Dear editor:
On Aug. 27, 2015, Ed Henry Sr. wrote: "George, you need to start watching, listening to Fox news, not only to know what's going on, but it would help you write a more factual letter!" On occasion I have listened to Fox news and find what is reported is different from what I hear on other newscasts. I like the kind of news on PBS and when driving in my car, I listen to NPR. Ed, you're mistaken suggesting that Fox news would help me write a factual letter. A simple Google analysis of Fox news suggests that the Fox news network is the leader in twisting the facts to their viewers.
Fact checking discloses that no other group of listeners are more misinformed than regular Fox viewers, but even more troubling, they intensify misinformation and ideologically charged beliefs aimed at the conservative audience. I don't make this up, evaluations are readily available supporting these conclusions, simply Google "Facts about Fox news" for the results of polls interviewing citizens on opinions on issues and you'll find a high percentage are misinformed about the facts. People watching Fox are led astray with a view of reality twisted in a right-wing direction.
In Leon Feininger's "Theory of Cognitive Dissonance," the author explains why human beings twist information to fit their beliefs, rather than conforming their beliefs to the true information. He states once a person settles on a belief, it shapes how they hear information. Individuals try to find information supporting their belief. FOX viewers choose to believe the political misinformation that agrees with their beliefs and avoid troublesome truths that are incompatible with what they believe. The author calls this "selective exposure." Selective exposure to a news source is how people create their own reality.
Finally, the most troubling fact of all, Public Policy Polling's annual TV news trust poll found that Fox viewers are unwilling to watch anything else. Fox repetitively tells viewers that the rest of the media is biased against them. According to the last Public Policy Polling's annual TV news trust poll, 72 percent of conservatives say they trust Fox news and they strongly distrust MSNBC, NBC, ABC, CBS and CNN. In contrast to these discoveries, liberals and moderates trust all the news outlets more than they distrust them, although they intensely mistrust Fox.
I sense Fox news listeners have surrendered their thinking to "selective exposure." I'm committed to writing truth and convinced Fox news will not help me write a factual letter. So you see, Mr. Henry, we progressives will continue to write letters knowing you do not think they are fact.
George Lindholm
Hot Springs
Editorial on 08/30/2015