Fox may be a lot of things, but when I mistakenly listen to Katie Couric, she can't keep the distain out of her voice when she says "Bush", who she never refers to as Mr. Bush but still calls Clinton Mr. President.
If you can't be unbiased, at least be polite.
Dan
Snowdoggie wrote: It is a bit ironic that a Republican is attacking a Democratic President by comparing him to a Republican President.
Are you referring to me? I'm not a Republican, and I'm not attacking anyone. Just listening to NPR.
Duke wrote:GameboyRMH wrote: They do a decent job of pretending to be a proper news source, instead of ragging on one party all day like a bunch of high school kids....now that there is a Democrat president. And they are still doing a pretty effective whitewash job by painting anyone who thinks the Obamessiah has questionable ideas as a rabid, racist, liberal-hater.
I haven't heard MSNBC call anyone a rabid racist or a liberal hater. Do you have some vid links of those words being used on MSNBC? Maybe a transcript?
Is it possible they might state that someone disagrees with Obama? That this person might disagree but they are in fact not racists or liberal haters? It's one thing to disagree but another thing to accuse someone of being a racist on a news program. If they're calling guys racists, or worse liberal haters(!), I'd like to know. That way I'll stop watching Morning Joe with Joe Scarborough. Great show btw. I find it balanced pretty well. Check it out sometime.
Therein lies the difference with Fox News. As Gameboy said they like to "report" the news and then talk about their opinions of it afterwards. Mixing opinion and news is always a poor way to "report". But hey, whatever entertainment you like. 
I've also noticed that Fox likes to rabble rouse.
"Obama is going to talk to YOUR KIDS!" "Obama is going to KILL YOUR GRANNYS!" "Obama is going to make us SOCIALISTS!"
It's almost comical except for the the fact that so many people actually believe the two sentences Fox news will drop before going to commercial.
All just said aside, I'm with SVrex on the original point here.. NPR did a good thing for sticking up for Fox. Journalism should not be repressed as it has been in the past.
Bravo to NPR. I've always found them to be left leaning, but this stance against the Obama administration gives them much more credibility.
I find MSNBC to be at least as obnoxious as FOX, and I find FOX horribly obnoxious.
Hannity, Oberman, O'Reily, Maddow------They are all just entertainers spouting their slanted opinions. They have nothing to do with news.
It would be great if NPR emerged as a news source we could actually trust. That's been missing since Tim Russert passed.
Hi Xceler8x,
Thank you for posting a link to the Tucker Carlson article…it’s a quick read that covers the issue well.
As a general reply to the folks that think FOX News is a total joke…don’t believe everything you think.
What approach could a typical member of this board use to ascertain the truth? How many of us are politicians or at least work in Washington? Would having a degree in journalism or political science enable one to separate fact from fiction? How many of us have the time to conduct exhaustive research and would that even suffice to know what’s going on.
Look, I’m not sticking up for FOX News, I’m just questioning those that show such unbridled confidence in thinking they know what’s going on.
I think it is great the Fox news keeps a critical eye on the administration (even if they were a bit light on the last one, which discounts their credibility a bit). Their big problem are the "opinion" parts of the organization that are both news like in their presentation and sometimes mixed in with the news. They also tend to present is a bit of a "how often do you beat your wife?" kind of a way.
Do any of the network shows even do ANY opinion stuff anymore? I think if Fox moved their opinion stuff to another channel or something, they would get a lot more respect.
The comparison of the Tea Party protests in Washington to the Gay Rights protests is quite telling though. One is covered ad-nauseum the other pretty much not at all, yet both were about the same size and both addressed very relevant current events.
Just watch them all. The truth is somewhere in between. There isn't a journalist/reporter/news anchor in the world that I would trust to report the news. If you want unbiased news, you need to dig it up yourself. If you hear something on the news, verify it from at least two other sources and find out the other side of the story. Otherwise it just a rumor as far as I'm concerned.
I think where things get confusing is some of us are confusing opinion shows with news shows. Glenn Beck isn't a reporter, he's an entertainer. He's funny as hell sometimes. He should also probably be wearing a tin foil hat. Keith Oberman isn't a reporter, he's an entertainer. Not near as funny. Kind of like listening to a pouty child. They both spout off their version and opinion of current events.
Want some interesting info, look at their ratings.
Copied from a news paper:
"Fox News also was the overwhelming leader in prime time Thursday, averaging nearly 2.9 million viewers. Here's how the competition fared: MSNBC with 1 million, CNN with 718,000 and HLN with 496,000."
This was from the Orlando Sentinel in August, but the trend runs true most evenings. People watching prime time "news" shows watch Fox. Does that mean that even though the White House is trying to marginalize Fox that the news watchers don't believe them?
