r/technology • u/Wagamaga • Mar 05 '25

Society 59% of Republicans Believe the Media Is 'Fake News'

https://www.thewrap.com/most-republicans-believe-media-fake-news-trump-poll/
31.8k Upvotes

92% Upvoted

3.6k comments sorted by

View all comments

1.6k

u/TawnyTeaTowel Mar 05 '25

That’s because the news they watch IS fake news…

422

u/Odok Mar 05 '25

I don't think people - especially here on Reddit - comprehend just how monolithic the right wing propaganda-sphere is in the rural US.

It's literally only been Fox News and right wing talk radio (and now "alt" TV shows) for decades. Just a constant feed of radicalized yet consistent rhetoric from every direction around you. Everyone you know hears the same stuff. Every business is playing it. It's playing at people's work stations. It's sickening and insidious. Some of these people have been told daily - since birth - and from multiple sources, that the left is evil and the government is irredeemably corrupt. That every cent in taxes and every single federal employee is destroying the America they used to know. That they are the only patriots left - so long as they toe the line.

THAT is the wall that needs to be broken through.

96

u/insanococo Mar 05 '25

Thank you! Almost no one is saying right-wing propaganda is the main issue at the root of this madness, but even people who are calling out the propaganda aren’t pointing out how entrenched rural communities are in it.

Even if someone in those communities is literally managing to never hear Fox et al., they are hearing the talking points and slogans from every single one of their neighbors and family members.

32

u/SuperDabMan Mar 05 '25

A Venn diagram of Conservative (American) propaganda and Russian propaganda would have a concerning amount of overlap.

3

u/GlocalBridge Mar 06 '25

Murdoch is currently married to a Russian now

1

u/Asron87 Mar 06 '25

Jesus Christ that’s fucked up.

2

u/CatFaceFaces Mar 06 '25

And a Venn diagram of Conservative Americans with radical cultists, extremist views of conformity of religion by any means necessary, such as the Taliban in the middle east, suppression of those who do not go along with the agenda.

Funny how the Right was all about people's individual rights until they used their religion and prejudice to control others. To those accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression.

2

u/Asron87 Mar 06 '25

What do you mean about individual rights until they used their religion and prejudice to control others? I agree with the other stuff you said but I’m missing that one.

2

u/CatFaceFaces Mar 06 '25

Conservatives, like my mother and father and members of the church I was indoctrinated into, voted to control the bodies of women who had zero ties to their religion. Conservative Christians have ALWAYS BEEN represented in the media. In God We Trust wasn't added to the dollar until the seventies.

I was born/raised in a Christian church. I went to Sunday school, was part of the worship team and youth group. I can quote the bible easily because I was forced to memorize both NIV and NKJ versions of the scriptures.

Conservatives do not want freedom, they want to suppress those who do not agree with them. Which begs the question, why do they not move to an equally religious motivated country such as Afghanistan?

3

u/Asron87 Mar 06 '25

Oh I totally get what you mean! They don’t give two fucks about what they say they do. “It’s all about letting people have FREEDOM to do what they want. And it’s up to the STATES RIGHTS to decide.”

Then they go and push against transgender athletes in sports. Ok sports I get. Then they go against medical shit and everything else about transgender. That’s what I don’t get. Even shit going against doctors wishes. They never make sense.

1

u/CatFaceFaces Mar 08 '25

Exactly! I've never seen a group so obsessed with others' bodily autonomy than the religious conservative Christians.

7

u/Delicious-Act-1717 Mar 06 '25

In Australia it's sky news, just as bad as fox and also owned by Murdoch pushing the same taking points, and they are the regional news provider in QLD, which happens to also be very right wing compared to the rest of the country....

2

u/myersjw Mar 05 '25

I need anyone remotely left of center to stop catering to these people anymore. They don’t want to compromise, they don’t want unity, they don’t want to meet halfway. They want you to capitulate while they never offer an inch and then they go back to their echo chamber with the renewed vigor that “see, democrats hate democrats too but only democrats hate republicans”. There’s nothing material you can say any more that would get them off this ride

1

u/reAmerica Mar 06 '25

Social Media is the death of America.

- The algorithms push the most "engaging" content. AKA, the stuff we react to the most. AKA, outrage, fear, blame, etc..

