Saturday, February 28, 2015

The problem with calling out Fox News hosts on their lies it that it makes them that much more attractive to their audiences.

See? I win.
Courtesy of Raw Story:  

The media keeps piling on Bill O’Reilly, and so do viewers. Amid mounting criticism of his past “war zone” recollections, the Fox News firebrand delivered his highest ratings of the year, Nielsen Media data shows. Last Monday night’s edition of “The O’Reilly Factor,” in which the television-show host addressed some of the criticism lodged against him last week by Mother Jones magazine, averaged 3.3 million viewers, up 14 percent from 2.9 million the previous Monday. 

This is not the first time a controversy has helped boost O’Reilly’s audience. In 2004, his audience rose 30 percent amid allegations that he sexually harassed a colleague, CBS News reported at the time. 

Viewership of news programming is notoriously unpredictable and typically fluctuates with specific news events. But for much of this week, O’Reilly himself was the news -- the target of one attack after another from media outlets and former colleagues who accused him of embellishing or flat-out lying about his role in past news events. 

Judging by Fox News’ prime-time ratings since the Mother Jones story broke, it appears either more people are tuning in to “hate-watch” the host or his core audience is responding to the controversy with a collective shrug. O’Reilly averaged 2.9 million viewers Tuesday and 3.1 million Wednesday, the most recent days for which data is available. Wednesday, he attracted 705,000 viewers in the demographic range between 25 and 54 years old that is highly prized by advertisers, a 24 percent increase from the same day the previous week, as Variety reported.

I guess when your audience is made up of ideologues who only want their fears, prejudices, and conspiracy theories backed up, being caught telling multiple lies is not that big of a deal.

However, and I still think this is an important point, destroying the credibility of Fox News and its hosts ultimately helps in spreading actual news without fear that an alternate version will vie for acceptance by the viewing public.

Remember much of the Fox News demographic is inching closer to death every single day, and the younger views, much as the above article indicates, really seem to watch Fox more out of morbid curiosity rather than with any expectation of seeing any actual news.

19 comments:

  1. Boscoe4:52 PM

    Is anyone surprised by this? Did anyone really believe that Fox would be "embarrassed" and pull Billo off the air? This just reinforced his "liberal media martyr" status. Duh.

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  2. Anonymous5:05 PM

    totally OT but would luv the evangelical's take on this >> http://higherperspective.com/2015/02/space-seed.html?utm_source=cleo&ts_pid=2

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  3. Anonymous5:49 PM

    The only way faux noos get the message is going after their advertisements, works for Glenn beck & Limbaugh

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  4. Anonymous6:24 PM

    Yes, O'Reilly's Fabrications Are Damaging Fox News

    ...Messy Fox episodes like O'Reilly's don't bolster the network's standing, at least not journalistically."By journalism ethics, Fox should distance itself from its truth-challenged employee," USA Today advised in an editorial.

    Year after year, newsroom embarrassments like O'Reilly's undermine Fox's credibility to the point where it seems more and more journalists today start with a working assumption that Fox is not a legitimate news operation. That represents a major shift from President Obama's first year in office and it's a key reason why O'Reilly's fabrications matter. (The fewer journalists who view Fox News as being legitimate means that less of Fox's misinformation has an impact beyond the right-wing media bubble.)

    There are other clues that the ongoing O'Reilly storm has taken a toll: If the fabrication controversy has been such a home run for Roger Ailes and company, why has the rest of Fox team remained largely silent on the subject? If it represented a win, wouldn't colleagues help O'Reilly circle the bases while taunting the "liberal" media?

    Also, there's a problem with the idea put forward by some commentators that O'Reilly's initially blustery response to the Mother Jones story was proof that he was winning; that he was in his element condemning his critics. But if that's true, what explained O'Reilly's radio silence after Media Matters confirmed that had had fabricated the JFK-related story, and then his muted response after the El Salvador revelations. If braying insults at his critics meant O'Reilly was driving the story early on, his subsequent stillness must have meant he'd lost control of it, right?

    http://mediamatters.org/blog/2015/02/27/yes-oreillys-fabrications-are-damaging-fox-news/202696

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  5. Anonymous6:27 PM

    Fox is great at propaganda, I'll give them that. They've very successfully set up this frame of reference that any outside criticisms are just attacks from the "enemy". Such attacks only embolden the idiots that lap up the nonsense that Fox feeds them.

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  6. Anonymous6:27 PM

    The vast majority of Americans believe Fox News host Bill O'Reilly should resign, be suspended without pay, or apologize if he lied about his experiences as a reporter who supposedly reported from combat zones, a new poll finds.

    http://mediamatters.org/blog/2015/02/27/poll-if-oreilly-lied-he-or-his-network-must-res/202703

    Former O'Reilly Producer Tells The Associated Press: Hyperbole And Exaggeration Are "Baked Into" O'Reilly's Persona

    ...

