Fox News - Telling Us What's Right

FOX News- Telling Us What's Right

By Jonathan Cuha

EWRT2 7:30-9:45

12/Feb/2012

Fox News is using the press market to sell us right wing republican ideas and beliefs, for electoral and other political purposes. They are selling us on the republican belief system, so that we as a public, will listen intently to their propaganda, without suspecting a thing.

Free press is essential to the maintenance and representation of democracy. Access to this free press is essential for our society, so that we may be well informed of the world around us, and so we can understand the different perspectives of groups and cultures within our society. The free press is thus regarded as a powerful entity in our country, our government, and our society. Social and political groups have the right and the ability to express their opinions and view points publicly, but what if a particular social or political group used or cornered a representative of the free press to express their view points and opinions? What if a network of the free press was inherently one sided, or bias? What would be the reasons for a press network to be one sided, and how would they express their bias opinions in such a way as to not make obvious their agenda? If free press is to be considered a market, then Fox News would have that market cornered. It is a market that Fox News is using to sell us right wing republican ideas and beliefs, for electoral and other political purposes. They are selling us the republican belief system, so that we as a public, will listen intently to their propaganda, without suspecting a thing.

The function of the free press is to serve as a general and truthful source of information, so that the public can make their own assumptions and ideas about current social topics. Why would a free press network be one sided or bias? Maybe for political or electoral reasons. "Election ads dominate our television screens during election season, intruding upon the local news, with alarming frequency as election day nears (Paul 507)." I know for a fact that TV networks get paid to show advertisements, but what about the news? The reason why Fox News is inherently right wing lies in the founding of the Fox Network. Fox's founder and president, Roger Ailes, was for the longest time, a huge supporter of the republican party, and frequently worked in Washington DC to support republican presidential campaigns during the Nixon, Reagan and Bush Sr. era. It is the republican belief system that Ailes brought with him to Fox, and the republican ideas and perspectives are evident in all aspects of the network's programming. Ailes also hired staunch conservative writers and representatives, such as David Asman, Tony Snow, Eric Breindel, and John Moody, (Ackerman), just to name a few. He hired these professional republicans into roles as anchors, editors, researchers, talk show hosts, journalists and even the vice president for the Fox Network. All of the top ranking contributors and staff of Fox News are all republican to the core, and carry their right wing beliefs to the columns of articles, tables of think tanks, and to the cameras of the Fox News Media. Even if they don't set out to create a bias news network, it is inherently bias due to the origin and beliefs of the staff and creators.

Fox News is an unreliable media source because of its use of fallacious arguments and reasoning. Fox News, like the politics they represent, are fallacious in nature and use false reasoning as a tool to support their ideas and influence public opinion. This is known as propaganda, and in order to detect it, we must be able to recognize its devices. Fox News uses the name calling/character assassination device (IPA 497). Fox does not like to waste time debating the idea. Instead, they prefer to verbally bash the person's credibility, motives, intelligence, character, or sanity. "Fox and like-minded media figures also use ad hominem attacks not just against individuals, but entire categories of people in an effort to discredit the ideas of every person who is seen to fall into that category, e.g. 'liberals,' 'hippies,' 'progressives' etc. This form of argument leaves no room for genuine debate over ideas."(Boaz)

Fox news also uses the transfer device (IPA 497). They commonly associate their principals and ideas with the US flag, the constitution, and anything else patriotic that might stir our emotions and win our approval (The 7). This also makes us feel that if we don't agree with their point of view, then we do not agree with or support the US flag. One more example would be the bandwagon device (IPA 497). Fox News is always trying to get the public to "jump on board" by agreeing with what the "problem" is, which is supposedly the liberal agenda, or the liberal view point. By using false reasoning as a tool, Fox News tries to influence the public, without having to produce any real evidence to support their view or opinion. These propaganda devices act somewhat as a smokescreen that covers or hides their agenda from the public, and at