and we wonder why Americans are so misinformed

[chidrummer]

For the 10th year in a row Fox News is #1 in the ratings [[?!!!!)

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/cutline/fox-news-top-cable-net-celebrates-10-years-145314917.html

Yet, the only people that really trust them are their own targeted audience:

http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/main/2012/01/3rd-annual-tv-news-trust-poll.html


Seems to me there was a time where the FACTS of a discussion could be agreed upon and then opinions differed. It may be that we as people have a hard time identifying the facts a news casts present versus the opinion.

[marv2]

Are you kidding me? How in the heck could Fox be number one in anything?

[MotownSteve]

#1 in watchers/listeners who know less than those who watch/listen to no news

[soulster]

Are you kidding me? How in the heck could Fox be number one in anything?

The Rupert Murdoch media machine! He's an ultra-conservative who has done all he can to push the far-right agenda in this country. Part of the reason it worked so well is especially because of the patriotic feeling we experienced after 9/11. Neo-cons and social conservatives have always wrapped themselves in the flag, God, and country, and they were the perfect way for Murdoch's Fox network, under the leadership of Roger Ailes, also an ultra-conservative, a way to climb way to the top. Of course, none of it could have worked without the largely ignorant public.

Give people quick, salacious sound-bites, and simplistic logic, and they eat it up. You might say that liberals are too intellectual to play the game. They are trying on MSNBC.

Thing is, the Fox news audience is White and getting older. However, this is the same bunch that has the time to watch more TV and has the time to vote.

[chidrummer]

An interesting outsider's view of the major American news sources. Would you agree?

http://www.jasonbeets.blogspot.com/2012/01/american-news-media-overview-much-of-my.html


BTW, we American's love our junk food by a HUGE margin over fare that is actually good for us. Someone who's good at drawing a crowd is often a long way from drawing truth as well.

[soulster]

From that link:


Talk Radio

Talk Radio in the United States is known primarily for being racist, inflammatory, and inaccurate. Most of the most popular talk radio personalities [[Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Michael Savage, Glenn Beck, Mark Levin, and Neil Boortz) fall into this category. The most popular talk radio hosts are conservative, but even some of the liberal commentators are known for inflammatory rhetoric that sometimes crosses the line. You have to get farther down the list to hosts like the conservative Laura Ingram or financial advise-giver Dave Ramsey before the hosts become reasonable.

Uh, no. Laura Ingram was the one who berated a Black woman for marrying a White man on her show a couple of years ago. She is also known for having made some pretty nasty comments about Obama.

I have yet to hear any liberal talk-radio commentator say anything as extreme and hate-filled as any of these conservatives. I've heard some inaccurate things, but nothing on the level of the above-mentioned far-right ones.

What concerns me is not these extreme right-wingers, but the audience that hangs on every word they burp.

[smark21]

#1 in Cable News, but still that's only about 4 million Americans. Which means there's over 200 million who don't watch.