There are some remarkable things about the USA (for example, where would you find billionaires – in any currency – coming together to commit themselves to giving half of their wealth away? Amazing)…
… but Fox TV is not one of them.
I was disappointed, but not surprised, to read that their ratings are soaring. But don’t count me among their fans. Here are ten reasons:
ONE
I find it staggering that a media outlet can claim to be legitimate and yet occupy, so transparently, only one place on the political spectrum. In reacting to what they perceive to be a left-wing bias in the mainstream media, Fox News makes little attempt to be balanced at all. They seem to swing to the opposite extreme and stay there. When does such a stance become mere propaganda?
[And I am writing as someone who has never voted ‘left’ in a political election – ever.]
TWO
It is not just the bias, it is the volume with which the bias is projected. Everything is so loud. Everything seems to attack the viewer in headlines, playing on our fears and anxieties to the point of becoming overheated and even irrational at times.
THREE
The volume is made worse by the brashness of the celebrity hosts in their stable. Messrs O’Reilly, Hannity and Beck are some of the most smug and arrogant people I encounter on TV – and I do find it distressing that each one, as far as I know, claims to have a Christian faith.
FOUR
I remain unpersuaded by some of the assumptions lying behind the unimpeachable vocabulary that is used on Fox News. What is this ‘freedom’ that is talked about? Sometimes it sounds like the ‘freedom’ being protected is nothing more than the ‘American way of life’, marked as it often is by things like over-indulgent consumption. What is ‘patriotism’? I’d love someone to give me a biblical basis for patriotism. I cannot find it – or construct it. I have yet to be convinced that God looks down from his heaven and sees national boundaries. There is one church and it is global.
FIVE
Why must every woman doing a news spot on Fox News look like she has been recruited from the latest Miss Universe pageant? What are the subtle messages being absorbed by the women (and men!) who are watching? And this in a culture which struggles to find a beauty beyond the skin-deep and the youthful.
SIX
The USA is a large country at the center of the world. To some degree we all revolve around it. The USA does not need to define themselves by going outside themselves in quite the same way as we do. This means that Americans, quite understandably, can live in a bit of a bubble. And in its approach, Fox News builds and strengthens that bubble – while I would suggest that the first principle in being an American Christian is to burst the bubble and make extra efforts to see the world from other perspectives.
SEVEN
Those little segments of news stories which fill the time between the main shows (“…and here is something you might find interesting…”, or however they say it) are a little annoying, aren’t they? Over the months, I have watched how they have this capacity to make small stories seem big, while ignoring many a big story – thereby making them small. As a Christian living in this world I find this unacceptable.
EIGHT
To identify a Christian perspective with one side of the political spectrum is always unwise. Fox News frequently leaves me thinking that God votes Republican. As for me I find voting in elections so difficult. My sense is that (in)justice trumps the economy as the primary issue about which to be concerned. Then when (in)justice is the focus for any length of time, attention will turn to ethics. Here is where it gets tricky. Will it be personal ethics, the great concern of the “right” (and Fox News) OR will it be social ethics, the great concern of the “left”. Voting becomes tricky because I want to be equally concerned about both the personal and the social. In the past I have leaned towards the personal/right – but it is no more than a ‘lean’…and I am not so sure about the future.
NINE
I know they would deny it, but there sure is more than a whiff of islamophobia hanging around Fox News from time to time. And yet in a society with such a good track record on ‘freedom of religion’, my understanding of the Islamic community is that they just want policies in place that treat islamophobia in much the same way as anti-semitism. Is that so wrong?
TEN
There are some truly remarkable things about the USA. But as I travel through Asia sometimes I shudder when I sense people building their understanding of what America is like largely from Fox News. That is sad, very sad. And it is ever so far from the truth. There are far, far better bits to America.
Yes, yes, yes – I know. I could just turn the TV off.
And sometimes I do.
nice chatting
Paul
[PS: to any American friends offended by this post, being offensive is not my purpose – although I do realise it may be a consequence. Sorry!]
About Me
the art of unpacking
After a childhood in India, a theological training in the USA and a pastoral ministry in Southland (New Zealand), I spent twenty years in theological education in New Zealand — first at Laidlaw College and then at Carey Baptist College, where I served as principal. In 2009 I began working with Langham Partnership and since 2013 I have been the Programme Director (Langham Preaching). Through it all I've cherished the experience of the 'gracious hand of God upon me' and I've relished the opportunity to 'unpack', or exegete, all that I encounter in my walk through life with Jesus.
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You may have already seen it, but there's a documentary called "Outfoxed" which pretty much says the same thing – its worth a watch! http://www.outfoxed.org/
Allow this American to offer his hearty agreement!
-d-
and this one.
I wrote this before the 'mosque at ground zero' and 'is obama a muslim?' debates really took hold …
Just staggering to read that a Pew Survey finds that 29% of evangelical Christians in America consider Obama to be a Muslim. And that in the country so synonymous with 'freedom of religion' (anyone else remember when Jerry Falwell spoke out on behalf of the Moonies?) that this mosque/center issue has been allowed to escalate so much.
And I do wonder how much Fox News is lurking in the background – and the foreground, for that matter.
Well said. I think you're my new best friend.
Tim
I recently met an American couple who told me confidently that Obama lied and he is Muslim, and they mentioned something to me about this ground zero mosque also. What I wondered was "where are they getting this kooky information???". I thought they must be deliberately searching the internet for the most unreliable sources. Now I know, they didn't even need to do that much…. Thanks for your analysis.
Emperor Rupert makes good money out of feeding those delusions though doesn't he?
I read a fascinating book for my Integrative by Chris Hedge, 'Empire of Illusion'; he says:
“There have been other historical periods with high rates of illiteracy and vast propaganda campaigns. But not since the Soviet and fascist dictatorships, and perhaps the brutal authoritarian control of the Catholic Church in the Middle Ages, has the content of information been as skilfully and ruthlessly controlled and manipulated. Propaganda has become a substitute for ideas and ideologies…The culture of illusion thrives by robbing us of the intellectual and linguistic tools to separate illusion from truth.”
It scares me a bit how much information (or should I say 'infotainment') Emperor Rupert controls, including popular Christian sources.
Thanks Paul 🙂