The Obama war against Fox News

[xMurphyx]

I saw this article in my google news-ticker. I don't know how reputable this blog is but the last line doesn't seem all too professional. Either way, maybe this can kick of an interesting thread:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/was...ox-news-smart-politics-or-risky-business.html

White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said on CNN that Fox News isn't even a news organization.

White House political guru David Axelrod [...], told ABC that Fox News is "really not news. ... Other news organizations like yours ought not to treat them that way. We're not going to treat them that way."

As I'm not living in America I don't get to watch Fox News a lot, but I am often subjected to it when talking to friends or listening to American talk-radio shows (including conservative ones) and it strikes me, with my limited exposure, as a right-wing opinion making channel on a desperate hunt for ratings.
Also, it often seems dumbed down to the point of ridiculousness, following a famous dicator's creed that propaganda has to be stupid enough for the dumbest idiot to understand (I'm not comparing anything or anyone to this dictator and I am not implying kinship to political views! Just paraphrasing his view on propaganda).

Now, I realize that I don't hear about a normal day on Fox News but about isolated cases that are worth talking about so I can't say what Fox News is really like. But those isolated cases seem far too frequent and far too extreme for me to think of Fox News as a real, useful news channel.
To me it seems a televized tabloid like the German "Bild" minus tits.

Now apparently the White House has a similar opinion on it. Their view also seems biased seeing that Fox News is a strong opinion maker and very conservative. Two things the White House probably doesn't like at the moment.

So what is your take on this matter.

I'm not looking to start a fight, so don't quote-massacre my admittedly ignorant post but instead shed some real light on this so I can get a better, more informed opinion on this.

 

[Mister_Prophet]

Americans who really want to know what's going on don't get their news from television. At least, not from the big name commercial sources.

 

[kiff]

cnn, msnbc and fox basically show the same stuff during the day and typically none of them throw in too much bias. At night is when they have their respective pundits that, obviously, have their biases.

as far as fox, it's pretty much 2 guys that ride obama's ass, beck and hanity. o'reilly doesn't constantly blast him, but often disagrees w/ obama's policies since he's "conservative" and obama's liberal.

"This group is the biggest group of babies I've had to deal with in my 30 years of working." - Chris Wallace

The white house really is complaining about this too much and they can't can't handle the criticism. it's really pretty lame. to say fox in any harsher on obama than cnn and msnbc was on Bush is just a flat out lie.

if the Bush administration had publicly admitted KKK sympathizers, woulnd't the **** hit the fan?

why not the same when they have self-evoud communists and Maoists... but what does the mainstream media do with that? Nothing. Fox is the only one to investigate it. sure the others talk about it, but after the fact.

oh, and like you mentioned (xMurphyx), maybe there is a reason they appear to act like the regimes you've mentioned... well their communications director, Anita Dunn, is quite fond on Mao's philosophies....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiBDpL2dExY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlGNhAnwp_Y&feature=related

Americans who really want to know what's going on don't get their news from television. At least, not from the big name commercial sources.

why? almost every news source has the same stories. I read all kinds of news and they all have the AP stuff added to their own. honestly, I understand -all- of the media sucks these days, but I don't get the whole snobby "omg I don't watch cable news" thing

 

[dragonfliet]

The thing about Fox is that they DO have news, and while it certainly has a Republican slant, it IS real news.

That being said, the vast, vast majority of programming on the station is 'entertainment' (how Fox bills it, mind you) and it is terribly, terribly inaccurate and very, very biased. Think Glenn Beck. These entertainment shows are extreme ideological editorials that take the news and distort the hell out of it. Fox 'covers' Tea Parties, but really, it is the ideological font of them.

Fox news makes an argument along the lines of: every newspaper has an editorial section, people know the difference. The problem with that argument is that the editorial makes up the bulk of their programming (also, in general, editorial sections have editorials of both political bents).

Anywho, I think it's a legitimate argument to be made from the administration (I mean come on: when every other news organization was showing the health care address in sept. Fox news didn't. They were more concerned with a dance program), but TV news is bullcrap any way one looks at it, so whatever.

