Fox News’ Effect of American Civilization

Re: the meme at left that a reader sent me, I would say that the introduction of Fox News in 1996 was the result of an epiphany that the entire business world had around that time, to the effect that the gloves are off!  The goal of U.S. commerce should be to fleece the American customer, rather than to serve and peacefully coexist with him.

Now, to be sure, news is the very best example of this.  Until about 30 years ago, news wasn’t an industry; it was a public service.  Think of Walter Cronkite.  But in the mid-1990s, some brilliant minds came to realization that “news” could morph from a fairly honest presentation of unbiased facts at 6 and 10 PM each evening, to a 24-hour-per-day for-profit assault on the American people.

If it might be possible to divide Americans, young liberals could be sold yoga mats and Subarus and older conservatives could be sold flags and remedies for constipation.

Now, it’s true that Fox News was the first and most trusted standard in the “news” industry’s efforts to pull us apart.  It’s been an experiment in ripping us off, at the same time producing hate and ignorance, and it’s been an extremely successful one indeed.