It started before Fox, with Hate Radio. And a few other things.
But I really don’t think it’s a “TV is God in the US” thing at all. It’s extremely normal for people to have trusted information sources. And purported news organizations have been a standard source across the world for 150+ years.
In the US (and several other places) news has become increasingly propagandized, particularly towards the far-right. People increasingly also don’t care about actual truth, but what they want to be true (often based on the propaganda)
There’s probably several cultural things that make Americans more succeptable to some of this manipulation, but a lot of that culture is the product of DECADES of very hard, specific work (which also led very directly to Fox News). Starting almost immediately after the Watergate scandal.
But it’s also not like propaganda, and falling for propaganda, is unique to the US or throughout history. At all. Or because of TV and movies or whatever.
It’s just impressive that with the US’s relatively strong, free press (and freedom laws) and low government propaganda (again - relatively) that a right wing propaganda machine has been able to so massively corrupt things. And fucking scary.
It started before Fox, with Hate Radio. And a few other things.
But I really don’t think it’s a “TV is God in the US” thing at all. It’s extremely normal for people to have trusted information sources. And purported news organizations have been a standard source across the world for 150+ years.
In the US (and several other places) news has become increasingly propagandized, particularly towards the far-right. People increasingly also don’t care about actual truth, but what they want to be true (often based on the propaganda)
There’s probably several cultural things that make Americans more succeptable to some of this manipulation, but a lot of that culture is the product of DECADES of very hard, specific work (which also led very directly to Fox News). Starting almost immediately after the Watergate scandal.
But it’s also not like propaganda, and falling for propaganda, is unique to the US or throughout history. At all. Or because of TV and movies or whatever.
It’s just impressive that with the US’s relatively strong, free press (and freedom laws) and low government propaganda (again - relatively) that a right wing propaganda machine has been able to so massively corrupt things. And fucking scary.