Intro: "Asked what most viewers and observers of Fox News would be surprised to learn about the controversial cable channel, a former insider from the world of Rupert Murdoch was quick with a response: 'I don't think people would believe it's as concocted as it is; that stuff is just made up.'"
Billionaire media mogul, News Corp and Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch. (photo: Saul Loeb/Getty Images)
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Well said
One must remember what happened to Vallerie Plame after her husband, Joe Wilson, had his comments published in the NYT, debunking the "Bushies" outlandish claim that S.H. was negotiating for yellow cake from Niger. That was a horrible mess that probably could have been avoided - and just as effectively - had it been brought to our attention "anonymously".
I applaud the efforts, though, but we need to protect the whistle blowers. That's an entirely different topic, but of utmost importance. There's certainly a place for Wikkileaks.
I would be very happy to be able to give them black-and-white proof that they're being lied to and manipulated, but the proof will have to be much more iron-clad than this to convince them.
You ever call Fox out on their BS?
http://www.tomdegan.blogspot.com
Tom Degan
In response to Ralph Averill, I cannot see that FOX is the propaganda wing of the Republican Party. They consistently berated Bush for overspending (and now they more heatedly berate Obama for even more overspending) and they routinely have on libertarians, some with their own shows on FOX Business, who regularly argue strongly against civil liberties violations like the Patriot Act and against foreign interventions like the invasion of Iraq or even Obama's attempt to influence the recent revolt in Egypt. Several clearcut progressives or liberals routinely are heard on various shows (I think Ms. Powers is especially effective but others might prefer Dr. Hill or Mr. Colmes).
I watch all news stations regularly and follow network news intermittently. FOX has, by far, presented the widest range of opinion on a consistent basis. Yes, they are, at heart, conservatives but they do allow progressives and liberals and libertarians an opportunity to present views that are at variance to their preferences. That is a heck of a lot less biased than their competitors.
Lee Nason
New Bedford, Massachusetts
Jounalists are supposed to be neutral but Fox is not only biased it openly fundraises for the GOP as well as contributing money.
I simply do not agree that Fox is balanced in the range of comment it presents.
You are mostly right. I agree with you about his unhappiness! I think Rupert Murdoch is not after money as much as power. I think he wants to be the ruler of the world through his scary network I know several people in rural areas who are literally addicted to FOX I find it frustrating and frightening.
Nope, now he just looks like the monster from the movie Alien happily sucking the brains out of one of his victims. Either way, I don't see anything warm blooded.
- Bryce Babcock
Scary stuff. I always respected the network news of my youth (60's and 70's).
As a young boy I knew little of Vietnam but because of Walter Cronkite and CBS I seemed to realize it was not a good thing-war.
That was because actual war footage was brought to our TV'S. It wasn't orchestrated like a big 10 part mini-series-made for TV movie. There weren't any "analysts" hired to cheer on our troops and to psyche us up about why it is so important and necessary to kill people.
Go fox yourself:
Thank you Monty
BTW- They were never conservatives.. they don't even know the meaning of that word.. they are actually, and this term is a new one, but they are actually
REGRESSION-ISTS
and the handful of intelligent journalistic truth telling has been far far and few. I am disappointed that RSN just filters blather again for us to yack about, so we just continue to battle with each other stupidly over the dumbest things. There are some seriously outspoken authors out there that even RSN won't publish likely.
Let's stop with the names, idealogs, hesaidshesaid, and get to the nitty gritty of the whole damn issue.
This country needs an enema and I'd rather see it done by US citizens rather than China or Pfizer.
Did none of the complainers who dismiss the "unnamed source" not give any consideration as to WHY someone would want to preserve their entire career against being "Swift-Boated"?
You can't even fight the liars with the truth, because they KNOW the truth, and patently have no respect for it.
-YES! I'VE BEEN TRYING TO TELL FELLOW LIBERALS THAT FOR YEARS AND HAVE NEVER PUT IT SO SUCCINCTLY.
