I watched OutFoxed this past weekend. It was interesting. I picked up it up because Fox News just started getting carried in Canada, and I was kind of curious about it. The most interesting thing for me is that I recognized all the same techniques that I've been used to seeing from our lovely Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, only in reverse.
The one thing that's different is that Fox is a bit more 'American' in the way they do things. The CBC is more passive aggressive in the way they attack the right whereas FN is a bit more aggressive and brash. The unwavering loyalty to the party is there though, and the uniformity of thought. The same tricks of pitting a weak opponent against a strong home team player. The absolute conviction that they are right. Propaganda is always the same though isn't it? Repeat a lie often enough, and people believe it. If we don't talk about it, it doesn't exist.
I think the only way to take either the CBC or Fox News is as entertainment, and mentally separate yourself from the idea that they are actually talking about things that might influence our lives. Watching Bill O'Reilly be a dick-head is about as fun as watching Rex Murphy be a dick-head, for many of the same reasons.
I'm sure that listening to the CBC's cross country checkup is as liable to make a right winger go apoplectic as listening to a right wing call in show will turn leftists to apoplexy. I scream at my radio listening to both. The leftist attitude that the government is the only trusted source of anything and everything, and the rightist one that all good spews from the loins of capitalism and sucks at the teat of Adam Smiths rotating corpse, make me equally disgusted.
The internet has been wonderful for finding a third way. All news is biased. The bias can be as simple as the focus of what is covered, to outright lying. What is interesting is that now I can find groups of people who wear their bias on their sleeves. I read the stuff from Infoshop and A-Infos. I follow the Politics and Propaganda section at Canadian Gun Nutz, and I also follow the Rabble at Babble, and lest I forget, anarchoblogs feeds me some cool posts as well. What is interesting is what real people are following quite often bears little similarity to what is being reported in the media. To a certain degree my biases are influencing what I see, but I do try and keep a broad spectrum so as not to live in an echo chamber. Some blogs I follow mostly because they aren't in line with what I believe. The Shotgun drives me nuts, but occasionally I find something there that is worth following up. Someone there a few weeks ago started researching the Elections Canada website and found that a lot of charities, municipal governments, native bands etc. were donating to the Liberals, and no other political party. I followed the link and made some interesting discoveries myself about some local charities, which I will call them on at some point. This was not followed in the major media, but I thought it was very interesting. Some things that are in my beliefs aren't as relevant to me. There are some posts on A-infos that I'm sure are very cool, but I really can't be bothered following some european anarchist groups' actions in minute detail, no matter how cool what they've done is.
I think that's part of why I do watch the mainstream media. I want to have a perspective on where the passive majority is getting it's news from, whether the left or right. Quite often I'll be having a heated debate polite discussion with someone, and I'll realize that somewhere along the lines, they've played that old game of telephone. You know, where a group of people whisper something in the next persons ear once, and then they pass it along. It's never the same by the time it gets round to the last person. They heard something which I also heard, but somehow it got morphed into something else. I realize that the other person has a looser grasp on unreality than I do, but at least I understand where things are going wrong.
When I was about seven years old, my parents gave me a book. It was called Between The Lines, and it was from Montreal's Black Rose Books. It was designed as a textbook on how to detect media bias. I treasure the education that book gave me. It has ensured that I won't get trapped by a Fox. Or a government funded monstrosity like the CBC...
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