Discussion for article #236528
Remarkably enough, everything we said for the last 9 years–and for which we were accused of being “paranoid”–has turned out to be exactly true. Funny old world, innit?
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Meanwhile, a 2014 study by The National Bureau of Economic Research found that the likelihood of voting Republican increased by 0.9 points among viewers who watched “four additional minutes per week.”
IF I sTOP watCHIng I"LL go FULL LIbtard!1!!!one!1!!!
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Fox News…Pete Peterson’s 1 BILLION dollar propaganda campaign about the debt, citizens united…it all adds up to a protracted war on fact
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Mr. Marshall, I so want to thank you for linking this piece by Mr. Bartlett. I read it yesterday and, yes, it all does make perfect sense to me. I’m just so glad there is so much information and reference in one place – and by a Republican, at that. Thank you, Bruce Bartlett, as well.
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I feel the general impact of television, its effectiveness, has lessened in the postmodern world partly from the expansion of the media stage with various competing digital platforms but mostly, from increased public awareness of past ham-handed efforts to politically manipulate with the medium.
An old public TV pledge break axiom says that the longer the pledge break is broadcast the more successful that break will be in generating cash…short break = little cash, long break = maximum cash.
Additionally, all public TV control room audio booths had a recording of telephones ringing to be used if call-ins to a pledge break were few and far between…Before tape airs = 0 calls, after phone ringing tape airs = multiple calls.
This is what once made TV advertising so powerful, secured its past regulation and what still confuses old school leaders who still imagine, post truthiness, one TV appearance locks-in their marketing strategy.
So, the old powers plotting to secretly control TV once had a real prize in their sights. Ironically, the successful efforts to secure that prize coupled with technological advances have brought about not quite what billionaires paid for and what old H.W.'s minions worked so hard to achieve.
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Well…we know what we have to do.
Yes…but we do have cakes on this side.And will bake them for nearly everybody. 
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Hmm…I know that for cheap entertainment when I didn’t have much money, we used to call in during the pledge breaks to hear our call ring and see it be answered. And we absolutely did hear a phone ring to our call and saw the person answer that we would then be talking with.
So I am not sure how much of that I am going to believe.
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I’d also argue that it’s turned the Republican primaries into shit fests that have been killing them in Presidential elections. Granted the true wingnut candidates haven’t won, but candidates have to tack so hard right to win the primary it destroys their credibility to win with the public at large.
2000 McCain and Massachusetts Romney–both candidates I at least had some respect for–would have had far more support from mainstream voters than 2008 McCain and 2012 Romney whom were caricatures after their primary fights. 2016 is shaping up for more of the same, where we see candidates tripping over themselves trying to orally service fringe tea party voters.
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Of course real calls happened. What I described was to lure calls during dead times, real cash calls not the usual run of teenage crank calls that are also standard in these situations. Believe what you will…
Habeas corpus, but some ghosts think they are libtards. See, A Casual Vacancy.
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Interesting observation. You’ve articulated what I suspect most of us – toward the left, at least – have sensed: That the GOP’ers go so far to the right they lose credibility. When they try to win over the birthers, the fetus people, the climate deniers, etc, they turn people off.
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So when people are exposed to a message, they are somewhat swayed by it. Duh.
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Fox news should be illegal.
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I believe the accepted term for what Fox News has been doing for the past decade is “propaganda”.
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A biased message.
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All the good Republicans are dead.
The FOX Effect: “Convincing Americans that sickness and ignorance are virtues and must be pursued with all vigor.”
FOX is where rich white people are paying other rich white people to convince middle class people to blame all their problems and fears on people of color and poor and helpless people.
http://thepoliticalcarnival.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/foxshines.jpg
FOX: We Distort…You Comply!
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Bruce Bartlett just figured this out? That Fox pushed politics to the right? Commenters here at TPM figured this out long long ago.
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