Eric Boehlert: Media ignore a monster story -- the brainwashing of Covid zombies

[babylonsister]

Media ignore a monster story — the brainwashing of Covid zombies
Trump voters gone mad
Eric Boehlert
6 hr ago

snip//

Millions of conservative Americans are being brainwashed about the pandemic, and thousands are killing themselves in the process. Yet the media downplay the huge story, framing it simply as “vaccine hesitancy.”

The number of Americans who are dying every 36 hours from Covid now surpasses the total number of U.S. soldiers who were killed during 20 years of fighting in Afghanistan. It’s an entirely preventable crisis, yet it rages because we have people like the red state restaurant owner who is kicking out patrons if they refuse to take off their masks. It’s pure nihilism.

The mindless behavior is hard to describe, and the rest of the world must be looking on in slack-jawed astonishment as Trump voters lead a mad movement powered by Fox News. The network is doing what no other outlet has done in the history of television news — it’s deliberately getting people killed during a public health crisis by feeding eagerly gullible red state viewers a mountain of lies.

From PizzaGate, to QAnon, to the current anti-vaccine and anti-mask hysteria, the GOP has been brainwashed. It’s no secret — lots of victims openly admit it. Still, the press shies away, nervous about offending conservatives by portraying them as mindless zombies being easily duped about a miraculously safe and effective vaccine. (It’s the same reason news outlets refused to call Trump a “liar.”)

Instead of calling out the Covid zombies, the press coddles them, especially white, Southern ones, depicting them as merely “vaccine hesitant,” “vaccine-reluctant,” or “vaccine skeptics.”

more...

https://pressrun.media/p/media-ignore-a-monster-story-brainwashing

[Botany]

1. Fox News should be charged with homicide because of all their misinformation.

Millions of conservative Americans are being brainwashed about the pandemic, and thousands are killing themselves in the process. Yet the media downplay the huge story, framing it simply as “vaccine hesitancy.”

The number of Americans who are dying every 36 hours from Covid now surpasses the total number of U.S. soldiers who were killed during 20 years of fighting in Afghanistan. It’s an entirely preventable crisis, yet it rages because we have people like the red state restaurant owner who is kicking out patrons if they refuse to take off their masks. It’s pure nihilism.

The mindless behavior is hard to describe, and the rest of the world must be looking on in slack-jawed astonishment as Trump voters lead a mad movement powered by Fox News. The network is doing what no other outlet has done in the history of television news — it’s deliberately getting people killed during a public health crisis by feeding eagerly gullible red state viewers a mountain of lies.

[SammyWinstonJack]

8. Misinformation...is really outright lies. Fox News should be charged.

Allowed to lie because it's viewed as entertainment?

[Tommymac]

33. It's DISinformation - even worse.

MISinformation can be due to an honest error or misunderstanding.

DISinformation is INTENTIONAL.

Cuff 'em Danno.

[BidenRocks]

14. Charles Manson

Only the method has changed.
Same result X hundreds of thousands.

[Evolve Dammit]

20. Agreed. It's really fucked up the country and the world watches in disbelief as to WTF has happened

[lostnfound]

2. "Secret" information is one lure, tribalism is another

Last edited Wed Sep 22, 2021, 03:58 PM - Edit history (1)

For many people it is unthinking loyalty to their social groups that leads them to never reconsider views that others planted.

But for some, they are addicted to the feeling that they have stumbled on “secret”information. I have a friend who tells me conspiracies to hide what’s really happening-with “dangerous” vaccines… I talk to hear about fat-more-dangerous covid and people dying in ICU’S, and she basically says “everyone knows about that” There’s no need to talk about it because everyone knows it..

She subconsciously satisfies her desire for “secret knowledge”.

I emphasize my great desire for ordinary, scientific knowledge. I’d rather learn biochemistry. I’d rather read some medical papers.

[Turbineguy]

21. This 'secret" information is seductive

I remember being the only person in my circle who listened to "underground" FM radio in the late 60's. Los Angeles had two stations then, KMET and KABC. It felt really good to know in advance what were going to be the latest hits. It felt powerful. Of course, it didn't kill people.

