If FOX had been honest, I might not have lost family members to the cult

[Ohioboy]

I find myself thinking of how much better things might possibly be right now if FOX hadn't lied so much to their audience. I take it personally that they lied to my 90 year old mother.


Certainly this country would not be as divided as it is right now.

I think it's likely Jan 6 would not have happened all.

[SWBTATTReg]

1. Well, now that the cat is out of the bag, and that all have been revealed as lies to begin with,

won't they realize this and realize that all along, they have put faith in a lie all along?

[Ohioboy]

2. It won't be easy

FOX is not talking about their lies. In fact, Tucker Carlson is making things even worse with his coverage of the material he got exclusive rights to.

Of course I will tell my family that FOX has lied to them, but I've been saying that all along.

[Effete Snob]

6. Nope

Practically no one ever does that.

If you look at the stories of, for example, ex-mormons, evangelicals, etc., it's a process. It's a long process and it is not a path that many take.

Unfortunately, fast mass deprogramming typically requires a catastrophic event and takes a lot of people down with it. Jonestown, Berlin... can you imagine what will happen in Pyongyang when the wheels finally come off.

[Initech]

3. Fox created the MAGA cult.

They are 100% complicit in everything that's happened the last six years. They are not a news network, they're a hostile foreign intelligence agency working to undermine and destroy the US from within.

[Kaleva]

4. The Maga cult was already there. Fox tapped into it

[Celerity]

10. +1

[Kaleva]

5. With so many options, why did your mother decide to watch Fox?

Why would anyone? Probably because they liked how the news was presented.

[Ohioboy]

7. I wish I knew the answer to that

My mother used to be a very aware progressive person, always voted for democrats. I remember when I was young she and my dad took part in the Civil Rights movement and even participated in marches and protests.


I don't know how FOX got her. For one thing they were never showing her anything bad about Trump. I don't FOX viewers ever hear the whole story.

[Kaleva]

8. Have you ever asked her?

[Ohioboy]

16. Oh yes, I ask her all the time

Somewhere along the line FOX convinced her that they are the only source of truth, and that Trump is a victim.
FOX is truly good at propaganda.

[Kaleva]

17. But why did she start watching Fox?

What was it about that network that got her interested?

Fox has only been on the air since 1996.

[Celerity]

11. The Brainwashing of My Dad is a 2015 American documentary film directed by Jen Senko about her

father's transformation from a nonpolitical Democrat into a political Republican. The film was mostly funded by a Kickstarter campaign.

my add: This is pre MAGAt (just before, so the newest possible documentary on Fox and the RW media I know of before Trump) so shows the rot did not start with Trump. It was first shown at the Traverse City Film Festival on July 29, 2015, a month and half after Trump's infamous escalator ride/campaign kick-off in Trump Tower on June 16, 2015, so perfect timing as a harbinger of what doom was to come. The full release was on March 18, 2016.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Brainwashing_of_My_Dad

Synopsis

As Jen Senko tries to understand the transformation of her father from a nonpolitical Democrat to an angry Republican fanatic, she uncovers the forces behind the media that changed him completely: a plan by Roger Ailes under President Richard Nixon for a media takeover by the Republicans, the 1971 Powell Memo urging business leaders to influence institutions of public opinion (especially the media, universities, and courts), the 1987 dismantling of the Fairness Doctrine under President Ronald Reagan, and the signing of the 1996 Telecommunications Act under President Bill Clinton. The documentary aims to show how the media and the nation changed, which leads to questions about who owns the airwaves, what rights listeners and watchers have, and what responsibility the government has to keep the airwaves fair, accurate, and accountable.

Content

Senko's father, Frank, was originally a "nonpolitical Kennedy Democrat" who began changing into a far-right Republican in the 1980s, she said. On her father's lengthy commute to his place of employment, he listened to conservative talk radio, which Senko believes started the change in her father's personality. In particular, he listened to Rush Limbaugh and watched Fox News. Towards the end of his life, Frank's views mostly changed back to being somewhere in the middle due to his wife exposing him to less biased media. He died in January 2016 at the age of 93.

snip

The Brainwashing of My Dad (2015) - Full Movie

[Kaleva]

12. Why did he listen to RW radio and watch Fox news?

The father made a conscious choice to do so.

RW talk radio hadn't always been around nor has Fox. What did the man listen to on his long commute to work before Rush, Rush first aired in 1984, and what news did he watch before Fox, Fox first aired in 1996,?

