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Comment by vijayr | Hacker News Reader

Can't the same thing be said about people like Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter? They twist and turn facts, drum up controversy and spread hate/fear.

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Oh, definitely. But they might not be trolling on purpose; there is the off chance that they actually believe the stuff they're saying.

Possible. But people like Hannity purposefully edit videos (President Obama's speeches, for example), twist the facts - that seems trollish to me. But I guess, they get paid to do that. Sad thing is, they are good at it (judging by the audience of Fox network)

Fox could be more accurate than much of the rest of the media (their manipulations are presumably equally as deliberate and they'll deny their bias despite the fact the vast majority openly support Democrats - http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/scalliwag/200908/why-mos...) and I suspect that better explains their audience (but also the decline of the mainstream media as a whole). There's a reason more people read the WSJ than the NYT though most people don't realize it.

The irony is that Fox News was scored by UCLA study as being left of center: http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/Media-Bias-Is-Real-Find...

disclosure: I don't watch Fox, I read the WSJ and the NYT though I find CNN particularly infuriating and I'm quite far from being a Republican.

Post is -2. This is one of those times when a disagreement should be followed by a reason. He cited his reasons, what are yours? Is Psychology Today full of propaganda? Is UCLA a right leaning university? Why do you disagree?

Nope, not even possible. They manipulate the facts and intentionally make provably false statements on a regular basis.

That said, they may believe that the ends justify the means.

Rush definitely trolls on purpose--he was even offensive analyzing football. He has just mastered the art of trolling in a way that makes people want to listen.

I assume their purpose is it makes them lots and lots of money. Whether or not they believe some of what they say is probably not what gets them out of bed each day.

I can believe that Rush and Colter might, might actually believe what they spew out or ignorance or persistence or whatever reason. But Glen Beck, how he has moved from HLN to Fox, how he has pushed and pushed his book, how he puts on a show to get people to emotionally react on a news channel.

When reading/viewing any type of media always keep in mind its origin, value, purpose, and limitation. I thank my school's IB Programme for that.

Absolutely. I hardly think that's good company for Dvorak to want to be in, though. :)

edit: Then again, those morons make a lot of money with their hate speech, so whether or not Dvorak would want to be counted among those ranks depends on his moral compass, I guess.

They're more like comedians than trolls. People who agree with them enjoy listening to them say audacious things and people who disagree with them enjoy getting a rise out of the audacious things they say. I think some people must really enjoy outrage, because there's a surprising number of liberals who read Coulter, listen to Limbaugh, and watch Fox News.

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