Is FOXNEWS fair and balanced?

[Pacridge]

Should be an interesting read, Vauge. I agree that the commentary is biased. I watch because I happen to be biased the same way. I don't think the actual news items in between the commentary are biased, but if they are, then what's so wrong with one network being slanted so in an attempt to balance the obvious left leaning NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN. Hmmm one network leaning Right, four networks leaning Left. That's balance.

Can you give us some examples of these "obvious left leaning" networks?

I mean I know there was the Dan Rather piece on 60 minutes where he ran some, what later turned out to be faked documents, about Bush's military records. The thing that struck me odd about that whole mess was after all the smoke cleared and everyone agreed the documents were faked, nobody seemed to care that one of the persons who varified that they were fakes, Marian Carr Knox the secretary who was supposed to have typed many of them. What she said about them was "that's not the format we used" But went on to say "content is accurate and was perhaps copied from the originals." So the "liberal, left wing" media was ok with the fact that Bush didn't show up for duty and showed constant disregard for authority?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rathergate

 

[Pacridge]

"Every decision is liberating, even if it leads to disaster. Otherwise, why do so many people walk up-right and with open eyes into their misfortune?"
Elias Canetti

 

[Mr.America]

It turns out that 80% of the news media is liberal. Hmm, I also beleive that FOX news anchors are independent. So let me get this straight, for a news network to be considered fair and balanced it has to have a 4 to 1 ratio of liberals to conservatives? Do conservatives actually have an intellectual capacity four times greater than that of a liberals. I find this quite flattering.

 

[Pacridge]

It turns out that 80% of the news media is liberal. Hmm, I also beleive that FOX news anchors are independent. So let me get this straight, for a news network to be considered fair and balanced it has to have a 4 to 1 ratio of liberals to conservatives? Do conservatives actually have an intellectual capacity four times greater than that of a liberals. I find this quite flattering.

Hmm, interesting, really it turns out that 85% of the media is conservative and I believe the fox new anchors are anything but independent. So it turns out that if you put "fair and balanced" in your logo 1 in 4 will buy it. But since I didn't back any of this up with any facts, just like you didn't I find all of this nonsense.

 

[Mr.America]

If you are including the radio anchors then this is most likely true. Conservatives own most of the AM radio channels, but you must remember that no one really listens to AM radio any more, everyone wants to listen to their rap or their pop music.

And just to let you know, I based my information on a Washington Post poll that was given to TELIVISION anchors.

F.Y.I. I don't know what you based your information on, but FOX News anchors are independent. :boom

 

[Schweddy]

I listen to AM radio as well as most of my friends. AM radio is more popular that you might give it credit for. I went and seen Hannity live - that was awesome. You couldn't tell (due to the 5000 people there) that AM radio was unpopular. Plus, due to iPOD, internet and Sirrus - music FM radio is on its way out. They are loosing money.

Also, while I hate to admit it - Cavuto gave Bush 1000$ last year for his re-election campaign. Not quite independant. He did indeed get spanked for it. O'Rielly called him out on radio then on TV.

And last, would you provide that washington poll linkage? I gotta write a FOX NEWS research paper and that info would be awesome.

 

[Mr.America]

Well, if sirrius and XM radio start to get even more popular, it won't only bring an end to FM, but Am too. Once this happens there will be no such thing as conservative radio stations because sirrius radio is a liberal company (they support hardcore liberals, such as Howard Stern). And if you haven't noticed, there are also childern networks that are influencing kids with their liberal veiws. Take Nickelodeon for example, a couple of years ago they aired a contrivesial episode of Nick News that had Rosey Odonald saying that it is okay and normal to be gay.

 

[IronTongue]

Regardless of any slant in FOXNews, the mainstream media is so far left it compensates. If you look at ratings you will see that FOXNews has catured half the market; channels like CNN, MSNBC, and CBS have to compete with each other for the other half. This proves that the country has it's viable news alternative, or now standard: FOX.

 

[Pacridge]

I went and seen Hannity live - that was awesome.

Wow, to see Hannity lie in person instead of having to read his lies, that must have been really something. I wonder does he lie more in person, you know since you can't really do a fact check. Or does he lie more in print and on air? Like say Coulter and O'Reilly.

 

[Pacridge]

they support hardcore liberals, such as Howard Stern)

What Howard Stern's a liberal? Are you sure?

 

[Pacridge]

If you look at ratings you will see that FOXNews has catured half the market; channels like CNN, MSNBC, and CBS have to compete with each other for the other half. This proves that the country has it's viable news alternative, or now standard: FOX.

