Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Third time's (not) the charm


First
, it was labeling Mark Foley; the now infamous gay pedophile; a Democrat. Then it was flashing an image of Senior House Representative John Conyers during an investigative story about the sleazy antics of William "Dollar Bill" Jefferson. Now, your boys over at Faux News are at it again. This time, they "mistakenly" labeled Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter as a Democrat; all while he was grilling Attorney General Alberto Gonzales during yesterday's Senate Judiciary Committee meeting.

This goes to show that Fox will stoop to any level to protect their own and to discredit Democrats. Even though Democrats are usually their own worst enemy, they've been getting a lot of help defaming their character from Ruppert Murdoch's "fair and balanced" news station.

Hippie, does this answer your question about why the Dems should stay away from Fox News?

-ACL

10 "Insiders" spoke their mind. Join in...:

Anonymous said...

I read this exact article. Like you, my first thought was "here they go again!"

Fox News is a joke.

Anonymous said...

One time is a mistake. Two times is a habit. Three times is Foxy.

Anonymous said...

"Three times is Foxy."


Classic!

Andre said...

@ J: Alex: No argument there.

@ KC/Jos: Nicely done. I'm curious to see what you'll come up with for the fourth, fifth, and seventy-third time Fox pulls off one of these stunts.

The H.C. said...

Hey Dre,
I agree this is a bad misrepresentation of the facts. It's O.K. to hold their feet to the fire too. I have no problem. But if the Democrats aren't going to show up at any Network that misrepresents facts.....Well, I don't know where they'll go. CNN for instance can seem to find Afganistan site;http://www.bobharris.com/content/view/1419/ and even had to apologize to Michael Moore, one of their own; site; http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/Movies/07/15/moore.gupta/index.html add that to dozens of bad reports during 9/11 (at one point they claimed a military helicoptor hit the Pentagon) and frankly, I don't see why your singling out FOX. My guess is it's because it's bias toward Democrats and gives a false impression......which is what CNN and MSNBC does every day in their reporting on Republicans. I'm only seeing a difference in methods, not agendas.

Andre said...

Hippie, I'm wondering if you really think that being bad at geography, mistakingly disseminating information about "one of their own", and being confused on the weapon of choice for 9/11 are the same as the clear sabotage that Fox News is trying to commit. I wouldn't be so critical if they made some of the aforementioned mistakes. But these were examples of political bias for the purpose of protecting their own and/or attacking their opposition.

Maybe if Fox's media credentials were changed to "opinion", this wouldn't be so bad.

The H.C. said...

"But these were examples of political bias for the purpose of protecting their own and/or attacking their opposition."

And you don't think implying our Government is attacking our own people is? I think your being a little too forgiving of CNN's "mistakes" while finding nefarious reasons for FOX's. Apply the same critical thinking to both and you'll come away realizing they both do it. If you want I'll create a montage of all CNN's "mistakes" Keep in mind though, I don't think what FOX is doing is right, and I do applaud you for pointing it out.

Andre said...

I guess my ultimate point is simple: when you look at mistakes in the media, you have to ask yourself a series of questions:

(1) What type of mistake was it?

(2) Does anyone stand to benefit/lose out from that mistake?

(3) What steps have been taken to correct that mistake?

As far as I can tell, Fox News is the only 'legitimate' news outlet that screws up time and time again where somebody (i.e. their "opponents") gets negatively portrayed to uninformed viewers. Dan Rathers dropped the ball by submitting the now infamous bogus Bush report, lost his job and most of his journalistic integrity in the process.

The H.C. said...

But Andre,
I have yet to see or hear CNN apologize for their coverage of Katrina, The Scooter Libby Affair, or for over a decade of lopsided coverage that either decieved or outright lied to their viewers. I believe all the criteria you mentioned was met in those examples. Most CNN viewers that I talk to believe that the majority of people who died in Louisiana during Katrina were black (untrue and I can prove it) and that Scooter Libby outed Valerie Plame (untrue and I can prove it). I really don't see why were debating this bro, they should both change their names from CNN and FOX to FOS. Aren't we really just arguing over who's the worst of two liars?

Andre said...

I don't doubt that CNN as a news network fails its viewers by taking popular sentiments and riding with them (i.e. thinking that just because New Orleans was largely black that blacks made up the most causualties) or the Sicko screwups with Wolfie. But, again, my questions center around the who and why. Who was impacted and why.

So, to answer your question, yes this is about who's the worst of the liars. Fox wins this hands down.