There’s a good article over at Salon about a fearmongering on FOX News. (Click here to read it.) It begins:
Bill Clinton’s election in 1992 gave rise to the American “militia movement”: hordes of overwhelmingly white, middle-aged men from suburban and rural areas who convinced themselves they were defending the American way of life from the “liberals” and “leftists” running the country by dressing up in military costumes on weekends, wobbling around together with guns, and play-acting the role of patriot-warriors…
I won’t bother getting too much into the article, since you can just go read it. It’s basically about FOX News fearmongering – now that Obama’s been in office for a month, I think they finally feel that they can start playing the ‘fear’ card without disparaging George Bush. They’re talking about the collapse of governments, a Mexican “narco state” (ruled by drug-dealers), Muslims overrunning Europe, Iran invading it’s neighbors, gangs and “motorcycle marauders” taking control of US cities, etc. Basically playing up the strong nationalism, strong military, the world around us is evil paranoia that drives conservatives.
At the bottom of his article is a couple of embedded videos from FOX News. Here’s a couple screen-captures. Take a look at this incredible display of fearmongering:
Tagline: “The Year 2014: Survival Skills Become Vital?”
Tagline: “If the US collapses, what nations will fill the vacuum?”
While he says these are all just “hypothetical” scenarios, he then says many people think these are “light scenarios” – that things could get far worse. Apparently, FOX News is trying to capture that highly desirable anti-government/pro-militia/end-is-near viewer. (Get your guns and run for the hills everyone!) Here’s a nice little bit of subliminal suggestion – watch the words appearing on the monitor on the right side of the screen:
“Destruction”
Words: “Enemies Within”, “Civil Unrest”, “God” (Wait – “God”??? Maybe they’re just trying to play up their commitment to religion. Maybe they’re suggesting the apocalypse.)
“Fallout”
“Failure”
Wow. Just wow. And keep in mind that everything being shown in the background was specifically chosen by someone. Someone was sitting at a computer, trying to figure out what graphics and words needed to appear in the background during this show. They thought, “Hmm, I think I’ll display ‘destruction’ on the screen, and have some police running in the background. And on the other screen will be Muslims burning an American flag.” All so calculated to inspire fear.
These guys have credibility? It’s amazing to think how high FOX’ ratings numbers are.
I hate Fox News about as much as any other self-respecting skeptic, and freethinking individual, but the scenarios presented by Fox News during this segment are frighteningly plausible. In fact, the thing the scares me the most is that Fox News, of all mainstream media outlets, is the one sort of “warning” its audience about this. I figured it would be just telling its audience to distrust Obama or Hillary, and that the economy is sound, and that we should give a fuck about some daughter-killer named Casey Anthony.
Now, Fox News is no stranger to fear mongering–hell, it’s one of the station’s specialties. Except, it’s usually instilling fear of Muslims, and anti-American Americans and other liberal-like liberals, and liberals, and even moderates, and violent video games, and exercise, and the French. But, instilling fear into its populace about the very government Fox News aims to protect, even under an Obama administration? That’s some weird shit!