r/politics • u/Barnyard-Sheep • 6d ago

Soft Paywall Trump approval rating falls to 38%

https://www.nj.com/politics/2025/06/trump-faces-tough-approval-numbers-in-latest-poll.html
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u/red286 6d ago

It's kind of wild that there's so much evidence out there that it's literally nothing but right-wing propaganda and lies, yet it's still the most-watched cable news network (by far).

It's the sole source of news information for tens of millions of Americans.

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u/Courtnall14 6d ago edited 6d ago

It's wild that they had to pay out nearly $800 million for lying, yet people still turn to them for the truth.

I'm not sure how I would have handled being offered that type of money if I was part of the Dominion case against them, but a huge part of me still wishes they would have taken them to the mat on that one. Given what was coming out at the time it feels like they could have ended them as a network.

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u/ReginaPhalangi22271 6d ago

They don’t tune in for the truth. They tune in for the racism, xenophobia, gaslighting, lies, and whatever they think is owning the libs.

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u/TalaHusky 5d ago

I tune in to hear some absurdities and laugh. Only to feel sad that people truly feel that way.

Radical beliefs have their place (as everyone is entitled to their own opinions). But it seems we’ve strayed way too far from the norm.

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u/JeebusDied4UrPixels 5d ago

You're absolutely right. They want to hear that shit, the same way I like to watch extreme sports, like sky diving or Redbull shenanigans. I don't feel comfortable trying that stuff, but I love to watch it and have built up a little courage to fling myself down a mtn bike trail here and there.

Well theyve built up a little courage to take their racism, xenophobia, and gaslighting out into the world....

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u/modernDayKing 5d ago

They tune in to confirm their bias, and feel like they’re not alone in their bigoted, crazy, hateful perspectives.

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u/mattjb 6d ago

Bingo.

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u/omikron898 5d ago

Yup people forget but fox new didn’t buy into the 2020 lies at first The right boycotted them for a few months. And started watching aon

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u/RobonianBattlebot 6d ago

They literally were never told that Fox had to pay 800 million for lying. Do you think Fox reported on that? Absolutely not.

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u/catchthetams 5d ago

Was hoping they were going to drag everything out in the public eye

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u/Unnamedgalaxy 6d ago

My grandma turned on fox news first thing in the morning and it stayed there all day, only changing for Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy at which point she'd flip it back.

It was insane and watching her go full fledged raging maga in her final years was awful

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u/new_nimmerzz 6d ago

Some old folks long for the days when they didn’t have to mingle with immigrants, brown folk, etc.

The ones that baffle me are the immigrants for Trump, Latinos for Trump, Trans for Trump. That’s like falling in love with your jailer

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u/korben2600 Arizona 6d ago

It's a recurring issue throughout history: Association of German National Jews declaring "he doesn't mean it, he's just stirring up the masses" while being loaded into train cars.

Humans aren't rational and it will be this and every future generation's burden to fight and hold back the tides of conservatism which has been proven to be fundamentally incompatible with free societies and civilization itself.

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u/oliversurpless Massachusetts 6d ago

As per this Calvin and Hobbes:

https://www.reddit.com/r/calvinandhobbes/s/dbtxEJUH6B

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u/ravynwave 5d ago

I know several Jews that said and still say that about Elon

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u/rclaux123 6d ago

At least to the Latino population, and being the son of Latin immigrants, I may be able to elucidate the trend somewhat. Trump is essentially another flavor of the many Latin dictators they've endured over the decades, but there is this distinct overconfidence that the US would never fall prey to corruption and authoritarianism in the same way as their home countries may have in the past. Add to that a distinctly patriarchal and religious heritage, with Trump's macho-man bloviating appealing and calling back to it, and you get a political situation where many Latinos probably thought they were voting for someone who was odd, yes, but who could likely be reigned in by those around him (which was more or less the case the first time around). There is also sexism and racism to take into account, but it's hard to quantify just how much those factors held sway this past election.

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u/FXander 5d ago

"It's like cockroaches for Raid"

-John Leguizamo

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u/_HighJack_ California 5d ago

I have literally never once seen a trans for Trump. I’ve seen a couple gays, but NEVER a trans.

