My own conspiracy theory

[twik]

I've been nursing my own little conspiracy theory tying into the Moon Hoax.
 
I think that Fox Entertainment's interest in creating a "news" show on the supposed Moon Hoax a trial run. It was intended to judge their ability to persuade their audience to believe (or at least accept) nonsense. Discovering that it went down well, and created good ratings, they slowly turned their "news" channel into a steady purveyor of more and more outrageous conspiracy theories, until we have their state today, when they're very little different from Infowars and are seriously suggesting that children who saw their classmates murdered are "crisis actors."

Along the way, I think, their constant jumping into the conspiracy pool warped their own understanding of reality. When once they were content to proclaim "people are saying," now commentators like Hannity and Judge Jeanine actually believe what they're peddling. I can only imagine this is one day going to reach critical mass, and Fox News will collapse into a black hole.

[Obviousman]

Is Fox News really that bad? I never watch it myself but know it has a "right-wing" reputation.

[jfb]

Fox Entertainment Group is a massive media organization, of which Fox News is just one small part.  20th Century Fox Television discovered the untapped market potential of the uneducated goober demographic back in the '90s, and will air anything that will grab those eyeballs, regardless of politics (exhibit a: Temptation Island).  And The Simpsons¹.

Fox News is far more targeted and insidious, and definitely has a political axe to grind.

My personal conspiracy theory is Fox News is how the Scientologists are going to take over America.  They all have that Scientology Stare going.  Watch a Tom Cruise interview sometime, you'll see what I'm talking about. 

^{1. There's a legend that if the ravens ever leave the Tower of London, England will fall.  I'm beginning to think the same thing is true of The Simpsons and Fox.}
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[Bryanpoprobson]

To me this is just giving a platform and assists with the general "dumbing" down of the people that believe this nonsense. Unfortunately this adoption of crackpot notions being readily accepted, by a main stream outlet, gives people the ammunition to say things like, "well it's been, proven that the moon landings were faked, etc!" Whereas this is far divorced from reality, however these people will point to other outlets, such as WooTube anyway and say that theirs is the accepted view.

I have real problems with media outlets, such as, "The History Channel," airing programs such as "Ancient Aliens," and portraying this as some form of evidence based fact.

[twik]

Is Fox News really that bad? I never watch it myself but know it has a "right-wing" reputation.

Yes, it's that bad. Any network that spends serious time promoting the "Uranium One" hoax is bad.

[gillianren]

There's a legend that if the ravens ever leave the Tower of London, England will fall.  I'm beginning to think the same thing is true of The Simpsons and Fox.

Maybe.  But The Simpsons, when it's really firing, is hardly an unintelligent show.

As for Fox News . . . in the last week, they've been espousing the idea of "crisis actors," because it makes more sense to them than that teenagers who've survived a school shooting might have a reason to come out as opposed to the kinds of guns that killed their classmates.  And that teenagers raised in a social media age might have an idea of how to get media attention.

[JayUtah]

Back in 2000 or so, Fox News wasn't as overtly propagandistic as it is now, and Fox News and Fox Entertainment were essentially separate companies who just happened to share a television channel and little else.  When the Fox Entertainment program came out, Fox News actually took pains to rebut it in several of their markets.  So I doubt that was the intent.  That's not to say Fox News lately isn't taking a page from that book.

[TexMex]

I think Fox Entertainment saw the show as entertainment.  Similar to Ancient Aliens or shows about Bigfoot and Ghosts.  I think they were surprised anyone supported it or fought against it.   

[Luke Pemberton]

I think Fox Entertainment saw the show as entertainment.  Similar to Ancient Aliens or shows about Bigfoot and Ghosts.  I think they were surprised anyone supported it or fought against it.

I have to agree. When I first saw it, I had the opinion that it was never delivered as 'this is proof'; more that 'there are some people who have some ideas.' It came across as putting the idea out there. It was produced at a time when there were a lot of JFK conspiracy, A51 and alien documentations being shown in the UK. It was just another one of the genre IMHO.

[LunarOrbit]

I think Fox Entertainment saw the show as entertainment.  Similar to Ancient Aliens or shows about Bigfoot and Ghosts.  I think they were surprised anyone supported it or fought against it.   

Whether they intended it for entertainment or not, it was reckless of them to air it. There was bound to be a segment of the audience that would take it seriously. And it wasn't even the first time they did something like that... they aired the "alien autopsy" show just a few years before.

[bknight]

I think Fox Entertainment saw the show as entertainment.  Similar to Ancient Aliens or shows about Bigfoot and Ghosts.  I think they were surprised anyone supported it or fought against it.

When I saw the episode, I turned off all watching/programming to Fox for many years (believed it to be the host/parent company)
After I joined here, Jay posted two different entities and my anger subsided.  It still burns somewhat as watching the show I kept waiting for a rebuttal, that never came.