What’s wrong with more opinions?

April 16, 2012

By John Seiler

I don’t get cable TV. No way I’m paying $40 a month. So I’m not a “Fox News,” watcher. I also remain mad at them for pushing the disastrous Iraq War to boost profits the way William Randolph Hearst pushed the Spanish-American War.

But it’s silly for critics to attack FoxNews for bringing viewers two sides of the global-warming debate, as Calbuzz has done:

Why Watching Fox News Will, In Fact, Rot Your Brain

Here’s an actual fact — borne out by at least seven different scientific studies — that will make certain people squawk: those who watch Fox News are the most consistently misinformed media viewers.

There are two reasons for this: Fox News actively and intentionally transmits false and misleading information, as exemplified in the 2009 internal staff memo from Fox Washington managing editor Bill Sammon, exposed by MediaMatters, ordering correspondents to:

. . . refrain from asserting that the planet has warmed (or cooled) in any given period without IMMEDIATELY pointing out that such theories are based upon data that critics have called into question. It is not our place as journalists to assert such notions as facts, especially as this debate intensifies.

But also because conservatives, and especially right-wing authoritarian personalities, are most likely to engage in “selective exposure” that University of Alabama psychologist William Hart explains “is the clearest way to look at how people create their own realities, based upon their views of the world.”

The driving force behind “selective exposure” is the desire to alleviate “cognitive dissonance” — the uncomfortable psychological state people experience when their core beliefs are in conflict with what they know to be true. Although liberals do it too, studies show that they are also more open to a variety of information sources.

What a gaggle of psychobabble. The whole “authoritarian personality” meme was cooked up 60 years ago by Theodor Adorno and other cultural Marxists. A refugee from Nazi Germany, he rewarded the returning, victorious U.S. troops that save Adorno and his associates from probable execution by Nazis by branding every G.I. as being a “potentially fascistic individual.” What an ingrate.

One of those G.I.’s was my late father, Capt. John C. Seiler, U.S. Army 1941-45. He defeated fascism.

Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek has written of Adorno and his comrades, “These writers adopted what eventually became a favorite Soviet tactic against dissidents: anyone whose political views differed from theirs was insane.”

Hey, didn’t America win the Cold War? The Soviet Union dissolved 20 years ago. Yet this Adorno-Cultural-Marxist-Soviet attack on right wingers still is being used.

And get what CalBuzz is upset about: FoxNews insisted that its news readers provide two views on the global warming controversy. What’s wrong with having more opinons?

Doesn’t it display — dare I say it — and authoritarian personality for Calbuzz itself to want to deny people information, to provide only one side fo the story?

Sure, FoxNews itself does that in other areas. They sure did it on the Iraq War.

But in this case, FoxNews providing more information.

Unlike Calbuzz.

 

No comments

Write a comment
  1. Beelzebub
    Beelzebub 16 April, 2012, 10:48

    Yet another example of Frankenstein calling Dracula a slimebucket.

    Both extremes beckoning to the serfs ‘Come join us. We’ll show you a winner’.

    Meanwhile the peasants choose sides and fight amongst themselves while the money changers clean them out.

    It’s an age old racket.

    Reply this comment
  2. CalWatchdog
    CalWatchdog Author 16 April, 2012, 12:10

    The left fears more information, more opinion and more ideas, lest more people learn how to make sound decisions based on fact and truth. Their obsession with Fox News and successful talk radio is fascinating. They think they can’t fight it so they want to ban it.

    It would be such a childish notion if it wasn’t so dangerous.

    Katy Grimes

    Reply this comment
  3. Beelzebub
    Beelzebub 16 April, 2012, 12:11

    Yeah, I know. It’s all the left’s fault.

    I know the drill.

    Reply this comment
  4. Beelzebub
    Beelzebub 16 April, 2012, 14:11

    One is forced to laugh at our pitbull national media. The nation is hitting on about 2 cylinders economically, we are running a deficit upwards of $16T, we’re in hoc up to our necks with China – Japan (w/ a failed economy), etc…, the government is borrowing $0.40 for every dollar spent, we are borrowing @ 10% of total GDP with no sign of slowing down, student debt is over $1T, municipalities across the nation have gone under or are on the verge of going under, the financial system is rotten to the core fueled by blatant corrupted practices, the corporate powers and the government powers have effectively merged resulting in defacto fascism, civil liberties being eroded and dragged through the mud, our very Constitution has been under a full frontal attack now for a decade, 1 in 4 children are born into poverty, wages for the common man have been stagnant since Year 2000, home buyers post 2002 are underwater – AND DO YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT THE BIG NEWS HEADLINES AND NIGHTLY NEWS TALK OF THE TOWN HAS BEEN FOR THE LAST WEEK????

    FEDERAL AGENTS FREQUENTING PROSTITUTES ON OVERSEAS ASSIGNMENTS!!!! 😀

    And this is true across the board – liberal and conservative networks!

    And the nation is just shocked! Absolutely horrified I tell you! It gives you a scant glimpse into the naivete of the American people. I guess they think that all Federal Agents attended the seminary school before signing on with Uncle Sam. The one Federal Agent who tried to stiff (in a financial sense) the one prostitute of $50 is really being hung out to dry. Obama has withheld judgment until a fact finding mission has been completed. 🙂 Of course our fine senators and representatives would never engage in this reprehensible sex for dollars trade when visiting our global neighbors. Just preposterous! 😉 Boy oh boy. Would I love to be a fly on the wall in DC during the closed door sessions on this matter. The Agents caught in this finely woven web must be screaming “FOUL” at the very top of their lungs! 🙂

    But this is yet another example of why we are a declining empire. The important stuff is completely ignored by the media while they focus our attention on Kabuki theater. Thank your mainstream media – liberal and conservative.

    Reply this comment
  5. Rogue Elephant
    Rogue Elephant 16 April, 2012, 19:05

    The Calbuzzards squawk to silence dissent, while they pick at California’s barely twitching bones.

    Reply this comment
  6. queeg
    queeg 17 April, 2012, 12:08

    Young lib media are poorly paid and filled with lib buck shot….you want money and fame bring us pity party, class warfare, idol worship at all costs..

    And do they deliver……

    Reply this comment

Write a Comment

Leave a Reply



Related Articles

99% Chance of Budget Today

John Seiler: There’s a 99 percent chance the Legislature will pass a budget today; with the other 1 percent accounting

Poll: 64% of Californians link drought to global warming

A strong majority of Californians say they support tougher limits on greenhouse gas emissions and more ambitious renewable energy goals

CalWatchdog Morning Read – October 5

Wells Fargo fallout Trump’s past fallout Study: veterans and ex-cons suffer most from professional license mandate Legislative candidates go into