An analysis: Political belief vs. reality; The cynical Republican FTZWS machine goes silent

An interesting WaPo article discusses a link between what people believe is true and the news sources they rely on:

The link between the news Americans consume 

and the things they believe

The extent to which Fox News’s editorial decisions diverge from its competitors is well-established. From burying the initial story that led to Trump’s Manhattan indictment to ignoring its own mistakes to focusing on boosting Trump and targeting Biden, the network’s efforts to support the former president and his party are clear.

We should not be surprised, then, when we see that people who watch Fox News or consume conservative media that takes a similar approach to coverage have diverging assessments of the country — and of reality.

Some of this is self-selection: Many Fox News viewers watch Fox News because of the beliefs they hold, rather than their beliefs following from watching Fox News. But the two intermingle, with Fox (at times explicitly) reinforcing the existing biases of their audience.

There certainly isn’t much indication that the network’s coverage leads to people having a more accurate understanding of political issues. Ipsos asked respondents to evaluate the truth of several untrue claims, centered on immigration and the 2020 election. Those who cited Fox News and the conservative media as their main source of news were between four and nine times more likely than CNN/MSNBC viewers to believe the false claims.

A question about the most important issues facing the country yielded widely varying responses, depending on the information source. Fox News/conservative media consumers were way more likely than anyone else to say that immigration was the top issue. They were also more likely to believe false claims about immigration under Biden.

That data feels right. In my opinion, there is a much bigger bigger disconnect between reality and sound reasoning on the authoritarian radical right and most everyone else. Regular old-fashioned conservatives are probably closer to the CNN/MSNBC crowd than the Faux/conservative crowd. 

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A NYT news article comments about the silence of the usually very noisy radical authoritarian Republican FTZWS machine (flood the zone with shit) regarding the brutal Biden Hunter prosecution:

For nearly four years, Republicans have delved into the darkest corners of Hunter Biden’s life, seeking to tie his troubles to his father, President Biden. But as the younger Biden stands trial in Delaware on gun charges, the case’s glaring political contradictions have rendered the G.O.P. largely mute, from former President Donald J. Trump on down.

It stands to reason: The baseless claim that the Biden Justice Department is running a political persecution of Mr. Trump is somewhat undermined by the department’s prosecution of the president’s son. It is also hard to make much of allegations that Hunter Biden lied about his drug use to purchase a handgun when your party is sponsoring legislation to ease gun-purchasing restrictions for veterans struggling with mental illness, not to mention the case before the Supreme Court that could allow domestic abusers to buy firearms.  

The charge that Hunter Biden faces — lying about drug use on a federal background check to purchase a gun — and its clash with the gun rights absolutism in the G.O.P. On Tuesday night, the House narrowly passed a measure that would remove military veterans who had been reported to the F.B.I. for mental health concerns from the national gun background check system. 

“I’m encouraged to see Congress refusing to turn a blind eye to the 260,000 veterans who have been wrongfully submitted to the F.B.I.’s corrupt system,” declared Representative Eli Crane, Republican of Arizona and the amendment’s sponsor.

But that “corrupt system” is the same one that Hunter Biden is accused of subverting on federal forms as he sought to purchase a gun.

Gun rights organizations have tied themselves in knots over the case, trying to reconcile their political efforts to defeat President Biden with their attacks on the instant check system. “Gun Owners of America believes that the gun control Hunter Biden violated is unconstitutional and Forms 4473 shouldn’t even exist,” said Erich Pratt, the group’s senior vice president. “However, so long as these infringements remain on the books, Hunter Biden deserves no special treatment from the D.O.J.”

I agree that Hunter deserves no special treatment from the DoJ. And, it is the case that he is getting none. This is good for the rule of law because it means that DJT should also get no special treatment from the DoJ. That conundrum is why the cynical, morally rotted Republican FTZWS machine has gone mostly silent about the DoJ prosecuting Hunter. 

And to think I falsely thought that no amount of hypocrisy could ever make the Republican dark free speech Leviathan shut up. Will wonders never cease?