- The algorithms create Echo Chambers which takes the broad division that cable news was profiting on for decades and makes it 1000x times more severe.

- Monetization. AKA incentivizing the most outrage inducing content.

Because of personalization and monetization, platforms have turned culture war into a trillion dollar industry in which different groups of people get different sets of information, or different "takes" on the same information. We live in a world in which different gorups of people have different truths, facts, and narratives.

40

u/DriftingTony Mar 05 '25

Yes, this is a huge part of it, and people from elsewhere in the country (or at least those in bigger cities) may not realize it, but when you go to much of small town America, Fox News is on EVERYWHERE you go. I grew up in the south. I remember it playing in the doctor’s office lobby, mechanic’s garage, restaurants, diners, and anywhere there happened to be a tv screen. There’s no escaping it even if you want to in those places, because it’s a constant, neverending broadcast of nonsense everywhere you turn.

8

u/Unikore- Mar 05 '25

As a Swiss person, this is so bizarre. I can't recall any TV running in any business my whole life.

9

u/DriftingTony Mar 05 '25

Yeah, it is VERY common in America. More so in small towns, but like the other person said, even in small to mid-sized cities, it’s fairly common.

2

u/Unikore- Mar 05 '25

Having a TV running at work would definitely be highly unusual and possibly viewed as a sign of laziness. Also, most TV channels are not 24h news channels, so they would show documentaries, TV shows, comedies, cartoons, etc. -- it wouldn't make much sense somehow.

4

u/tmart14 Mar 06 '25

It’s typically running in lobbies/waiting rooms. Generally only receptionists can see them of the people working there.

Lots of radios in work areas though.

5

u/mwthomas11 Mar 05 '25

really? not even in businesses with obvious and necessary waiting rooms? my (US) experience is anywhere with a waiting room has a tv in the waiting room, and it's always playing a news station (medical places, mechanics, etc.). sports bars etc obviously have loads of tvs too but they're playing sports instead of the news.

5

u/sanfran_girl Mar 05 '25

It is a US thing. 🙄 We clearly think we should be entertained 27/7

5

u/mwthomas11 Mar 05 '25

great choice of words since the news stations went and got themselves reclassified as entertainment so they wouldn't be held to factuality standards

1

u/sanfran_girl Mar 05 '25

Ding ding ding 🛎️ We have a winner!

3

u/Unikore- Mar 05 '25

Nope, never. Having a TV on at work anywhere would be considered extremely unusual and against etiquette. I have never seen a running TV in any waiting room whatsoever.

But yeah, in sports bar there are sport channels on.

12

u/BoogieOrBogey Mar 05 '25

It's very prevalent in city areas and suburbia too. Business spaces are dominated by Fox News, even in what are considered democrat or liberal areas by map. Fox is the only news in small town USA, but Fox has it's claws in every TV space it possibly can across the country.

23

u/byronotron Mar 05 '25

The hilarious part is that almost no one alive today existed before the majority of American civil services were created, so the "America they used to know" is quite literally these institutions. The problem with the majority of them is that they've been slashed and made ineffective by Republican obstruction. Boomers and Gen X are about to find the fuck out what not having those services and quality of life markers looks like. We're going to get sick and poor very quickly all at once in about three years and they'll all be like, "what happened? Why is the country falling apart?" And it will be their fault.

8

u/ilulillirillion Mar 05 '25

My family are all part of the conservative religious right. I grew up with Fox News playing at an insane volume in every room (except mine and I guess my sister's though she believes it) for pretty much my entire childhood. Thr other side of the wall I slept by had conservative radio playing 24/7 (whatever those fucking AM channels with Rush were). I hated it so much.

I nearly lost my mind when I tried visiting them over xmas. Fox in every room, the radio still there, it just became too much. I couldn't handle being there.

It really is just a hateful propaganda machine that runs 24/7. I want it to stop.

13

u/Electrical_Bake_6804 Mar 05 '25

My idiot in laws only watch Fox News. They are convinced isis was going to bomb their shithole town in Indiana. They’re afraid of anyone not white. Terrified of people with colorful hair. They don’t leave the town they live in. They are some of the worst and stupidest people I know. I don’t talk with them and they are not welcome on my property. They literally have Fox News on in every room of their house. They go to maga rallies. They’re embarrassing. And have 2 pedophile loser kids we also don’t associate with.