It's like having an argument against someone who really doesn't care. This is honestly, not only a joke to members of fox, but to many of their listeners. They don't believe this stuff themselves. The reason they defend it fiercely, as though they did believe it, is that they are telling these lies for a reason that they DO take seriously - namely to prevent the truth from creating a society that they don't want to be a part of. You know what kind of society I'm talking about too: a multicultural one where everyone's values and opinions are respected equally. This CAN NEVER HAPPEN if good ol' conservative values are to be upheld. Their lies mask a need for their true intentions to be kept from EVER seeing the light of day.
cont.
I really don't think most of you are around a lot of conservatives. If you are, you've never been in a position of trust, where they can tell you their TRUE motivations and fears. The fact is that we DO live in a more vile nasty society than existed 50 years ago. People used to be more civil. As liberals, we are exposed to other opinions so much that we know it's a cultural phenomenon that goes across the board and across our entire nations, although there are places where it's not as obvious. Conservatives LIVE IN THOSE LESS OBVIOUS PLACES. They see the world in stark "them vs. us" terms. We are their hated enemy and always will be until we are exterminated. No amount of "reaching across the isle" or pandering to their demands will EVER change that. We represent to them EVERY reason that this nation has become so unbelievably rude, obnoxious and abrassive. They believe that our wish to allow people personal freedom is stifling the civilizing ability of Christianity, as they see it. This is why they have dark fantasies about the enemy abroad and the evil U.N. This is why they can stand there straight-faced and say they really AREN'T racists afterall. They don't see it as racism, because their hatred of minorities extends to ALL minorities, including religious, political, philosophical, etc.
cont.
It's a blanket of blame that covers ANYONE AND EVERYONE who isn't a conservative evangelical christian from a small town who has all of the same attitudes, hobbies, friends, lingual characteristics , and even mannerisms that they share. The left is suffering for not having a lot of modern day Will Rogers'. We can't get through to them because we aren't them. Most of us live in large cities, modern suburbs, or states where it's possible that all of your neighbors will come from completely different backgrounds and yet still have to come up with a way to get along. We live in parts of the country where people don't wave at strangers and where grown men don't greet each other with a simple "hi!" without fear of appearing gay. We live in a part of the country where we REALLY WERE exposed to a lot of unlawful and unadvisable activities in high school (like drug use, underage drinking, premarital sex, etc.) and somehow SURVIVED! It doesn't matter whether or not we, ourselves, participated in any of this. It doesn't matter whether or not we, ourselves are Muslims, or black, or speak Spanish, or drink latte, or get out a hacky sack during lunch. The fact is that we have friends and acquantances that DO things like that, and we don't care.
cont.
Many of them have actually never EVEN MET anyone who looked like, or acted like that, and they have no cultural context for understanding why anyone WOULD ever be like that or allow themselves to associate with those many other elements of American society. SMALL TOWNS ARE A GREAT PLACE TO HIDE. If you've ever spent much time in far-right small town America, you'd realize that that is EXACTLY why those small towns still exist. Very few people in small town ever want to leave. When they do, what's the VERY FIRST THING THEY EXPERIENCE about the outside world? An UNBELIEVABLY CROUDED AMOUNT OF TRAFFIC FILLED WITH UNBELIEVABLY RUDE ABBRASIVE DRIVERS. They never stop to realize that a huge percentage of that rudeness comes from OTHER far-right SUBURBAN conservatives who feel exactly the same way they do and use the suburbs as a way to pretend they live in a small town. If you start out without any positive experiences of other cultures - in fact no experiences AT ALL other than what fox news informs you about what you're missing, then if you're ever exposed to a large multi-cultural cosmopolitan city, at some point in the future, you retain that natural distrust of everyone living outside your own skin. You're surrounded by nothing but threats.
cont.
