Saturday, April 18, 2009

It’s actually not a politics thing…

Well, the inevitable happened. After my short Fox News post yesterday, this appeared in the comments:

"Wow, and I guess you believe everything liberal NBC, CBS, ABC, etc tells you??"

No, I don't believe everything liberal NBC, CBS and ABC tells me. You see, I'm a completely rational adult and I'm capable of thinking for myself. I question everything I hear whether it's what I actually want to hear or not. It's for this exact reason that I hate Fox News.

It honestly cracks me up that people automatically assume my hatred of Fox News is a political thing. As I said in the comments of my previous post, it's not a politics thing it's a 'made up sensationalist bullshit thing.'

Here is exactly what's wrong with Fox News.

Some kid put a website online about his 'experiments' with a new way to get high, which consisted of putting human feces into a jar, sealing it, letting it ferment for a few weeks and then opening the jar and inhaling the fumes.

Fox News ran with the story and they reported on how this 'technique' started in Africa as a way for crack addicts to get high when they couldn't afford crack. How doing this was incredibly dangerous, could result in death and was 'widespread among teenagers'…your kids are probably doing this right now, the story inferred. This wasn't one stupid kid, it was literally, and I quote "A nationwide epidemic".

Awesome, huh? Good reporting to tell parents what to look out for.

Except for one of two things.

Firstly, the whole damn thing was a hoax. The website the kid set up showed a jar he'd filled with water, yellow food dye and nutella. Secondly, there were literally zero…that's right, zero confirmed reports of anyone, teenagers or otherwise, getting high off fermented feces…and even the part about this coming from Africa was completely and totally false. In fact, the only other mention of this technique came from a sci-fi short story from the early 90's.

That is why Fox News sucks. Not because of my political views, but because it is a network that routinely makes shit up off the top of their head for ratings and almost everything they report on is designed to scare the gullible.

I mean, think about it. Someone at Fox became aware of a single teenager's website about huffing poop-fumes and reported it as a lethal nationwide epidemic.

If that doesn't offend you. If being fed complete and total lies doesn't make you angry. If you'll watch and believe everything a news network because it tells you what you want to hear, congratulations, you're beyond stupid.

I don't hate Fox News because I disagree with their politics. I hate Fox News because they present pure, unadulterated fiction as 'news'

2 comments:

Kelly said...

I didn't see that story, but that's fucking hilarious! Kids inhaling fermented faeces as a national epidemic. Was that an Aprils Fools Day thing?

I actually don't tend to watch any of the news channels because they're so full of sports and sports BORE ME RIGID......I do read google news though and I was intrigued to read about Obama's half brother being accused of sexually attacking a 13 yr old girl in the UK, and him being an illegal immigrant there for about 7 years..that was on the UK google news site. He has apparently been denied reentry to the UK.

Tabloid bullshit, or a grain of tuth? Not heard a whisper about it on the US news sites....

Paulius said...

No it wasn't an April Fools day thing and that's my whole point. This was a totally fabricated story, designed to terrify parents and presented as actual real news.

It's also just one of about fifty I could mention...i really is the norm for Fox news, not the exception.