    The only way O'Reilly can be seriously damaged is if more allegations about his statements come forward from sources other than partisan organizations, said Joe Muto, a former O'Reilly producer fired by Fox after he began writing an anonymous blog as the "Fox mole."

    "Ultimately, he'll survive this because he's not held -- by his bosses, or the public, or himself -- to the same standards of truth-telling as Brian Williams is," Muto said. "People expect a certain degree of hyperbole and exaggeration from O'Reilly. It's baked into the job description. It's part of his persona."


    http://mediamatters.org/blog/2015/02/27/former-oreilly-producer-tells-the-associated-pr/202707

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  7. Anonymous6:30 PM

    Only 35 Percent Of Americans Still Think Bill O'Reilly Is Trustworthy

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/27/bill-oreilly-trustworthy-poll-fox-news-lie_n_6770314.html

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  8. DontHatetheGame6:33 PM

    Of course his ratings would go up - people are tuning in out of curiosity to see how the idiot will respond. I almost did but I have this crazy thinking that every time I turn my channel to Fox News I'm counted as one of the millions that love them. Not sure how that works, but I use the same reasoning that if I click on Sarah's page she's sitting there counting the number of people viewing her crap and the next thing you know I'm one of her FANS!!!

    I digress.

    Let's wait and see what Billo's numbers are once this shit dies down.

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous9:32 PM

      That's what I think.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous3:25 AM

      They are tuning in to see if his head explodes. Nothing is more interesting than an auto or train wreck. People come out in droves to see them all the tie This is no different.

      Delete
  9. Anonymous8:46 PM

    Who gives a sh*t what the viewers think?

    It's all about the money.

    Just like El Rushbarf Limpballs what matters is the sponsors.

    Limpballs was exposed as a toxic spewer of hate and bullshit.

    Then the pressure was turned up on the fat ratfucker's sponsors.

    Ratings are way down and the low quality sponsors that are left actually DETRACT from Limpball's impression.

    That is how to roll.

    Expose the lies and Fucked Noise will keep giving Billo some more rope so he can continue to proceed, probably becoming even more unhinged in the process.

    Meantime the brown rubs off on everyone around Billo.

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  10. Anonymous8:49 PM

    off topic but the skank was at the lamedog finish still spouting a 2016 run. fuck you skank

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  11. Anonymous8:58 PM

    O/T Gryph, did you see this strange Palin in Juneau footage where her face doesn't work quite right? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JifklfyG3WA

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  12. Anonymous9:03 PM

    I can say that I have never watched Bill O'Reilly on FOX! I've heard enough about him throughout the years that make me find him repulsive and uninteresting! He is not physically attractive either!

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  13. Anonymous10:06 PM

    People love a train wreck and they love controversy. This compares to how Palin got so much attention for her crazy speech in Iowa but very little attention when she showed up to CPAC cleaned up, dressed up and acting like an adult. Boring. Palin is boring unless she's acting unhinged and Bill O is boring unless he's lying or going the full on crazy defending himself. Most people tuned in just to see if we were going to have a full on Bill O meltdown; those are too fun to miss!

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  14. Anonymous11:02 PM

    Someone commented earlier about how effective the Fox propaganda machine actually has been.

    When a person earning minimum wage instantly goes all rabid in a tirade about how increasing his own pay will bring on the end of civilization, you have to accept that Fox has done an amazing job.

    When a 7-11 assistant night manager lists his top concerns in life, as overtaxing of the rich, too many regulations preventing corporations from making any profit, women by the tens of millions using abortion as their preferred means of birth control, and how diseased, ISIS trained Mexicans are pouring over the border to steal all the 7-11 jobs---then you know Fox has beat the Nazis at their most famous game.

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  15. Bill F2:18 AM

    Even on their best days less than 1% of Americans are watching Billo. None of his viewers have the ability to learn anything. Let them watch in their anger and ignorance and forget about them.

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  16. Anonymous4:40 AM

    Bill O'Lielly was spouting off to a base that loves to feel persecuted and is terrified of the outside world. IMO, people speaking up about his lies only fire up the base more. We saw the same thing in action after the tale of Screechy's Wild Ride, when reality-based people shook their heads and said, "It couldn't have happened that way" and Screechy's base responded with shrieks of, "You just hate women! She's soooo preeeeeettttty!"

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  17. Anonymous7:16 AM

    the Devil decieves the ignorant with the wolf in sheep's clothing. gee but shes prrreeeetty! liars find strength with those that feed off each others lies.

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