Halls of Shrewd'm / US Policy❤
No. of Recommendations: 3
'Christian 'prayer warriors' raise alarm over Boston's SatanCon 2023: 'Using the supernatural'
Former occultist John Ramirez said Satanists are messing with real spiritual forces despite what they claim'
snip
'A group of Christians is pushing back against SatanCon 2023, an event scheduled to take place in downtown Boston that is being touted by The Satanic Temple as the "largest satanic gathering in history."
Detractors say the temple is "using the supernatural" to manipulate people, though it bills itself as a nontheistic group that does not believe in the supernatural.
"We've been tracking these folks for a couple years now," Dave Kubal, CEO of Intercessors for America, told Fox News Digital. His organization of "half a million prayer warriors" takes a three-pronged approach to resisting and exposing The Satanic Temple with "news, prayer and action."'
https://www.foxnews.com/us/christian-prayer-warrio...More in the article.
No. of Recommendations: 11
A few observations:
1. This article was almost entirely written from the detractor, Dave Kubal's, perspective: here's what I think the people of The Satanic Temple think:
The Salem, Massachusetts-based Satanic Temple, which claims to have more than 1.5 million members worldwide, denies belief in a personal devil, saying its mission is "to encourage benevolence and empathy among all people, reject tyrannical authority, advocate practical common sense and justice, and be directed by the human conscience to undertake noble pursuits."Kubal said that "whether or not people believe in satanic power" or claim not to, they really do.
2. I drilled through some links into other Fox News articles looking for details of the "Satanic Abortion Ritual" referenced in the article and finally found this in a Politifact fact check:
To bolster its legal arguments after the Missouri cases, the temple created what it calls a "Satanic abortion ritual," that it says exempts its members "from enduring medically unnecessary and unscientific regulations when seeking to terminate their pregnancy."
The ritual involves reciting two of the temple's seven tenets, which read, "One's body is inviolable, subject to one's own will alone" and "Beliefs should conform to one's best scientific understanding of the world. One should take care never to distort scientific facts to fit one's beliefs." 3. Does Fox News have a purpose other than fostering rage? And why are their articles written so poorly?
https://www.politifact.com/article/2022/may/05/sat...
No. of Recommendations: 7
"3. Does Fox News have a purpose other than fostering rage? And why are their articles written so poorly?"
As a kid, I'd watch Wizard of Oz and wonder how Scarecrow could talk if he didn't have a brain..... then came Fox News.
No. of Recommendations: 0
A few observations:
The reality you've identified is so positive. But I wonder why they chose the name "Satanic Temple," which gives the opposite impression.
=sheila
No. of Recommendations: 3
The reality you've identified is so positive. But I wonder why they chose the name "Satanic Temple," which gives the opposite impression.
I think that's the reason they chose it. You can't have freedom of religion if only certain religions are granted freedom. For example, there is a 10 Commandments monument on the Arkansas capital grounds. The Satanic Temple petitioned to place a statue of Baphomet on the grounds as well. The request was of course rejected in horror, but that gave the Satanic Temple to sue on 1st Amendment principles.
No. of Recommendations: 2
I enjoyed reading through their website. I think they are mostly trolling:-)
A major objective seems to be to make the consequences of some policy decisions more clear. If you want to have prayer at school or football games, you better be ready to allow Wiccan or Satan prayers.
Alan
No. of Recommendations: 2
3. Does Fox News have a purpose other than fostering rage? And why are their articles written so poorly?
The article was posted as a topic of information for discussion.
It was obvious the article was written by a Fox news source. Why did you bother reading
the article if you dislike FoxNews?
I suggest you post articles from CNN that will be more to your liking.
No. of Recommendations: 4
LurkerMom: The article was posted as a topic of information for discussion.
And I discussed it.
LurkerMom: It was obvious the article was written by a Fox news source. Why did you bother reading
the article if you dislike FoxNews?
I wanted to see how Fox News Digital was going to explain how The Satanic Temple is "using the supernatural" to manipulate people.
LurkerMom: I suggest you post articles from CNN that will be more to your liking.
I rarely post about things to my liking (say music, art, books, films) and would only bring something here from CNN if it provided facts, data or information relevant to the discussion at hand.
No. of Recommendations: 2
NewE posting as commonone:
I rarely post about things to my liking (say music, art, books, films) and would only bring something here from CNN if it provided facts, data or information relevant to the discussion at hand.CNN sits at the bottom for ratings of cable news. FoxNews is the most watched in cable news. Apparently people trust FoxNews over CNN for its honesty in reporting.
