Saturday, December 18, 2010

Scary Aggressive Misinformation Campaigns

I absolutely believe this study that Fox News viewers are the most likely to be misinformed.

Recently a friend was very shaken with an argument he had with his sister: a die hard Fox News viewer and a person who believes she's politically active and aware.

But the misinformation and even lack of information is startling.

Not only was she unaware that the bill to give health aid to 9/11 first responders was shot down (the Zadtroga vote)...she was entirely unwilling to believe Republicans could possibly filibuster ANYTHING in the US Senate. Nothing could be further from the truth, as they set a record for filibusters in the past couple years...



A fillibustered Zadroga bill is exactly what happened. The entire Republican caucus filibustered a stand-alone bill that would give health aid to 9/11 first responders, because they had vowed to not pass anything until the top 2% got their tax cut FIRST.

The individual was also unaware that the Bush Era tax cuts had been extended just a couple days ago, as she doggedly persued the argument that Obama was raising her taxes, though she's solidly middle-middle class.

Now...this is an anecdotal post, of course. Me talking about some dude's sister and what she believes. Second hand information.

And yet, I've had similar conversations with others and just assumed they were also stand-alone cases. People who somehow took away from a Fox News story the exact opposite of what actually happened. Obama, through a compromise, called for RENEWED Bush Tax cuts, and the take-away is: Obama is raising taxes.

The past day or two I've been watching the very new Fox News condemnations of the killing of the 9/11 responder Zadroga bill. They seem now to be picking up the story...but leaving out a major detail. They never once mention that it was the entire Republican caucus that killed the bill...leaving it up to their viewers to blame the standard Fox News villains.

It gets more ominous day by day. Not just wrong information...but a deliberate attempt to fabricate misinformation.

No comments: