STOP Framing "us"

How a select few of "them" are Framing all of "us"

Archive for the tag “Fox news frames”

Mitt Romney “frames” President Obama for his plan to “End Medicare as we know it.”

In an article written by Sam Stein of the Huffington Post, it was reported that Mitt Romney and a radical conservative group 60 Plus, simultaneously launched attacks aimed at President Obama and Senate Democrats for attempting to “end Medicare as we know it.”

Sam Stein pointed out that the most glaring omission in the Mitt Romney attack was “a mention of Romney’s own plan, which would create an optional voucher system for beneficiaries.”  A plan that is, “far more likely to “end Medicare as we know it” than what the president’s proposed.”  An optional voucher system is basically code for privatize it, which would mean that those who would stand the most to gain would be members of the “privileged sector.”

The conservative group 60 Plus focused their attack on the Democrats that are up for re-election in the Senate.  This attack consisted of a television ad accusing Senate Democrats of slashing Medicare benefits.   In reality, “the 60 Plus Association is spending millions of dollars to distract voters from the Republican plan to privatize Medicare which would make seniors pay thousands more for their coverage,” said Matt Canter, spokesman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.”

The trick is to literally “frame” the opposition (ie, President Obama and Senate Democrats) for GOP actions to end Medicare, and then endlessly repeat the linguistic frame of “end Medicare as we know it” on Fox news in order to convince as many people as possible that this misinformation is accurate, or should I say “fair and balanced.”

Once this occurs, and enough people are convinced, or duped into believing the George Orwell Party’s lies, then the GOP is free to hand the purse strings of Medicare over to the “privileged sector.”   As a consequence, the money needed to provide for the sick and elderly in America to sustain their daily living will be used to create the latest feeding frenzy in the Wall Street Casino, where only the house wins!

More proof that Fox news deliberately misinforms its viewers, and WHY watching Fox news leads people to do worse than those who don’t watch any news at all.

A recent study by Fairleigh Dickinson University, known as the PublicMind poll, found that some news leaves people knowing less.

The most revealing highlights of this study were the comparisons made between Fox news viewers and those who don’t watch any news at all.

Fox news viewers were 18 points less likely than those who don’t watch any news at all to know that the people of Egypt overthrew their corrupt Government, and 6 points less likely to know that the people of Syria were not yet successful in overthrowing their corrupt Government.

Dan Cassino, political science professor, and one of the analysts for this PublicMind poll, “Because of the controls for partisanship, we know these results are not just driven by Republicans or other groups being more likely to watch Fox News.  Rather, the results show us that there is something about watching fox News that leads people to do worse on these questions than those who don’t watch any news at all.”

What is it about watching Fox news that grossly misinforms its viewers?

Simply put, Fox “frames” facts!  Here is a brief summary of this framing effect.

-       According to the Fox news network, Liberals are taking money away from hard-working Americans through “tax and spend” policies, and are using the revenues to support “wasteful Government programs” (EPA, FDA, Dept. of Energy) and giving free stuff to “welfare recipients” who don’t deserve it!  Liberals are also bankrupting our country through funding of “entitlement programs” (Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid).

In reality, here are the facts!

Conservative politicians are taking money away from hard-working Americans by favoring a tax policy that continues to lower taxes on the top 1% (while increasing the burden on the bottom 99%)

The revenues generated are going straight to the top 1%, since this elite group now enjoys an historic low 35% tax rate, as opposed to the average rate of more than double this figure throughout the 20th century.

The Environmental protection agency (EPA) and other Government agencies are being “framed” as wasteful, since keeping our air clean to breathe and our water safe to drink is cutting into the profits made by this elite group.

As far as giving free stuff to those who don’t deserve it, billions of taxpayer dollars are given to corporate jet owners, and hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars are given to dirty energy (oil, coal, gas) companies that don’t need them!

We are not going bankrupt because of providing health care to sick and elderly people in need.  We have a massive deficit because we have continuously lowered the top tax rate on millionaires and billionaires, and because of two unfunded wars president Bush decided to “frame” as necessary to bring freedom to the Middle East.

In the end, there is something about watching Fox news.

Fox is the poster child for the common “frames” being generated by right-wing think tanks and language experts that are used to convince us of an ideology that appears to make sense, but one that is detrimental to our health and well being, as well as our intellect!

As this study shows, such deliberate misinformation by Fox news stands in direct contrast to those who listen to NPR (non-profit radio station), or read the New York Times, for instance, and the best informed people were those who watched Sunday morning news programs.

According to Dan Cassino, “the real finding is that the results depend on what media sources people turn to for their news.”

Bottom line:  We have a choice.  We can continue to be victims of the Fox news framing effect, or we could actually learn something about our country and the world from watching Sunday morning news, listening to NPR, or reading the New York Times.

 

 

 

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