How Has Fox News Infected Your World?
You have a chat with a friend, a family member, a neighbor, a co-worker, maybe a guy sitting next to you at a bar. You hear their love for Donald Trump and their hatred for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. You learn they think Biden should be impeached and his son Hunter’s laptop is a grave danger to America. You feel their anger and grievance: How about those open borders and all the criminals coming into our country? And that Capitol attack was no insurrection, probably a false flag operation. Tucker is right. Putin is the kind of strong leader we really need. Why are we wasting our money in Ukraine?
You go to your gym, the local sports pub, the airport, perhaps you visit a military base. Every TV you see is turned to Fox News. Don’t even try to ask anyone to change the channel. Who wants the fight?
And that time you mentioned your gratitude for COVID vaccines and they told you they oughta arrest Fauci? Maybe you pushed the point and noted that over a million Americans died from the virus and you get stuck in a conversation about all the heart attacks vaccines are causing—we shoulda stuck with Ivermectin, they say. Call January 6 a deadly day and they look at you like you’re a total moron who knows nothing about what really happened: Don’t tell me Biden won in 2020—he never left his basement, they say. No, they didn’t watch those Democrat hearings about Jan. 6. It’s all political—just trying to bring down Our President.
So much misinformation and disinformation spread by Fox. It’s hard to overstate the impact and infection Fox’s “news” operation has caused in America’s body politic. But I suspect it has touched all of us one way or another. How has Fox News infected your world? Maybe it’s changed—even ended—your relationship with friends or family members. Perhaps the way you talk to neighbors, co-workers or even strangers is different now—if you still talk at all. Maybe you’ve lost someone in the pandemic who was convinced by a Fox host to not get vaccinated.
I think it’s useful to chronicle these experiences, especially at a moment when there’s a rising tide of voices asking how much longer will Rupert Murdoch and his enterprise remain free to poison our democracy. (My dispatch about Murdoch was one of a number published yesterday by friends and colleagues questioning how to stem the dangers of Fox.) Please do be respectful toward each other in your answers.
Become a paid subscriber to join the conversation with every post, not just Saturdays.
*Photo via Getty Images.
Can I just say to everyone here: I am grateful for your sharing your experiences with us, including those that have been quite personally painful. By shedding light on the impact, it helps make change possible.
Here is how it has infected my world:
I was looked down upon by members of my family for being a liberal even before Donald Trump.
I had to detach myself from my relatives who are Republican, because their relatives by marriage we're not safe to be around via Fox and Trump.
I was not invited to a wedding, because of my relatives allegiance to Republican Fox world.
My aunt and uncle went insane verbally attacking Muslims in their Western New Jersey town, to the point where I told them to stop the car one time and let me out. They had been brainwashed by Fox News. That same aunt had Hillary Clinton toilet paper in her guest bathroom, which I'm sure she got from an infomercial on Fox News. It got to the point where I was calling my uncle on the down low from my aunt, as he was dying with Alzheimer's and he didn't know where I was. He died last year and not only was I not informed of his death, I was barely mentioned in his obituary and not by name. She had cut out his entire family, my blood relatives because they weren't on the MAGA train I'm sure.
If you're Liberal or Center Left, you are automatically demonized by Trump supporters, who think they are superior to you, which is hilarious as they are the ones who always play victim.
A former coworker of mine came to work infected with covid and refused to wear a mask because MAGA. I was infected with covid, but I can't prove it's from him, and have been suffering from long-term covid for about a year now. I lost two jobs because of it.
My former best friend is an anti-vaxer, and ended our friendship because she claimed that I got covid from the vaccine which is something that Fox News pedals in.
It's amazing when you try to do the right thing in this country, and be on the correct side of History, what a lonely path it is. I have no regrets from losing all these people in my life. I can sleep at night. I hope they can sleep at night too when this country collapses because of them..
Oh yes and I stopped being a poll worker in 2018 because I saw what was coming.
I'm a 60-year-old woman living in Los Angeles. My golden years shouldn't be like this. Thank goodness I'm a fighter.