Fox “News”: Fair…
We wouldn’t be where we presently find ourselves — mired in a pointless foreign war, looking down the barrel of undisguised executive despotism, and teetering on the precipice of national insolvency — were it not for the capacity of Americans to believe passionately in things that are patently untrue.
… and balanced.
I refer to a specific form of dogmatic credulity, the kind displayed by those who accept as truth — or at least a suitable substitute — practically anything that is said by a political official or apologist, as long as the figure in question is “on the same team,” however that “team” is defined. In the Bush Era the most common manifestation of this mind-set takes the form of “Talk Radio Bulimia” or “Fox News Reflux”; those who suffer from such afflictions earnestly regurgitate the pre-chewed soundbites fed to them by the media organs of the Bush Regime, convinced that by doing so they are imparting genuine wisdom and insight.
Most who suffer from those afflictions — and I say this in utter sincerity — are good and decent people. They are not depraved or consciously dishonest. They simply don’t understand the extent to which they have surrendered control over their opinions to paid professionals in the art of manipulation.
The people I’m describing have had their synapses scrambled through prolonged exposure to high-potency indoctrination of the sort depicted here:
