Who Spreads More Bullshit?  Fox Propaganda Network or CNN Clickbait Press?

06 Aug 2025 3 Comments

by Dr. John Persico Jr. in Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Excuse me for the euphemisms I used in the title for our leading right wing and left wing paid media.  In reality, they are both brothers or sisters in that their “raison d’etre” is to make money.  It is not (as our founding fathers would have hoped) to “educate and inform” the citizenry.

I am taking a short break with this blog from my skewering of some notable conspiracy theories to address the above question since the purveyors of the misinformation, lies and bullshit are even more culpable than the morally corrupt who start these scandalous lies.  In fact, the media are even more guilty since they profit mightily from keeping these conspiracies going.  The following information comes from my favorite muse ChatGPT.

The question of whether Fox News or CNN spreads more misinformation, lies, or disinformation is highly contentious and often depends on political perspective. However, we can ground an answer in media studies, fact-checking data, lawsuits, and journalistic standards rather than ideology.

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🔍 Definitions Matter

  • Misinformation: False or misleading information, shared unintentionally.
  • Disinformation: Deliberately false information, spread with intent to deceive.
  • Lies: Knowingly false statements.

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🧾 Fact-Checking and Analysis

  1. Independent Fact-Checkers (e.g., PolitiFact, Media Bias/Fact Check, Ad Fontes Media)

Source    Reliability Rating     Bias Rating

CNN          Mixed to High         Lean Left

Fox News  Mixed to Low         Right to Far Right

  • CNN has been cited for mistakes, especially with anonymous sourcing, but generally corrects errors and upholds mainstream journalistic standards.
  • Fox News has a split personality:
    • Its news division (e.g., Bret Baier) tends to be more factual.
    • Its opinion shows (e.g., Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity) have been repeatedly flagged for spreading falsehoods, conspiracy theories, and disinformation.

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⚖️ Legal Evidence: Dominion Lawsuit Against Fox News

  • In 2023, Fox News settled for $787.5 million with Dominion Voting Systems for knowingly spreading false election fraud claims after the 2020 election.
  • Internal emails showed Fox personalities and executives knew the claims were false but aired them to retain viewers.
  • This is a clear-cut example of deliberate disinformation for profit and political gain.

CNN has not faced a comparable legal loss for deliberate disinformation.

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🔥 High-Profile Incidents

Topic                                       CNN                                                         Fox News

Iraq War (2002–03)     Supported invasion initially                  Strongly promoted WMD narrative

COVID-19                       Mixed messaging                                  Spread vaccine/mask disinformation

2020 Election Fraud   Rejected false claims                             Amplified fraud theories

January 6th                  Framed as insurrection                            Justified actions

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📊 Public Trust & Academic Studies

  • Studies (e.g., from MIT, Harvard, Pew) show that Fox News viewers tend to be less accurately informed on major events compared to viewers of CNN, PBS, or BBC.
  • CNN has been accused of bias and sensationalism, but rarely of systematic disinformation.

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✅ Conclusion

Fox News, especially its opinion programming, has a more substantial and well-documented record of spreading disinformation and lies, particularly when politically or commercially advantageous.

CNN is not without bias or error, and sometimes engages in editorial framing that reflects a liberal viewpoint, but it has stronger mechanisms for fact-checking, corrections, and accountability.

Conclusions:

My conclusions are to avoid the mainstream paid for profit media as much as possible.  Broaden your media choices to include podcasts, webcasts, articles published by independents or people that you admire.  Be careful of anything or anyone selling you something or who has a profit motive in hand.

  • Do not rely on any one source for your information.
  • Do not accept anything as gospel truth
  • Verify and corroborate any information you receive
  • Be tentative: Move information up a hierarchy as more data and sources support the information. 
  • Be open to other opinions. Do not accept anyone’s word as 100 truth
  • My father used to say “Believe nothing of what you hear and ½ of what you see. I still think that is good advice. 

Why am I reading this? 

07 Mar 2023 14 Comments

by Dr. John Persico Jr. in Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , , ,

sandovalTom Sandoval addressed the jaw-dropping drama that he and longtime girlfriend Ariana Madix called it quits over infidelity.