Here are the ratings from Oct. 20 2009: http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/ratings/
Obama is making an error. Instead of trying to bring the country together as he campaigned. He is driving a wedge between him and everyone who is remotely conservative. He is also driving them to watch Fox. The channel with all the opinion shows that don't like him. Personally I say bad move.
Interesting political point, Toyman01.
It is bad politics to marginalize the portion of your constituents who represent the viewership of a program which is the overwhelming leader in prime time, regardless of whether or not you agree with what they are watching.
If President Obama is trying to be a uniter, this is an odd way to accomplish the goal.
Toyman01 wrote: Obama is making an error. Instead of trying to bring the country together as he campaigned. He is driving a wedge between him and everyone who is remotely conservative.
And this is different than everything else he's promised and taken back how?
Sorry, but if you are naive enough to think that Fox is the only "biased" news agency, then you deserve everything that we're about to get. Pull your collective heads out of the sand and welcome to reality. The News has ALWAYS been slanted to whatever side they want to portray.
Xceler8x wrote: Great editorial on The Daily Beast about this as well. Why the White House Bullies Fox by Tucker Carlson
Good read, Xceler8x
SVreX wrote:Snowdoggie wrote: It is a bit ironic that a Republican is attacking a Democratic President by comparing him to a Republican President.Are you referring to me? I'm not a Republican, and I'm not attacking anyone. Just listening to NPR.
I was referring to Senator Lamar Alexander who first brought up the Nixon reference. I don't know what party you are registered with.
http://www.canada.com/news/Obama+accused+using+Nixon+like+techniques/2129082/story.html#
I'm actually getting kind of sick of both parties right now. They both take bribes from the same special interest groups.
Toyman01 wrote: ...."Fox News also was the overwhelming leader in prime time Thursday, averaging nearly 2.9 million viewers. Here's how the competition fared: MSNBC with 1 million, CNN with 718,000 and HLN with 496,000."....
As a note, those numbers appear to be for Cable news only, not the broadcast networks. I would be interested to see how they compare with the big 3, I suspect they will still be up there.
Looks like Snowdoggie is REALLY sick of both parties! 
SVreX wrote: Looks like Snowdoggie is REALLY sick of both parties!
No. I'm really sick of my berkleying double posting computer. 
SVreX wrote:Xceler8x wrote: Great editorial on The Daily Beast about this as well. Why the White House Bullies Fox by Tucker CarlsonGood read, Xceler8x
Good read and spot on.
Looks like some Republicans aren't really too happy with Fox either.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20091022/pl_politico/28589;_ylt=AmaH7a0824iNyit9EmO2MK.s0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTJ0MGQ4bjg2BGFzc2V0A3BvbGl0aWNvLzIwMDkxMDIyLzI4NTg5BGNwb3MDNwRwb3MDNARwdANob21lX2Nva2UEc2VjA3luX2hlYWRsaW5lX2xpc3QEc2xrA3RvcHJlcHVibGljYQ--
Glenn Beck is a former Morning Zoo guy. Limbaugh used to be a Top 40 DJ. Neither of them are journalists. Fox News wants to get ratings, not get people elected. The more outrageous they can get, the more ratings they can get. This logic isn't much different from Howard Stern or even the balloon hoax guy.
Here's a link to the Pew Research Center's poll on public reaction to "press accuracy":
http://people-press.org/report/543/
Beware, it's a long report.
An interesting excerpt:
Views of Obama Coverage About six-in-ten Americans (62%) say that news organizations are being fair to the Obama administration, while 23% say media coverage has been unfair. Nearly three-quarters of Republicans (73%) say coverage of the administration has been fair, compared with 54% of Democrats and 67% of independents. Historically, members of the party controlling the White House have been less likely to see coverage of the administration as fair. In November 2005, for example, 50% of the public said that coverage of George W. Bush’s administration was fair. While about two-thirds of Democrats (68%) viewed the coverage as fair, just a quarter of Republicans (25%) agreed. In February 1998, shortly after the initial allegations that President Clinton had had a sexual relationship with a White House intern, the public was divided in its views of coverage of Bill Clinton’s administration; 49% said it was fair, while 44% said it was unfair. Only about a third of Democrats (34%) thought coverage of the administration had been fair, compared with 66% of Republicans and 54% of independents. At this point, public perceptions of coverage of the new Obama administration are similar to views in August of Bill Clinton’s first term. At that time, 66% said coverage of the new administration had been fair, while 21% said they saw it as unfair. Among partisans, 77% of Republicans said coverage was fair, compared with 61% of Democrats and 66% of independents. But the public does see the media growing increasingly critical of the Obama administration, according to a separate measure in the Pew Research Center’s News Interest Index survey. In mid-August, a plurality of Americans (43%) said press coverage of Obama had been fair, but that figure had declined by 10 points since early June, and was down from 64% in January as Obama took office. The proportion saying that coverage of Obama had become too critical increased since early June – from 16% to 23%; the proportion of Democrats who said coverage of Obama was too critical nearly doubled during this period (from 22% in June to 40% in August). There was virtually no change in the percentage who said coverage of Obama had not been critical enough.
