,000,000 citizens that have little to do with foreign policy. If you think existing makes them a perfectly acceptable target for murder because of your opinion on foreign policy than I can't help you.

[CaramonLS]

Look in the mirror Bingo, you're the one defending FOX news by basically saying: "Hey guys look over there at CNN, they were bad, although not nearly as bad as FOX news at propagating the war, but look over there anyways and cruxify them too".

No one here is holding up CNN or other major news networks at some mantel of fairness or absolving them of blame. However, when you're leading the vanguard of the Iraq propaganda campaign, like FOX did, expect some flack and a bullseye painted on you when you're wrong.

[Cowperson]

Originally Posted by CaramonLS

Look in the mirror Bingo, you're the one defending FOX news by basically saying: "Hey guys look over there at CNN, they were bad, although not nearly as bad as FOX news at propagating the war, but look over there anyways and cruxify them too".

No one here is holding up CNN or other major news networks at some mantel of fairness or absolving them of blame. However, when you're leading the vanguard of the Iraq propaganda campaign, like FOX did, expect some flack and a bullseye painted on you when you're wrong.

By coincidence, Pew Research released its Survey of Attitudes towards media organizations in America a few days ago . . . . who trusts whom, what their political affiliations are, etc, etc.

Amusing that FOX viewers are the most likely to view the mainstream media as untrustworthy. Amusing that CNN viewers are more foregiving of FOX than vice versa.

Knock yourself out.

http://people-press.org/reports/disp...3?ReportID=348

Cowperson

[SeeGeeWhy]

Bingo, I'm not condoning FOX for doing this.

I am merely pointing out one more sign that a conflict between the US and Iran is coming closer to occurring, which is one scary prospect.


Like MYK and Ikon point out, there has been a lot leading up to this, and as you point out, when news outlets start pumping the public for support of a war... it may only be a matter of time.

What is worse is that Iran is fixing to be the real deal, with nuclear capabilities and all. No more simple plane crashes and psychological attacks, although I am sure that terror/guerilla methods will be a major tactic employed on the ground if a war is fought in the middle east.

How do you think that the actions of the US, in their brief history, have impacted the mindset of the Iranians leading up to where their relationship is today? I can pose the same question in reverse. Both sides in this case are wrong, and leading the world down a road that we do not need to traverse.

The fact is that, fundamentally, the cultures of these two nations are clashing in a big way... and the sad fact is that they each represent two sides that reach far beyond their own borders. Both countries have been making moves for years, and it hasn't come to brinksmanship yet, but it is close. This scares the out of me to think how close they are to triggering something huge.

It seems as though humanity is failing yet again to learn from our past.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the world... Russia is making nice with their satellite states, beefing up on their might, allowing foreign interests to develop their resources, flexing their muscle over the European gas network, and pushing into relatively unclaimed resource rich areas.

China is pushing back against US presence in their area and is growing at insane rates.

Are either of these nations to be trusted either? Does the US expect to police this activity as well?

Come on... the last thing I am trying to provoke with this thread is a FOX vs CNN discussion. Read between the lines.

[Bingo]

Originally Posted by CaramonLS

Look in the mirror Bingo, you're the one defending FOX news by basically saying: "Hey guys look over there at CNN, they were bad, although not nearly as bad as FOX news at propagating the war, but look over there anyways and cruxify them too".

Am I?

Not sure I said any of that.

I'm not a big fan of "after the fact" geniuses, and the world seems to have many of them. A strong majority of Americans were for the war, a strong majority of Canadians were behind Afghanistan. The sex appeal dies off and they all drop to the other side.

Countries and world leaders can't do that.

I watched and read everything up the Iraq war and based on Hussein's disregard for the UN sanctions it seemed to me he was hiding something. I didn't need one media source (FOX) to talk me into anything. I didn't like the other side of the equation - doing nothing and then Hussein does something crazy.

I felt that then, and I don't really have a right to act like I knew all along when frankly I didn't.

Originally Posted by CaramonLS

No one here is holding up CNN or other major news networks at some mantel of fairness or absolving them of blame. However, when you're leading the vanguard of the Iraq propaganda campaign, like FOX did, expect some flack and a bullseye painted on you when you're wrong.

Did they though? Seemed to me almost everyone was talking about pretty much the same things leading up to the war.

I think the bias thing is over blown both ways ... the world is so polarized these days that the average person tends to just nod with what they agree with and then point fingers as bias for what they don't.

[Lurch]

Originally Posted by Cowperson

By coincidence, Pew Research released its Survey of Attitudes towards media organizations in America a few days ago . . . . who trusts whom, what their political affiliations are, etc, etc.

Amusing that FOX viewers are the most likely to view the mainstream media as untrustworthy. Amusing that CNN viewers are more foregiving of FOX than vice versa.

Knock yourself out.

http://people-press.org/reports/disp...3?ReportID=348

Cowperson

Is it surprising even a little? To put it in the most Foxworthy (sic) terms, people on the lunatic fringe are less likely to be open minded and more likely to be suspicious. I suspect you'd see Guardian readers mirror the Fox results. (Also, link seems to be something about a new stadium)

[Cowperson]

Originally Posted by Lurch

Is it surprising even a little? To put it in the most Foxworthy (sic) terms, people on the lunatic fringe are less likely to be open minded and more likely to be suspicious. I suspect you'd see Guardian readers mirror the Fox results. (Also, link seems to be something about a new stadium)

I would also suspect that the common person who gets most of his news on the internet and distrusts mainstream media, as profiled in the survey, likely gets that news from sites that are far more biased than FOX would ever think of being, both on the left and the right.