I'll watch the video later to see if my questions are answered.

[Celerity]

13. he just drifted into it and was hooked, before that he watched mainstream news, if memory serves

As for the POS Rush's rise, you are correct about his first major show starting in 1984 in Sacramento, CA. He went RW openly in 1985, then went national in 1988 at WABC AM in NYC and with national syndication, truly exploding in the very late 80s/early 1990s:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rush_Limbaugh

In November 1983, Limbaugh returned to radio at KMBZ (AM) in Kansas City for a year. He decided to drop his on-air moniker and broadcast under his real name. He was fired from the station, but weeks later he landed a spot on KFBK in Sacramento, California, replacing Morton Downey Jr. The show launched on October 14, 1984. Limbaugh began to express his political opinions in 1985 when he mocked the Great Peace March for Global Nuclear Disarmament, which he considered along with the general anti-war movement to be "inherently anti-US, yet was reported as substantive and morally correct by a willing and sympathetic media". The FCC's repeal of the fairness doctrine—which had required that stations provide free air time for responses to any controversial opinions that were broadcast—on August 5, 1987, meant stations could broadcast editorial commentary without having to present opposing views. Daniel Henninger wrote, in a Wall Street Journal editorial, "Ronald Reagan tore down this wall [the fairness doctrine] in 1987 ... and Rush Limbaugh was the first man to proclaim himself liberated from the East Germany of liberal media domination."

1988–1990s: WABC New York City, syndication, and tie brand

In 1988, former ABC Radio Network executive Ed McLaughlin offered Limbaugh the nationally syndicated 12pm–2pm slot at ABC Radio Network to replace Owen Spann. Since many local radio stations of the time were hesitant to carry nationally syndicated programming during the daytime, he also secured Limbaugh a separate 10am–12pm show at WABC-AM in New York City to satisfy the provision of his contract requiring employment in a Top 5 market to leave KMBZ. Limbaugh began his new show at WABC-AM on July 4, 1988, with the first episode focusing on the Iran Air Flight 655 shootdown the previous day. His national program debuted on 50 stations the next month on August 1, and by three months later had expanded to 100 stations. He debuted just weeks after the Democratic National Convention, and just weeks before the Republican National Convention. Limbaugh's radio home in New York City was the talk-formatted WABC (AM), and this remained his flagship station for many years, even after Limbaugh moved to West Palm Beach, Florida, from where he broadcast his show. Limbaugh's show moved on January 1, 2014, to WABC's cross-town rival WOR (AM), its final New York outlet.

snip

In December 1990, journalist Lewis Grossberger wrote in The New York Times Magazine that Limbaugh had "more listeners than any other talk show host" and described Limbaugh's style as "bouncing between earnest lecturer and political vaudevillian". Limbaugh's rising profile coincided with the Gulf War, and his support for the war effort and his relentless ridicule of peace activists. The program was moved to stations with larger audiences, eventually being broadcast on over 650 radio stations nationwide.

By the 1992 United States presidential election, Limbaugh had established himself as an influential political commentator. During the Republican Party presidential primaries, Limbaugh expressed a preference for Pat Buchanan over the incumbent George H. W. Bush, which Buchanan himself attributed to his early success in the primaries. Bush's campaign subsequently worked to court Limbaugh, culminating with an invitation to stay overnight at the White House's Lincoln Bedroom. Limbaugh was also given a seat at the president's box in the Houston Astrodome during the 1992 Republican National Convention, and both President Bush and Vice President Dan Quayle appeared on Limbaugh's program. In November 1992, Democrat Bill Clinton was elected President of the United States. Limbaugh satirized the policies of Clinton and First Lady Hillary Clinton, as well as those of the Democratic Party in general. Following the Republican Revolution, in which the party regained control of Congress in the 1994 midterm elections after several decades, the freshman Republican class awarded Limbaugh an honorary membership in their caucus, crediting him with having had a role in their success.

snip

[Kaleva]

15. But he must have liked what he heard in order to continue to listen

You and I would have rejected what Rush was trying to push right off the bat.

[Meowmee]

9. Maybe it was a different situation with your mother

But most were / are fascists for a long time, and they like what they hear at fox or elsewhere. That doesn't mean that the daily lies, and craziness don’t need to be stopped.

[TheBlackAdder]

14. I have a feeling that Dominon is just the start of civil litigations against FOX News.