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Time to LIST the Fox lies - Be Specific

Jack Dawson

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Several have made allegations about Fox News lies. Please list and then compare those to the Dan Rather story for accuracy as a point of reference. I will be waiting and watching for those SPECIFIC lies you keep referring to. Here is a chance to change a mind by FACTS, undeniable FACTS that they lied. You prove it, I'll switch. BE SPECIFIC
 
Excellent first topic for our new forum.

Moving to "Bias in the Media" as there are no polls attached.
 
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It's not about FOX but here's media bias against a company.
NBC 'lied' about faulty gas tank test results.

From Failuremag.com

Gaulke says that his ‘favorite’ failure, so to speak, dates back to 1992, recounting the story of how NBC’s Dateline television show ran a piece on the GMC C/K pickup truck and its side mounted fuel tanks, basically alleging that it was a rolling firebomb. "We had been assisting GM on that product in particular," notes Gaulke, "looking at whether it had a safety problem or not. When we saw Dateline it just didn’t look right, because we had crashed a lot of C/K trucks and it just didn’t jibe with anything that we knew of."

After NBC advised GM that the vehicles in question had been destroyed, Failure Analysis learned that the testing had taken place in rural Indiana and sent a team to scour all the junkyards in the state. "At the 22nd junkyard we found one of the vehicles," recalls Gaulke, "and we discovered that there was videotape taken by the local fire department of the testing. With the video and a lot of other evidence, we were able to show that the tests had been rigged."

Failure Analysis discovered that Dateline had crashed a handful of vehicles and gotten no fire so to make the story more dramatic they taped model rocket motors to the frame(s) and ignited those at impact. This information was ultimately the basis that Harry Pearce used—then general counsel for GM—to initiate a lawsuit against NBC. "One of the reasons it’s my favorite failure," continues Gaulke, "is that Harry Pearce ended up being an internal hero [at GM]. This was a time at GM when morale was down, and the company wasn’t doing particularly well. They were getting beat up in the press and in the courts over the C/K pickup truck, and I think against a lot of internal advice as to whether GM ought to sue NBC, Harry persisted and was successful. As you may know, he’s now the vice chairman of GM, in no small part because of the courage he showed."
 
The first one that came to mind was the smear on Kerry that they did back in the race to the election:
Cameron's fake Kerry story capped FOX commentators' manicure fixation
After FOX News Channel chief political correspondent Carl Cameron wrote a fake news story mocking Senator John Kerry that was published October 1 on FOXNews.com, blogger and journalist Joshua Micah Marshall posed a question to the network: "Why did comments very similar to Cameron's fabrications come up again and again from FOX commentators on debate night?"

According to a New York Times article, FOX News Channel spokesman Paul Schur said: "This was a stupid mistake and a lapse in judgment, and Carl [Cameron] regrets it."

Following are some of the fabricated quotations appearing in Cameron's fake story:

"Didn't my nails and cuticles look great? What a good debate!" Kerry said Friday.

"Women should like me! I do manicures," Kerry said.

"I'm metrosexual -- he's a cowboy," the Democratic candidate said of himself and his opponent.
So the first one just shows a malicious lie as opposed to the failing of Rather and company to fact check before bringing the story to air.

Then you've got Brett Hume spinning a story in favor of the current administration:
On Fox 's Special Report newscast (6/16/04), anchor Brit Hume charged that the media were mischaracterizing the report: "The Associated Press leads off its story on a new 9/11 commission report by saying the document bluntly contradicts the Bush administration by claiming to have no credible evidence linking Saddam Hussein to the September 11 terrorist attacks." Hume maintained that the AP story was inaccurate: "In fact, the Bush administration has never said that such evidence exists."

In fact, it's Hume that is misrepresenting the AP story-- quoting from the story's lead, but then changing its meaning through an inaccurate paraphrase. The story actually begins: "Bluntly contradicting the Bush administration, the commission investigating the September 11 attacks reported Wednesday there was 'no credible evidence' that Saddam Hussein had ties with Al Qaeda."

And then there are some from O'Reilly:
On his show the other day, Fox News host Bill O'Reilly apologized to Texas columnist Molly Ivins for calling her a socialist. Now liberal author Eric Alterman wants a retraction from O'Reilly, who recently labeled him a fellow traveler of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.

