Comments on: Wow, this is scary

By: ___0_

___0_ — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 01:12:32 +0000

No, we're talking about the same mainstream press, we just have a difference of opinion… I believe the evidence indicates that every major media outlet tilts to the right, some more than others. This is only natural as they are owned by large corporations that are themselves politically conservative. FAIR has done some good quantitative work on this. Individual reporters may be more socially liberal than the population at large, but they tend to be more politically conservative, and studies of news sources have consistently found that conservative sources are more frequently cited than liberal sources. Let's look at the health care debate — the mainstream media has consistently downplayed the single payer option, which I think we can safely say is leftist in nature. Single payer is widely popular with an approval rating around 60%, yet it gets no coverage in the media. Even NPR doesn't pay any attention to single-payer advocates. Or the war in Iraq — the NYT published a lot of highly questionable reporting from people who clearly supported the war, and marginalized war opponents.

Here's a video from Media Matters with some examples of FOX's politicized news reporting:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRx5ethd8JU

By: mseelingerjr

mseelingerjr — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 21:17:54 +0000

Apparently we're talking about two different mainstream medias. Outlets like CNN, MSNBC, the New York Times, et al have an undeniable leftward tilt in their reporting (their coverage of the healthcare debate and the tea parties is particularly telling). I will grant you that radio is dominated by conservative commentators. However, I've never heard radio included as part of the mainstream media.

I'm still curious as to what this obvious bias in FOX's reporting is that you keep referring to. I also should note, that I refuse to deal in generalities and would appreciate a little more clarity as to what exactly it is you are referring to. It's also worth noting that opinion programming by its very definition is partisan and is equivalent to the editorial page of a newspaper. So, if you lump Glenn Beck in with FOX's normal news coverage you are obviously going to come away feeling like the network is partisan.

By: ___0_

___0_ — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 20:36:52 +0000

If you actually look at the numbers, right wing views and commentators in the media far outnumber those on the left. Although if you think that anyone more liberal than William F. Buckley is a leftist, then your paranoia might be justified. I will say that Media Matters does solid work, and while they are not shy about expressing their opinions, most of what they do is simply document the outrageous nonsense coming from right wing media personalities.

Do you watch FOX? They don't exactly try to hide their partisanship when they're doing "news" or opinion programming. From a business perspective, Obama has done them a favor. They trade in hysteria, so taking a little flak from the White House is grease on their gears.

You don't have to imagine that hypothetical world, by the way — Bush did attack the press for not being sufficiently supportive of his invasion of Iraq — in the Spring of 2008, White House staff Ed Gillespie and Dana Perino singled out NBC for its coverage of the Iraq War. Ungrateful bastards — the press had been so compliant in transcribing the lies coming out of the White House during the run up to war.

By: mseelingerjr

mseelingerjr — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 14:47:55 +0000

I don't know how you could even argue that the mainstream media is biased towards the right. Given their sycophantic support of the Obama administration, that claim is absurd.

Also, the fact that your sources come from such non-partisan groups as the Huffington Post, Media Matters, and the Democratic Underground is cause for some skepticism. I would think that if Fox is so nakedly partisan in their reporting, it wouldn't be hard to find an example of this in their public presentations. It doesn't seem like it would be too hard to take these supposed internal memos out of context.

By: ___0_

___0_ — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 14:12:43 +0000

There are a few primary documents available, if you don't trust Reina. http://www.google.com/search?q=fox+internal+memo The mainstream media is generally biased toward the right; FOX is especially biased and nakedly partisan in both its commentary and news reporting. FAIR and Media Matters do a pretty good job of documenting this. There's nothing wrong with that, per se, but FOX pretends to present a "fair and balanced" look at the news -- a wild claim that I'm sure the average 9-year old wouldn't have any difficulty diagnosing as bullshit.

By: shiers

shiers — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 06:27:47 +0000

i also think using a fox news article as the source for this post takes away from its legitimacy.

By: ___0_

___0_ — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 04:00:55 +0000

Why do you think I'm kidding? FOX is consistently on message for the GOP in a way that no other network is. Read Charlie Reina's accounts of how news is made at FOX: http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Fox_Ne... http://dir.salon.com/story/news/feature/2003/10/3...

By: ___0_

___0_ — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 04:00:55 +0000

By: ___0_

___0_ — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 04:00:55 +0000

By: shiers

shiers — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 02:30:47 +0000

fox news is bias, and so are all the other news agencies. i, like the majority of other news watchers, choose to get my news from them because i prefer their bias to MSNBC or CNN bias.

but as a matter of principle, it would be more acceptable to get information about verbal attacks on fox news from a place other than fox news.