FOX’s Aversion to Education: Tucker Carlson Fears Liberal “Indoctrination” from Colleges

BUZZFLASH NEWS ALERT
by Jeffrey Joseph

Certain FOX hosts like to preach to their audience that each viewer should look for the facts to dispute their presentation of the news, but the obvious bias on FOX long suggested that the network used the call as means of fooling its audiences. Now that they have run a segment condemning higher education, the gig may be up.

On a segment running on Fox & Friends, Clayton Moore began his derision of education by saying, "If you didn’t already believe it, there’s a study that confirms it now. A college degree is more likely to skew a person’s political belief to the liberal side of the spectrum." He went on to suggest the study also showed colleges and universities somehow diminished students' understanding of basic civics. To back up his sentiments, Moore brought in Tucker Carlson, who quickly asserted that the study showed "that propaganda works" since its participants leaned left on a number of social issues like gay marriage and abortion.

According to Carlson, and backed by no facts in the study, all college professors have the same liberal agenda that they force upon the young minds of their students. Fortunately for Carlson, the study's source begins with the established bias that "the university is dominated by liberal professors" and that "it is no wonder this country is currently on a slippery slope to socialism," calling into question the validity of any of their results. Moore responded to Carlson's assertion by asking, "Is it better to not go to college at all than to get this kind of education?" Carlson listed benefits of college like "socialization, broadening of horizons, new experiences, etc.," all of which could just as easily liberalize a student, but he said "on kind of a pure civics basis, it's very hard" to rationalize higher education.

Moore tried to play a numbers game with the audience in anticipating criticism of the survey, saying that it included 14,000 participants. The new study that showed a liberal skew on social issues by college graduates actually only included some 2,500 people. The 14,000 cited actually included an entirely different study from 2006, one that indicated a lack of civics knowledge gained in college but apparently had no component regarding social issues, making the claim for the higher survey pool a disingenuous one at best.

On top of that, the criticism of colleges for inadequate civic literacy teaching disregards an important point from Richard A. Brake, a co-author of the study, that the problem "is a systemic problem, from K through 12 and all the way up." If Carlson or Moore actually researched the study, they might have spoken intelligently about it, but as Carlson told Moore when asked if the study might have flaws, "Well, I mean, there may be. I don't have the data right in front of me, or the methodology." Nor did he credibly research his vilification of the educational system. It seems he could have learned to do that somewhere.

The suggestion to stay away from higher learning makes an interesting accompaniment with a stance taken by Glenn Beck that his audience "reads more books than I think any audience I’ve ever witnessed." In an attempt to raise confidence in his viewers that they are not each "just a dumb-dumb-dummy," Beck implied that his discussion of three books last week brought all of them to the top ten of the best-seller list as his viewers picked them up, even the book he called "the most evil book I've ever read." Assuming Beck's audience really does read every book he mentions and that he does not intend them to read "evil" books, they must have missed something. Perhaps a critical thinking skill they might have developed at some institution may have helped.

Known for its baseless claims and fear-mongering hosts, FOX obviously develops its programming for a less-than-critical crowd. The fact that they would so brazenly advocate for less education in an increasingly competitive market only asserts FOX's self-interest overpowering its notion of serving its viewers and the public at large. Those who happen to value education and higher-level thinking should disregard the message to avoid higher education -- and choose to Turn Off FOX.

Please send in tips and success stories to turnofffox@gmail.com, look out for us on Twitter @turnofffox, and join us at BuzzFlash in the Campaign to Turn Off FOX News.

Originally posted at Turn Off FOX.

BUZZFLASH NEWS ALERT