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How Fox News Terrorized Viewers With George Floyd Protests And Led To Psychosis DMT.NEWS

June 19, 2020 , ,

Article by WN.Com Correspondent Dallas Darling

At least gun-toting Trump supporters did not attack George Floyd protesters in Hutchinson, Kansas, which just happened in New Mexico and Ohio, Texas, Georgia, and Alabama and several other states. Residents of this Red State (“Fly-Over-Country”) of some 40,000 people who turned out to vote for Donald Trump in 2016 still boarded up their homes and businesses and waited. And they waited. And they continued to wait. What they had come to imagine by watching years of FOX News was that bus- and plane-loads of Antifa and Black Lives Matter militants being funded by George Soros were coming to start a riot and burn their town to the ground.

The Real Antifa and BLM

Like many other rural communities where FOX News has become a terrifying staple, the people of Hutchinson spent days boarding up their homes and businesses, some taking items like guns and jewelry to safe sites away from the city. Despite concerns about potential violence from protesters, only 75 showed up, mainly locals. Teresa Delgado, the organizer, joined other mothers with toddlers. As they marched down a small portion of Main Street, young and old wore shirts with:

“Black Lives Matter More Than White Feelings.”

One veteran was shocked over the president’s decision to use troops.

“I joined the US Army to fight enemies, not Americans.”

There also was the black mother grieving over the loss of her 28-year-old son. Police officers had received a tip about a methane lab in Hutchinson’s black community which is still segregated. During the startling raid and ensuing commotion, he was fatally shot by a white police officer. The tip had turned out to be a mistake. Obviously, she was bitter. Years after demanding justice, the officer was finally forced to resign. Even then, his lifetime immunity deal saved him from any future incrimination. As an ongoing lawsuit attempts to gain access to the case to see if police reports were falsified, she wants an end to institutionalized racism and police brutality.

The protest had been set for Friday but was pushed back to Saturday after city officials tried to cancel the event. Hutchinson’s NAACP said it did not support the event because they had a “deep concern for the risk to black and brown Hutchinson residents.” There had already been threats against the black community with some members receiving death threats. There also was fear over a large group of counter protesters by white supremacists which never did materialize. Delgado said the threats about the George Floyd protesters were clearly exaggerated, including the rumor of the emergence of a New Black Panther Party perpetuated by Fox News.

The Perfect Storm for Fake News and Conspiracies

Fox News’s reporting over George Floyd, killed when a white police officer knelt on his neck for more than eight minutes, has been filled with terrifying hoaxes and disinformation. Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, and Laura Ingraham implied that his murder was staged to spark nationwide riots. Greg Gutfeld and Rush Limbaugh warned the protests were being funded by Soros and infiltrated violent Antifa and Marxist extremists. In each case, Fox News aired digitally altered images with heavily armed gunmen.

For viewers systematic racism and police brutality does not exist, replaced instead with firebombs and a nationwide insurrection coming “to a town near you.”

While scant attention has been given to Roger Ailes’s strategy for starting Fox News Corp., his fear of the “devaluation of whiteness” and bigoted approach toward African Americans, along with a network that would cater to the Corporate Right and appeal to other white males like himself using fear and demonizing the “Other,” hardly anything has been reported about the moment it launched its all-out racist and conservative war for the hearts and minds of the American people. The opportunity came when in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, Fox News used the tragedy to imply Democrats and all liberals lacked patriotism.

Fox News also terrified its viewers by claiming that Democrats and liberals were linked to Al Qaeda and “radical Islam.” In fact, hosts including Limbaugh, Hannity and Ann Coulter cultivated views that Anti-Americanism was “intrinsic to the liberals’ entire worldview,” accusing them of having committed “fifty years of treason” during the Cold War. From there Fox News spiraled out of control, casting President Barack Obama as a Marxist and domestic terrorist, as anti-American, and a secret a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. (1) Ailes’s gambit paid off as millions of Americans drank the kool-aid and as Fox News’s ratings passed that of even CNN.

The Road Disconnected from Reality

Such fearmongering and terrifying conspiracies by Fox News have had a profound effect far beyond a polarized America and obstructionist political party. The damage also has been psychological, especially among the elderly. Senior homes have noticed a sharp rise in paranoia exhibited by those who watch Fox News. Cases include residents that try to bar staff from entering their rooms to signs of psychosis, which is characterized by an impaired relationship with reality. Increasingly, patients suffering from dementia and Alzheimer are likely to repeat “Donald Trump” over and over or constantly warn that “Antifa” or “Black Lives Matter” is coming.

There are three important lessons from the history of watching Fox News. The first is the extreme difference between how conservatives and liberals approach the media. Liberals watch a diverse political spectrum of news before deciding. Conservatives have a habit of watching only conservative outlets. The second is how conservative mistrust for traditional media is more intense than that of liberals. And finally, watching Fox News may be psychologically damaging. Indeed, the road to “fake news” and “alternative facts” was paved long before Donald Trump. And as in the case of Hutchinson and other rural towns, it is a road disconnected from reality.

Delgado hoped the protest showed that there were many Americans from different “walks of life” who are against police brutality and systematic racism and believe in racial justice. She said many protesters felt intimidated by the chief of police and city officials in trying to pressure them to cancel the protest, blaming Fox News and Social Media for perpetuating myths about Antifa and militant Marxist and a New Black Panther Party. Despite any evidence from the Justice Department or FBI, President Trump continues to compound the crisis by retweeting videos of George Soros funding Antifa and the potential for militant Marxist to take over America.

Fox News’s Imaginary “Woke Militia”

The latest way Fox News has terrified its viewers was Carlson’s warning that a “woke militia” of “violent young men with guns” will “soon replace the police in your neighborhood and make the rules.” His warning linked the woke militia with the Democrats and Black Lives Matter movement. “Democrats hate the police because they don’t control the police,” Carlson said. He went on to say how liberals had taken over the Pentagon and now planned to do the same to law enforcement. “Imagine if the Black Lives Matter rioters had weapons and immunity from persecution. That’s what they are talking about: partisan law enforcement.”

Like many other slang terms from black culture that have been taken into the mainstream, the term “woke” for a Fox News viewer means black Americans. What they hear is that cities will be policed by only blacks. Critics say that far from the most “Fair and Balanced” or “Most Watched, Most Trusted,” Fox News has devolved into the most “False and Bigoted,” the “Most Worrisome, Most Intolerant” source of news.

All of which is driven by fear and racism, disinformation and exaggerations, and hoaxes with doctored, inaccurate images.

The message going out to its audience is clear: You are in danger.

Does this include the widening gap between President Trump and his follower’s worldview and reality? “Just look at what happened here in Hutchinson,” one protester said.

Dallas Darling (darling@wn.com)

(Dallas Darling is the author of Politics 501: An A-Z Reading on Conscientious Political Thought and Action, Some Nations Above God: 52 Weekly Reflections On Modern-Day Imperialism, Militarism, And Consumerism in the Context of John’s Apocalyptic Vision, and The Other Side Of Christianity: Reflections on Faith, Politics, Spirituality, History, and Peace. He is a correspondent for www.WN.com. You can read more of Dallas’ writings at www.beverlydarling.com and www.WN.com/dallasdarling.)

(1) Levitsky, Steven. How Democracies Die. New York, New York: Crown Publishers, 2018., p. 156-157.



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