Letters to the Editor: Why MSNBC isn’t the left-wing equivalent of Fox News propaganda

To the editor: Gustavo Arellano wrote an incisive essay about the toxic nature of the Fox News broadcast on the New Orleans terrorist attack.

But, after criticizing the demagogic “rants and slants” of the Fox News’ hosts, he spoiled his essay by saying, “That’s why I rarely watch MSNBC, either.” This is a tired old false equivalency, implying that MSNBC is a leftist version of Fox News.

MSNBC doesn’t traffic in toxic misinformation and racist rants about immigrants. Yes, it has liberal leanings, but it supports democracy, not insurrection. It supports compassionate immigration policy, not cruel policies against migrants.

By equating MSNBC with Fox News, Arellano not only reiterates a false equivalency, he also traffics in the kind of misinformation his essay decries.

Bill Carey, Sherman Oaks

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To the editor: Arellano’s description of Fox News as the “fetid information ecosystem that put Trump in the White House” is a classic case of the pot calling the kettle black.

Is Arellano unaware he works for a newspaper whose owner described it as an “echo chamber” of the political left and even suggested that a bias meter might be in order for some articles? I am shaking my head.

Sam Chaidez, Mission Hills

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To the editor: Thanks to Arellano for crystallizing what I’ve felt for years about Fox News.

I used to wonder how so many good people in Germany went along with the Nazis’ evil plans. I don’t wonder anymore. It’s propaganda repeated ad nauseam until it becomes “obviously true” to those who listen to it constantly.

Fox News stirs up people’s emotions. Thinking with one’s emotions short-circuits logical reasoning. It also sells and keeps people watching, as their sense of outrage grows over distorted news.

Diane Sipes-Cwik, La Cañada Flintridge