Fox's rating are killer. By far they out do everyone else. But there's a reason why viewers who rely on Fox for their news routinely fail to get their facts straight when polled. People who reply on Comedy Centeral's the Daily Show are more likely to have an accurate view of world events then Fox veiwers. The reason is they're giving you a twisted view of world events, or in other words they're lying to you. But as long as you enjoy be lied to- who cares. I mean this couldn't hurt the country at all, could it? And the let's face it, the mere fact that Fox has so many veiwer proves they're right, right? The majority's always right, right? That silly leason Germany learned in the 30's and early 40's, that could never happen here, right? We're way smarter then them, right?

 

[Schweddy]

Pac,

I wonder if you've ever considered the interpetation theory?

For instance:

At about 1am CST time on Nov 3, Brit Hume said the following when covering the election and after FOXNEWS called Ohio:

"Well, it looks like we've won folks." then something along the lines of we can probably start wrapping this up cause New Mexico will not make a difference.

Was he saying:

1. Bush won, he was on that side, as well as the entire panel. Let's celebrate!
2. There is finally a winner! That winner is Bush - we can call it a night soon.

I think it depends on your perspective.

 

[Pacridge]

Pac,

I wonder if you've ever considered the interpetation theory?

For instance:

At about 1am CST time on Nov 3, Brit Hume said the following when covering the election and after FOXNEWS called Ohio:

"Well, it looks like we've won folks." then something along the lines of we can probably start wrapping this up cause New Mexico will not make a difference.

Was he saying:

1. Bush won, he was on that side, as well as the entire panel. Let's celebrate!
2. There is finally a winner! That winner is Bush - we can call it a night soon.

I think it depends on your perspective.

No, I don't think it's in the perspective. Not even slightly. Sorry. I also think, IMHO if Kerry had carried the election and someone, say like Dan Rather, made a comment akin to this regarding his victory you wouldn't see it as a possible "perspective" thing either. Of course my view of Mr. Hume may be biased since I remember him ending each of his evenings "Special Report" boardcasts with "today is [such and such a day], only [X number of] days until President Bush is re-elected." Sure any neutral, non-bias news anchor might say that-every night. Could happen... on some planet, right?

 

[Mr.America]

Wow, to see Hannity lie in person instead of having to read his lies, that must have been really something. I wonder does he lie more in person, you know since you can't really do a fact check. Or does he lie more in print and on air? Like say Coulter and O'Reilly.

I'm sure that I could say the same thing to you about Bill Clinton or John Kerry, but honestly I can say that I have never caught Hannity in a lie. I don't think that you would ever see Hannity flip-flopping.

 

[Schweddy]

I watch Brit as often as I can. I never heard him say "today is [such and such a day], only [X number of] days until President Bush is re-elected."

He did however say that there are X number of days to the election.

Purhaps that is my point. We both may have heard something completely different.

 

[Pacridge]

Well if you've never caught him in a lie, you're not listening to him. Or like many of his listeners- or like the lies he's telling you.

I'll give you one quick example:


This is the Lie:

"liberal Democrats at first showed little interest in the investigation of the roots of this massive intelligence failure...[Bush and his team] made it clear that determining the causes of America's security failures and finding and remedying its weak points would be central to their mission." (Let Freedom Ring, by Sean Hannity)

The truth is:

Bush Opposed the creation of a special commission to probe the causes of 9/11 for over a year. On 5/23/02 CBS New Reported "President Bush took a few minutes during his trip to Europe Thursday to voice his opposition to establishing a special commission to probe how the government dealt with terror warnings before Sept. 11." Bush didn't relent to pressure to create a commission, mostly from those Hannity would consider "liberal" until September 2002. (CBS News, 5/23/02; ABC News, 9/20/02)

Of course that's just one quick example.

As for flip-flopping? How about his call to "support your President, no matter how you feel about him." You know because he's the President of the United States and that what you do, anything else and you're being unpatriotic. Well that certainly not what he was saying back when Clinton was President. He called Clinton every name in the book basically. I'd say thats quite the flip and the flop.

 

[Pacridge]

I watch Brit as often as I can. I never heard him say "today is [such and such a day], only [X number of] days until President Bush is re-elected."

He did however say that there are X number of days to the election.

Purhaps that is my point. We both may have heard something completely different.

I got it on tape, it's in the film "Outfoxed" too. My father told me I was full of S**t so I taped it. After the film I think he stopped saying it. BTW after I showed it to my dad he was convince I doctored the tape somehow. Yeah, next I'm going to work for George Lucas, making the next Star War flim, I am.

 

[Mr.America]

Well if you've never caught him in a lie, you're not listening to him. Or like many of his listeners- or like the lies he's telling you.

