The Formula

Ever notice how very little news on conservative news outlets is actually news? I mean, today's headlines on Foxnews.com features the following line items on its politics tab:

Trump attending Army Navy game in Pasadena - tertiary.
Trump attacks Schumer after Schumer says that the U.S. sold out on China trade deal - reporting on someone else's opinions.
Illegal immigrants to get drivers' licenses after court case loss - interesting choice of emphasis.
Trump supporter grabs spotlight at Sanders rally by protesting - again, odd choice of emphasis.
Eric Trump's daughter makes debut on Fox News - big deal.
Eric Trump says impeachment is a hail mary - opinion.
Rep. McCarthy says imeachment puts 55 Democrats in vulnerable spot - opinion.
Candace Owens and Corey Lewandowski lend their perspective - opinion.
Kellyanne Conway on impeachment - opinion.
Anti-impeachment Rep. Jeff Drew met with Trump to discuss party switch. - Emphasis.
Eric Shawn on whether or not impeachment will hurt or help Trump - opinion.

Basically, half of all the "news" stories reported on Fox News are all opinion pieces. The other half are unimportant items or strange choices to emphasize. Carolina Trump, being the president's newest granddaughter, making a TV debut as a baby while her daddy makes commentary is an interesting tidbit, but hardly important. Reporting Trump's attacks is reporting the news, but how is over-emphasizing Trump's tweets a responsible thing anymore? And the Trump supporter at the Sanders rally? Honestly, who cares?

But this is the formula for Fox News: Don't actually report the news. Instead, report the opinion. If it's not a news piece featuring someone else's opinion, it's a news piece that reports the story, and then kicks it over to a panel of talking heads, all of whom give their opinion. Not a one of these is anything other than a Trump sycophant, and so the news gets broken down in the most biased manner possible.

Shit, it's amazing how little news in on Fox News!

But the formula is clear: Report as little news as possible. When news must be reported, emphasize the stories that favor your side. When the stories don't favor your side (or even if they do) kick the story over to a panel which will discuss it in the most conservative light possible.

And this formula WORKS when it comes to deceiving people! Fox News knows perfectly well that people are too busy to really get into the weeds on technical details. People are busy with jobs, with kids, with a hundred other things, and they don't have time to really research. So, to feel informed, they watch what the pundits are saying. If they see all three pundits saying that the impeachment of Donald Trump is a big hoax, they assume that it must be a hoax! After all, nobody is dissenting, right?

This is part of why we need a return to the Fairness Doctrine like we need oxygen! The news being presented in one-sided format has gone on long enough!

Oh, there's bias on the other side, too. Today's viewing of CNN.com has a lineup of much more substantive headlines. Like reporting how thousands of troops will be recalled from Afghanistan. Or how the Supreme Court will be taking up the case regarding Trump's tax returns.Here, at least, you get a lot more of the information you NEED to know. But it also emphasizes comments by Lindsey Graham saying that he's not even trying to be fair when it comes to Trump's impeachment. That's a fair bit of reporting, but it's no mystery why it got top billing on the website. It also features a story about Melania Trump ignoring how her husband has been bullying Greta Thornburg, after Melania made anti-bullying her First-Lady pet-project. Okay, the hypocrisy is stark, but so also is the emphasis.

Meanwhile, MSNBC doesn't even bother having a staff putting news stories in print form on its website. It emphasized the videos, and many of them criticize Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham for so bluntly admitting that they will not even bother trying to be objective regardint Trump's impeachment trial. Again, a fair bit of reporting, but no mystery as to why it was pushed to the front page.

The Left may be slanted, but the Right has gotten outright blatant in its lies, pushing conspiracy theories and outright bullshit. For example, Judge Jeanine cannot even say the word "impeachment" without sounding as though she's putting the word in quotes, as I just did. And when one compares the number of substantive political news stories on CNN with those on Fox News, one can't help but notice how CNN has so much more information that Fox has.

So what does Fox have that's so popular? It has confirmation bias.

I'll be documenting plenty more examples of this as I continue to find them...

But it's disquieting how I don't need to look very hard.


Eric

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