'Fox News Scores Big Win In 2022 Cable News Ratings As CNN, MSNBC Have Worst-Rated Years Ever'
snip
'Fox News Channel's The Five was the most-watched show in cable news in 2022, making history as the first show airing outside of prime time to finish a full year at number one. The Five had an average total audience of 3.432 million viewers'despite airing at 5 p.m., hours ahead of prime, when viewership is typically the highest.'
https://www.forbes.com/sites/markjoyella/2022/12/1...snip
'globe ' CNN has been shedding viewers, coming in last in ratings of US cable news networks during the recent midterm elections.
At the same time, the cost-cutting new corporate management under the umbrella of Warner Bros Discovery has also indicated it wants to reel in a perceived left-leaning political bias in CNN's coverage.'
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2022/nov/27/cnn-...'Here Are Fox News, MSNBC and CNN Ratings for January 2023'
https://www.adweek.com/tvnewser/here-are-the-cable...My bottom line, I trust FoxNews over CNN for accuracy and honest reporting.
No. of Recommendations: 2
It was obvious the article was written by a Fox news source. Why did you bother reading the article if you dislike FoxNews?
I suggest you post articles from CNN that will be more to your liking.
I thought it had been agreed to drop the snarkiness.
=sheila
No. of Recommendations: 14
CNN sits at the bottom for ratings of cable news. FoxNews is the most watched in cable news. Apparently people trust FoxNews over CNN for its honesty in reporting.The reason you give to explain why FoxNews has the largest following.....its "honesty" in reporting".....is simply your personal belief. And in reality, the true facts don't bear that out. In fact, they emphasize quite the opposite.
A study that Fairleigh Dickinson had conducted showed that: "Media outlets such as Fox News and MSNBC have a negative impact on people's current events knowledge while NPR and Sunday morning political talk shows are the most informative sources of news, according to Fairleigh Dickinson University's newest PublicMind survey." They also found that people who watched no news at all were more accurately informed than FoxNews watchers.
https://www.businessinsider.com/study-watching-fox...A group fighting against fear-mongering news sources also summarizes Politifact's findings when fact-checking FoxNews assertions: 10%-true, 12%-mostly true, 19%-half true, 21%-mostly false, 29%-false, 9%-pants on fire.
https://hearyourselfthink.org/fox/The Pew Research Center has learned this about news sources and adherents. "Fox News, the influential cable network launched by Rupert Murdoch in 1996, holds a unique place in the American media landscape, particularly for those on the ideological right. While Democrats in the United States turn to and place their trust in a variety of media outlets for political news, no other source comes close to matching the appeal of Fox News for Republicans."
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/04/08/f...And here's an interesting study of a different kind, published this past spring, in which arch-conservative Fox TV viewers were paid to watch CNN for a month, and assessed before and after for their awareness of facts.
"The study, titled 'The manifold effects of partisan media on viewers' beliefs and attitudes: A field experiment with Fox News viewers,' was performed by a pair of political scientists: David Broockman, who teaches at UC-Berkeley, and Joshua Kalla, who teaches at Yale. According to Broockman and Kalla, when these Fox viewers watched CNN, they heard about all sorts of things Fox wasn't telling them. They processed that information. They took it in. They became more knowledgeable about what was really going on in the United States.
The experiment didn't change their political preferences ' certainly not in just one month. But it slightly altered their perceptions of certain key issues and political candidates."
https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/fox-news-stu...Just this past December, the Washington Post and Univ of Maryland conducted a poll that included information on respondents' news sources and personal political orientation. And they found that Democrats tune in to a variety of sources, but Republicans and those leaning Republican rely on only 2.....Fox News and local news. And Fox caters to Republicans in what they present and how they present it, because this ensures their leading share of the market.
"The Washington Post and University of Maryland conducted a national poll that included an assessment of where people get their news about politics and government. Among Democrats and Democrat-leaning independents, a variety of sources ' CNN, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, NPR, the Times, The Post ' were identified as a main source of news by at least 3 in 10. Among Republicans, though, only two were: local television and Fox News."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/04/04...And as an aside......In 2020, which included covid and the lockdown, the presidential election, and George Floyd's murder, CNN viewership had exploded, and to a far greater degree than Fox viewership did. CNN at this point is undergoing intense strife and change. Their viewership cratered in Feb 2022 when this all dramatically began, and they still have significant work and recovery ahead of them.