Consistently, we see surveys revealing the common person tends to gravitate towards news sources we feel provide us with viewpoints we are pre-disposed to agree with.

And we have never lived in an era with access to a greater variety of opinions and sources of information than we do today.

Cowperson

[Cowboy89]

Originally Posted by Cowperson

I would also suspect that the common person who gets most of his news on the internet and distrusts mainstream media, as profiled in the survey, likely gets that news from sites that are far more biased than FOX would ever think of being, both on the left and the right.

Consistently, we see surveys revealing the common person tends to gravitate towards news sources we feel provide us with viewpoints we are pre-disposed to agree with.

And we have never lived in an era with access to a greater variety of opinions and sources of information than we do today.

Cowperson

I think the real problem is that we rely on the media to form opinions on just about anything. At my company whenever we release a quarterly report the media seems to really jump on and magnify issues that have little importance and totally miss what really needs to be taken away (both negative and positive).

The real problem is that the person or people who write the stories, interview people, and then tell the world are probably the ones that know the least about what's going on. You have to actually be in the trenches, on the street and part of what's going on to understand and even then the intellectual or physical bias of the person sinks into the coverage. This is why I take anything that comes from any news source (independent or mainstream) with a grain of salt.

[Bingo]

Originally Posted by Cowboy89

I think the real problem is that we rely on the media to form opinions on just about anything. At my company whenever we release a quarterly report the media seems to really jump on and magnify issues that have little importance and totally miss what really needs to be taken away (both negative and positive).

The real problem is that the person or people who write the stories, interview people, and then tell the world are probably the ones that know the least about what's going on. You have to actually be in the trenches, on the street and part of what's going on to understand and even then the intellectual or physical bias of the person sinks into the coverage. This is why I take anything that comes from any news source (independent or mainstream) with a grain of salt.

And I'd add to that the complete assault on the term "fact" in the last decade and what it means to accountability and trust in the medai.

These guys earn salary like anyone else ... they can't afford to be last to the trough with news items and with that you get mistakes. It's not the Times versus the Post anymore, it's the Times versus cable news, local news, and internet blogs to be the one to release stories.

The problem with that is you get two handling of a fact.

1. A person says something somewhere quoting someone else (usually the net) and voila it's a fact ... when really it's never been anything more than an urban legend that's been passed on over and over again.

2. You get filters. Some media agencies will jump hard on a fact (and they're all guilty of it) that fits their desire for a story, but ignore the fact if it doesn't fit with their preconceived belief in the topic.

The result is a victimized average Joe who's likely quite tired of it all.

[Vulcan]

In my book, Fox crosses the line by intentionally lying. Instead of reporting the news, they are creating it. Other news sources aren't completely innocent either but, to me, Fox takes it to the extreme and I hardly trust anything they report. Others are starting to have the same opinion and it's well deserved. Kind of like the old Pravda in the Soviet days, a tool for this administration.

[vicphoenix13]

Has anyone seen a documentary about Fox News channel called "Out Foxed." The way Fox News operates its broadcasts makes you shake your head. For instance, Bill O'Reilly always removes anything from his script which could been seen as critical of the G.W. Bush administration. It makes me wonder why Fox News uses the slogan "fair and balanced." The only two anchors on Fox News who have any credibility in my mind are Alan Colmes and Chris Wallace. The rest of them are drones who are in lockstep with Bush and Cheney.

[jammies]

Originally Posted by Cowperson

Consistently, we see surveys revealing the common person tends to gravitate towards news sources we feel provide us with viewpoints we are pre-disposed to agree with.
Cowperson

That is certainly true, and the problem then becomes one of feedback; successful media outlets reflect the opinions of their readers/viewers, and vice versa. Since the flow goes both ways, each side feels validated and becomes emboldened to deeper and deeper levels of commitment to their ideology. A closed loop like this can ignore facts that contradict the commonly held world-view, and thus the end result can be almost completely removed from reality.

Jingoistic media has been with us for more than 150 years (back in the late 19th century, the British papers were notorious for whipping up public anger towards this or that perceived enemy of the realm, demanding and often getting Gov't action), but the sophistication of the message has done much to make the loop more powerful, more compellingly alluring.

This is why the actions of Bush and his camp are so dangerous - they went out to deliberate manipulate the media in order to justify their war, not just presenting their views with the most favorable spin, but actually manufacturing false evidence, that once inserted into the loop, has an effect that can never be undone. There is still a strong minority of Americans that believe Iraq and Al-Qaeda had strong ties before the war, which has been proven to be utterly false (and never made sense to begin with, as Saddam was their enemy no less than the US). The same with WMD claims, which had no credibility whatsoever but were more or less made up by wishful thinkers intent on selling a decision already made.

So it certainly is relevant when FOX starts beating the drum of war at Iran, as this the same organization that was at the forefront of propaganda efforts in Iraq. Claims made now, when the issue is fresh, will last a long time whether true or not; if they are acting as enablers for an administration intent on finishing off one more "enemy" before they are turfed, they should be challenged at every opportunity regardless of whether or not other media organizations are equally culpable of preaching to the converted - at least CNN isn't trying to start a war and get people killed for nothing more than a crusade versus the infidels.

For the record, I supported and still support the war in Afghanistan; I did not support and still do not support the war in Iraq. There are just wars and unjust wars, and there are smart wars and dumb ones - involving yourself in the bad half of either of these is always going to cost you in the end, as America is learning in Iraq, where the justice of their action is questionable and the stupidity of it has been amply confirmed.