[alwaysinasnit]

3. I get the point and I agree with the author, but I'm bothered by the resulting conclusion;

that these zombies bear no responsibility for the choices they make.

[babylonsister]

5. Who concluded that? nt

[alwaysinasnit]

6. My conclusion, I guess. If someone is brainwashed, I don't think it happens overnight.

I believe there are choices along that road, and as such, the person undergoing that process seems to give up on any critical thinking. I may be missing something here, but I believe that there is some free will that, at some point, fails.

[babylonsister]

7. You are kinder than I am. With the amount

of legitimate information being screamed from the rooftops, I can't give them a pass.

[alwaysinasnit]

9. Please don't mistake me, I will never be able to forgive their utter selfishness, contempt

and hatred they have for us "libruls." I am pretty much out of sympathy too.

[Harker]

4. We're well beyond "hesitancy." n/t

[certainot]

10. yeah eric, and it starts with rw radio, which you often ignore to attack fox and facebook

like this crap:

Trump voters lead a mad movement powered by Fox News.

fox is powered by rw radio

the trumpers are like the teabags, dependent on long term unchallenged focused repetition only the rw radio monopoly can do.

his more important point that they're being mischaracterized is important but a guarantee if trump hadn't gotten limbaugh to call it a hoax from the start and led 1500 radio stations in covid, mask, and vax attacks and disinformation we'd be in a completely different place and fox would not be doing what it's doing.

if trump/gop/putin would pay $1000/hr for rw radio, 1200 stations x 15hrs/day would be worth $90M/WEEK or $5BIL/YEAR FREE for them.

putin plays a bigger part in RW radio than people think, and it's probably happening in india, brazil, and mexico at the least

and those US stations are licensed to operate in the public interest - every advertiser, ad co, university and pro sports team that uses them shares responsibllity and guys like boehlert are in position to do something about it

[Orrex]

11. Fuck every last one of those zombies

Boehlert is correct about the media’s coddling of ignorant fuckheads, but I honestly can’t recall the media seriously attacking the Reichwing propaganda machine for anything, ever. Even the GOP’s favorite punching bag NPR refused for years to call Trump a liar. Why would they act to stop Fux Noise from killing people?

Our sacred Fourth Estate will happily sit by while thousands die, rather than risk being called Liberal.

[AdamGG]

12. Families of COVID victims should sue Fox the way people sued tobacco companies

Knowingly promoting death.

[BidenRocks]

15. Hell yeah! nt

[dalton99a]

16. +1.

[NBachers]

13. Be a "Vaccine Rebel" and join the "Vaccine Resistance!" As the Trump Slurper pile of corpses grows.

[traitorsgalore]

27. "Trump slurper pile of corpses", good one.

Very accurate description.

[gratuitous]

17. It's as if "vaccine hesitancy" just . . . happened

Nobody knows how it started, or why all these people in such disparate parts of the country have the exact same objections to getting vaccinated. There seems to be a certain uniformity of political orientation and some common sources of information, but it's just a mystery how it all came about. Even Hercule Poirot is stumped!

[joetubes]

18. Voter Suppression?

Voter Suppression of the best kind ! You can cure stupidity !

[Mr. Ected]

19. We have the press that we deserve. By allowing everything to be published without regard to truth

And allowing the people the right to believe what they may, freedom of the press becomes freedom to propagandize.

As there are no penalties to bald face lie to the press, there are no penalties for their lying bald faced to us.

Does it help that the free press is owned by corporations that have no conscience and no motive other than profit?

You decide. But I don't recall capitalism being mentioned in the Constitution. Our democracy is sound. The financial underpinnings of our country, though, have doomed it to ultimate failure. Blind capitalism is inherently dangerous. Without benevolence built in, we will continue to suffer and there's not a damn thing we can do about it.

