Customer Reviews

The FOX Syndrome:: Right-Wing Media-Induced Shared Psychotic Disorder

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I have often wondered how and why the right-wing media "reports" such garbage as they do. The Fox Syndrome offers an amazingly eye-opening concept to answer my questions. As an alternative to my conclusion that they are blatant liars, I now see that they may very well be DELUSIONAL. A much kinder, yet scarier description. This book is a must-read for anyone who has ever questioned the reliability and/or purpose of our society's force-fed news system.

Goodner's important book touches on the group delusion that stems from the sort of propaganda that Fox provides its viewers. Using a wide array of PR firms (like the Rendon Group which advocated for the war on Iraq) and rhetorical ploys, Fox has been able to infiltrate the conscience of millions of U.S. citizens. The psychosis of the Fox mindset reflects the psychosis of the corporate interests that own and sponsor so much of our media. While the right-wing bemoans government dependency (even while they have careers in the military, the intelligence agencies, ICE, the DEA, Lockheed Martin, etc.), it says little about the dynamic of corporate dependency which many people are living under The Corporation. In the world of those who have been 'hannitized' or 'limbautomized,' it is 'patriotic' to hate the government, unions, environmentalists, feminists, Muslims and others; while loving the gun industry and the super-rich. I guess this attitude comes with adopting the rationales of a society that has such a massive military industrial infotainment complex The Complex: How the Military Invades Our Everyday Lives.
It has been imperative for the elite right-wing establishment to divert criticism of themselves and their agenda and to instead direct animosity towards liberals Echo Chamber: Rush Limbaugh and the Conservative Media Establishment. If liberals had opportunities to debate media Humpty Dumpties like Limbaugh, even the most committed dittohead would have to reconsider the corporatist ideology they have absorbed (sometimes subconsciously).
Beyond issues of corporate ownership and sponsorship dollars from war profiteers like Lockheed Martin, Fox and the rest of the Big Business media is profoundly influenced by the multi-billion dollar public relations industry Frontline: The Persuaders. It is worth noting that the PR industry was founded by people like Edward Bernays, who literally wrote the book on propaganda Propaganda. A nephew of Sigmund Freud's, and a favorite author of Joseph Goebbels, Bernays said, 'If we understand the mechanism and motives of the group mind, it is now possible to control and regiment the masses according to our will without their knowing it.'
Goodner has made an important contribution to understanding the unhealthy, jingoistic group think cultivated by Fox. Thankfully, we now have some more diverse thinking taking place over forums like Air America, The Bob Kincaid Show, Democracy Now!, Alternative Radio, Current TV, Free Speech TV, Link TV, and countless blogs and magazines like Yes!.

See also:
Outfoxed - Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism
Orwell Rolls in His Grave
War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death
Why We Fight

Hi boys and girls. I'm very happy to see that people are willing to give their opinions from the left and the right on this page. As long as we are talking there is hope. Nevertheless, could you please read my book before you comment on it and please don't get personal with each other, we are all in the same boat... albeit one that appears to be taking on a lot of water about now. It is true that I had fun picking on FOX but I tend to like American news not Australian made-up news no matter how many American flags they put on the screen Fox is still Australian news.
Be that as it may, please let your opinions be known down below under the heading of This product's forum. It is open, fair and fun.
Thank you,
Rick Goodner

Nemo Domi (_nemo_: no one; _domi_: from _domus_, "a house" -- "nobody's home"?) has no business throwing stones in his/her glass house.

Nemo's last three reviews had nothing to do with the book in question; instead, they were rants about Kevin Bold.

What is it with this guy? NEVER have I seen him actually REVIEW a book! Just a bunch of soapbox prattle. AMAZON please delete this guy's NON-REVIEWS! He's tainting the system.

Why is it we never hear of a liberal being shouted down when giving a speech at one of our universities? because it never happens. free speech only applies to the left. conservatives are fair game. they can be shouted at, have things thrown at them, anything goes. can you imagine the reaction of the tv networks and cnn, msnbc, if this happened to al franken? keith olberman would have a stroke. the left hate fox because they give a more balanced point of view of conservatives, and liberals. it's that simple. a conservative cable station? we can't have that. fox has to be attacked repeatedly and often. it's so nice that we have the left to decide what's best for us. I have reported nemo domi's comments about kevin bold, the fact that he/she attacks [ where have I heard that before? ] him, without commenting about the content of whatever he/she should be reviewing. amazon has chosen to do nothing.

I don't see how the author makes claims that the commander in chief is a sociopath???? It's like the pot calling the kettle black. What is going on in your life? Why attack him like Michael Moore. I call a sociopath Al Gore who has been spending 30 years studying and preaching global warming, yet his home uses 20 times the amount of an average household. How can anyone get on stage and make all kinds of scientific conclusions, knowing that Tipper is at home in the hot tub running the tanning booth? GW is not the sharpest knife in the drawer, and neither is the author of the FOX syndrome. Whatever happened to liberal talk radio?????// Ratings bombed because there wasn't anything of substance to talk about.

Being a patriotic, anti-liberal type, and having become one long before Rush Limbaugh or Fox News were around, I always laugh at those who blame Limbaugh and Fox for the decline of liberalism's hold on media and government (as if Jimmy Carter's incompetance and Bill Clinton's corruption had nothing to do with it).

The title of this book shows us just how similar they are to the Soviet Union, which routinely institutionalized all who were skeptical about socialism in psychiatric wards.

Also, keep in mind that the author is being rather presumptuous in believing that anyone who disagrees with his political opinions is "psychotic" (as a person with a degree in psychology myself, I can confidently say that such an opinion is itself a delusion, and a paranoid one at that). Perhaps we can play his game, too, and diagnose him with "Liberal Opinion Syndrome" (LOS; those who suffer from it could be called "losers").

Fox, the liberals say, is "unbalanced." They must not like shows with panels containing two liberals, two conservatives, and a conservative moderator all getting along, such as Tony Snow's or Brit Hume's show. Their idea of "balance" is three or four liberals and a token conservative, like ABC News' "This Week with George Stephanopoulos." (And how did former Clinton-staffer Stephanopolous, who had the least seniority among the panelists, get to be the host after David Brinkley retired? Oh, wait, that's a self-answering question. . .)

On the other hand, they'd rather listen to NPR, which is under the impression that Kevin Phillips is a "conservative."

Or perhaps they prefer CNN, which has no conservatives at all.

And it's amazing how they still trust CBS, despite "Memogate."

Silly, silly liberals. Their "extreme right" looks a lot like mainstream America. They'll probably fall for this book, too.

This is just more evidence that good mental health and liberalism are mutually exclusive. Afterall, most social workers are liberal, because without liberalism, they'd be out of work. Save your money, save your mind, and start watching FOX News and listening to conservative talk radio, and you'll be cured of any inadequacies demonstrated by the author of this book.