If you're older'n dirt like me, you may have grown up hearing the ol' bromide "sly as a fox" and I want you to know that Fox News is not only doing their part to keep people clueless, they're keeping alive the tradition of the sly fox with their stealthy deceit. I ran across this article on their site and I think it's a classic example of how Fox, at minimum, distorts information...when they're not outright lying.
I read the Steven Crowder piece because I followed a link from somewhere else and I'd been promised the "truth" about marriage and divorce in this country. Gee, did I have it all wrong? Are most marriages in this country really of the everlasting variety? I could see it was a link to Fox, but I assured myself that even they must have something, some numbers, to present, otherwise they wouldn't run with a story that contradicts common knowledge, right? And, maybe they'd even have a theory for why the trend is what they say it is and not what most of us can look around and see to be otherwise?
Mr. Crowder, a comedian who might want to consider stickin' to funny stuff if it's payin' his bills, had some numbers, alrighty. Well, he provided links to an interminably long U.S. Census report and an article in the New York Times. I'm gonna go out on a limb here and postulate that 99.9% of the people who read Crowder's mess never clicked on either link. They were probably too enthralled by the rant against the evils that populate the media and entertainment industries to be bothered in the first place, but the sheer length of text to read in the census report was no doubt the deal killer there and a lot of them would rather die than let their browser take 'em to a NYT site. I, on the other hand, had no such qualms.
Here's what Crowder was screaming about: It turns out that, literally speaking, it's statistically true that "most" U.S. marriages make it to the 25 year mark. "Most" means more than not, so they get this one if the number of marriages that don't end in divorce is 53% or 54%, as it apparently is. That means, of course, that fully 46-47% of them do not. Almost half. But Crowder never mentions any of these numbers in his article, preferring (my guess) to count on those who are habitually hypnotized by Fox's drone to revel in their joy that, once again, here was "proof" that the "liberal" media and entertainment is lying to us all. I don't think he expected anyone to actually see what the numbers might be.
I do understand that Mr. Crowder's article wasn't about anything a lot of people might consider to be news of critical concern to us all. It's not about the election in 2012 or violent conflict around the globe or economics or health care reform. But I do think this article could be considered a text book example of how Fox does what it does, which is to make people more stupid for the experience of hangin' out with them than they would be if they were confined in an isolated cave somewhere. It's a model that works for them and has clearly identifiable components.
1) You begin by understanding that if you want to reach the largest audience, it's more important to entertain than to educate. In fact, you must acknowledge and work around the fact that people don't want to be made uncomfortable with any information they don't like.
2) The messenger is at least as important as the message. If a large crowd is your goal, a comedian or otherwise colorful "personality" is more desirable than is any authority or otherwise informed person on the issues. Your messenger probably should not have alphabet soup after their names either, as it's almost a guarantee that some of us will drop out and dismiss (without hearing, of course) whatever might follow as elitism from...argh...intellectuals.
3) Make the message about the people who disagree with you, being careful to avoid any revelation of the basis of your convictions where they might be exposed for examination. Know your audience, and be sure to sprinkle all communications with words like "liberal," "leftists," and "lies."
I suggest you could take the plan I've outlined above and juxtapose it to almost anything on Fox and see that it's a plan they follow faithfully. The only thing I have yet to explain here is the audacity displayed in using the Lenin quote as a lead to the article that Crowder wrote. And that, mah friends, is number four in the fabulous Fox plan to slyly make you stupid...
4) Assert the "leftist liberal lies" mantra ad infinitum. Rinse. Repeat.
Ok, I do know where their audacity comes from. Fox does this because it works for them. It's not rocket science. In their relentless pursuit for the lowest common denominator, Fox News knows what will draw 'em in and if doing it another way would do the same thing, they'd change their business model. It won't, so they don't.
P.S. How groovy is it that Fox quotes Lenin?
"A lie told often enough becomes the truth." (Vladimir Lenin)