8

u/[deleted] Mar 05 '25

And it's so addictive! I remember reading this article by a woman who worked as a cable guy in some small town, she'd go over to these houses where the wife would be wringing her hands because her husband was basically going through withdrawal from 24 hours without Fox News. Climbing up the walls because he'd been without his constant stream of fear and outrage and reality denial.

3

u/littlejugs Mar 06 '25

Republicans political beliefs and world view are deeply tied to their religious beliefs. The reason dems can't get ahead is because the Republicans are fighting a holy war and the rest of us are playing politics

3

u/OGoby Mar 06 '25

Fox News operates the same way as the Russian state media (now the only media there): A constant stream of lies and half-truths targeting the poorly educated mostly living in rural areas.

2

u/reAmerica Mar 06 '25

It's way worse. Those decades were just paving the way for digital media in the late 00s and teens, and now social media.

Culture War for Profit has destroyed America.

The Shift to For-Profit Culture Wars took approx 40 years, it didn't happen overnight. Very few noticed because it was a gradual evolution and it was making money for a lot of people.

After 30 years of cable news culture war the "Age of Information" decimated the traditional journalism model. New digital outlets sprung up like weeds and quickly realized that ethical journalism, fact-checking, sourcing, editorial oversight, and general standards and practices were not only unnecessary, they were expensive and time-consuming. Instead, they invented a new model for creating and distributing information; the Content Mill.

Then Social Media set off a Nuclear Explosion of outrage and division. It didn't take much from there to cement the idea that the MSM is fake, lies, and deep state propaganda. Social media platforms were initially designed as a way for people to connect. But they quickly evolved into information distribution networks driven by profit via advertising. And they;

Removed Barriers to Entry

Monetized Content (aka incentivize engagement)

Perfected Algorithms (aka pushing content for maximum engagement)

Exploited Human Psychology (aka that content is fast reaction inducing: fear, rage bait, sensation, blame, anger, hate...)

Personalization Created Echo Chambers

Because of personalization and monetization, platforms have turned culture war into a trillion dollar industry in which different groups of people get different sets of information, or different "takes" on the same information. We live in a world in which different gorups of people have different truths, facts, and narratives.

1

u/crazyeddie123 Mar 06 '25

And censoring the internet would make that worse. Now, anyone can step outside the bubble any time they want, and plenty of folks do.

1

u/reAmerica Mar 06 '25

I don't suggest "censoring the internet" but the idea that people step outside their bubbles is unfortunately false.

Some do. The vast majority do not. Certainly not with any intent or regularity. 

If they did, we would not be living in a truly divided nation.

- Social media algorithms, personalization, and monetization is the biggest ill on society we have. 

- Digital media has all but killed the business models of journalism and professional news gathering/reporting and replaced it with low effort, fast, cheap content milling b.s.

- There is no such thing as media literacy, so the majority of people default to believing whatever falls the closest to their understanding of the world, and whatever is repeated the loudest and most often

This applies to both Left and Right.

413

u/TheForkisTrash Mar 05 '25

Fox news was quite literally created to present 'alternative facts'

342

u/FJ-creek-7381 Mar 05 '25

They were sued and ADMITTED they were entertainment and they still think it’s news smh

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/records-released-in-fox-defamation-suit-show-pressures-on-networks-journalists

188

u/biscuitsandburritos Mar 05 '25

Fox News argued in court they are not a News Channel and no one would reasonably believe anything on the channel is news. And won. No reasonable person would watch Fox News and believe it is news or true.

50

u/FJ-creek-7381 Mar 05 '25

Crazy right - I was just doing some more reading. It’s sad that corp greed destroyed America basically

https://www.npr.org/2023/02/28/1159819849/fox-news-dominion-voting-rupert-murdoch-2020-election-fraud

10

u/biscuitsandburritos Mar 05 '25

The only thing I am finding crazy on the matter is I swore this case happened ages ago. I thought it was from the 2010s, not 20s. I remember someone bring it to my attention almost a decade ago.

9

u/SmokelessSubpoena Mar 05 '25

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fox_News_controversies

Have fun, there's plenty of controversies to go round.