Alterman's Miami-based attorney, Sarah Clasby Engel, sent a demand letter to O'Reilly last week, saying, "We would like to take this opportunity to identify a lie you recently broadcast." On his show in early May, the conservative yakker called Alterman "another Fidel Castro confidant."

Threatening a defamation suit unless O'Reilly makes a retraction, Engel states: "We are certain that you will be unable to point us to any proof whatever of a personal relationship between Alterman, a proud anti-Communist liberal, and Fidel Castro." The letter notes that in mid-May, Alterman signed a public rebuke of Castro, assailing the "brute repression" of his dictatorship.

The lawyer gave O'Reilly five business days to respond. A Fox News spokesman told us the missive arrived only yesterday and "our legal department is reviewing it."
I will give props to O'Reilly for apologizing here:
O'Reilly apologized for supporting President George W. Bush's claims that Iraq was harboring weapons of mass destruction.

Here's another:
At the University of Arizona in Tucson, female activists stood their ground in September against attempts to discourage students from voting on campus. Pima county officials were forced to retract statements that inaccurately suggested that students would be committing a felony if they tried to register in Tucson. And the local affiliate of New York-based Fox News apologized to the Feminist Majority Foundation for a misleading report quoting the registrar's office.
How's that for starters?
 
Oh, forgot another big one, where Fox was sued and found to be lying:

After a five-week trial and six hours of deliberation which ended August 18, 2000, a Florida state court jury unanimously determined that Fox "acted intentionally and deliberately to falsify or distort the plaintiffs' news reporting on BGH." In that decision, the jury also found that Jane's threat to blow the whistle on Fox's misconduct to the FCC was the sole reason for the termination... and the jury awarded $425,000 in damages which makes her eligible to apply for reimbursement for all court costs, expenses and legal fees.
 
Batman said:
It's not about FOX but here's media bias against a company.
NBC 'lied' about faulty gas tank test results.

From Failuremag.com

Gaulke says that his ‘favorite’ failure, so to speak, dates back to 1992, recounting the story of how NBC’s Dateline television show ran a piece on the GMC C/K pickup truck and its side mounted fuel tanks, basically alleging that it was a rolling firebomb. "We had been assisting GM on that product in particular," notes Gaulke, "looking at whether it had a safety problem or not. When we saw Dateline it just didn’t look right, because we had crashed a lot of C/K trucks and it just didn’t jibe with anything that we knew of."

After NBC advised GM that the vehicles in question had been destroyed, Failure Analysis learned that the testing had taken place in rural Indiana and sent a team to scour all the junkyards in the state. "At the 22nd junkyard we found one of the vehicles," recalls Gaulke, "and we discovered that there was videotape taken by the local fire department of the testing. With the video and a lot of other evidence, we were able to show that the tests had been rigged."

Failure Analysis discovered that Dateline had crashed a handful of vehicles and gotten no fire so to make the story more dramatic they taped model rocket motors to the frame(s) and ignited those at impact. This information was ultimately the basis that Harry Pearce used—then general counsel for GM—to initiate a lawsuit against NBC. "One of the reasons it’s my favorite failure," continues Gaulke, "is that Harry Pearce ended up being an internal hero [at GM]. This was a time at GM when morale was down, and the company wasn’t doing particularly well. They were getting beat up in the press and in the courts over the C/K pickup truck, and I think against a lot of internal advice as to whether GM ought to sue NBC, Harry persisted and was successful. As you may know, he’s now the vice chairman of GM, in no small part because of the courage he showed."

I think this is an excellent example of how all the media has used, at one time or another, sensationalism to screw with the general public. Basically telling a news story just on the facts doesn't usually sell as well then it does if you spice it up with some BS.
 
Here's one from another make believe New Agency: News Max.

When the whole Rush Limbaugh scandal broke about his drug abuse. They lied about several things including fictionalizing the number of AP wire stories the "Liberal Press" was running about the Rush Limbaugh scandal. They stated there were 49 when an accurate count shows only 18. The only reason you'd lie about this is to make it look to your readers like the "Liberal Media's" just out to get this guy. There's no other honest explanation to simply inflate that number by 31. I am kind wondering why they came up with 49. Course when you're lying through your teeth, guess it doesn't really matter what number you come up with. Just double, triple, pick one in the middle, yeah that'll do.

http://conwebwatch.tripod.com/stories/2003/rush2.html

Also News Max goes on to remind it's reader in defense of Limbaugh is "As for seeking out illegal drug prescriptions, we should remember that for almost the entire rest of the world there is no such thing as an illegal prescription." Which is means what? If it's legal to kill your daughter if she has premarital sex, as it is in some countries, we should not be concerned if someone does it here because "hey, it's legal somewhere." Somehow I don't think News Max would see it that way if it were a liberal radio host's drug abuse in question.
 
