Fox News Jumps the Shark by Calling Their Own Viewers Socialists

Last updated on February 8th, 2013 at 11:54 am

Don't Miss Sarah Jones's Essay On Kristi Noem Titled Predatory Is The Point On The Daily.

Fox News completely jumped the shark today by calling anyone who wants Social Security and Medicare a socialist, and never realizing that they were attacking their own audience.

Here is the video from Media Matters:

John Tamny of Forbes somehow turned a question about the budget into an unintentional attack on the viewers of Fox News. Tamny said, “Well, the tax increase is ridiculous. Because we don’t have a tax problem, revenue problem, we have a spending problem. And when you look at entitlements, I think they’re all an abomination. I don’t think any of them should exist. This is something that should be done elsewhere. But we did make these promises, so the idea should be not entitlements, but to basically say those nearing retirement age are going to be made whole. But for those of you who are not congenitally socialist, who actually want to control your retirement, you can opt out of these various programs. You don’t have to participate in Medicare of Social Security, and that’s how you cut entitlements without cutting off the people nearing retirement.”

Republicans are always talking about keeping Social Security and Medicare in place for those who are “nearing” retirement age, but they never define exactly what they mean by nearing. Do they mean people who are one year from year from retirement age will be covered, or those who are 10 years away from retirement age? This is a critical question because nearly half of Baby Boomers have not saved for retirement.

Speaking of those Baby Boomers, a lot of them watch Fox News. The average age for a Fox News viewer is 65. Those over age 55 are Fox News’s largest age group. According to a Pew study, the largest segment of Fox News viewers by income (33%) make less than $30,000 a year.

Thus, Fox News called the majority of their viewers socialists for wanting/need to take part in Social Security and Medicare.

Are Fox News viewers bright enough to understand that they are the socialists that Tamny was talking about?

Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association