What Fox news fails to recognize at this moment in time is that on a fundamental level the American people have learned that the police, national guard and other instruments of power do not have the ability to distinguish between peaceful protester and looters. As a result they have lost trust of the citizens. They presuppose "facts" about race, motives and where danger to the people resides. They have lost the debate true. And never had the moral high ground.
How would things differ if, instead of "Police", they were to use the older name of "Peace Officer"? It strikes me that a lot of assumptions would change with that name.
Thank you for writing out the words anti fascist each time rather than using the rallying cry “antifa” ( which my phone’s spellcheck just auto corrected to “Antifa”!) That word, especially when capitalized, subtly or overtly implies that being anti fascist is sinister and dangerous. It is intellectually lazy and inflammatory. Being anti fascist is actually very American, decent and principled. Using the term anti fascist is intellectually honest and rigorous.
Ms. Theodora, the point of the Murdochs, and all of NewsCorp, is to make money. All news services are there to make money, or generate contributions for NPR. Never lose sight of that.
Mr. Boehlert, first, Trump’s ham-handed responses are a key part of the revulsion to his party line. Trump can’t string three coherent sentences together. He can’t create the meme.
Second, too much police brutality has been filmed in real time to allow easy dismissal by Fox & RW Media. OANN explain as they will. We still see the guy being pushed over & bleeding. And, important to me, police walking by and only at the end of the clip do we see an Army guy stop to help.
We have seen a number of advertisers refusing to purchase time during Tucker Carlson’s show. I expect that will play a greater role in Tucker’s commentary and Fox’s coverage than any “devotion to democracy”. Coming full circle, news services exist to make money.
I just find it odd to keep pandering to the elderly instead of shifting to appealing to younger people. Without them Fox will be toast. Family empires usually have a long term outlook.
I am disgusted that Lachlan Murdoch isn’t much better than his father and that his more sane brother James was forced out of the family business. Rupert is seen as a business genius but his business model makes no sense given that his customer base is literally dying off and there is no effort to replace them. It’s clear that both Rupert and Lachlan care about making money - they freak out when their advertisers are boycotted for some despicable thing said on their network - but they are doing nothing to build for the future. In the meanwhile they are badly damaging our democracy. Hopefully the reaction of the majority of Americans to recent events will cause Lachlan to rethink his support for right wing propaganda. I won’t hold my breath.
Agree there's no hope but they have crowded out rational conservative opinion, embraced the mad king. Blind media lead the blind GOP and both fall in a ditch, this November. That formula works for me. And as S. Huckabee Sanders would say "surely it's scriptural".
I know it's too late now. But it's always bother me that news articles about George Floyd hardly ever, and even never mention that he was hand-cuffed at the time. They have this " the death of Floyd, the black man who died in Minneapolis after a police officer put a knee on his neck for nearly nine minutes" why not put 'a knee on his neck, while he was on the ground handcuffed, for nearly nine minutes"
Outstanding piece with the insights of excellent journalism that provide a potential social celebration without use of “dog whistles “ to inform , just facts! TY
I'm really glad that you've been publishing more frequently.
thanks, I appreciate it. crazy times indeed...
What Fox news fails to recognize at this moment in time is that on a fundamental level the American people have learned that the police, national guard and other instruments of power do not have the ability to distinguish between peaceful protester and looters. As a result they have lost trust of the citizens. They presuppose "facts" about race, motives and where danger to the people resides. They have lost the debate true. And never had the moral high ground.
It will be interesting to see what the long terms effects are in terms of how Americans view the police
How would things differ if, instead of "Police", they were to use the older name of "Peace Officer"? It strikes me that a lot of assumptions would change with that name.
Thank you for writing out the words anti fascist each time rather than using the rallying cry “antifa” ( which my phone’s spellcheck just auto corrected to “Antifa”!) That word, especially when capitalized, subtly or overtly implies that being anti fascist is sinister and dangerous. It is intellectually lazy and inflammatory. Being anti fascist is actually very American, decent and principled. Using the term anti fascist is intellectually honest and rigorous.
ah good point. thanks for the note
Mr. Boehlert,
How does one pronounce Antifa? I’d always pronounced it ANTI-fa. But on Fox I’ve heard it pronounced An-TIF-a.
Aside from the fact that An-TIF-a sounds like a Carribian island; that pronunciation takes away the obvious “anti” part of the name.
Is this intentional on Fox’s part? Just because I’m paranoid doesn’t mean Fox isn’t out to get us all.
yes, I’d go with the first pronunciation, ANTI-fa.
Ms. Theodora, the point of the Murdochs, and all of NewsCorp, is to make money. All news services are there to make money, or generate contributions for NPR. Never lose sight of that.
Mr. Boehlert, first, Trump’s ham-handed responses are a key part of the revulsion to his party line. Trump can’t string three coherent sentences together. He can’t create the meme.
Second, too much police brutality has been filmed in real time to allow easy dismissal by Fox & RW Media. OANN explain as they will. We still see the guy being pushed over & bleeding. And, important to me, police walking by and only at the end of the clip do we see an Army guy stop to help.
We have seen a number of advertisers refusing to purchase time during Tucker Carlson’s show. I expect that will play a greater role in Tucker’s commentary and Fox’s coverage than any “devotion to democracy”. Coming full circle, news services exist to make money.
i think that’s a key part...it was the shocking videos of police after Floyd’s murder that I think sparked such an overwhelming public response
I just find it odd to keep pandering to the elderly instead of shifting to appealing to younger people. Without them Fox will be toast. Family empires usually have a long term outlook.
I am disgusted that Lachlan Murdoch isn’t much better than his father and that his more sane brother James was forced out of the family business. Rupert is seen as a business genius but his business model makes no sense given that his customer base is literally dying off and there is no effort to replace them. It’s clear that both Rupert and Lachlan care about making money - they freak out when their advertisers are boycotted for some despicable thing said on their network - but they are doing nothing to build for the future. In the meanwhile they are badly damaging our democracy. Hopefully the reaction of the majority of Americans to recent events will cause Lachlan to rethink his support for right wing propaganda. I won’t hold my breath.
sadly, hold out no hope for Lachlan, or any of the Murdoch’s
Agree there's no hope but they have crowded out rational conservative opinion, embraced the mad king. Blind media lead the blind GOP and both fall in a ditch, this November. That formula works for me. And as S. Huckabee Sanders would say "surely it's scriptural".
I know it's too late now. But it's always bother me that news articles about George Floyd hardly ever, and even never mention that he was hand-cuffed at the time. They have this " the death of Floyd, the black man who died in Minneapolis after a police officer put a knee on his neck for nearly nine minutes" why not put 'a knee on his neck, while he was on the ground handcuffed, for nearly nine minutes"
that’s a good point and one I’ll make sure to include in the future
Outstanding piece with the insights of excellent journalism that provide a potential social celebration without use of “dog whistles “ to inform , just facts! TY
thanks, appreciate it.
good point! I missed that use of language