Is Fox News fair and balanced?

[Antilogic]

I don't trust the 24-hour networks because they intersperse more normal journalistic reporting with opinionated commentary. Fox does the same, and the lines are becoming more and more blurred. That is not a recipe for mostly unbiased delivery.

NPR is a solid news source. The interviews don't have as much yelling, the information is calmly delivered with far less detectable bias than the talking heads on TV, and the "investigative" part of the investigative reporting is top-notch. I also like the main paper of the NY Times (NOT the editorials/opinion columns, although I browse them from time to time).

@classical hero: I watched an episode of Lou Dobbs, and I watched an episode of O'Reilly. It was hard for me to tell the difference between two blowhards who love to talk over anyone else on their show. I wouldn't trust either of them.

 

[El_Machinae]

Here is a nice little clip of the extent they are going to now. They present a clip of Biden quoting McCain from 2008 as something Biden said over the weekend. And for the Fox apologists this is not "commentary" but "news"

link

Holy Crap. Yes, the editing absolutely implied that the comment was made by Biden this weekend.

 

[LucyDuke]

The interviews don't have as much yelling, the information is calmly delivered with far less detectable bias than the talking heads on TV, and the "investigative" part of the investigative reporting is top-notch.

I think I've heard one case of "yelling", if you can even call it that, where one guest was trying to talk over another. I've got NPR on in the background almost all day at work, and it's pretty much all I listen to in the car, for the past four or five years. Thousands and thousands of hours... twenty seconds of yelling. Even with the yelling I've probably missed, it's definitely not as much as even one hour of Billo, Chris Matthews, or any of the cable fruitcakes you want to lampoon.

 

[Antilogic]

Holy Crap. Yes, the editing absolutely implied that the comment was made by Biden this weekend.

Talk about questionable editing. I remember seeing that speech live last year.

@LucyDuke: You should've bought a lotto ticket that day. I still haven't heard guests talking over other guests on NPR, and I've been listening since my high school and undergrad days. Polite and rational conversation? And it communicates information in an intelligible manner? I'll take it!

I wish I could find the Demotivator-esque poster that had the caption "Yelling: It's second-best to being correct" or something like that.

 

[Formaldehyde]

GWB tried to save us all from certain financial doom. But the evil Democrats stopped him dead in his tracks:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMnSp4qEXNM&NR=1

A complete and total rebuttal ironically generated prior to this 'news' release:

http://uspolitics.about.com/b/2008/...ed-about-financial-reform-but-did-nothing.htm

In 2003, Republicans controlled both branches of Congress (108th) and the White House. What happened to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac regulatory reform under Republican leadership? Nothing.

 

[Antilogic]

GWB tried to save us all from certain financial doom. But the evil Democrats stopped him dead in his tracks:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMnSp4qEXNM&NR=1

A complete and total rebuttal ironically generated prior to this 'news' release:

http://uspolitics.about.com/b/2008/...ed-about-financial-reform-but-did-nothing.htm

I wish I had a nickel for every time a politician or news agency claimed to see a disaster coming and the pleas to save us all were ignored. I could ride out this recession in style.

 

[Zarn]

It's funny, because there is video footage and direct quotes of just that.

There were guilty people in both parties, but there were some who did see this coming.

 

[Formaldehyde]

And most of them refused to do anything about it, including all the neocons who received huge donations from Wall Street to do just that.

http://www.tampabay.com/opinion/columns/article981543.ece

But why wasn't there regulation and oversight to restrain all the irresponsible bets?

Here's a news bulletin for you: It was methodically bought off.

Over the last decade the financial sector spent more than $5 billion on influence peddling, $1.7 billion on political contributions and $3.4 billion on lobbying. And the industry got its money's worth.

And most people also forget that GWB and his extended family were direct particpants and benefactors of the first bailout:

http://rationalrevolution.net/war/bush_family_and_the_s.htm

There are several ways in which the Bush family plays into the Savings and Loan scandal, which involves not only many members of the Bush family but also many other politicians that are still in office and still part of the Bush Jr. administration today. Jeb Bush, George Bush Sr., and his son Neil Bush have all been implicated in the Savings and Loan Scandal, which cost American tax payers over $1.4 TRILLION dollars (note that this is about one quarter of our national debt).

Between 1981 and 1989, when George Bush finally announced that there was a Savings and Loan Crisis to the world, the Reagan/Bush administration worked to cover up Savings and Loan problems by reducing the number and depth of examinations required of S&Ls as well as attacking political opponents who were sounding early alarms about the S&L industry. Industry insiders were aware of significant S&L problems as early 1986 that they felt would require a bailout. This information was kept from the media until after Bush had won the 1988 elections.

Jeb Bush defaulted on a $4.56 million loan from Broward Federal Savings in Sunrise, Florida. After federal regulators closed the S&L, the office building that Jeb used the $4.56 million to finance was reappraised by the regulators at $500,000, which Bush and his partners paid. The taxpayers had to pay back the remaining 4 million plus dollars.

Neil Bush was the most widely targeted member of the Bush family by the press in the S&L scandal. Neil became director of Silverado Savings and Loan at the age of 30 in 1985. Three years later the institution was belly up at a cost of $1.6 billion to tax payers to bail out.

