Actor Russell Crowe clues in dumb putz, Stephen Colbert

newsbusters.org ^

[Conserv]

Rather than scorning the network, Crowe acknowledged the success of Fox News while explaining the rationale for why it exists in the first place:

[Conserv]

Yeah, well, what he(Roger Ailes) was saying, though, is that people don't really want to be informed. They don't want all of the details. They just want to feel informed. They want to think at some point in time in their mind that they've got that covered, you know? So he was playing into that. But also, you've got to know that, you know, Roger, many, many times over the years, said if he hadn't have had seen a certain bias in media, then Fox News could have been the exact opposite because he was looking for the open area of the market. And it was in his estimation that CNN, that MSNBC, CNBC, you know, C-SPAN, ABC, NBC, CBS, The Times, The Post, everybody had a left-leaning bent, so to him what was available was a conservative audience that was being under served. And that proved to be very true because now you have one single news network which dominates half of the available audience.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Or as Charles Krauthammer put it, Roger Ailes identified a niche market: half the American people.

[Telepathic Intruder]

"People don't really want to be informed. They just want to feel informed."

More accurately, liberals don't want information. They only want something that will confirm their bias.

[Conserv]

I like that

[sphinx]

That is a GREAT comment by Russell Crowe. Exactly right, and presented in a way that no leftie can dispute.

[laplata]

To the Left, the Truth is whatever they want it to be. Damn the facts.

[gaijin]

Oh, man, THAT was a perfect punch right in the face..!

THAT is going to really hurt.

[BBQToadRibs]

Russell really framed that explanation perfectly. It’s impossible to deny there was very much a void in the media serving a right of center audience. Even now there’s not a lot of competition compared to left of center. Left of center it’s a dogpile and they are happy to attack each other to grab a few points in the market.

[Jan_Sobieski]

Exactly! Nailed it. They only want talking points to confirm their bias. That is what the lib media give them.

[central_va]

Yeah, well, what he(Roger Ailes) was saying, though, is that people don't really want to be informed.

Not exactly....

[Savage Beast]

In the Soviet Union and in Nazi Germany, the news was controlled.

In 21st century America, in the decadent phase of Western Civilization, the news is controlled.

In the USSR and under the Nazis, government controlled the news. In the present USA, control of the news appears to be voluntary, but is it? I some entity, e.g. the deep state, actually controlling it?

In any case, the end result is the same: relentless propaganda. Half the population accepts it without much question. Half the population knows it's propaganda and seeks TRUTH from sources other than the official party line.

Under the Soviets, some people had clandestine radios, trying to learn TRUTH, at great risk, from Western sources, which at that time were either truthful or struggled to be truthful.

America has not reached that point--at least not yet--but the propaganda machine is widespread--almost ubiquitous. It has commandeered Hollywood, American universities and the rest of the education system, most of the TV news outlets, and the major internet organizations.

The official groupthink--the party line--is broadcast constantly, relentlessly, ruthlessly. Any opinions contrary to it are oppressed--constantly, relentlessly, ruthlessly.

There was a time when the free exchange of ideas was celebrated throughout America and its institutions. This was especially true of American universities, where teaching students to think and to search for TRUTH were the high ideals.

Such ideals were crushed under the weight of contempt for TRUTH--TRUTH for its own sake--as it became the overriding evil at the very foundation of Western decadence.

Only a few decades ago, we couldn't imagine how George Orwell's nightmare could be established in the USA. We couldn't imagine how the people would allow it--or how any significant number of public leaders would be willing to establish it or even want to establish it.

Today we know all too well.

We see how the propaganda convinces large numbers of people that 2 + 2 = 5, how corrupt politicians and their fellow travelers work to seize control of the USA and subvert it to their own purposes and how their propaganda machine convinces half the population to let them get away with it.

Today we see America teetering on the brink of a hideous abyss in which Orwell's nightmare scenario is a horrifying reality. Half the population is trying to pull her back from it and send her soaring once again into the heights of TRUTH and ascendancy. The other half, apparently, wants her to fall into the abyss...

[a little elbow grease]

Yep

[gunsequalfreedom]

Or as Charles Krauthammer put it, Roger Ailes identified a niche market: half the American people.

Had not heard that one before but very good. Thanks for posting it.

[mewzilla]

FNC isn’t what it once was.

And since the sale, it’s not likely to be ever again.

[GOP Congress]

Keep in mind that the Left is not willing to listen to the “reasonable” explanation that Fox News is dominant mainly because it is the only media source that presents both sides of all issues. The Left wants to completely OBLITERATE the side they don’t like, and would rather destroy or unperson individuals who aren’t communists in the first place.

[Chode]

"in the future political parties will become television networks."

and there it is...

[vpintheak]

I didn’t take this as an endorsement of Fox, or as a slam to the enemedia at all.
What it sounded like is that Crowe said Fox was created to feed the conservative bias, and inform them. Just fill a hole in the market, not anything about truth and honest reporting. But still, nice to hear this anyway.

[GBA]

I keep trying to explain that to a liberal, CNN addicted friend by reminding him how “Nature abhors a vacuum.”

There would be no want or need for a Fox News if the other stations had not been utterly and completely dominated by their indoctrinating “liberal only” thinking.

And, of course, I am obviously wrong about that, which he enthusiastically and sarcastically informs me while citing examples from Fox.

Whatever ... have a nice day.

Our world has that “interesting times before a big one” feeling.

We know we are smart precisely because we have eyes that see without seeing and ears that hear without hearing.

[sphinx]

Not exactly....

Look at broadcast "news" overall, cable as well as broadcast. Doesn't matter if you watch Fox or anything else. ALL of it is embarrassingly bad. Much of the print media is not much better. People tune in for viewpoint validation and entertainment. A majority of them get their "news" from Facebook, Twitter and late night comics.

The news junkies are probably less than 15 percent of the adult population. And I use the term "news junkie" very loosely.

[mumblypeg]

It’s called “infotainment”.

Interesting parallel, I remember similar complaints from feminists like Andrea Dworkin about the way Playboy & Penthouse magazines legitimized the degradation of women.

The magazines did this by juxtaposing spread-eagled photos of women with current events, political & cultural articles & interviews.

Consumers of the porn were re-imaged, from perverted creeps into worldly intellectual men of refined tastes.