=sheila
No. of Recommendations: 4
I look at fox news on a fairly regular basis to see what the current GOP talking points are. I don't see them as outright lying so much as creating spin through both story selection and word choice. My favorite remains "Obama scares Hillary into announcing". A single word that created the twofer with "Women are weak", and "Black people are scary", so vote for the old white guy. You could call that headline a lie, since there is no evidence Hillary was scared. More interesting (and concerning)to me, was most of my conservative friends saw no problem with the headline. They were being manipulated without recognizing it.
When fox news started denying the big lie and stating that Biden won the 2020 election they lost the more radical part of the GOP to the likes of Newsmax. It seems over the past two years they have taken a step to the left; perhaps this perception is created by such a strong shift by many to the right. OTOH, with the new ownership of CNN many feel they will be taking a hard right turn. Part of the solution has to be teaching people how to recognize propaganda, as both sides do it. Big money is spent on advertising because it works; having entire media corporations as your advertising arm is very powerful, and perhaps something that needs to be addressed with big policy.
Alan
No. of Recommendations: 6
That is the logical fallacy "appeal to popularity" (argumentum ad populum). How popular an outlet is has no relevance to it's reliability/accuracy. Ratings are irrelevant.
However, a study (actually, at least two) done a few years ago showed that consumers of FOX news were less informed than people whom consumed no news at all. (Or maybe it was no cable news at all...)
This was the most current link I found with a quick search.
https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/fox-news-stu...Personally, I don't watch any cable news. I prefer to get my information from actual journalists (and a variety of sources, not just one).
No. of Recommendations: 2
My favorite remains "Obama scares Hillary into announcing". A single word that created the twofer with "Women are weak", and "Black people are scary",
I don't recall the quote by Obama, if I did I would not have shared your interpretation. I do not agree with Hillary and her politics but do admit Hillary had/has grit to endure all the going ons with her and Bill Clinton's political careers and her efforts to 'break the glass ceiling'.
When fox news started denying the big lie and stating that Biden won the 2020 election they lost the more radical part of the GOP to the likes of Newsmax. It seems over the past two years they have taken a step to the left; perhaps this perception is created by such a strong shift by many to the right.
Whether or nor a lie, it was time for Fox to move on. It did seem to me Fox took a step to the left, but I don't see it now. If anything I think Fox has moved more to the Right and less on the Trump band wagon.
OTOH, with the new ownership of CNN many feel they will be taking a hard right turn.
It became a matter of sink or swim. Both political sides are not happy with our current situation. CNN sees the handwriting on the wall and needs to find more neutral ground to appease both sides.
Part of the solution has to be teaching people how to recognize propaganda, as both sides do it. Big money is spent on advertising because it works; having entire media corporations as your advertising arm is very powerful, and perhaps something that needs to be addressed with big policy.
Fox's big money and big propaganda push for the big red wave this past mid term election did not happen....
So perhaps some are recognizing the propaganda and are not swayed by it.
No. of Recommendations: 5
snip.... FoxNews has the largest following.....its "honesty" in reporting".....is simply your personal belief. And in reality, the true facts don't bear that out. In fact, they emphasize quite the opposite.
It's astounding that Fox fans ignore the legal defenses Fox uses in court. They amount to 'our talking heads are just spouting opinions and lying, which is okay because 'no one really believes us' anyway.
"The network's lawyers write, as they have before, that Fox was merely relaying inherently newsworthy claims by Trump and his surrogates. The lawyers contend the supposedly defamatory statements often involved hyperbolic characterizations or mere opinions.
(Fox attorneys previously fended off an unrelated defamation lawsuit against star Tucker Carlson filed by a woman who had an affair with Trump by arguing no one believes that what the Fox star says is literally true.) "
No. of Recommendations: 2
snip.... FoxNews has the largest following.....its "honesty" in reporting".....is simply your personal belief. And in reality, the true facts don't bear that out. In fact, they emphasize quite the opposite.
The link to the Fox / Dominion discussion-
https://health.wusf.usf.edu/2023-01-23/fox-news-de...
No. of Recommendations: 1
That is the logical fallacy "appeal to popularity" (argumentum ad populum). How popular an outlet is has no relevance to it's reliability/accuracy. Ratings are irrelevant.