I'll give you one quick example:


This is the Lie:

"liberal Democrats at first showed little interest in the investigation of the roots of this massive intelligence failure...[Bush and his team] made it clear that determining the causes of America's security failures and finding and remedying its weak points would be central to their mission." (Let Freedom Ring, by Sean Hannity)

The truth is:

Bush Opposed the creation of a special commission to probe the causes of 9/11 for over a year. On 5/23/02 CBS New Reported "President Bush took a few minutes during his trip to Europe Thursday to voice his opposition to establishing a special commission to probe how the government dealt with terror warnings before Sept. 11." Bush didn't relent to pressure to create a commission, mostly from those Hannity would consider "liberal" until September 2002. (CBS News, 5/23/02; ABC News, 9/20/02)

Of course that's just one quick example.

As for flip-flopping? How about his call to "support your President, no matter how you feel about him." You know because he's the President of the United States and that what you do, anything else and you're being unpatriotic. Well that certainly not what he was saying back when Clinton was President. He called Clinton every name in the book basically. I'd say thats quite the flip and the flop.

Am I going around saying that Dan Rather is a lier? No, I beleive that he just made a mistake (a big mistake, but it wasn't his fault, he got false information).

 

[Schweddy]

I got it on tape, it's in the film "Outfoxed" too. My father told me I was full of S**t so I taped it. After the film I think he stopped saying it. BTW after I showed it to my dad he was convince I doctored the tape somehow. Yeah, next I'm going to work for George Lucas, making the next Star War flim, I am.

LOL

I have seen some of the snippets for "Outfoxed" was not impressed. The director didn't give FOX a chance to respond to any of those aligations.

 

[IronTongue]

Bill O'reilly has the deed to his house in Levitown.

 

[IronTongue]

Let's say that FOX is way right-leaning for the sake of argument. FOX makes balanced one of their goals, but where is it written that a news network has to be balanced? I think that the bias in CNN and MSNBC would be just as bad as FOX, so the networks themselves balance each other out.

And, BTW, I think Americans are smart enough to realize when they are being blatantly lied to about important things.

Besides, it would be a grand scheme for FOX to convince ALL of it's employees not to tell the press about any bias that they have. Somebody would blow the whistle.

 

[Mr.America]

Let's say that FOX is way right-leaning for the sake of argument. FOX makes balanced one of their goals, but where is it written that a news network has to be balanced? I think that the bias in CNN and MSNBC would be just as bad as FOX, so the networks themselves balance each other out.

And, BTW, I think Americans are smart enough to realize when they are being blatantly lied to about important things.

Besides, it would be a grand scheme for FOX to convince ALL of it's employees not to tell the press about any bias that they have. Somebody would blow the whistle.

You forgot to include CBS, the most bias network of them all. I haven't seen a single republican reporter on 60 minutes!

 

[IronTongue]

Of course you haven't; they are all "independent" thinkers.

 

[Pacridge]

Besides, it would be a grand scheme for FOX to convince ALL of it's employees not to tell the press about any bias that they have. Somebody would blow the whistle.

Many of Fox's Ex-employees have "blown the whistle" Go to any video store and rent "Outfoxed" or simply go to Google.com and type in "fox news lies" you'll get a list that will keep you busy for a while.

As for all the Liberal media out there:

Years ago, Republican party chair Rich Bond explained that conservatives' frequent denunciations of "liberal bias" in the media were part of "a strategy" (Washington Post, 8/20/92). Comparing journalists to referees in a sports match, Bond explained: "If you watch any great coach, what they try to do is 'work the refs.' Maybe the ref will cut you a little slack next time."

It's been a running mantra on Fox and every right wing radio show ever since as well as in print. Which why you find such obvious lies as this from Fox's owner:
"I challenge anybody to show me an example of bias in Fox News Channel."
--Rupert Murdoch (Salon, 3/1/01)

 

[LiberalFINGER]

I had a chance to watch Fox News for about 6 hours while I was on a break for Thanksgiving and what I found was rather disturbing.

Fox News, along with many other news sources is nearly on the level with supermarket tabloids. I found Fox to be nothing more than a packaged product designed to sell advertising space. The news was burried in "expert" opinion, conjecture, and speculation. Frankly, the quality of the news was poor.

Take me back to the day when CNN was "Around the world in 30 minutes". Take me to a time when there wasn't enough time to stretch things out in an attempt to get people to sit and watch for awhile.

I miss the days of the "Early Bird" when I could look at a print out that was nothing more than short blurbs of news that only gave me facts.

This happened.
That didn't.

I want news, not chopped up, rehashed sensationalist garbage.