As asked on Daily Show last night, is FOX news stupid, or evil?

Evil.

stupid.
Why would they out the second largest share holder? That’s just… not surprising, actually, considering the way they’ve been doing things lately.

HAHAHAHAHAHA. I can’t wait to see it. That one is just too much. I vote for stupidity.

Definitely both.

Who says it can’t be both?

(sigh) God help us all!

Stupid. I mean, normally I’d vote evil, but they’re saying that their boss is evil? Stupid.

Don’t shit where you eat.

It’s a rare breed of idiotic evil. ( a strain similar to that found within the Tea-Party).

Those choices aren’t mutually exclusive.

The news from my neighbor about how her garden is growing is genuine and valuable. The news from you about how the ingrown toenail hurts is genuine and valuable.

News from National Media is stupid and evil. All of it.

If news coverage specializing in issues important to conservative
Americans isn’t for you.

Don’t watch it.

News died decades ago. All we have left is propaganda and spin.

It’s biased. It’s truth filtered and altered especially for conservatives. Why anyone would want to watch news they know is biased (MSNBC counts too, on the other end of the spectrum) is beyond me.

I guess I don’t have much to add since I really don’t watch news stations like that. I get most of my news online from Google…

They are both evil and stupid. A dangerous combination.
It really is a sad state of affairs when the the most accurate source of news on US television is a 20 minute comedy show.

Lets stay on target here people…. is Fox News Evil, or Stupid :P

@RealEyesRealizeRealLies exactly, i believe fox is a bunch of pompus morons

Fox News finished the first quarter of 2009 as the second-most-watched cable network in primetime, behind USA Network.Somebody trusts them.

I’m not one of them.

@Austinlad Wait USA is the most watched cable network???? That station is TERRIBLE. How the heck did that happen??? Does Walker Texas Ranger REALLY have that big of a following?

@Austinlad

This country elected Bush twice, so that doesn’t necessarily surprise me. Sometimes I just forget that Massachusetts and California don’t represent all of America…

@tedd No, Walker Texas Ranger doesn’t have that big of a following (any more). What does: Monk, Psych, In Plain Sight, White Collar, Burn Notice

@tedd yes it does, everybody knows that if you dont watch it chuck norris will hunt you down…... and nobody wants that

Chuck norris lives on a deserted island inmidst a sea of his own tears.

Chuck norris does not sleep. He lies awake in regret.

Since they purposely avoided mentioning the leader’s name (thereby discouraging anyone from doing further digging around on him), I’m going with evil. It’s actually quite evilly smart on their part to count on their follower’s lack of independent knowledge and prey on their fears. Smart, but they’re still asshats.

@RealEyesRealizeRealLies, I don’t agree that “news has died.” Great writing and objective reporting are still around; you just have to look harder to find them in the midst of all the crap.

@augustlan I just think it is too big of a risk to take. Even if their loyal followers may not investigate, people like Jon Stewart might. I think if they were smart they would have been hoping no one else came up with that info, not putting partial info out there. You might be right though stupid like a fox is what we say, hahahaha, I love that the expression has fox in it. But even if they were trying to be sly foxes, it still is a stupid risk in my opinion.

@JLeslie Yes, but rabid followers of Fox News aren’t likely to watch John Stewart. Judging from past experience, even if they did hear the information elsewhere, it wouldn’t sway them. In their eyes, Fox can do no wrong. It’s sad, really.

@augustlan Well, you do have a point. But then why even bother with a half truth? Why not make up something out of thin air that basically can’t be researched at all; which would have no paper trail.

@JLeslie You have a point, too. I’m sure they’ve done it before, so I don’t know why they wouldn’t this time. :)

Fox is always evil, sometimes stupid too. In this case, I’d guess stupid as well as the usual evil.

Since just about everything on the tube is to some degree stupid, Fox would thus also qualify.
@RealEyesRealizeRealLies correctly points out that there really is no news anymore, only propaganda. Propaganda is only as evil as the people who actually believe it (otherwise, it is just talk). So I suppose some folks are going to decide that Fox is evil as long as they see somebody believing the elements of Fox broadcasts that are truly propaganda.

@josie Do you think PBS or BBC put forth only propaganda?

@cockswain you think they don’t? Please! Julia Child was a front for the dairy lobby put in place to get americans to eat more butter!~

@Dr_C I said only. Besides, the crux of Julia Child’s show was only to eat butter?