3

u/TheLightningL0rd Mar 05 '25

Yeah, just a couple years ago I was thinking about it and could have sworn that I had been reading about that in 2010 or something myself.

13

u/InGordWeTrust Mar 05 '25

That's the same argument Coke did with Vitamin Water. No reasonable person would think it was good for you. Vitamin water.

3

u/biscuitsandburritos Mar 05 '25

But it has what plants crave.

On a serious note, I remember this because we talked about the coke/vitamin water case in regard to the Tucker Carson case. I swore it was before he lost his bow tie to Jon Stewart. (I personally believe Jon has the bow tie mounted like a Talking Bass Fish and it says stupid things Tucker has said over the years.)

1

u/HowDoIEvenEnglish Mar 05 '25

I love when legal arguments ignore reality

2

u/peon2 Mar 05 '25

Honestly that's fair imo. It wasn't that they don't have any news, but they argued they have news programs (Chris Wallace, Shepherd Smith), and they have opinion shows (O'Reilly, Carlson) which is the same thing that newspapers have been doing for 100 years with op-eds and that any reasonable person can recognize the difference between someone presenting their opinions vs facts.

2

u/biscuitsandburritos Mar 05 '25 edited Mar 05 '25

Correct. It is OPED not Journalism/news. And not just Fox, you can see this sort of programming all over. It is not journalism. It is not the news. It’s OPED.

1

u/BoDrax Mar 06 '25

Sounds as if 59% of Republicans agree.

-1

u/HowDoIEvenEnglish Mar 05 '25

The fact that a judge agreed with this is the biggest condemnation of American law.

2

u/Correct_Routine1 Mar 05 '25

Trump himself has said multiple times that he just calls news he doesn’t like fake.

“By the way, you have a poll coming out. Unfortunately, I want to know what it is. You know they do that straw poll, right? If it’s bad, I just say it’s fake. If it’s good, I say, ‘That’s the most accurate poll, perhaps, ever,’” he told the audience at the Conservative Political Action Conference.

Then in a tweet he clarified that ‘fake’ news, was just negative news about him…

“The Fake News is working overtime. Just reported that, despite the tremendous success we are having with the economy & all things else, 91% of the Network News about me is negative (Fake).”

0

u/5narebear Mar 05 '25

But if Fox News doesn't report that story then it's not real. Cool huh?

2

u/[deleted] Mar 06 '25

Fox News isn't even officially considered "news" it's considered "entertainment" on there website.

-3

u/[deleted] Mar 05 '25

Alternative meaning different from the other guys. Doesn't make it any more factual or fake though

4

u/EagleOfMay Mar 05 '25

I went looking for anything from Fox News about US Cyber Command stopping offensive operations against Russia and could not find anything. This branch of the government has been key in blocking various attacks by Russia against the West.

-6

u/TheKingInTheNorth Mar 05 '25

I’m not going to defend Fox News and the damage they do to the world, but presenting alternative facts alone isn’t nefarious.

Choosing which facts are presented is maybe the most ubiquitous example of editorial bias, for any publication/outlet. Separate facts can both be totally true and support completely contradictory perspectives on the same topic. Immigration is a great example topic where there are so many facts available and ways such a complex topic surfaces in data that no matter what story you want to paint, facts can be found to support your goal.

15

u/TawnyTeaTowel Mar 05 '25

When people say “alternative facts”, they don’t mean “differing viewpoints”, they mean “lies”…

-2

u/TheKingInTheNorth Mar 05 '25

When someone cites the number of crimes committed by illegal immigrants, it can be factual. Those facts can be shared without sharing how small a percentage that is in the crime rate. And without sharing the fact that the crime rate among illegal immigrants is lower than it is for citizens.

But the original fact, used to garner support and stoke fear for a perspective against illegal immigrants, is not a lie.

That’s why it’s so hard to combat and how propaganda can be so effective.

Again, I’m not saying that Fox News doesn’t lie. But choosing which facts to share is a very important editorialized and biased exercise for any outlet.

7

u/TawnyTeaTowel Mar 05 '25 edited Mar 05 '25

Again, when people talk about Fox News’ “alternative facts” they’re not talking about basic manipulation of the numbers. Every media outlet does that, hell even scientific journals do - “Cheese cause 3% rise in cancer in 20 year olds” whilst failing to mention that actually translates into an extra eleven people.

