Tonight, Bill Maher hosted a panel discussion about the polarization of our country – and he fingered Fox News as the main culprit. He got major applause from the audience in response.
Maher said:
I feel like the reason the people are so polarized is Fox News. I think of all the things that changed in America, Fox News changed the most. It used to be the John Birch Society came to your door once a year. Now, they’re in your TV in your living room every day and we don’t even know how to talk to each other. It’s like we have a language barrier...
While I agree with Jerry Seinfeld, one of the panelists, that you can’t “blame it all on Fox News,” Maher is spot on about Fox's polarizing effect and the enormity of its impact on our country. However, in my opinion, Fox's propagandistic tactics - the way it whips up anger and resentment for the sake of advancing its agenda - are what give it its punch and perniciousness. More so than its ubiquity.
By the way, while nobody else on the panel wanted to join Maher’s condemnation of Fox, nobody argued that the “fair and balanced” network isn’t polarizing, either.
Watch the discussion below.
(H/T Mediaite)
The next two years will be more partisan gridlock. Our only hope as a nation will be if the Democrats win both the WH and the Congress in 2016.
In late May 2007, I participated in an anti-war demonstration in Highland Falls, NY which is located right outside the Thayer Gate entrance to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. The reason the demonstration was held there was because it was graduation day at West Point and then-VP “Five Deferment Dick” Cheney was giving the commencement address. My car had two 9/11 themed bumper stickers that read as follows:
“ANNOY A REPUBLICAN — THINK FOR YOURSELF”
“BUSH KNEW ”http://www.copvcia.com">http://www.copvcia.com"
Mark my words: those two bumper stickers made a pro-war PFC (Privileged Fascist Chickenhawk) attending this demonstration REALLY, REALLY MAD! Not long after I parked my car at a nearby Dunkin’ Donuts, I caught him red-handed trying to deface my car with red spray paint, a hammer (he nearly broke the winshield) and a car key. Fortunately for me there was a local cop nearby who spotted this creep — he ARRESTED HIM RIGHT ON THE SPOT — and I later found out that he was FINED $500 for what he did.