However, a study (actually, at least two) done a few years ago showed that consumers of FOX news were less informed than people whom consumed no news at all. (Or maybe it was no cable news at all...)
People who watch political cable news outlets I believe are Party affiliated, (conservatives and Fox) (liberals and CNN) and have nothing to do with which group is more intelligent as indicated by opinionated researchers? judging their educational background.
Personally, I don't watch any cable news. I prefer to get my information from actual journalists (and a variety of sources, not just one).
I do watch some cable news, such as 'The Five', (FoxNews). Many journalists are bias and opinionated when it comes to politics.
No. of Recommendations: 4
Just to be clear, I didn't say anything about intelligence. Just that FOX viewers are more poorly informed than people who watch no news at all. Not a reflection of intelligence. If anything, I would say FOX deliberately tries to manipulate people into believing untruths. I know some intelligent people who watch FOX, with the unfortunate consequence that a lot of their information is faulty. Doesn't mean they aren't intelligent.
No. of Recommendations: 2
Just to be clear, I didn't say anything about intelligence. Just that FOX viewers are more poorly informed than people who watch no news at all. Not a reflection of intelligence. If anything, I would say FOX deliberately tries to manipulate people into believing untruths. I know some intelligent people who watch FOX, with the unfortunate consequence that a lot of their information is faulty. Doesn't mean they aren't intelligent.
Okay, I likened less informed being less intelligent.
FOX is politically bias with their conservative right leaning politics.
I do not believe FOX deliberately tries to manipulate people into believing untruths.
FOX has politically left leaning people on their payroll and contributors to argue
their point of view, more so than CNN or MSNBC.
No. of Recommendations: 1
No. of Recommendations: 2
Is It a Real Fox News Story or Some BS Desi Lydic Made Up?LOL....
Actually though it brings to mind serious news FOX reports on while other
MSM news outlets will stay mum or suppress news to protect certain people.
You know, like the Hunter laptop story, to name just ONE.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11558785/...
No. of Recommendations: 4
LurkerMom:
You know, like the Hunter laptop story, to name just ONE.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11558785/...So as a source of 'serious news,' you offer the Daily Mail?
From Media Bias Fact Check: Overall, we rate Daily Mail Right Biased and Questionable due to numerous failed fact checks and poor information sourcing. Propaganda, Conspiracy, Some Fake News, Numerous Failed Fact Checks.
https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/daily-mail/But hey, it's cold put today so I read through it. Three paragraphs in to the Daily Mail article is this:
The Bureau [FBI] is even said to have paid millions of dollars to Twitter executives to censor the [Hunter Biden laptop] information. 'Is said to' is doing a lot of heavy lifting there and hardly belongs in a piece of serious news, right? Sure seems like millions of dollars paid to multiple Twitter employees would be easy enough to prove (there's no proof offered in the article, though).
Anyway, I am puzzled why the FBI, run by Trump appointed leaders and filled by many pro-Trump agents, would pay millions of dollars to shield the Bidens.
But here's the real problem with the whole Hunter Biden laptop story:
'The experts found the data had been repeatedly accessed and copied by people other than Hunter Biden over nearly three years,' our report explained, with those we spoke with being unable to 'reach definitive conclusions about the contents as a whole, including whether all of it originated from a single computer or could have been assembled from files from multiple computers and put on the portable drive.'
For example:
'[An expert] also found records on the drive that indicated someone may have accessed the drive from a West Coast location in October 2020, little more than a week after the first New York Post stories on Hunter Biden's laptop appeared.'
'Over the next few days, somebody created three additional folders on the drive, titled, 'Mail,' 'Salacious Pics Package' and 'Big Guy File' ' an apparent reference to Joe Biden.'So what, three years after the fact Hunter Biden decided to create three new folders on his laptop and dumped in incriminating files of his mail regarding illegal activities, nudie pics, and Big Guy exposes?
Shorter version: chain of custody.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/04/12...
No. of Recommendations: 1
So as a source of 'serious news,' you offer the Daily Mail?
Dear NewE, LOL'Stop it with that link'it's junk.
Oh, and it's a loss cause trying to dignify Hunter.
No. of Recommendations: 1
Oh, and it's a loss cause trying to dignify Hunter. LM
--------------------------
Separate from the conspiracy defense of how the content came to be be on the laptop is the actual content itself. The libs defending Hunter seem to ignore that aspect. They need to expand their lame conspiracy to include a Hunter lookalike hired by the white supremacists to video smoking crack and cavorting with hookers just to create a false story about choir boy Hunter. Boy those MAGA people are awful.