@cockswain did the tilde mean nothing? I tried my best to denote the sarcasm.
Also… if Bob Ross was not a walking “legalize marijuana” campaign I don’t know what is.

I think they are more evil, but they have healthy amounts of stupid in there.

Everyone needs to quit getting their panties in a bunch over Fox news and realize they are just entertainment.

just like the rest of the “news” channel are

@jonsblond Who has to realize? The people who hate Fox News, or the people who love it?

@JLeslie both ;)

I was unaware that the two were mutually exclusive.

Evil all the time. Stupid on occasion.

@jonsblond Fox doesn’t present themselves as “just entertainment” and they are not only viewed as legitimate, truthful news but are the sole source of news for a disturbingly large number of people. They are right-wing propagandists and hate mongers. So it’s worth calling them out again and again. As the great Nazi propagandist, Joseph Goebbels said, “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.”

Well, the corollary is also true. If you tell the truth enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.

Here’s the clip, for those who haven’t seen it yet.

@ETpro Fox doesn’t present themselves as “just entertainment

I know this. My point is MSNBC is just as stupid and evil. They (all news organizations) are entertainment for those that are intelligent enough to know better. We don’t give people enough credit for making their own decisions, and like to blame the faulty news organizations because we have nothing better to do.

After watching the clip (thanks @augustlan), I will now make John Stewart and the Daily Show my most trusted unbiased news source. I had no idea that such scholarly and disciplined men of integrity such as Team Evil and Team Stupid were available to set me straight on the issues.

How fortunate am I to have found such an excellent source of world events.

@Dr_C Sorry, I’m bad at noticing the tilde, as well as remembering what it means. Bob Ross was awesome.

@jonsblond I think the difference to me is msnbc’s very biased shows are evening entertainment, this particular Fox show is their morning news program. When I watch Maddow or Olbermann, which is rare, I don’t like them too biased, I know where they are coming from. Most right wingers do not feel Fox shows are biased.

Keith Olberman way out there but love the one segment worlds worst, Racheal is one of the most well thought out, researched and prepared journalists on TV. MANCRUSH anyway fox tv is so far right that it would take 3 lefts just to get back to center. sorry.

I saw Jefferson on the history channel and couldn’t help but laugh at the hypocrisy of Glenn Beck who adores Jefferson. Who by my view was just a very good writer. as a man he would never live up to Glenn as he shirked the constitution with his war against lybia and the louisanna purchase. But I’m sure he admires his tactics of printing salacious lies, and then letting the printer spend time in jail. I believe he has been quoting Martin Luther King Jr.

‘There will come a day when we will Judge a man not by the color of their skin but on the stength of his character.’ (I hope I said it right) So if you judge his hero you would see a true republican who deserted his state as govenor during its darkest hour, benefited from slavery, lied about a mans character for political gains, left a friend who helped him succeed politically rot in jail for nine months, almost caused a civil war when he
rigged the election with Aaron Burr.

Finally and this is absolutely the most delicious thing I could ever share on this subject. Glenn Beck just yesterday morning spent many minutes gushing over his hero George Washington who as it turns out was the creator of the National Debt. Yes George Washington followed the advice of Alexander Hamilton and nationalized the states debt over the objection of Jefferson who did not like the power of a centralized government until….

Yep he became president then it was the consti what now?

SOOOOO this has to be EVILLLLLL!

@jonsblond As @JLeslie pointed out, the Op Ed shows in MSNBC’s evening lineup are presented as just that, Opinion Editorials. They are not disguised at news. That said, they even Ed Schultz’s The Ed Show and Keith Olbermann’s Countdown actually strive to report facts, not pure spin and outright lies. As far as I know, Fox is the only supposed “news” channel ever to go to court to defend its right to fire any reporters who will not lie on the air.

The right claims to hate moral relativism, but they rely on it heavily to defend their propensity to propaganda, falsely claiming that everybody is the same.

I will grant you that even true news organizations like ABC, NBC, CBS, The New York Times and The Washington Post have some bais. But they certainly do not just spout one party’s political talking points and knowing lie and sue for the right to force the cooperation of any reporter who finds out the story is false and doesn’t want to broadcast. Fox is no more a legitimate news agency than Pravda was under the old USSR. They are political propagandists, pure and simple.

Both! And great question, by the way :)