Is Fox News fair and balanced?

[GinandTonic]

That is a good point, but it is not like they are far out from their audience.

Intentionally reflecting the bais of your audience is antithetical to even attempting to give fair and ballanced reportage. Which, given, is impossible to achieve in a philosophical sense.

 

[Elear]

Intentionally reflecting the bais of your audience is antithetical to even attempting to give fair and ballanced reportage. Which, given, is impossible to achieve in a philosophical sense.

Once again, this is the point we come back to. What is "fair" and what is "balanced"? I'm not sure it's even right to define it by the balance of hosts and guests introduced by the media. For example, putting on-air one Democrat and one Republican will still exclude key parties or viewpoints. Everyone is more than just their parties. If a socially liberal fiscal conservative goes on air, this does NOT seem fair and balanced to social conservative fiscal moderates even though both are branded as Republican.

Therefore, the whole matter is futile and people just need to be discerning.

 

[Gary Childress]

Once again, this is the point we come back to. What is "fair" and what is "balanced"? I'm not sure it's even right to define it by the balance of hosts and guests introduced by the media. For example, putting on-air one Democrat and one Republican will still exclude key parties or viewpoints. Everyone is more than just their parties. If a socially liberal fiscal conservative goes on air, this does NOT seem fair and balanced to social conservative fiscal moderates even though both are branded as Republican.

Therefore, the whole matter is futile and people just need to be discerning.

I take it then your vote was that Fox news is NOT fair and balanced?

 

[Colonel]

Fox, fair and balanced, haha. If you call the news anchor getting his news from the RNC Chair as "fair and balanced", then I am frightened.

 

[Elear]

I take it then your vote was that Fox news is NOT fair and balanced?

I hadn't actually bothered to vote but yes, I just voted "NOT".

 

[Gary Childress]

Fox, fair and balanced, haha. If you call the news anchor getting his news from the RNC Chair as "fair and balanced", then I am frightened.

Could you elaborate a little more on your statement? I don't follow. What is RNC? Republic of North Korea?

 

[Bill3000]

Could you elaborate a little more on your statement? I don't follow. What is RNC? Republic of North Korea?

Republican National Council

 

[azzaman333]

It's no less fair or balanced than any other news outlet.

 

[Elear]

Republican National Council

I think you mean "Republican National Committee".

 

[Zarn]

Intentionally reflecting the bais of your audience is antithetical to even attempting to give fair and ballanced reportage. Which, given, is impossible to achieve in a philosophical sense.

While true, I don't know if you can see they attempt to be that way. They may very well just be that way.

 

[Gary Childress]

So far 7 people seem to think Fox news is fair and balanced. 65 think it is not. I'm really curious to hear the views of those 7 people. What makes Fox News fair and balanced?

 

[LucyDuke]

So far 7 people seem to think Fox news is fair and balanced. 65 think it is not. I'm really curious to hear the views of those 7 people. What makes Fox News fair and balanced?

I think it might be more revealing to ask what fair and balanced means.

 

[azzaman333]

It's no less fair or balanced than any other news outlet.

So far 7 people seem to think Fox news is fair and balanced. 65 think it is not. I'm really curious to hear the views of those 7 people. What makes Fox News fair and balanced?

 

[TheLastOne36]

Well one example of Fox news being unfair and unbalanced, (and pretty much most western news stations) is there view of "evil venezuela" So i voted no with that being my example, and my arguement would be, there is no fair and blanaced news station in this planet.

 

[Gary Childress]

I think it might be more revealing to ask what fair and balanced means.

Good question. It's probably easier to give examples than to come up with a fool proof written formula. I think it has a lot to do with the notion that there can be different perspectives on the world, that in some cases there is no absolute easy right answer to a problem and that a problem needs to be seen in greater depth than just a cursory look.

For instance do we put the garbage plant on the north side of town or the south? Those living on the north side would probably say put it on the south and those who live on the south probably say the north. These are perhaps issues in which there is no clear cut definitive answer to a problem. Yet there needs to be a garbage plant and it needs to go somewhere. There are no doubt pluses and minuses to either view that need to be explored in greater depth.

Obviously some issues are clear cut. Like 2+2=4. Clearly you don't need to "fairly" represent those who believe that 2+2=7 in a "balanced" manner because it is just plain wrong and can be mathematically proven so. But many other issues are less clear cut. For instance being fair and balanced about the Iraq war might include accurately representing the views of those who oppose the war versus simply dismissing them as "moonbats" (as Fox news seems to typically do).

 

[Gary Childress]

It's no less fair or balanced than any other news outlet.

I take it you voted that Fox news is fair and balanced? So you think all news sources are fair and balanced then?

 

[MagisterCultuum]

In general Fox has a bit of a rightward bias, but it is not nearly so strong as the leftward bias of MSNBC. In the past several years FOX's bias has been weakening considerably, and MSNBC's growing. They also tend to keep the bias to their commentary instead of news programs better then MSNBC. CNN generally seems to have a slight leftward bias, but is the least biased of the three. C-SPAN is far more fair and balanced that the rest.

Hannity has a really big bias, which I used to find funny (it basically seems like a Colbert impression) but now is just annoying. (MSNBC's Olberman and Maddow's bias is still amusing, so I've been turning to them more although I can't really take them seriously.) Geraldo is probably the least biased at FOX. Huckabee is clearly biased but is honest about it and still fair.

I basically think that they should get rid of Hannity and then FOX would be fine.

 

[.Shane.]

It's no less fair or balanced than any other news outlet.

Disagree. Even if we agreed that, say, MNBC is biased in its non-editorial news presentation, Fox is so far beyond that. They are not biased, they are a propaganda arm of the Right.

edit: that said, would be nice if a mod would merge all these "OMG IS FOX BIASED" threads that crop up about once every month or two into one.

 

[azzaman333]

I take it you voted that Fox news is fair and balanced? So you think all news sources are fair and balanced then?

Compared to other news sources, Fox is no worse. So, by news outlet standards, Fox is fair and balanced.

Disagree. Even if we agreed that, say, MNBC is biased in its non-editorial news presentation, Fox is so far beyond that. They are not biased, they are a propaganda arm of the Right.

edit: that said, would be nice if a mod would merge all these "OMG IS FOX BIASED" threads that crop up about once every month or two into one.

Fox just lets their bias show more than other news outlets. They aren't any more biased than anyone else.

 

[.Shane.]

Fox just lets their bias show more than other news outlets. They aren't any more biased than anyone else.

Again, completely disagree. There are no documents or smoking guns that indict CNBC or CNN for the left the way that Fox has been indicted for the right.