BTW, what does this have to do with Atheism? Nothing really but like I pointed out earlier, politics on this board is acceptable as long as it leans far enough left. And I am fine with political discussion, just don't whine about politics polluting the purity of atheist-only topics that is claimed as justification.
No. of Recommendations: 7
LurkerMom: Oh, and it's a loss cause trying to dignify Hunter.
Please show me where I tried to 'dignify Hunter'? Good luck.
Hunter Biden is a former drug addict who made terrible life decisions. I suppose one could point to the tragedies he suffered in life to try to understand his behavior but many people suffer terrible life tragedies without turning to drugs, making a mess of their lives, and hurting their loved ones. So no, I've never tried to 'dignify Hunter'. And for the record, if he's committed crimes, I would want to see him charged and prosecuted.
bighairymike: Separate from the conspiracy defense of how the content came to be be on the laptop is the actual content itself. The libs defending Hunter seem to ignore that aspect. They need to expand their lame conspiracy to include a Hunter lookalike hired by the white supremacists to video smoking crack and cavorting with hookers just to create a false story about choir boy Hunter. Boy those MAGA people are awful.
No one is claiming the videos or photos being circulated are not Hunter Biden. Although where they came from is another matter. But is there a crime he could be charged with for taking nude photos or videos of himself (that were stolen and circulated without his permission)? Is it even possible to charge him for drug use? How would you establish that he was actually smoking crack? I mean, every time I watch a Donald Trump Jr Twitter rant with him waving his hands wildly and looking stoned, I think, "Hey, is he on coke or speedballs or what?" But I wouldn't begin to suggest he could be arrested for anything. As for any documents that might be on his laptop, any half-way decent attorney could establish that there's no way of knowing who placed them on a hard drive that was handed around indiscriminately.
And seriously, Giuliani had the laptop. If you think for a minute there was anything prosecutable on it that he wouldn't have had a Four Seasons press conference to insist on his arrest?
Finally, if using your father's name and position is a crime, then someone should go arrest the Trump brood and Jared post haste, not to mention dozens of other political children and spouses.
bighairymike: BTW, what does this have to do with Atheism? Nothing really but like I pointed out earlier, politics on this board is acceptable as long as it leans far enough left. And I am fine with political discussion, just don't whine about politics polluting the purity of atheist-only topics that is claimed as justification.
Ask LurkerMom, she introduced the Hunter Biden laptop into this thread and it's pretty clear she doesn't lean left.
No. of Recommendations: 1
>>bighairymike: BTW, what does this have to do with Atheism? Nothing really but like I pointed out earlier, politics on this board is acceptable as long as it leans far enough left. And I am fine with political discussion, just don't whine about politics polluting the purity of atheist-only topics that is claimed as justification.<<
Ask LurkerMom, she introduced the Hunter Biden laptop into this thread and it's pretty clear she doesn't lean left. - commonone
===================
Actually, you introduced Hunters laptop in post #250 which included this,
But here's the real problem with the whole Hunter Biden laptop story: 'The experts found the data had been repeatedly accessed and copied by people other than Hunter Biden over nearly three years,'
Just sayin'
No. of Recommendations: 1
Apologies to commonone. I scanned the thread again and found the first reference to Hunters laptop in LM post #247. Too bad manlobbi didn't provide an edit capability.
No. of Recommendations: 6
Apparently people trust FoxNews over CNN for its honesty in reporting.
Popularity has nothing to do with trust.
The National Enquirer was the largest circulation newspaper in the country, with headlines like 'UFO's Land on the White House Lawn'. Getting ratings is easy, if you don't care about reporting the truth. Partisan media has always had an advantage over non-partisan, and it has been so since the beginning of the Republic because they come with a built in audience.
For a time newspapers were guaranteed circulation if they included 'Republican' or 'Democrat' in their header. There are still some of those left, a historical artifact of the era.
No. of Recommendations: 0
LM wrote:
Christian 'prayer warriors' raise alarm over Boston's SatanCon 2023...
Better this, than what happened a few years ago when some dyslexic Christians got bent out of shape over SantaCon...
:)
No. of Recommendations: 2
Apparently people trust FoxNews over CNN for its honesty in reporting.
The only response necessary to this: LMAO. So blatantly, obviously and repeatedly proven false. FOX is 95% RW propaganda.
