by James Evans

Created on: March 03, 2009

Shouting. Shouting and more shouting. Then shouting to cease someone else shouting. The perfect diaglogue of any Fox News Channel format perfected and mastered by the raging bull himself, William O'Reilly. As a Democrat in a very conserative area, I get this question often from my friends when we put the gloves on for a political debate. "Why won't you just watch Fox News?" Well, it's shouting. Just as my peers shout at me to watch the shows of other people making painful vocal pleas by shouting. I'm certainly not the only person who has noticed this. Watch a political debate unfold and then subsequently turn on Fox News for their analysis. They are so blatant at trying to protect what the majority of Americans vote against in elections that they shout.

Fox News gets top ratings for the same reason as professional wrestling: drama. Americans love shouting matches more than civil conversation because as a nation we are taught to thrive on controversy. We see shouting on our highest government platforms and are programmed that the only way to succeed with a problem is to yell until commercial. We do not see this sort of behavior on more civil platforms from unbiased journalists such as PBS or the online privately funded Real News Network. On networks with agendas more focused on solution, we seldom find a debate that cannot be moderated without shoulder shrugging or red-faced blaring throat sirens.

So why is everyone so mad at Fox? What is it that draws in droves of conservatives and wrestling fans and drives away the rest of the general public? Well for one, shouting. I'm assuming that since the majority of members from the National Rifle Association watch Fox News, the producers feel compelled to aid the gun toting barrell blasters by shouting on air. This helps many watchers who may have pulverized their eardrums due to hundreds of rounds of shotgun skeet shooting. Also, Fox has mastered the ground of Americans' love of instant gratification. Just as Fox reported first that news of an imminent attack on Iraq was brewing following September 11, other news stations were reporting that there may not actually be weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Fox smothered the screen with war cries and dubbed everyone involved with the mess heroes. This patiotism is a major cause of it's popularity, and an even more major cause of it's despise.

So why is it that Democrats boycott Fox News? Well for one, civility dislikes shouting. We were all most all taught as children not to scream to get our point across. Well, maybe not all of us. That would be the first reason. Many Americans do not like to come home from a long day of work and listen to someone shout at them through their television. Then of course there's Ann Coulter. There's nothing like boasting an author who loves to use the word hate. The largest reason the general public does not watch Fox News is because they are just out of touch with what is really going on in America. Seldom do they sympathize with anyone not of their cult and rarely do they work with adversaries on a public format for real solutions to Americans problems. The fact of the matter is, Americans are tired of the wars, tired of playing second fiddle to politics, and tired of drum beating and scare tactics of Fox News. Americans decide what news tell the most accurate stories of our times by voting. According to the current administration, Americans have spoken. Try again Fox News.

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