The Fox News message about the message from the Occupy Wall Street movement has been clear. I could provide a million links to Media Matters to prove it but who has the time to sit through this garbage anymore? Who has the patience to watch this slander every day without throwing your computer/teevee out the goddamn window? We’ve all seen it. It’s blatant. It’s ridiculous. It makes their overall agenda so sadly and starkly evident that it makes me want to scream at anyone who still tunes into this propaganda machine of a “news channel.”

Grown-up bully Bill O’Reilly has some things to say about the #OWS protesters in an opinion piece he wrote for the Post-Bulletin:

Generally speaking, the Occupy Wall Street crew is comprised of bored morons who want handouts. Every American has a legitimate beef about something, but most of us don’t want to burn the system down. The protesters do.

Oh really, O’Reilly? This statement here really gets to the heart of what’s going on at Fox News when it comes to this movement. A lot of editorials, blog posts, etc. have pointed out that Fox News does not “get” the message; however, I believe that it’s quite clear that they do get it…but they will do whatever they can to ensure that their viewers do not.

Fox News is known for having a problem with “nuanced” or “complicated” issues. Because why bother hashing it out in a meaningful discussion about a real situation when you can just appeal to your viewers’ basest instinct? Fear.

When debating an issue, attempting to make it appear as if there are only two solutions – the thing I want and something else that we can almost all agree is terrible – this is what we Ivory Tower East Coast College Grad Elitists call a “false dichotomy.” It is a logical fallacy. In the world of debate and actual discourse, it is an almost laughable no-no and usually – once you know to look for it – quite easy to spot. Here is the false dichotomy that Fox News is presenting about the Occupy Wall Street movement:

1. Either we keep the financial system/campaign finance policies we have, including the parts where

• banks can lie to investors by telling them that a shitty investment is actually a great one, all the while betting on the shittiness of said investment;
• the bill for this colossal grift is sent to the American people (and their children);
• when a source of the banks’ revenue is reined in by the soft financial reform law, they can just pass this loss onto the people, in the form of new fees, despite record profits; and
• our politicians are bought by the financial sector, and this will only continue to get worse, since corporations can now anonymously donate unlimited sums of money to Super PACs, who spend money on advertising for a candidate while remaining “technically” disconnected from them. Or…….

2. Communism.

So there you have it, people. And if that seems like too simplistic of an argument for you, don’t worry, because they’ve got lots of nonsense to distract you from the real issue. Like this:

This poor, poor woman was not only smeared on Morning Terror Show Fox & Friends, but Rupert Murdoch also decided to drag her through the mud in his Comedy Newsletter the New York Post, with a dim-witted story called “Florida banker’s wife left family to join Wall Street protesters.” She has four kids?? And she’s – what? – sleeping with a waiter? On the street??

What were we talking about again? The terrible inequities in the U.S. financial system which is rigged to ensure that the people in power stay in power and the people who are rich become super-filthy-mega-rich? No, of course not.

Fox News viewers, please wake up. You are being manipulated. Your intelligence is being insulted on a daily basis by these awful people. It’s time to stand up, face the Fox News Headquarters in New York City – I believe it works like Mecca – and scream, “Fuck you, Fox News!”