Anyways, Newsy has a decent summary of the feuding for those not entirely up on it. http://vodpod.com/watch/2344025-newsy-white-house-takes-on-fox-news-the-news-with-more-views

~Jason

Edit: Kiff, it isn't that omg I'm so much better than cable news or anything like that. The issue with television news is that it is catering to idiots and advertisers (sometimes both simultaneously). You can only cover the bare bones of basics in ten minutes, even with your best, well prepared stories. The bigger problem, however, is that the 24 hour news cycle leads to sloppy, sloppy, sloppy reporting. Things are simply reported as happening, without any real insight into the factors that may have led to the situation. Oftentimes, things are reported as happening when really, nothing happened (see the kid in the balloon hoax of a few days ago). 'Experts' are called upon that are many times either ignorant of what's even going on (see the SeXbox bullcrap) or that are looked upon poorly in their field (I could cite a LARGE number of examples here, but sticking with gaming, Jack Thompson is a great example, who was being called up for news programs even while being disbarred!); these people aren't being called onto television because they're the right person, they're being called because the networks want ratings and that person is controversial/telegenic/the producer's cousin.

 

[Mister_Prophet]

why? almost every news source has the same stories.

No, they most certainly do not.

I read all kinds of news and they all have the AP stuff added to their own. honestly, I understand -all- of the media sucks these days, but I don't get the whole snobby "omg I don't watch cable news" thing

It's not snobbery. It's just that gossip isn't important to me.

 

[FuLLBLeeD]

Oh god, another politics thread.

Fox is a conservative propaganda network that only idiots watch. /thread

 

[Sir_Brizz]

Oh god, another politics thread.

Fox is a conservative propaganda network that only idiots watch. /thread

Does that make CNN and MSNBC liberal propaganda networks that only idiots watch?

I agree with dragonfliet as far as regular news. Slight partisan bias aside, they all report pretty much the same things during their news shows.

The problem with saying you shouldn't get your news from commercial sources is... where else do you get it? If you're getting it from some kid blogging about news, where do you think they are getting it? It's not like there is an "open source" news source in the US that has the money to investigate news without partisanship.

And to act like Fox is the only station that has crazy commentators on it is just silly. I watch CNN occasionally and people like Nancy Grace are just as retarded commentators as Glenn Beck. Side note: I'm not saying I watch Fox or CNN with any regularity. I hate commercial news stations. BORING.

 

[M.A.D.X.W]

 

[kiff]

That being said, the vast, vast majority of programming on the station is 'entertainment' (how Fox bills it, mind you) and it is terribly, terribly inaccurate and very, very biased. Think Glenn Beck.

very biased yes, but what has he (beck) been inaccurate about?

how about him being right about acorn, van jones and now anita dunn?

 

[Zxanphorian]

The problem with saying you shouldn't get your news from commercial sources is... where else do you get it? If you're getting it from some kid blogging about news, where do you think they are getting it? It's not like there is an "open source" news source in the US that has the money to investigate news without partisanship.

Public news sources, such as PBS's The News Hour. From what I gather by watching that, is that they strive to be as balanced as possible. During their interviews about specific issues, they bring in people from different sides of the aisle, and people from different organizations or groups the issue affects. They also ask questions that are as fair as possible, and those that don't try to trap people in their own words.

On the other hand, we could have the government create a bill and pass it that supplies a "Public News Option"

 

[TWD]

"This group is the biggest group of babies I've had to deal with in my 30 years of working." - Chris Wallace

The white house really is complaining about this too much and they can't can't handle the criticism. it's really pretty lame. to say fox in any harsher on obama than cnn and msnbc was on Bush is just a flat out lie.

I'm not going to get into whether Obama or Bush got harsher punishment simply because I just don't think it matters, but I do agree with your general point. The White House just seems to be whining about the whole thing. Some news sources have a bias. Get over it. This is the way our country works, and there's nothing you can do about it.

It's clear that such programming is really starting to get to them, and it should. So far they've been very successful at swaying public opinion on the healthcare debate. Still one has to wonder what the president plans on accomplishing with such pouting. People that watch Fox News know exactly what the programming on the channel is like because they watch it all the time. They watch it because they like that programming, and believe it's viewpoints are more accurate. Does Obama really think that if he cries enough people will stop watching?

 

[Neddaf]

Faux News. I'm sick and tired of people saying both liberal and conservative news are one in the same. Faux News stirs up crazy people. Their topics have NO REAL ground. Obama has Hitler, "Oligarh", Beck's panel of "doctors", Hannity ignoring FACTS to make his "points", and pretty much anything else that comes out of Beck's mouth (hes also a Mormon if you didn't know).