Here's one from another make believe New Agency: News Max.

When the whole Rush Limbaugh scandal broke about his drug abuse. They lied about several things including fictionalizing the number of AP wire stories the "Liberal Press" was running about the Rush Limbaugh scandal. They stated there were 49 when an accurate count shows only 18. The only reason you'd lie about this is to make it look to your readers like the "Liberal Media's" just out to get this guy. There's no other honest explanation to simply inflate that number by 31. I am kind wondering why they came up with 49. Course when you're lying through your teeth, guess it doesn't really matter what number you come up with. Just double, triple, pick one in the middle, yeah that'll do.

http://conwebwatch.tripod.com/stories/2003/rush2.html

Also News Max goes on to remind it's reader in defense of Limbaugh "As for seeking out illegal drug prescriptions, we should remember that for almost the entire rest of the world there is no such thing as an illegal prescription." Which is means what? If it's legal to kill your daughter if she has premarital sex, as it is in some countries, we should not be concerned if someone does it here because "hey, it's legal somewhere." Somehow I don't think News Max would see it that way if it were a liberal radio host's drug abuse in question
 
Yet another Fox Lie

Here's one where Fox News just made up quotes and stated Kerry made them during the 04' election. You'll note a link to a site where Fox Apologizes for their actions. However when I clicked on that link all I get is wallpaper of Fox News. Seems when caught they'll air their dirty laundry, but only for so long.

This From USA Today 10/2/2004 http://www.usatoday.com/news/politicselections/nation/president/2004-10-02-fox-kerry_x.htm

Fox News pulls reporter's item with fake Kerry quotes


WASHINGTON (AP) — Fox News apologized Friday for posting phony quotes from Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry on its Web site.
Carl Cameron, a Fox reporter who covers the Kerry campaign, wrote an item that looked like a news story with made-up Kerry quotes, said Paul Schur, a Fox spokesman. The item was not intended to be posted on the site.

"Carl made a stupid mistake which he regrets," Schur said Friday night. "And he has been reprimanded for his lapse in judgment. It was a poor attempt at humor."

The phony item posted early Friday read in part:

"Rallying supporters in Tampa Friday Kerry played up his performance in Thursday night's debate in which many observers agreed the Massachusetts senator outperformed the president.

'"Didn't my nails and cuticles look great? What a good debate!' Kerry said Friday.

"With the foreign-policy debate in the history books, Kerry hopes to keep the pressure on and the sense of traction going.

"Aides say he will step up attacks on the president in the next few days, and pivot somewhat to the domestic agenda, with a focus on women and abortion rights.

'"It's about the Supreme Court. Women should like me! I do manicures,' Kerry said."

The item also quoted Kerry as saying of himself and President Bush: "I'm metrosexual — he's a cowboy."

After withdrawing the item, Fox posted a statement on its Web site apologizing for the error. It said: "The item was based on a reporter's partial script that had been written in jest and should not have been posted or broadcast. We regret the error, which occurred because of fatigue and bad judgment, not malice." (Related site: Apology from Fox News)

Cameron has been a political reporter for Fox News since 1996, Schur said.

Asked about the incident, Kerry spokesman David Wade said: "America would be stronger if only George Bush could admit his mistakes as easily."
 
I think the liar, liar pants on fire crowd need to find a new word. Clinton was a certified pathological liar, but during the eight years of the Clinton regime, his supporters defended him no matter what he said. Now ya all want us to believe you are “outraged” that someone didn’t get the facts right every single time they open their mouth. You should save the word for someone who really deserves it like Al Franken.
 
Squawker said:
I think the liar, liar pants on fire crowd need to find a new word. Clinton was a certified pathological liar, but during the eight years of the Clinton regime, his supporters defended him no matter what he said. Now ya all want us to believe you are “outraged” that someone didn’t get the facts right every single time they open their mouth. You should save the word for someone who really deserves it like Al Franken.