Snowdoggie wrote: Looks like some Republicans aren't really too happy with Fox either.
No, Republicans do not like Fox either, because the opinionista on the network aren't afraid to expose the party as one that has abandoned it's platform and principles. The actual "news" reporting on Fox has always covered the GOP's shenanigans.
Those who revel in portraying the triumvirate (Beck, O'Reilly and Hannity) as simple Obama-bashers haven't been paying attention to their on-going diatribes against the inept Republican party.
aircooled wrote:Toyman01 wrote: ...."Fox News also was the overwhelming leader in prime time Thursday, averaging nearly 2.9 million viewers. Here's how the competition fared: MSNBC with 1 million, CNN with 718,000 and HLN with 496,000."....As a note, those numbers appear to be for Cable news only, not the broadcast networks. I would be interested to see how they compare with the big 3, I suspect they will still be up there.
I would like to see how Fox News would compare to the ratings for something mindless like Dancing with the Stars. Or better yet, create a survey comparing the number of Fox News watchers to the number of people who never watch the news at all on any channel, cable or broadcast.
You might discover that most people just don't give a damn, or worse yet, are more interested in what Paris Hilton is doing than what Congress is doing.
Background Bias: Sick of both parties, hates socialism, loves capitalism, loves this country, sick of both parties, voted for Ron Paul in the primaries, Libertarian party in the general election. The last time this guy voted for the lesser of two evils, he voted for Bush - not gonna happen again.
It is interesting how everyone here is basically arguing over whether Fox news is biased, and if they should be respected/heard/thought of the way any other news organization is.
Is everyone missing the point!?!?
The Obama administration is attempting to marginalize and censor a major news organization!
Holy crap!
Yes, this is very Nixon-like.
I don't care if you've never watched Fox news, never heard of it, the administration doesn't have the power (well, shouldn't) to take on journalists of any sort.
You said you were sick of both parties twice! I am really sick of both parties! (blazing saddles anyone?)
tuna55 wrote: Background Bias: Sick of both parties, hates socialism, loves capitalism, loves this country, sick of both parties, voted for Ron Paul in the primaries, Libertarian party in the general election. The last time this guy voted for the lesser of two evils, he voted for Bush - not gonna happen again. It is interesting how everyone here is basically arguing over whether Fox news is biased, and if they should be respected/heard/thought of the way any other news organization is. Is everyone missing the point!?!? The Obama administration is attempting to marginalize and censor a major news organization! Holy crap! Yes, this is very Nixon-like. I don't care if you've never watched Fox news, never heard of it, the administration doesn't have the power (well, shouldn't) to take on journalists of any sort. You said you were sick of both parties twice! I am really sick of both parties! (blazing saddles anyone?)
Is Obama really trying to censor Fox News, as in not letting them broadcast what they want, or is he just not giving them the same access to the White House that he would give CNN or The New York Times.
There is a difference.
He is trying to marginalize, which is, in effect, the same thing, but much more devious.
Snowdoggie wrote:tuna55 wrote: Background Bias: Sick of both parties, hates socialism, loves capitalism, loves this country, sick of both parties, voted for Ron Paul in the primaries, Libertarian party in the general election. The last time this guy voted for the lesser of two evils, he voted for Bush - not gonna happen again. It is interesting how everyone here is basically arguing over whether Fox news is biased, and if they should be respected/heard/thought of the way any other news organization is. Is everyone missing the point!?!? The Obama administration is attempting to marginalize and censor a major news organization! Holy crap! Yes, this is very Nixon-like. I don't care if you've never watched Fox news, never heard of it, the administration doesn't have the power (well, shouldn't) to take on journalists of any sort. You said you were sick of both parties twice! I am really sick of both parties! (blazing saddles anyone?)Is Obama really trying to censor Fox News, as in not letting them broadcast what they want, or is he just not giving them the same access to the White House that he would give CNN or The New York Times. There is a difference.
It's easier for one to commit a crime with willing accomplices than with someone who will alert the authorities.
tuna55 wrote: He is trying to marginalize, which is, in effect, the same thing, but much more devious.
But not doing it in a very smart way. It would have been FAR more effective to just do it and NOT talk about it. Them saying they are doing it just fans the fire.
Agreed wholeheartedly aircooled - I never said he was smart. Fox news is outpacing all other news organizations right now, buy a wide margin, too.
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