(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Opinion: Fox News is Right Wing Propaganda [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-10-22 Fox News is one of the most widely watched news channel in the United States, with over 2.2 million prime time viewers in February, 2023. During that February, however, viewers between the ages of 25 to 54 only accounted for 299 thousand of those views. The median age of the Fox News viewer is 68 years old. Furthermore, according to a Pew Research survey, “Fox News was the main source for 40% of Trump voters” during the 2016 election. Another Pew Research survey indicates, “Nearly half of consistent conservatives (47%) name it as their main source for government and political news.” A different Pew Research survey indicates that about 4 in 10 Americans trust Fox News for political and election news, while about the same number say they distrust Fox News. It seems the country is divided on whether Fox News is a reliable source, like with so many other issues. What do the fact checkers say? Media Bias/ Fact Check writes with regards to Fox News: “A questionable source exhibits one or more of the following: extreme bias, consistent promotion of propaganda/conspiracies, poor or no sourcing to credible information, a complete lack of transparency, and/or is fake news. Fake News is the deliberate attempt to publish hoaxes and/or disinformation for profit or influence (Learn More). Sources listed in the Questionable Category may be very untrustworthy and should be fact-checked on a per-article basis. Please note sources on this list are not considered fake news unless specifically written in the reasoning section for that source. See all Questionable sources. Overall, we rate Fox News right biased based on editorial positions that align with the right and Questionable due to the promotion of propaganda, conspiracy theories, pseudoscience, the use of poor sources, and numerous false claims and failed fact checks. Straight news reporting from beat reporters is generally fact-based and accurate, which earns them a Mixed factual rating.” There are countless examples of outright lies and misinformation Fox News has spread throughout the years, so this article will only go over a small amount of examples. The most memorable example was their lies that their was evidence of widespread election fraud in 2020. They pushed conspiracy theories about Dominion voting machines. Dominion sued Fox News for defamation and they eventually settled for $787.5 Million. During the discovery process, text messages were revealed that showed many of Fox News’ top hosts knew they were lying about evidence of election fraud. Fox News is also currently being sued for defamation by Smartmatic voting machines as well. Smartmatic states: “Fox News’ disinformation campaign had a direct and harmful impact on Smartmatic’s ability to conduct business in the United States and around the world now and in the future. Accordingly, Smartmatic is defending itself against false, inaccurate, and disparaging attacks made by Fox News. We also believe that efforts to cast doubt on the integrity of the U.S. election system undermine democracy and reflect negatively on the hardworking, dedicated election officials who ensure the integrity of elections. Tucker Carlson, who was fired shortly after Fox News settled in the Dominion lawsuit, was one of the most well known propagandists on the network. One could write a whole book with regards to the misinformation and outright lies Carlson has spread throughout the years, but here are some somewhat recent examples. On January 6th, 2021 Carlson stated, “Jan. 6 is being used as a pretext to strip millions of Americans, disfavored Americans, of their core constitutional rights.” This was an outright lie, there was no evidence millions of Americans were being stripped of their constitutional rights simply because insurrectionists were being prosecuted. On May 5th, 2021, Carlson stated, “Between late December of 2020 and last month, a total of 3,362 people apparently died after getting the COVID vaccine in the United States … The actual number is almost certainly higher.” Yet, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention analyzed the deaths and concluded there’s no “causal link to COVID-19 vaccines.” On September 10th, 2019, Carlson stated that John Bolton “fundamentally was a man of the left." Despite that fact that he is a well known lifelong conservative. Carlson most likely said this given Bolton has criticized former President Trump. On August 15th 2017, Carlson stated, “The United States ended slavery around the world, and maybe we should get some credit for that, too.” This is simply untrue. On August 9th 2014, Carlson stated, “Far more children died last year drowning in their bathtubs than were killed accidentally by guns.” Another outright lie used to promote the right-wing pro-gun agenda. Tucker Carlson In court when Carlson was sued for libel, his lawyers argued that no reasonable person would think what he was saying was fact and they won the case. This is particularly troubling given it is presented as news and many of his viewers assume it is real news. Another well known propagandist on Fox News is Laura Ingraham, here are some examples of her outright lies. On May 4th, 2020, Ingraham stated, “There was no real scientific basis for believing that” social distancing would be necessary, “since it had never been studied.” This is clearly an outright lie and does not reflect medical experts views. On July 12th, 2014, Ingraham stated, Americans “invented the automobile.” Yet, it was most likely invented in Germany. Laura Ingraham There are countless more lies and disinformation one could go over. Other prominent propagandists on Fox News include Sean Hannity, Jeanine Pirro, Jesse Watters, Greg Gutfeld and more. Do not trust Fox News as a source, they have a right-wing agenda and are not afraid to air direct lies. The following videos are recommended if you would like to learn more about Fox News propaganda. Vox has done some great reporting on this topic: [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/10/22/2200958/-Opinion-Fox-News-is-Right-Wing-Propaganda?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/