Fox News's detrimental impact on America

Access to information is essential to the health of democracy for at least two reasons. First, it ensures that citizens make responsible, informed choices rather than acting out of ignorance or misinformation. [1] Bias The assertion that Fox News is biased in favor of conservative ideology is surprising to few. Fox News is notorious for promoting conservative talking points, discouraging liberal positions/candidates, and helping Republican candidates get elected to public office. However, how much of an influence does Fox News really have on the American political system, and how does that contribute to the resolution? Many say Fox News actively participates in helping the Republican Party obtain political seats. Larry King, when speaking to the Chicago Sun-Times, said “They’re a Republican brand. They’re an extension of the Republican Party” [2]. Tom Ricks, blogger for Foreign Policy, said in an interview, ironically, with Fox News “I think that the emphasis on Benghazi has been extremely political, partly because Fox was operating as a wing of the Republican Party” [3]. Conservative writer Jonah Goldberg admits “Look, I think liberals have reasonable gripes with Fox News. It does lean to the right, primarily in its opinion programming but also in its story selection and elsewhere. [4]” A UC Berkeley study found that “Estimates imply that Fox News convinced 3 to 8 percent of its viewers to vote Republican [5]” Using this knowledge, we can certainly come to a conclusion that Fox News is biased in favor of the Republican Party. However, despite all this testimony and statistical analysis, this isn’t even the greatest example of Fox News bias. In spring of 2011, a spokesperson for Fox News (Kathleen McFarland) passed on a message to General David Petraeus, from Roger Ailes. She first asked “Is there anything Fox is doing, right or wrong, that you want us to do differently?” She then goes on to say “He says that if you’re offered [JCS] chairman, take it. If you’re offered anything else, don’t take it; resign in six months and run for president.” She would then go on to say Roger Ailes would run the campaign, and Rupert Murdoch, owner of News Corp/Fox News, would bankroll the campaign [6]. This is damaging for two reasons: Fox News’s willingness to slant the news in his favor clearly goes against the role of media to provide a non-partisan and objective view of the news. Having Fox News fund a Republican candidate’s campaign would have damaging effects on their ‘fair’ coverage of other politicians. This section fulfills the resolution by demonstrating Fox News’s lack of objective coverage towards both parties, and Fox News’s blatant goal of providing biased and skewed information, some of which includes providing benefits to Republican candidates, to its viewing population. Both these points go against the objective, fair, and non-partisan goal of the media. Misinformation and Misrepresentation Not only is Fox guilty of giving biased information, most of their information isn’t even true, and it can be measured in statistics. According to research done by PIPA about misconceptions about the Iraq War driven by media, “Fox was the news source whose viewers had the most misperceptions.” However, a more telling statistic shows that “for Republican Fox viewers, however the average rate of misperception was 54% while for Republicans who get their news from PBS/NPR the average rate of misperception is 32%.” The information derived from the report shows Fox News is the direct source and cause of the misinformation. [7] A report done by the World Public Opinion organization concluded that “These effects* increased incrementally with increasing levels of exposure^ and all were statistically significant. The effect was also not simply a function of partisan bias, as people who voted Democratic and watched Fox News were also more likely to have such misinformation than those who did not watch it--though by a lesser margin than those who voted Republican.” [8] * represents misinformation ^ represents exposure to Fox News A Kaiser Family Foundation poll assessed familiarities with the Affordable Care Act and the provisions within it, and broke down the results into different demographics. One of those included the respondents’ primary source of information intake. The study concluded [9] “There were also differences by where people get their information, with higher shares of those who report CNN (35 percent) or MSNBC (39 percent) as their primary news source getting 7 or more right, compared to those that report mainly watching Fox News (25 percent). An Ohio State University research project found that Fox News promoted misinformation during the Ground Zero Mosque controversy. The major findings of the report concluded [10] People who use Fox News, either online or on television, are more aware of false rumors about the Islamic community center and mosque than those who do not People who use Fox News believe more of the rumors we asked about and they believe them more strongly than those who do not. People who use CNN and NPR believe fewer false rumors A Fairleigh Dickinson University poll studied how certain news sources influenced knowledge of current global events. Most of the sources did average or above average; However, one source failed to successfully inform their audience. [11] People who watch Fox News are 18-points less likely to know that Egyptians overthrew their government than those who watch no news at all (after controlling for other news sources, partisanship, education and other demographic factors). Fox News watchers are also 6-points less likely to know that Syrians have not yet overthrown their government than those who watch no news. Dan Cassino, a political science professor and an analysis for the poll, concluded [11] “The results show us that there is something about watching Fox News that leads people to do worse on these questions than those who don’t watch any news at all." This survey, however, only accounted for the population of New Jersey. Fairleigh then conducted a follow up survey that encompassed the entire nation. The findings were exactly the same as the one they previously confirmed in New Jersey. [12] “Someone who watched only Fox News would be expected to answer just 1.04 domestic questions correctly — a figure which is significantly worse than if they had reported watching no media at all.” This section, and the supporting evidence found within, affirms the resolution by presenting multiple aspects of dishonesty. It finds that Fox News is not upholding its duty as a news organization to present unbiased and correct information. It’s also demonstrating Fox News’s harmful effect on the U.S.’s democratic system, by contributing to the electorate’s lack of correct information about domestic and global activity. Due to a lack of characters left, I will now turn the debate over to Roy. Sources [1] http://www.au.af.mil... [2] http://www.mediabistro.com... [3] http://www.theatlanticwire.com... [4] http://www.realclearpolitics.com... [5] http://elsa.berkeley.edu... [6] http://www.washingtonpost.com... [7] http://www.pipa.org... [8] http://www.worldpublicopinion.org... [9] http://www.kff.org... [10] http://www.comm.ohio-state.edu... [11] http://publicmind.fdu.edu... [12] http://publicmind.fdu.edu...