Obamacare's Bullsh*t Mountain is a symptom of the problem

There's a reason I find Jon Stewart to be the most trusted news man in America, and it's for clips like these. Jon demolishes the GOP talking points on this week's CBO report regarding Obamacare which adds onto what I talked about earlier this week in posts like this one, as well as this one. Strangely, the Daily Show online splits the opening segment into 3 smaller ones, but they're all good, and as an extra bonus Jon calls out Wisconsin's own Lyin' Ryan for his complete contradiction on this subject between 2009 and today.







The fact that GOPs can say such obvious lies and display clear contradictions on Bullshit Mountain goes to a deeper problem, one illustrated by poll released last week by Public Policy Polling. It shows that when nothing but bullshit goes out to certain people, they don't recognize it as bullshit.

35% of Americans say they trust Fox News more than any other TV news outlet, followed by 14% for PBS, 11% for ABC, 10% for CNN, 9% for CBS, 6% each for Comedy Central and MSNBC, and 3% for NBC. It leads the way because of its continuing near total support among Republicans as the place to go for news- 69% of Republicans say it's their most trusted source with nothing else polling above 7%. Meanwhile Democrats are split between a lot of different outlets when it comes to who they have the most faith in- PBS at 21%, CNN and ABC at 18%, and CBS and MSNBC at 12% all poll in double digits. It's interesting that while Fox News and MSNBC are often thought of as equivalent, Fox News is by far and away the most trusted source of GOP voters while MSNBC is only tied for 4th among Democrats.

Fox News also leads the 'least trusted' list in our annual poll. 33% give it that designation to 19% for MSNBC, 14% for Comedy Central, 11% for CNN, 5% for ABC, 4% for CBS, and 2% each for NBC and PBS. That's largely because 57% of Democrats give it their least trusted designation, with only Comedy Central at 18% also hitting double digits with them. MSNBC leads the way among Republicans at 38%, but CNN at 17% and Comedy Central at 13% both hit double digits as well. It's interesting to note that Republicans seem to hate MSNBC more than Democrats like it.

The numbers are even more striking when you go into the crosstabs, which shows that old, white righties are truly living in a Fox-generated bubble that's separate from the rest of us. Even moderates know that Faux is bullshit.

Trust Fox News? January 2014
Very conservative 76% yes, 12% no
Somewhat conservative 64% yes, 15% no
Moderate 28% yes, 51% no
Somewhat liberal 18% yes, 73% no
Very liberal 24% yes 70% no

Age 18-29 36% yes, 46% no
Age 30-45 40% yes, 45% no
Age 46-65 42% yes, 43% no
Age over 65 55% yes, 31% no

White 48% yes, 39% no
Hispanic 26% yes, 45% no
African-American 28% yes, 57% no

You look at those numbers, and there's an opportunity for Dems and other candidates to destroy the Republicans on in 2014 and 2016. Everyone other than the pale and stale knows that Fox and other right-wing outlets are lying, but yet far too many Dem candidates succumb to Fox framing and fears of the right-wing noise machine. It would do Dems a lot of good to realize you can't fix the willfully stupid and misinformed, and that the only thing they'll understand is defeat and humiliation. So the best way to make those things happen is to come out strong against these paid liars, which will get the vast majority of the other 65% or so of voters on your side, and wake up a lot of bystanders to just how wrong many of their allegedly "politically aware" conservative associates truly are.

Of course, this can be a bit harder to do in a market like Milwaukee where 95% of the daytime talk radio is dominated by right-wing propaganda. So this is where billboards, rallies, and ads calling out the Sykeses, Bellings, and McKennas need to be done by Democrats and other organizations that give a crap about the future of this state. But when these people are allowed to say the garbage they do, and not have it challenged because there is no Wisconsin equivalent of Jon Stewart, then those false ideas are allowed to fester, along with the bad public policies that generate from those false premises. It has to be ended NOW, and done so forcefully, because Bullshit Mountain has already done more than enough damage to our country over the last 13 years.