In a HuffPost Live interview Tuesday, Viggo Mortenson explained why he thinks it’s important to watch Fox News and why he can only take it in small doses.
Mortensen said about our modern media, “We have this way of communicating and all this digital means of finding out anything, almost anything… and yet people use these constantly evolving means of communicating instantly… to reinforce their own point of view. They don’t generally use them to find out other things.”
Mortensen, however, revealed that he takes an interest in other points of view. “I do listen to Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity and Mike Savage, and I do watch Fox News once in a while,” he said. But he added, “I can only take small doses of it because they’re so appallingly shallow and manipulative. ... It’s like watching like a really bad movie. It’s like watching an Ed Wood movie and going, ‘Wow.’ …Well, now that’s an insult to Ed Wood, actually. But, you know, like a horror movie – they’re just poorly made.”
He described left-wing radio as “generally talking points as well.” But on left-wing radio, “There’s more of an effort to deal with facts. …Maybe there are sins of omissions and so forth on the left as well. It’s generally not as brazen a form of lying as you get from Fox,” he said.
Mortensen, who has lived all over the world, suggested that American media is less comprehensive than in other countries. “You do have to make an extra effort in this country if you’re watching TV and listening to the radio to really inform yourself,” he said. “You have to look on the net, you have to find coverage that’s gonna be more well rounded or you’re really not going to have a good idea of what world you’re living in.”
Hear, hear!
Video is no longer available, but you can read the HuffPost article here.
H/T Mediaite
I loved A Walk on the Moon. I forgot he was in that. I’m a big fan of Diane Lane, too.
I recommend A History of Violence and Eastern Promises (A personal fav) if anyone is interested in two of Viggo’s finest movies.
(I’m so out of it on pop culture, I have absolutely no idea who Viggo Mortensen is, but I approve of him anyway.)