[edbermac]

22. Night of the Living Brain Dead

[BaronChocula]

23. Yes and no

24/7 news networks that aren't Fox cover this plenty. News services like AP and Reuters are obediently non-confrontational where reichwing malpractice is concerned. Shame.

[DallasNE]

24. " It's pure nihilism."

I've been saying that for months. And we all know how that ended. You could say it died out.

[ladym55]

25. And when those Covid zombies are state legislators

The damage they do increases monumentally. In a state like Ohio, the legislature has (I think) seven bills against vaccine mandates, mask mandates ... you name it. As of yesterday, Ohio was fifth in the nation in Covid hospitalizations for children.

Not something to be proud of, but the legislators plow on with their lies and misinformation. Don't forget that it was Ohio's legislature that brought in the "witness" who tried to stick a key to her neck because she had been magnetized by the vaccine.

Covid zombies are fed by (a) Faux Noise; (b) their buddies in propaganda (OANN and Newsmax); (c) right-wing radio; and (d) social media (looking at you, Mark Zuckerberg!). This was not in any order of importance because all of these sources are in essence deadly.

M$M needs to stop being wishy-washy about this. Thousands of ill and dead Americans (when we have effective vaccines) do not constitute a "both sides do it" issue.

[Kaleva]

26. 74 mil+ voted for Trump. Fox News averages about 2-3 million viewers each night

Only a tiny percentage of adults in the US tune into Fox each night. About 2-3 million out of a population of 250,000,000+ adults.

https://www.adweek.com/tvnewser/thursday-sept-9-scoreboard-fox-news-once-again-outrates-msnbc-and-cnns-combined-audiences/488559/

https://www.reference.com/world-view/many-adults-live-usa-b830ecdfb6047660

While one sees numerous articles about how Fox dominates cable news, you don't see many comparing Fox to the broadcast news networks. ABC World News Tonight alone has about 4 times the viewers that Fox News Primetime has.

"Nielsen data for the week of Aug. 30, 2021 is in, and ABC World News Tonight with David Muir was once again the most-watched show on television, averaging 8.52 million total viewers for the week. It also remained the top evening newscast among adults 25-54, averaging 1.66 million from the key demo....

NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt averaged 1.36 million adults 25-54 and 7.12 million total viewers this past week, which is the newscast’s largest average audience in 25 weeks....

CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell averaged 5.16 million total viewers this past week, the show’s largest average audience for a week since April, and +10% more than what it averaged the previous week. "

https://www.adweek.com/tvnewser/week-of-aug-30-evening-news-ratings-world-news-tonight-remains-no-1-and-posts-year-over-year-growth-among-adults-25-54/488232/

Looking at the number of viewers each news show gets and roughly totaling them up, it appears that about 10% of the adult population in the US watch the news each evening and much of that is dominated by ABC, CBS and NBC.

Based on the above, I find it hard to believe that Fox is capable of brainwashing half the country or a quarter of it or even 10% of it.

[babylonsister]

29. It's not just faux, it's OAN, breitbart,

and many others.

[Kaleva]

30. About 10% of the adult population in the US watchs the news each night

That's CNN, ABC ,Fox, OAN, Newsmax, CBS, NBC, MSNBC

[Crunchy Frog]

28. The GOP is waging biological warfare against the United States.

The dying rubes are the cannon fodder.

That's the bottom line.

[live love laugh]

31. Just in time for Halloween 🎃

[ananda]

32. That's the exact right word: Covid zombies

When I learned that one of my best friends from
college had turned into a Covid zombie, it broke
my soul. I had thought she was so intelligent and
cultured, and she is when it comes to art and music.

But now she's totally insane, even dissing Rachel
Maddow and touting hydroxychloroquine and accusing
doctors of using ventilators to kill people... and
totally denying the deathly danger of Covid, claiming
it only kills less than 1% of people, and so on ad
infinitum.

It hurts my brain to think of her that way.

[lambchopp59]

34. Seems to me if some yokel is authoritatively dispensing "medical advice"...

Does this not fall under practicing medicine without a license?
I sure as hell don't want "Dr" Carlson's "prescriptions".