The “Vanderpump Rules” star made a conscious effort to remain silent after news broke he and co-star Raquel Leviss were having a “full-on affair” — but decided to finally speak out Friday night.  —- ‘Hated’ Tom Sandoval addresses Ariana Madix split amid cheating claims by Nika Shakhnazarova, March 4, 2023 | 4:58am

Before I saw this headline on my Google consolidated news channel, I must confess that I had never heard of Tom Sandoval, Raquel Leviss or Ariana Madix.  Over the years, I have “jealously” noted that major movie stars (For example, Hugh Grant and Elizabeth Hurley) with drop dead gorgeous girlfriends or wives always seem to cheat on them with equally beautiful drop dead gorgeous girlfriends who are no doubt dating other famous movie stars.

dish-092117-ariana-madix-embed-02

Now for “common” guys like me, having a girlfriend like Ariana Madix would be like “let’s say” owning a Ferrari.  Not a chance in a lifetime that I ever will but it is still something to dream about.  By the way, to my female readers, I am sorry that I cannot write a blog that might sum up some of your fantasies, but it is beyond my writing skills to put myself in your shoes.  The only thing that I might say is that perhaps many women would like to write a blog about a guy that does not cheat on them.  If so, I would suggest that you do not look for inspiration in Hollywood.  The saying that a man’s penis and his brain cannot both operate at the same time seems largely true for much of “mankind.”

Raquel-Leviss-Snatched-Waist-Round-Bum

So, I saw this headline this morning and immediately wondered if Tom was leaving a decrepit homely looking girlfriend for better waters or if my imagined “Law of Cheating” held true.  Was his new illicit girlfriend just as beautiful but no more beautiful than his old girlfriend?  I had to test my hypothesis, so I Googled pictures of both.  You can make your own mind up by scanning the pictures I have posted of each woman.  I think my “Hollywood Law of Cheating” is still valid.  But this is not really the issue.

The real issue is why a seemingly intelligent man like me (I hope somewhat intelligent anyway) would even care about Sandoval and his exploits.  I know we call some of these headlines click-bait and I keep telling myself to ignore them.  After all, I really don’t care about British Royalty, the Kardashians, Zombie TV shows or the trysts of Hollywood actors and actresses.  I have a hard enough time trying to avoid the latest news dealing with crooked politicians, greedy real estate developers and lying lawyers to last me the rest of my life.  Short though that might now be.

I have an idea that might help us to avoid these clickbait useless stories.  We need a schema for categories of news stories.  Such a schema would help us to prioritize what we could or should read and when.  Might I suggest the following as a start:

Category One:  Local news that might directly impact your safety or wellbeing or the safety or wellbeing of your loved ones.

Category Two:  Local news that might impact you or your family either socially or economically.

Category Three:  National news that impacts you or your family in any meaningful tangible way.

Category Four:  International news that you might be able to do something positive about in terms of aid or humanitarian assistance.

Category Five:  News about subjects you are interested in like science or history.

Category Six:  Social, Economic or Political news that you cannot change or do anything about.

Category Seven:  News about sports or entertainment

Category Eight:  News that includes gossip about other people whom you have never met and or likely to never meet.  This includes British Royalty, the Kardashians, and most movie stars.

The way you use these categories is as follows.  Just like you have a meal with a balanced diet of carbs, fats, proteins, and nutrients, you would select your daily diet of news based on a balanced news diet.  For example:

Monday:  Two helpings from Category 1.  One helping from Category 2.  One helping from Category 3.  One helping from Category Seven.

Tuesday:  Two helpings from Category 2.  Two helpings from Category 3.  Two helpings from Category 5.  One helping from Category Eight.

You get the idea?  A balanced diet of news with some allowance for “junk food.”  Junk food being anything in Categories Six, Seven or Eight.  Such a diet would help many Americans focus on what is important.  You can start by cutting out my list of categories and keeping this list close by your TV or favorite news source.

Now that I have helped you to think about the important things in your life, I am going to go back to reading about Tom Sandoval, whoever he is.

By the way, I would not trade my spouse Karen for all the glamorous movie stars in the world.  Happiness lies not in what we can buy or what is skin deep but in character and personality.  I can not imagine growing old with anyone else by my side than Karen.