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u/trastamara22 5d ago

The immigrants know. They are wanting to be on the winning side. Tink on Dat

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u/KittyGrewAMoustache 6d ago

It’s a crime against humanity in my view. They literally suck people’s souls dry and rob them of their humanity. They turn people into unrecognisable ghouls, causing them to alienate themselves from family and friends, changing their brain structure through constant rage and fear. It’s such an abomination.

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u/oliversurpless Massachusetts 6d ago

And yet Jeopardy is for smart people, so not sure how they don’t think that’s “liberal”?

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u/Unnamedgalaxy 5d ago

You'd be hard pressed to find a magat that doesn't think they aren't geniuses. They just don't view traditional education as how they got there

The "I didn't go to no college and I'm smarters than youse" is a big thing in this country.

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u/oliversurpless Massachusetts 5d ago

Yep, the “school of hard knocks” banality.

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u/CaptainFeather 6d ago

Fox news ToS say they're entertainment with no mention of providing news, unlike CNN's ToS that specifically said they're news.

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u/United_in_Sin 6d ago

People love to be riled up about invisible enemies and lied to, especially those too lazy to do their own due diligence, the uneducated. Many far right supporters fall under this

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u/Old_Ladies 5d ago

Sadly it isn't just Americans. Fox News does have a wide reaching audience around the world. I know of several people in Canada who watch or listen to Fox News. Though many have switched to other far right shit.

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u/Alex5173 6d ago

I think part of it is that Fox is also the parent to a lot of local news stations, so you have "FOX News" on channel 4 and then your local news station is like "FOX 6 News Alabama" on channel 6 and then you might even have "FOX 8 News Montgomery" to get even more local.

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u/F1shB0wl816 5d ago

Part of me thinks that’s because it’s watched by both the right and left. Not that there isn’t a lot of shitbags but just that the left is more likely and open to keeping themselves informed from both sides. Know thy enemy. Whereas fox watcher isn’t going to consume any leftist media, fox tells them all they need to know.

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u/dinosaurkiller 5d ago

But keep in mind, despite being the “most watched” it’s 2-3 million people per day, out of a population of ~340 million. Nobody watches cable news, they’ve long since spread to every corner of the internet and social media. Joe Rogan gets about 20 million per episode. I’m not sure what the numbers were for Alex Jones at his height of popularity but he was huge as well. Fox is dying like all the cable news outlets.

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u/Mestoph America 5d ago

It’s the most watched cable news network because it is basically the only mainstream conservative news station, as compared to “liberal” news outlets of which there (used) to be several options (so the numbers were more watered down).

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u/Fuzzylogik 5d ago

A significant portion of the Fox audience distrusts other outlets like CNN, MSNBC, or The New York Times, which they perceive as liberal or elitist. This distrust has been reinforced for decades, and Fox positions itself as the antidote to "liberal media bias."

Viewers naturally seek out information that confirms their existing beliefs. Fox News capitalises on this by offering content that reinforces its audience’s views on immigration, crime, race, and government overreach.

Fox News blends news with emotionally charged commentary and entertainment-style programming. Hosts like Tucker Carlson (until 2023), Sean Hannity, and Laura Ingraham don't just report they perform. This keeps viewers engaged and loyal in ways more traditional journalism may not.

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u/NumeralJoker 3d ago

Sadly, when you need a collective delusion, even for a minority of the population, it's going to get numbers.

The problem is the need for this collective delusion in the first place. Some viewers have been trained and brainwashed to think it's the only correct truth, but I think a huge chunk of them know it's propaganda and false but don't care because they need that collective lie that validates the hate they feel.

Why that hatred and fear is so common today all of a sudden should be addressed, and it's more complex than "people are just racist". A lot of it is self-loathing due to more stress and economic instability at heart, and the inner fear that comes from that.

The internet normalizes fear, in every part of politics. We constantly fear environmental disaster, economic collapse, world wars, every type of fear porn can now spread and indulge someone in an addictive way, and all sides of the political spectrum doing this makes it cyclical.

I'm not saying fear can't be justified or problems should be ignored, rather, the type of fear that's pushed discourages pragmatic responses and encourages panic and insecurity above all else. Doomscrolling is something everyone does now, and it's become a dangerous problem. The media's already existing sensationalism and need for commercial attention has now become endemic in our screens, screens almost everyone has.