Conservative Media Propaganda Doesn’t Just Shape Opinions, It Warps Values

ALL Opposing Viewpoints are Immoral & Un-American

Most non-Trump supporters know at this point that Fox News is basically pro-Trump propaganda. Sure, there is news coverage, but the way that coverage is framed on top of the extreme right-wing commentary surrounding it points viewers in a pretty obvious direction. This is not new information.

What most people fail to understand is how the network’s framing on issue after issue doesn’t just affect people’s opinions, it very successfully hammers home a moral framework where any opposing political viewpoint or political figure is seen as both immoral and un-American.

Immigration? Line-cutting, letting in violent criminals both immoral & un-American.
Trans issues? Boys beating up girls & lurking in bathrooms immoral & un-American.
~~ And besides, changing sex goes against God’s plan, which is…
Education? ‘Certain’ reading materials (and teachers) are immoral & un-American.
Energy & Environment? Not using resources God gave us is immoral & un-American.
~~ Also, climate change is fake and Democrats control the weather, which is…
Health Care? Obamacare is socialism. Do we even need to tell you what socialism is?
Defense, Crime, AI, Crypto, and everything else? You surely get the point by now.

Every issue and political figure that Fox News reports on is presented through this values-based framework.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump is repeatedly framed as being either a strong father figure, and thus above reproach, or God’s champion, here to do the Lord’s bidding on earth because he is the only one strong enough to stand up to Satan’s forces, and thus, even more above reproach.

Over time, these frames effectively whitewash Trump’s many sins until all of his frauds, lies, sexual assaults, and so forth are dismissed as nothing more than mean tweets or harsh language.

Combine these two dynamics in the nonstop churn of fear & outrage Fox’s ‘reporting’ is designed to generate, and it helps explain why Trump supporters are so loyal and impervious to new information (and angry). Again and again, Trump is framed positively, his mission holy & just, while the most fringe elements of the Democratic coalition are presented as being representative of everyone on the left.

Fox viewers hear nonstop that this who ‘they’ are and that they should be very, very afraid.

Unfortunately, the political left, with all of its varying viewpoints & opinions, makes an easy target for anyone looking to misconstrue what progressives believe, think, say, etc.

Add in the moral compromises of campaign cash from big donors, the cratering of the working class due to decades of neoliberalism, and the ongoing suffering in Gaza…well, let’s just say casting doubt on Democrat’s adherence to their ideals is not tough sledding.

Thus, it become a snap for Fox News & conservative media to portray Democrats & their allies (and by extension, the policies they support) as immoral and un-American almost every single time.

When Kamala Harris went on Fox, the reactions were so polarized you’d have thought each side watched a different interview. This is explained in part by the moral framework. Baier was trying to hold Harris to account on certain issues and she refused to buy into that framing…which her supporters loved but regular Fox viewers, the people she was there to convince, found shifty & disingenuous; immoral.

Progressives love watching Pete Buttigieg go on Fox, but his appearances don’t seem to move the needle much with regular Fox viewers. This is largely because he is trying to persuade them to change their opinions(sometimes using value-driven arguments), when in fact what he really needs to do is convince them to change the entire framework under which they judge whether something is moral or not.

That is a much tougher sell.

This moral framework allows Fox viewers to easily justify tuning out any viewpoint that does not mirror their own on a moral basis…even as Democrats attempt to explain how GOP positions are immoral.

This huge disconnect is why Fox viewers don’t ever seem to be convinced. It is why their cognitive dissonance seems endless, and they are so dismissive & uncaring as to what anyone on the left has to say.

Why would a Fox viewer care about any of the fake media’s immoral lies? Why would they care what a sinner like you has to say? The choice to be what…a traitor; a communist?
Sorry, not happening, pedo.

What is missing is how people are being pre-conditioned to believe that an entire political ideology is both immoral and un-American. Until this changes, ANY argument Democrats make, even ones rooted in morality & values, will fall on deaf ears with Fox viewers and make winning elections extremely difficult.

Clueless to this dynamic, Democrats come bumbling along at election time, earnestly making their case despite it being insanely futile to ask people to support something or someone that they believe (strongly) to be both immoral and un-American. Whether the left tries to sway opinions or argue from a more values-oriented approach does not matter because nothing Democrats or their allies say will disrupt the moral framework that Fox has embedded in its viewers.

The left eventually grows frustrated by people who seem unable to understand how their politics are harmful to people (including themselves at times) and likewise incapable of seeing how this harm might be immoral. This often culminates with leftists lashing out at Fox viewers, calling them racists, bigots, Nazis, garbage, and so forth.

Here’s the problem. If you believe your position to be a moral one, how would you react to being labeled like that? You’d dig in and refuse to listen to anything that person or group — immoral and un-American as they are — has to say, right? Yet, this is how the left engages with Fox viewers, mistakenly thinking that the morality of it all is indisputable.

They could not be more wrong.

This is usually followed by four years of trying to figure out how it all went so wrong, with plenty of analysis of how to convince others of the righteousness of the left’s position without ever stopping to examine the prism through which the right views morality.

There is talk of religion, the effect it has, and how it underlies all of this. That is completely valid, but still misses the bigger point.

Any election analysis that fails to grasp this fact is fundamentally flawed.

So, how do we fix this?

There is no easy answer, but rather a lot of small-scale, difficult undertakings. I will be following this up with (at least) a couple more pieces addressing that side of things. Something about how left-leaning media bias is not the same as conservative media’s deliberate attempts to mislead & rile people up can probably be expected as well.

I hope you will be sure to check these out and share and/or follow (here or on Substack) if you find any of this analysis worthwhile. Thank you.

Originally published at https://ghostoftompaine.substack.com.