 

[Orange Seeds]

I've personally never watched Fox news at any time in my life, so i know very little about how poor or biased their programming is. Today, however, the Globe and Mail had an article on their website that has had a bit of a raucous response; it's best if i just link it:
Fox has a Laugh

So my question is: Are you serious Fox News?
Is this an especially bad program, or is this what is to be expected?

EDIT wikipedia tells me that this specific program is silliness and meant to be stupid

 

[Munch]

I've been in the US for 3 days, and I've had a chance to watch some TV. Not a lot, which is fortunate, because it's far from entertaining with incessant advert breaks consisting entirely of incredibly annoying ads.

I watched a bit of Glenn Beck, then some kind of news round-up on Fox. I'd say it's far from fair or balanced, and almost exclusively slams the present administration whilst going on ad nauseum about 'family values' and such. It's a comedy channel, as far as I can tell. More investigation is needed. EDIT: one particularly funny almost-quotation: 'good news and bad news: the birth rate in the US is high which is encouraging, as we are replacing our population unlike Europe, but unfortunately a high percentage of these births occur out of wedlock'.

Also spent a bit more time watching CNN, which is a bit more bearable but still suffers from chronic advert disease. It seems like a slightly better channel, hard to detect any bias there so far.

 

[Ecofarm]

Also spent a bit more time watching CNN, which is a bit more bearable but still suffers from chronic advert disease. It seems like a slightly better channel, hard to detect any bias there so far.

Seriously?? Haha. What, they don't teach 'critical thinking' where you are from?

Moderator Action: Trolling.
Please read the forum rules: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=422889

 

[GinandTonic]

Seriously?? Haha. What, they don't teach 'critical thinking' where you are from?

Moderator Action: Trolling.
Please read the forum rules: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=422889

Outstanding! You really dont grasp the difference between Philosophy, Critical Thinking and Critical Analysis do you?

 

[Formaldehyde]

So my question is: Are you serious Fox News?

Yeah. They take themselves deadly seriously. After all, they are protecting this country from anybody who disagrees with them, which is fortunately not the majority anymore.

Is this an especially bad program, or is this what is to be expected?

I had never heard of it until this thread. Then again, I never watch Fox News on cable so that's not too surprising. But this looks like all-too standard Fox News 'programming' that I have watched on the internet numerous times, except it is apparently aiming for a bit younger audience than usual. My guess is that it is supposed to be the Conservapedia version of The Daily Show, except it ironically doesn't appear on a comedy channel...

Also spent a bit more time watching CNN, which is a bit more bearable but still suffers from chronic advert disease. It seems like a slightly better channel, hard to detect any bias there so far.

Yeah. Get used to the 'adverts'. One of the reasons I enjoy watching soccer on TV so much is because they really can't interrupt it for commercials.

If you plan to spend any amount of time here, I definitely recommend you get a DVR with your cable coverage. This allows you to digitally record what you want to watch and fast-foward over the commercials. You can watch an incredible amount of TV in a relatively short period of time by doing this regularly. I do it so much that when I watch a TV program live, I am always grabbing the remote to try to skip them.

It seems most people use the commercial breaks to do something else. Channel surfing used to be popular until most of the cable stations started running them at exactly the same time. Now it's fridge runs and bathroom breaks.

 

[Phlegmak]

Regarding the topic, I honestly don't see how anyone can defend Fox "News" since they've fought a court case to allow them to lie on TV.

 

[LucyDuke]

Regarding the topic, I honestly don't see how anyone can defend Fox "News" since they've fought a court case to allow them to lie on TV.

I'd like to know more about this.

 

[Phlegmak]

I'd like to know more about this.

It's the Monsanto case.

http://www.google.com/search?q=monsanto+fox&btnG=Google+Search

Fox fought for the right to lie and won:
http://www.projectcensored.org/top-stories/articles/11-the-media-can-legally-lie/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Akre

This is a fragment from Outfoxed:
http://tobefree.wordpress.com/2008/...on-with-monsanto-to-lie-about-bghcancer-link/

 

[LucyDuke]

Thank you.

 

[decco82]

I'd like to know more about this.

I also remember hearing something about this, I'll try and dig up a source. In the meantime, Wikipedia has a nice collection of Fox News balance at work.

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

Edit : Ok, found it. Long story short, a couple are fired by Fox News in 1997 for refusing to include information in a news report that they know to be false. The couple sues Fox under whistleblower legislation and wins $425,000. Fox counter-sues on the basis that "the FCC's policy against the intentional falsification of the news -- which the FCC has called its "news distortion policy" -- does not qualify as the required "law, rule, or regulation"..." under which the whistleblower laws would apply.

Basically, its not a crime for Fox News to INTENTIONALLY lie to its viewers, and to fire employees who refuse to abide by this. Crazy stuff.

Edit : Sorry, forgot the link. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Akre
http://www.foxbghsuit.com/

 

[Dumanios]

I don't care about FOX news,I listen to WCOL.

 

[Antilogic]

As I said before: NPR and it's local radio news outlets are the best. Ignore the TV news forever!