>> You probably know by now some people who are really into Fox News that believe what they hear
there and you might think these people are in a cult. It is so difficult to get through to them
and that is kind of true. But apparently there is sort of a way it involves getting
them away from fox to consume other information, which is a tough task.
You might in fact have to pay them that is actually what was done
in a study on the harmful effects that the watching of Fox News can have on its viewers.
These scientists literally paid them to watch other news for a month. It's a study
called the manifold effects of partisan media on viewers beliefs and attitudes.
It was conducted back in 2020, it's finally being published now, but what they did was not the study
I would have done, but they paid them to watch CNN instead of Fox News for 30 days. And what they
found is that the viewers ultimately became more skeptical and less likely to buy into fake news.
The early impact after just three days showed that the viewers were already starting to change.
Individuals in the treatment group know more no more information flattering to the
liberal side of the story in events that CNN predominantly covered and no less information
flattering to the conservative side of historian events the Fox News predominantly covered.
You might not be shocked by that. Here's an example of what they mean.
CNN provided extensive coverage of COVID-19 is back in 2020 which included information about
the severity of the crisis and poor aspects of trump's performance and handling it.
Fox news covered Covid-19, much less you might recall
the coverage it did offer provided little of the information that CNN did certainly, they weren't
criticizing Donald Trump, they were minimizing in the minds of their viewers how serious it was.
That is obviously wrong. After just three days off of the Fox News diet,
people started to understand what was really going on and that is fantastic even if it took
literally paying them to make it happen, Francesca.
>> Let's keep doing it, keep paying them if we all pull our money.
I mean like yeah, I mean it's so even after three days, that's the part that's sticking with me.
It's insane. And look, we all know folks who just have the TV on all the time and they just have
their channels, they have their news, they have their channels and they won't even if cable really
does give you many many channels like no, I have my Fox on all the time and then you talk to them
and their parenting, this exact same thing that they just heard over and over and over again.
And I'm not saying that doesn't happen. When you compare at CNN,
you compare an MSNBC but at least for all the criticism that I have of those outlets,
there is a little bit more reality, right? There's a little bit more truth in there and it's not just
a series of distractions and halls of mirrors.
So it's like it is incredible how much that can actually change. And
so what is the way forward? I don't know like having cities or states as if we've
got extra money but paying people to turn it off. >> Yeah that's gonna be difficult to scale up. But
look we can do what we can to encourage people to try other forms of media.
You could buy people's subscriptions to newspapers, get them to show up. You can gift
subs on twitch to channels like The Young Turks or the situation room, that's one way you can do it.
It's just gradually we need to put more of a focus on other forms of media and maybe
for some of these people they need to try out a little bit of CNN I guess as a buffer some
people in the chat are saying if they were to immediately go to TYT their heads would explode.
But honestly I've heard from many conservatives who have been like,
I never doubted what I was hearing and then we discovered TYT. And now I think
totally differently, I didn't even know that this sort of thing was possible. So
definitely try it. But I want to give you one more really fascinating detail here.
It isn't just that after only a few days they started to understand things that have been
hidden from them. It's that they understood what was happening to them. So specifically the viewers
evolved to believe that if Donald Trump made a mistake, quote, Fox News would not cover it.
That Fox News engages in partisan coverage,
filtering. It's not just that they had new information, they had new meta information
about the Fox News strategy itself, which isn't really about what they're covering. What they're
covering is bad has tons of bad effects. It's really more about what they're not.
Fox News isn't just the footage, it's a block on information, it's an opportunity
cost you watch that or Ben Shapiro, whatever you have no idea what's happening in America,
it is not fundamentally news, not if news is designed to inform that
literally doesn't happen. It's not like they learn about other things that are happening,
they learn total nonsense that blocks them from actually getting information.
And that is I think the most fascinating thing about this and that makes me a
little bit optimistic about what is possible. >> Right, they put on like they're sort of,
it's like beer goggles, but for news and propaganda every time you watch Fox News
and because the other thing is that let's be real like CNN is not actually
all that critical of Trump, they have a bunch of trump surrogates on all the time.
So in that sense, although I hate it, they at least could see their otherwise ally
maybe being stacked up against on a panel or having to answer
for some of the things that on the other channel on Fox was being sort of uncritically like just
sort of swallowed hook line and sinker if at all addressed as you were saying.
So I think that's also interesting.
I mean I would love to see honestly like I think conservatives to TYT happens a lot, but for me,
I'm like what about the people who are just like MSNBC died or CNN died and they never try anything
else kind of because they're scared cuz they're like, I don't know my worldview is my worldview
and if I started thinking systemically about stuff I don't know, you know what I mean?
>> I look that has definitely been one of the goals. One of the reasons why back in the day
we started in terms of the presentation of the show, trying to make it a little
bit more like it. Like we started doing these little like lower thirds and stuff.
>> Sure. >> We want
to get in there and save some of the people who might not be hardcore conservative might just be
standard sort of centrist, they think. They might not really be centrists or moderates,
but they think that they're supposed to be and so we've tried to get in there, it's almost like like
a virus I guess, but one that makes me, I don't know, I don't really understand science.
>> Right there, but we just tricked you see, do that.
>> Anyway. Let's get a billionaire to fund a version of the study that's 1000 times bigger
or fund us. Wouldn't that be great? >> Dude, let's make it George Soros can it can.
>> Seriously. >> Just please.
>> They're gonna claim it could at least be true. Dudes got so
much money. Just give us like a billion. >> How many conservatives wouldn't accept
a Soros Check? >> Tell me.
>> How many right now. >> March Agreement definitely accept that.
We were talking on the pre show this morning about how she's been doing this criticism of Disney.
She owns Disney stock tens of thousands of dollars.