As long as people will accept crap, it will be financially profitable to dispense it.- Dick Cavett

Monday, February 8, 2010

The Pigs In The Fox House

There's only one thing to do...Only one thing that's gonna do any good at all, and that's everybody just look at it...and turn your backs and say, "Fuck it." -Ken Kesey, Vietnam Day speech 1965


I'm a ratings guy. -Roger Ailes, Fox News Chairman, 2010


There's a tendency that we have as Americans, to never let the conflict go until we've destroyed the opposition utterly. It's a quality that by turns endears us to, and frustrates the rest of world. When we perceive injustice, (most particularly when we're the aggrieved party) we wade in with both fists, often for the sake of something as intangible as honor.


Or at least we like to think we do. These days we're more likely to make a great deal of noise about an issue, and move on. Today the offenses roll at us so fast, and from so many directions that we often feel overwhelmed. You spend 45 minutes on the phone before you speak to a human. Your insurance premiums have gone up. So has the interest rate on your bank card. We've become inured to being treated thoughtlessly by faceless corporate automatons. Sure, we get angry but it's not sustainable, because there's nowhere specific to direct it, and besides a newer, fresher outrage is always just around the corner.


We're the generation that invented outrage fatigue. We grumble, and we marvel at how much nerve they have treating us so callously. But then we give in. We pay the late charge, we agree to the Ticketmaster 'convenience fee', even while we're inventing new ways to curse them and wish them ill.


At most, we start a Facebook group decrying how shabbily we've been used; 'If We Get 1,000,000 Fans, Steve Jobs Has To Kiss A Mule's Butt', or 'Tell Congress To Legalize The Use Of Deadly Force For School Bus Drivers NOW!'. Maybe we sign a petition. And we feel we've done our part. Or at least made our voice heard. If nothing else we've shared our anger and frustration with like-minded people.


Or you can start another angry blog.


If you're liberal, or moderate, or just more in control of your faculties than say...Travis Bickle, you're already probably not getting your news from Fox. Their 24 hour cable channel is a non-stop nightmare of demented right-wing propaganda. It's no longer a viable subject of debate. It's a fully partisan valentine to basically any politician willing to sell himself to corporate oligarchy. And it's shamelessly so. They hired Sarah Palin!


So if you haven't already stopped reading this, it's likely that you're not watching Fox News.


I saw a clip recently of Roger Ailes defending his news service, with all the weapons you'd expect him to use. Highest ratings, harumph. Most Trusted News, harumph, his jowls jiggling below his shoulders, looking more hideous than a Ralph Steadman caricature of him ever could. His whole being seemed to radiate contempt that he should be bothered to explain himself to the unwashed masses. "I'm a ratings guy,"he says.


Well, maybe so. There's nothing you and I can do about the ratings of his nasty cable behemoth. We can't not watch any more than we already are. But you know what? He really pissed me off. I admit, when it comes to his company, and the things they stand for, I'm already fairly volatile. It takes very little to set me off. But his above-it-all demeanor, pushed me over the top (again).


So I've decided to stop availing myself of anything Fox. That's anything that's held by News Corp. http://www.spiritus-temporis.com/news-corporation/holdings.html


That's a lot of stuff, right? Some things that I'll really miss. I was a fan of Matt Groening when I found 'Life In Hell' in the Chicago Reader before there even was Fox Network, and I'm a shameless Simpsons fan-boy. Same with Futurama. Fox also holds the rights to broadcast NFL games, and for better-or-worse I'm a loyal Bears fan.

That also means I'll be checking for the 20th Century Fox logo before I attend, buy, or rent a movie.

Of course, I understand in this exciting technological age we live in, it's possible to find all these things online for free, anyway. Not that I would ever do that, or recommend anyone else do so. No matter how easy it is.

And it's really, really easy.

Look, all I'm saying is that I find Fox News practices odious enough, that I'm no longer willing to put ANY money in Rupert Murdoch's pocket. Last year in the 4th quarter, News Corp reported losses of $203 million. They're not wholly invulnerable. And while I don't believe that Roger Ailes is really "a ratings guy", so much as a slobbering tool, being used by a powerful foreigner to shape American culture and politics, I'd be curious to see if his (and Fox's) behavior could be modified by some financial setbacks.

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