While the article below does an excellent job in defining the culprits of misinformation, I think it gives the mainstream media a pass. The mainstream media must accept responsibility for their ineptitude.
Fox News has big numbers on cable. It seems like all the other channels in order to attempt to garner some of those numbers allow Fox News the ability to drive the news cycle many times. Moreover they allow some of the misinformation to be treated as plausible or the valid other side of an intelligent debate. This is generally never the case (death panels? killing grandma?, government take over?)..
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Misinformed USA: Why average Americans vote for Republicans
March 23, 2012 By: Robert Sobel
One can only wonder why average working class Americans would vote for a party that is so obvious in their bias towards the wealthy. It would make sense that someone in the top 1% of the income bracket would vote for the Republican party since they have the wealthiest American’s best interest at heart. You could even make the case that highly religious Christians would vote for Republicans even though, at times, they vote against their own best economic interests. So the question remains, while scratching your head, why do working class Americans vote for Republican candidates?
I recently sat down and spoke with an acquaintance of mine, trying to get a grip on what people are thinking about the future of our country. He said he will vote for Mitt Romney because, "we need a business person to get our debt down." I asked where he got his news, and after trying to deflect from the question, the answer finally came. "I don’t pay attention too much, but when I do, I watch Fox." Fox News is the primary source for information for millions of Americans across the country and that’s where the problem starts.
Whether it’s Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity or other right wing ideologues, Fox News is a tunnel vision information outlet with only one particular agenda that is being pushed through. Millions of Americans watch Fox News, listen to the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Neal Boortz, Michael Savage and others while getting information from right wing think tanks like the Heritage Foundation and the Cato Institute. With big businesses and billionaire allies, the truth and facts in American have gone from a clear right and wrong, black and white situation to muffled shades of gray. It’s not to say that Fox News, the Cato Institute and others like them totally lie because that would be too difficult to pull off. What these think tanks do, is take a fact and twist it to fit their own personal agenda, leaving out key information that would contradict with the platform they’re trying to create.
Misinformed USA: Why average Americans vote for Republicans – Orlando liberal | Examiner.com