One question about Ebola on Fox News Sunday demonstrated why viewers that watch Fox News are more times than not insane.
Video:
http://youtu.be/VquPTdPlNto
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Transcript:
WALLACE: What are the chances — another question — what are the chances that illegal immigrants are going to come over our porous southern border with Ebola or the terrorists will purposely send someone here using Ebola as a bio-terror weapon?
FAUCI: OK, two plots to the question. I wouldn’t be worrying about illegal immigrants coming from southern borders when we have an issue right now with Ebola in West Africa. I mean, that’s a hypothetical, that’s very far-fetched.
As far as terrorism, nature right now, Chris, is the worst bioterrorist. I’m worried more about the natural evolution in West African than I am about a terrorist.
WALLACE: I also suppose, if you’re going to do a bio-terror weapon, Ebola isn’t the most effective one.
FAUCI: That would not be — if I were a bioterrorist, that would not be my choice.
WALLACE: Because it doesn’t —
FAUCI: No, it would be inefficient. Nature does it much worse than a bioterrorist.
The question itself was insane, but millions of Fox News viewers are sitting at home wondering when those “illegal immigrants” will be bringing Ebola to the United States. The question itself fits in with the warped view of the world that Fox News holds.
The Fox News view can be broken down into three parts:
1). Illegal immigrants are bad people who want to cause good God loving Fox News viewers like you harm.
2). Terrorists are around every corner, and they want to cause good God loving Fox News viewers like you harm.
3). Barack Obama is a bad man who has failed to keep you safe, and he wants to cause good God loving Fox News viewers like you harm.
The underpinning of every insane Fox News question is that President Obama is an incompetent occupier of the White House who will bring harm to Fox News viewers. It is easy to understand why Fox News viewers are crazy. The Ebola question was an example of the sort of paranoid, fear inducing hysteria that Fox News specializes in. The message from Fox is always that the black man in the White House can’t be trusted, because he’s, you know, black.
Wallace’s question is the sort of thing that regular folks who haven’t had their mind melted by Rupert Murdoch’s paranoia machine laugh at, but this mentality has infected the Republican Party. It’s why Republicans are investigating Benghazi for the 800th time, or why they continue to believe that the IRS targeted conservatives and Obamacare is a government takeover of healthcare.
Fox News viewers have been taught that they only trust Fox News. Fox takes that trust and fills their heads with half-truths, Republican talking points, and crazy thoughts like terrorists using Ebola to kill us all. Next month, families around the country will be sitting down for Thanksgiving dinner where millions of them will hear a usually, older relative say something crazy. That burst of insanity didn’t just fall out of the sky and bump them on the head. It came from a carefully orchestrated plan to create fear and mistrust in order to get more Republicans elected.
With one question, Chris Wallace demonstrated how watching Fox News can make a person crazy.
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