I don't understand this logic. I was outraged at Clinton's lies. Still am, didn't like it one bit and still don't. I don't like it when my President lies to me. Didn't like it then, don't like it now. But I don't understand. You sound like you're saying: "Yeah, well Clinton lied, so it's ok for our guys to lie." And with Fox it's not a matter of "that someone didn’t get the facts right every single time they open their mouth." it's on going well documented and I have little doubt if CBS engaged in this, as they did with the Rather thing, you'd be making this claim.

As for: "You should save the word for someone who really deserves it like Al Franken" Quite frankly when it comes to Franken and his book- "Lies and Lying, Liars." I was a little more then skeptical when I read it. In fact as I read, it kind of ****ed me off. I was pretty certain he was lying about several things. I remember Franken from his SNL days and to be honest I never thought he was all that funny. Face it, Aykroyd, Belushi he's not. Anyway, I read it, back of it said "This book is laugh-out-loud funny!" Somehow, I wasn't laughing. I read it, I took notes, I made highlights. Then set out to prove him out to be full of sh*t. I never found anything that didn't check out. But he's got two sections in there called the "The Gospel of Supply Side Jesus" and "Operation Chickenhawk: Episode One" that makes me think he's still not very funny.
So, you're obviously saying Franken's a liar. And he might well be, I haven't caught him at it but everybody seems to be doing it these days. It's all the rage. Can you give some examples of his lies? Like the example people have given of Fox's lies, O'Reilly lies, Humes lies.



 
So, you're obviously saying Franken's a liar. And he might well be, I haven't caught him at it but everybody seems to be doing it these days. It's all the rage. Can you give some examples of his lies? Like the example people have given of Fox's lies, O'Reilly lies, Humes lies.
I can when the time and place is right. ;) If I proved it to you would you believe it or would you find some way to discredit the source and ignore it?
 
Squawker said:
I can when the time and place is right. ;) If I proved it to you would you believe it or would you find some way to discredit the source and ignore it?

What place would be more right then a debate site? Seriously I'm all ears. I'm to the point I believe all these guys may in fact be lying to us. As far as "would you believe it or would you find some way to discredit the source and ignore it?" So far several examples of Fox's constant lying have been given. I don't see any attempts to discredit from you, or any other conservative, so am I to assume you're just ignoring?
 
Pacridge said:
What place would be more right then a debate site? Seriously I'm all ears. I'm to the point I believe all these guys may in fact be lying to us. As far as "would you believe it or would you find some way to discredit the source and ignore it?" So far several examples of Fox's constant lying have been given. I don't see any attempts to discredit from you, or any other conservative, so am I to assume you're just ignoring?

I don't think the Cameron incident was an orchestrated effort to lie to the public and cannot be put in the same category of CBS and NBC. Those were private notes that mistakenly, however wrongly, ended up on the website for FOX.
Even the Kerry campaign said it was a mistake:
Asked about the incident, Kerry spokesman David Wade said: "America would be stronger if only George Bush could admit his mistakes as easily."
 
Batman said:
I don't think the Cameron incident was an orchestrated effort to lie to the public and cannot be put in the same category of CBS and NBC. Those were private notes that mistakenly, however wrongly, ended up on the website for FOX.
Even the Kerry campaign said it was a mistake:
Asked about the incident, Kerry spokesman David Wade said: "America would be stronger if only George Bush could admit his mistakes as easily."

I see so they accidentally lied. So the guy typed up a fake news story handed it off to his editor. His editor proofed it who in turn passed it off to the producer who posted it on the site. Hey it could happen. Sure and Clinton didn't inhale.
 
Batman said:
I don't think the Cameron incident was an orchestrated effort to lie to the public and cannot be put in the same category of CBS and NBC. Those were private notes that mistakenly, however wrongly, ended up on the website for FOX.
Even the Kerry campaign said it was a mistake:
Asked about the incident, Kerry spokesman David Wade said: "America would be stronger if only George Bush could admit his mistakes as easily."

Oh, so it was an accidental lie. I see so this guy types up a fake news story, passes it off to his production assistant who hands it off to the producer who in turn passes it along to the editor who clears it for posting. All by accident. Sure it could happen. And Clinton didn't inhale.
 
