I came across a Facebook comment that ironically declared Fox News had 35% more viewership than CNN because they report the truth.  Fox News indeed draws the most viewers (30%) of any single corporate mainstream media. This gives the only mainstream media created for a political purpose the single greatest influence on perceptions and clout for foreign wars.

A study done after support for the Iraq War started to wane found that Fox News viewers least informed about the reality of WMDs not being present in Iraq.  In fact, they were less informed than people who got no news from the various mainstream media outlets.

A second study paid regular Fox New viewers to watch additional news sources.  At the end of the trial subjects conceded to being better informed.  Most went back to just watching Fox News echo chamber a month after the study concluded.  Something besides the quality of news media addicts them.

A third report reveals that Fox News angers it viewers more than viewers of other mainstream news media.  They achieve this in part through the angrier language Fox News hosts use, particularly “they hate.”  Anger releases hormones that can be addictive.  Such anger induced addiction correlates with several negative health and humanity conditions.

Angrier people will tend to blame “other” citizens of the state rather than agents of the state.  They will support authoritarian government in greater measure to bring order and control, allowing “might makes right” to overshadow other principles.  Anger and fear induces people to support foreign wars and be less concerned about the ratio of civilian casualties.

The 30% viewership of Fox News approaches the one third of the electorate that thought the 2020 election was stolen.  Other media sources with the same political agenda account for the few extra percentage points.  Voting as a near unanimous block, that one third of angrier, misinformed people can swing elections.  In 2024 Harris would have needed around 70% of people not prone to Fox News groupthink to win the election.  That sets an unreasonably high bar for a diverse electorate.

Virtually all of Trump’s policies have a higher disapproval than approval rating.  Yet they do not fall below the one third threshold, nor will they.  The angry Fox News media ecosystem makes sure of that.  This helps to explain why the Trump administration deviated from all prior ones by not bothering to sell the bombing of Iran ahead of time.  Only 8% of all Americans supported World War II before Pearl Harbor, before provocation and mass media punditry. The sizable Fox News base guarantees near unanimous support without punditry or provocation.