Overview - Neoconservative Media

This is a disturbing trend—one that threatens far more than mere civility or national unity. The rise of Far-Right media reflects the growth of an entire sector of the American public that is, quite literally, not interested in accurate information or thoughtful discourse about the nation's challenges--only an outlet for moral outrage and the suppression of their ideological enemies—literally, a return to the Dark Ages.

Those who think I am exaggerating should consider the following. In the fall of 2004 just prior to that year's presidential election, the University of Maryland conducted a nationwide survey of voter literacy in America regarding domestic and foreign issues and the policies of the two main presidential candidates - George W. Bush and John Kerry. The survey was conducted in multiple parts with large random samples (N >= 970) taken across a broad base of economic and socio-cultural sectors. The test covered a wide range of subjects and among other things asked respondents to identify their preferred candidate and his stated policy on the issue in question. Results were statistically significant and unambiguous. Standard errors were under 3 percent. Most of the questions required Yes/No/Don't Know answers.

Results varied, but on average fewer than 25 to 30 percent of Bush supporters could correctly answer any given question, or even correctly identify his stated position on it! Two in three incorrectly answered that he supports a Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. Five out of six incorrectly answered that he supports environmental and labor law restrictions on foreign trade agreements. Despite the reports of the 9-11 Commission and U.N. Iraq Arms Inspectors, and declassified CIA intelligence reports on Iraq from the last several years—all well publicized and easily available to any serious information seeking voter—an astounding 72 percent incorrectly answered (or said they didn't know) that Saddam Hussein either had, or was on the verge of acquiring WMD's at the time of the 2003 U.S. invasion and that Iraq played an important logistic and support role in the 9-11 attacks.

Note that these scores aren't merely low—they are actually less than those predicted by random chance. As already noted, most of the questions on this test required Yes/No/Don't Know answers and there were more than enough to generate statistically significant results (100 or so). If we ignore the questions seeking respondent opinions, and conservatively group Don't-Know answers with correct ones (generous to say the least), taking the test by throwing dice should result in a score of around 30 to 40 percent—5 to 10 points higher than that of the average Bush voter. If we require actual knowledge of issues and correct answers, the spread is closer to 20 percent. The corresponding scores among Kerry voters averaged between 70 and 85 percent. In fact, there was only one question on the entire test where even a simple majority of Bush supporters answered correctly and Kerry voters did not.

Exit polls of the fall 2004 election showed that Bush voters overwhelmingly based their decision on "moral values" (of which opposition to gay marriage appears to have been quite important), terrorism, and Iraq (Polling Report Online, 2005). All are issues where they consistently failed to answer basic factual questions or identify Bush's agenda correctly. Kerry voters overwhelmingly chose the economy and Iraq as driving priorities—and scored high in each category. Overall, only 4 percent of American voters indicated education as a primary voting priority—6 percent of Kerry voters, and a mere 2 percent of Bush voters.

There is little here to equivocate about. Few jobs including minimum wage ones do not require applicants to submit a resume, and no competent employer wouldn’t at least read those resumes and spend a minute or two thinking about them before hiring someone. But in 2004 the American people chose the leader of the free world... based on nothing more than a general feeling that he is a nice, God-fearin' man who wants to kick terrorist butt and outlaw whatever they find morally distasteful—with little or no regard for any factual information about the issues or candidates themselves.

If this is not a Dark Age, I cannot imagine what one would look like.

History has shown repeatedly that rage and populism can bring change, swiftly and dramatically. So do bombs raining down on a quiet neighborhood. But reactionary choices always destroy more than they create, and eventually they destroy the people who live by them. As Jesus said,

"those who take up the sword, will perish by the sword" (Matt 26:53).

Fox News

Nowhere is the emphasis on populist rage over investigative fact-checking more evident than in the accendency of Fax News as the most watched cable news outlet in North America. In 1996, the rise of the Far-Right spread to broadcast media with a vengeance when ultra-conservative mogul Rupert Murdoch launched the Fox Cable News Network. Murdoch, a brilliant entrepreneur who’s Fox Television Network was already a huge success, recognized that the widespread rage of the conservative sector, and their belief that the "liberal media" presented a unique marketing opportunity. He sought out a board of directors built comprising many of the biggest names in the Far-Right community and designed Fox News programming specifically to target this populist Far-Right rage.