And it's not just what they choose to cover, it's what they cover when they do. During Obama's speech this summer about Health Care reform (right when the recess started), every news station was airing his speech, except Faux News. They were running a segment on "Air Space Reform" in New York (right after that plane and helicopter collided). They later cut it up, chopped it, and spun it to their liking (something along the lines of "Oligarhs" and socialist nations). The speech in it's entirety was 30 minutes or so, and they showed maybe a minute of it. I don't know how you can consider that news, when you just give your spin on it. All news stations do it, but at least Bush was an actual moron, and said stupid things.

Obama is articulate and has great speeches. I know it's hard for the people on Faux News to understand because these are the same people that probably "connected" with Bush speeches (loooooool).

Did I also mention that hes a Mormon? If he'll believe in a hack and con man like John Smith, then I can't even give him the time of day.

And Faux News before 6 at night is laughable. Most of their news casters are just hacks that joke around most of the time and rarely talk about anything serious. Then they will invite people like Michele Bachmann to give their two cents on some random unimportant topic they spend an hour or so "discussing" (it's really about 10 minutes of discussion, the rest of the time is random jokes, clips, and "pictures" because most of their viewers are morons).

Faux News makes me lkjLFKAJDSFLAKSdjok all over my keyboard.

 

[Neddaf]

very biased yes, but what has he (beck) been inaccurate about?

He believes a charlatan delivered the word of God.

 

[Jackal]

I like to think we are fair and balanced, but ok.

MOAR AT 9!

 

[Sir_Brizz]

Faux News. I'm sick and tired of people saying both liberal and conservative news are one in the same. Faux News stirs up crazy people. Their topics have NO REAL ground. Obama has Hitler, "Oligarh", Beck's panel of "doctors", Hannity ignoring FACTS to make his "points", and pretty much anything else that comes out of Beck's mouth (hes also a Mormon if you didn't know).

And it's not just what they choose to cover, it's what they cover when they do. During Obama's speech this summer about Health Care reform (right when the recess started), every news station was airing his speech, except Faux News. They were running a segment on "Air Space Reform" in New York (right after that plane and helicopter collided). They later cut it up, chopped it, and spun it to their liking (something along the lines of "Oligarhs" and socialist nations). The speech in it's entirety was 30 minutes or so, and they showed maybe a minute of it. I don't know how you can consider that news, when you just give your spin on it. All news stations do it, but at least Bush was an actual moron, and said stupid things.

Obama is articulate and has great speeches. I know it's hard for the people on Faux News to understand because these are the same people that probably "connected" with Bush speeches (loooooool).

Did I also mention that hes a Mormon? If he'll believe in a hack and con man like John Smith, then I can't even give him the time of day.

And Faux News before 6 at night is laughable. Most of their news casters are just hacks that joke around most of the time and rarely talk about anything serious. Then they will invite people like Michele Bachmann to give their two cents on some random unimportant topic they spend an hour or so "discussing" (it's really about 10 minutes of discussion, the rest of the time is random jokes, clips, and "pictures" because most of their viewers are morons).

Faux News makes me lkjLFKAJDSFLAKSdjok all over my keyboard.

Hahaha, don't stain your shirt man.

 

[FuLLBLeeD]

I will say this, Glenn Beck is one of the greatest trolls of all time.

 

[Jacks:Revenge]

are we really going to have this discussion again?

Fox News, MSNBC, CNN, etc.
they're all garbage.

they don't practice journalism.
they conduct pseudo-news segments which feel more like sensationalism sprinkled with fundamentalist commentary than actual reporting.

if you want real news, you don't find it on TV.
not in this century.

 

[Mr. UglyPants]

I just hang my head in shame that such a news station exists, than I laugh at it during the Daily Show or Colbert Report than I turn on BBC News for some actual news.

 

[Jackal]

The BBC isn't perfect you know. It's also had it's share of "Fox News" if you will.

 

[kiff]

I think the attacks on fox may could be a way to test the waters for the revamping of the "fairness doctrine". after all, the new FCC "Diversity Czar" Mark Lloyd, a marxist (go figure), would love to shut down all voices on the right.

it's pretty amazing to see the "useful idiots" cheering all of this on.