I was watching Fox News this morning… I guess I should explain that, first. I'm a news junkie, so it's normal for me to flip between four or so networks, and yes, I include Fox in that. But I also watch Fox as more than a network to flip and see headlines. It is something I can sit and watch. It's also, often, how I start my morning. They're biased, they're stupid, half their "news" is about topless cheerleaders. (I wish I were making this up.) They're also a great way to start the morning, because they're either amusing or infuriating me (often both) and I can't stay tired when I am shouting at Steve Doocy. Fox and Friends, the morning show, just wakes me up. I know there must be people out there who watch Fox and Friends as a place to get their morning news, but there's also me. Fox and Friends wakes me up.
So anyway, I was watching Fox and Friends this morning. After spending all year telling my fellow fox-viewers and me why we shouldn't vote for now President-Elect Obama, (that went well for them, obviously) you might wonder what they would devote all their time to now. Well, if you've watched Fox News as much as I have, you'd know that Mid-November on is time to talk about the War on Christmas. I love when they talk about the War on Christmas.
(A few years ago, all of that was devoted to a lawsuit against a school district that had banned religious music from their holiday concert. Fox loved this family for standing up for "our" Christian faith, and hated the school district for attacking it. Then it turned out that the person suing? Was the parent of a kid who had been my best friend from toddlerhood until he moved when we were 6 and we lost touch. Which is why I'm not linking to any of that, and also why the War on Christmas holds a very special place in my heart.)
This morning, they were talking about atheists challenging nativity scenes in state capitols. The chyron read something like "Anti-Religion or Free Speech?" So I of course shout at Steve Doocy. "Both! It can actually be both!" I was just so angry and amused that they couldn't see it as the freedom of speech to protest religion. Fox News is constantly presenting issues as "this or that," it wasn't just this morning. "Both!" is something I scream at Doocy and the chyrons often. Then I remember that's actually a developmental stage. Fox News has not progressed past the age of 7 in thought. Or that's who they appeal to. Fox knows its audience, and caters to it, I guess.
This is why I love fox news. Anything that can get me thinking about developmental psychology and give me something to blog about for this class before 7am is definitely worth that love. Everyone else has coffee, but I have Fox, starting my brain and getting me to think. So maybe I'm not the target audience. Does it matter? I've left pre-operational thought: I'm a liberal and a Fox viewer. It can actually be both.
