Jesse Ventura: Fox News Shouldn’t Be Labeled “News”

Fox News being polled as the most trusted network in cable news isn’t surprising.  They’ve got a great niche audience.  Their average viewer is 72 years of age.  Old people watch a lot of TV. I’d love to see what Fox News’ numbers are with the young people.  Fox News can promote wars all they want.  None of their older audience is generally involved in having to FIGHT the wars.  The term ‘chicken-hawk’ comes to mind.

It doesn’t surprise me that Fox news is rated as highly as it is.  Look, [Fox News President] Roger Ailes is a brilliant man.  [News Corp Chairman and CEO] Rupert Murdoch knew the niche they were going after -- the right wing audience.  There are enough people that are on the far right to account for them winning this poll.

The poll claims that among independents, Fox News is still the most trusted name in cable news.  I would disagree with this: I don’t believe we have as many true independents. These are the wishy-washy “independents,” the ones who turn Democrat one time and Republican the next.  If you’re a true independent, you don’t vote for either one of those parties.  You realize they’re the problem, not the solution.

Fox News shouldn’t even be labeled as news.  They’re in the entertainment business.  They’re giving opinions and they’re not very accurate.  We’ve seen that only 18% of their stories are actually accurate; the rest are all opinion-based.  But people like that.  Especially the elderly people that Fox News caters to.

When I asked the students at Harvard where they got their news from, unanimously, it was Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show.  That’s a comedy show.  What does that say about FOX news, CNN, and MSNBC?

They’re not even a good comedy act.

-Jesse Ventura

Watch this edition of #Off The Grid now to learn what else FOX calls "news":