sarahtnin
02-08-2004, 09:53 AM
Janeane Garofalo speaks out about FOX NEWS
[interview snippet from the new issue of Numb Magazine]
copyright 2004 Numb Magazine http://www.numbmagazine.com
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Janeane Garofalo: It’s not news, but unfortunately some people are under the impression it is, and then, some people know that it isn’t, but it feeds their need, so they are quite willing to take homeland propaganda as news and then use it as fuel to feed their misperceptions and anger management problems. It’s dangerous and destructive. Unexamined patriotism in the wrong hands is like a loaded gun. It’s incredibly dangerous and a form of narcissism that gets people into trouble. Fox feeds narcissism in a strange way.
Jewel Blackfeather Welter: When I’ve seen pieces those sources have done, I’ve been really disgusted because they want to show what’s ugly.
Janeane: I can attest that that’s a fact. They do that, but they don’t see that they embarrass themselves. They do it with zero self-awareness. What they do is reveal themselves as hacks.
Jewel: Because of what they choose to focus on.
Janeane: Right, but also that they even are wasting your time with it on an alleged news network.
Jewel: Alleged is a good word.
Janeane: It is an alleged news network. It’s the official network of homeland security, and it is not news. It is a version of events that occur and then, it’s editorialized to the Right. So, it’s hard to write something funny about something that you think is degrading culture. The essays (in my book), there are things that are not funny. Yet, in this case, I want the book to be somewhat humorous because it can be more enjoyable to read about different cultures if you’re laughing. At the same time, when you see something like Fox News that you feel is actually preventing us, as a culture, from moving forward, that's what feels so unjust.
It degrades culture because then, you’ll see a poll, “Sixty percent of Americans think that George Bush is doing a great job.” Why is that? Because they’re misinformed. It’s not because he’s doing a great job. It’s because they’re getting spin. Most people don’t know what’s going on. They may think he’s doing a good job, and what that means is A.) they’re not paying attention or B.) they only get their news from corporate establishment news sources, which means they have no idea.
Jewel: Their reactions are endemic of forced ignorance, where it’s like what I call the Ostrich Syndrome: they want to have their heads in the sand and think the President’s a great guy because acknowledging he’s not means a bleaker reality.
Janeane: It’s a psychological need that leads to what you’re talking about, willful ignorance, a placing of one’s head in the sand because you can’t emotionally handle the idea of being so poorly led as a country by a President (President Bush), who is clearly one of the worst presidents historically we’ve ever had. There’s nothing wrong in saying that. If you do your homework and educate yourself about American domestic and foreign policy through the years, you’ll see that President Bush is probably one of the worst in the last two hundred-some-odd years of this country. Other people know it, too. That’s why he has such a protective PR team that Karl Rove manages. If Bush was truly as popular and competent as people say, he wouldn’t need all the money and PR, including whole networks and newspapers, owned by Rupert Murdock that pretend that he’s a good guy. If he was a good guy . . .
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copyright 2004 Numb Magazine http://www.numbmagazine.com
[interview snippet from the new issue of Numb Magazine]
copyright 2004 Numb Magazine http://www.numbmagazine.com
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Janeane Garofalo: It’s not news, but unfortunately some people are under the impression it is, and then, some people know that it isn’t, but it feeds their need, so they are quite willing to take homeland propaganda as news and then use it as fuel to feed their misperceptions and anger management problems. It’s dangerous and destructive. Unexamined patriotism in the wrong hands is like a loaded gun. It’s incredibly dangerous and a form of narcissism that gets people into trouble. Fox feeds narcissism in a strange way.
Jewel Blackfeather Welter: When I’ve seen pieces those sources have done, I’ve been really disgusted because they want to show what’s ugly.
Janeane: I can attest that that’s a fact. They do that, but they don’t see that they embarrass themselves. They do it with zero self-awareness. What they do is reveal themselves as hacks.
Jewel: Because of what they choose to focus on.
Janeane: Right, but also that they even are wasting your time with it on an alleged news network.
Jewel: Alleged is a good word.
Janeane: It is an alleged news network. It’s the official network of homeland security, and it is not news. It is a version of events that occur and then, it’s editorialized to the Right. So, it’s hard to write something funny about something that you think is degrading culture. The essays (in my book), there are things that are not funny. Yet, in this case, I want the book to be somewhat humorous because it can be more enjoyable to read about different cultures if you’re laughing. At the same time, when you see something like Fox News that you feel is actually preventing us, as a culture, from moving forward, that's what feels so unjust.
It degrades culture because then, you’ll see a poll, “Sixty percent of Americans think that George Bush is doing a great job.” Why is that? Because they’re misinformed. It’s not because he’s doing a great job. It’s because they’re getting spin. Most people don’t know what’s going on. They may think he’s doing a good job, and what that means is A.) they’re not paying attention or B.) they only get their news from corporate establishment news sources, which means they have no idea.
Jewel: Their reactions are endemic of forced ignorance, where it’s like what I call the Ostrich Syndrome: they want to have their heads in the sand and think the President’s a great guy because acknowledging he’s not means a bleaker reality.
Janeane: It’s a psychological need that leads to what you’re talking about, willful ignorance, a placing of one’s head in the sand because you can’t emotionally handle the idea of being so poorly led as a country by a President (President Bush), who is clearly one of the worst presidents historically we’ve ever had. There’s nothing wrong in saying that. If you do your homework and educate yourself about American domestic and foreign policy through the years, you’ll see that President Bush is probably one of the worst in the last two hundred-some-odd years of this country. Other people know it, too. That’s why he has such a protective PR team that Karl Rove manages. If Bush was truly as popular and competent as people say, he wouldn’t need all the money and PR, including whole networks and newspapers, owned by Rupert Murdock that pretend that he’s a good guy. If he was a good guy . . .
-------------------------------------------------------
copyright 2004 Numb Magazine http://www.numbmagazine.com