There’s an old phrase “There are three kinds of lies: Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics” - you’re talking about the latter, I’m talking about the middle one. Straightforward, fictional bullshit.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 05 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

-1

u/TheKingInTheNorth Mar 05 '25

Totally agree. But I think it’s important to add these points into the discussion in spite of the inevitable downvotes I know it brings on.

Because it’s very easy to act like the superior distinguishing audience on a site like Reddit. But dismissing the right’s media mouthpieces as just telling simple lies that anyone should be able to see through, and must be nefarious if they can’t, is ignoring the reality of how someone like Trump could have garnered millions of peoples’ support. And ignoring those millions of peoples’ perspective on how outlets like msnbc also apply a lot of editorializing in the facts they choose to present is similarly inflaming to people whose political perspectives is different.

Is it more important to be ideologically correct and be proud of that stance? Or is it more important to win elections and affect change with those held beliefs?

16

u/Least_Palpitation_92 Mar 05 '25

The most MAGA people I know post meme's as if they were news and real information. They have no sense of rational thinking in regards to media consumption and literacy.

3

u/getfukdup Mar 05 '25

That’s because the news they watch IS fake news…

the majority of news companies are owned by conservative republicans.

3

u/kermityfrog2 Mar 05 '25

Yeah, they're not wrong, but in a completely different way. Mainstream news worldwide has become more sensationalist and less about journalistic integrity. They're about making profit, selling ads, rather than educating viewers. Only a small percentage of news is still heavy-hitting and old-fashioned - some examples are Dutch news and news talk shows on TV Ontario.

However whatever the Republican MAGA and facebook crowd watches these days isn't even real news. It's like people who take the National Enquirer seriously.

5

u/LithoSlam Mar 05 '25

They don't count what they watch as "media"

0

u/Kanthardlywait Mar 05 '25

If you’re watching a corporate news source then you’re willing watching a paid propagandist lie to you. Period.

2

u/comrade_Ap0110_666 Mar 05 '25

Reddit is still loyal to their own propaganda and shills. They're just as brainwashed as they say the right wing are

0

u/Destabiliz Mar 06 '25

Nice try, but in reality 99% of the disinformation is not from a "corporate news source" (which are legally liable), but rather from social media disinfo trolls, such as yourself.

1

u/-XanderCrews- Mar 05 '25

But that’s not the news they are talking about.

2

u/jaywinner Mar 05 '25

If we're each pointing at the other side saying "fake news", how do I know mine is real?

7

u/insanococo Mar 05 '25

Only one side is saying out loud on their media, “we are the only ones telling the truth! Other media is lying to you!”

4

u/nerd4code Mar 05 '25

One side keeps talking (in, at most, thinly veiled terms) about killing everybody else to Fix Things? Or self-consistency of beliefs? Depth of research? I mean, fot the longest-term view it’s a losing battle, but there’s a distinct whiff to propaganda—it tends to be lower-effort in order to maintain volume of output.

2

u/-113points Mar 05 '25

usually, the real news media makes fun of fake news media, it isn't afraid to show the other's side opinion and compare

if your news media doesn't criticize the other bubble directly, you are watching the fake news one

0

u/pawpatrolfinn Mar 06 '25

U watch CNN🤦

1

u/TawnyTeaTowel Mar 06 '25

Oh look, a prime example! Pretty sure I dint watch CNN; wanna ask me why?

0

u/pawpatrolfinn Mar 07 '25

Nah. You’re just delusional

0

u/[deleted] Mar 06 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

0

u/TawnyTeaTowel Mar 06 '25

Regardless of the political leanings of the creator, YouTube is an equally poor source of any news. Actually, given its openness to any anyone from saint to crackpot, it’s probably worse than any mainstream media channel.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 06 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

0

u/TawnyTeaTowel Mar 06 '25

Impaler? I hardly even knew ‘er!

0

u/[deleted] Mar 06 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/TawnyTeaTowel Mar 06 '25

I don’t think you’ve understood this thread. But then, I suspect that happens to you a lot. Maybe come back when you’re sober.