Pacridge said:
I see so they accidentally lied. So the guy typed up a fake news story handed it off to his editor. His editor proofed it who in turn passed it off to the producer who posted it on the site. Hey it could happen. Sure and Clinton didn't inhale.

Kerry campaign called it a mistake, you call it a lie. Okay.
 
Batman said:
Kerry campaign called it a mistake, you call it a lie. Okay.

Yes, the Kerry Campaign referred to the incident as a mistake. They never said it wasn't lie. The man made up quotes that Kerry clearly never said. I've heard bank robbery referred to as a "mistake." Doesn't mean it wasn't a robbery. You seriously believe if CBS had posted on their web site a series of quotes Like: Bush today said "I'm a little Texas cowboy and I likes me piles of other peoples money, that why I cut rich folks taxes so much." Then when caught came out later and said oops! Our mistake, our guy was tried and really didn't mean to do that. You'd believe it?
 
I don't have time to even list all the ones that Bill O'reilly has done, but I will go the last episode of his that I watched. It involved UCSD broadcasting a sex class on the closed circuit tv. That station is paid for by the students, yet, O'Reilly continually stated that it was paid for by the taxpayers, and even when confronted about the fact it was not, still held to that. Talk about a bold-faced lie.
 
Pacridge said:
You seriously believe if CBS had posted on their web site a series of quotes Like: Bush today said "I'm a little Texas cowboy and I likes me piles of other peoples money, that why I cut rich folks taxes so much." Then when caught came out later and said oops! Our mistake, our guy was tried and really didn't mean to do that. You'd believe it?

Had CBS done that, they may have stuck by the quotes for 2 weeks before fessing up. The minute FOX was 'caught' they handled it.
 
Batman said:
Had CBS done that, they may have stuck by the quotes for 2 weeks before fessing up. The minute FOX was 'caught' they handled it.

Thirty years old documents and fresh quotes don't exactly equate now do they?

So your position is Fox doesn't lie they just make mistakes? Lot's of mistakes. Over and over and all those mistakes error in one direction.
 
Pacridge said:
So your position is Fox doesn't lie they just make mistakes? Lot's of mistakes. Over and over and all those mistakes error in one direction.

Interesting. Doesn't ALL news networks make mistakes?

Question about the Cameron issue - was Fox called on it - or did they come out with an appology FIRST? This could give us more insight as to what actually happened.
 
Pacridge said:
Thirty years old documents and fresh quotes don't exactly equate now do they?
That's a good point, Pacridge, and to elucidate even further, let's examine the difference between intent and laziness.

Was CBS's intent to deceive the public and its viewers with the forged documents or was it journalistic laziness when it came to reviewing the documents? According to the independent panel that reviewed the whole incident, “the Panel cannot conclude that a political agenda at 60 Minutes Wednesday drove either the timing of the airing of the segment or its content.” (and if you're really bored, here's a link to the 234 page .pdf file review of the sordid detail type. Yawn.) The main objectives of getting the piece out would be that CBS would be the first to report on it. This is such a touchstone in American media that CBS shot their load too quickly in an effort to be the king of the hill. In shorter words, journalistic laziness.

Now compare what happened there to what Fox did in the BGH lawsuit that I proffered in post 6:
Florida state court jury unanimously determined that Fox "acted intentionally and deliberately to falsify or distort the plaintiffs' news reporting on BGH."
 
vauge said:
Interesting. Doesn't ALL news networks make mistakes?

Question about the Cameron issue - was Fox called on it - or did they come out with an appology FIRST? This could give us more insight as to what actually happened.

If I'm not mistaken :rolleyes: the 'bloggers' caught it. Then FOX dealt with it.

pacridge said:
So your position is Fox doesn't lie they just make mistakes?

The Cameron thing was a 'lie' because the quotes were bogus, but that was not a premeditated deliberate falsehood to deceive the public like NBC did with the gas tanks. Why would they go through such efforts to put it on the website (I don't think it was carried on the cable channel - the intial quotes that is) in such a grand conspiracy to only pull it within hours? If this was a deliberate all out lie they would have had a game plan to 'back up' their 'story' and stuck with it.
 
vauge said:
Interesting. Doesn't ALL news networks make mistakes?

Question about the Cameron issue - was Fox called on it - or did they come out with an appology FIRST? This could give us more insight as to what actually happened.

That is a good question. In fact that's an excellent question. And I don't know the answer. Anyone else?
 
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