Still, it's easy to trust your neighbor when you went to the same kindergarden. It's harder to cut him off and give him the finger from the safety of your car when you realize you both live two blocks from the grocery store and belong to the same church. It doesn't mean you don't want to do that, but you reserve those kinds of uncivilities for people you never met and hopefully can't track you down. Small towns are filled with incredibly friendly people, IF they already like you. They're also filled with people who unwittingly insult everyone around them once they leave the safety of the only part of the planet they know anything about. To an insider, small towns can be like Mayberry. To an outsider, that same small town can appear like Spahn Ranch. Big cities can seem friendly once you have an attitude that's accepting of strangers and once you learn to be comfortable in social situations that are basically out of your control. However, that's TERRIFYING to people from small towns.
You start thinking that the solutions to all of our problems as a society involve TRUTHS WHICH CAN NEVER BE SPOKEN OUTLOUD. So, you start speaking in code. You start questioning other people's Americanism, and religion, and childhood, and habits, and so on in a way to make it sound like they are the threat you fear; when in reality, they are just a scapegoat for ALL OF YOUR FEARS, and it REALLY WOULDN'T MATTER WHICH DEMOCRAT WAS IN THE WHITE HOUSE. They ALL are the reason our country's in the mess it's in. It doesn't matter that President Clinton balanced the yearly budget (something all conservatives claim to care about). The fact is that he attended Oxford and atleast once INHALED, whether or not he chooses to admit it. It doesn't matter that President Obama didn't cause any of the crisis' he inherited from jr. bush. He looks different (it doesn't matter that he's black), he lived in a foreign country, he has knowledge of Islam (it doesn't matter that he personally is a Christian) and he admitted that he eats ARUGULA - WHAT THE HELL IS ARUGULA?!? Have any of you city slickers ever been to a grocery store in a small town?
cont.
It just so happens that I grew up in one of those small towns and have gone back and forth my entire life between extreme red and extreme blue parts of the country. I can tell you that if I hadn't gone back and forth, but had lived my entire life in a red area, I would be as conservative as the rest of them. Conservatives really KNOW ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about liberals and vice versa. The main thing conservatives don't get is that, even though our society has become NASTY and DISGUSTING over the past several decades, it's not because we aren't "conservative enough". In fact, their attitudes are contributing to the vile mixture and MAKING THINGS WORSE. What they are afraid of really has nothing to do with religion, or skin color, or political affiliation, but are BROAD SOCIAL TRENDS that really have more to do with pop culture, poor quality TV, American laziness and the fact that it's been too many years since the Great Depression and WWII, so people have forgotten what it's like to HAVE TO HELP EACH OTHER OUT. Our kids REALLY ARE getting stupider and ruder by the minute, BUT the conservative answer to the problem IGNORES THE ACTUAL CAUSE OF THE PROBLEM ALTOGETHER, and replaces it with an ignorant uneducated guess. This feeds RIGHT INTO THE HANDS OF FOX and people like limbaugh.
cont.
Their JOB is to manipulate these fears and frame them in such a way that conservativism will ALWAYS seem like the only answer to the problem. They tap into an audience that liberals have no knowledge of, because we don't realize how deep seated this thing is.
What liberals don't get, of course is that WE ARE THE ENEMY. Get that through your heads, and ALWAYS remember that in all of your dealings with conservatives. We are an obstacle in the way of their world view. WE are the reason they don't think torture is a bad idea. WE are the reason they defend people's right to politically assasinate those they disagree with. If liberals can, once and for all, learn that, then we can begin fighting conservatives on an equal playing field.
Sorry about the EXTREMELY LONG (even for me) rant. I've been wanting to write this out for months and Walker Rugino inspired me to blather on. This is why I complemented him for being succinct. As you can see, I don't have that ability.
Just because the same buzz words show up in ABC, PBS, CBS, NBC, CNN, MSNBC...and Fox...just Fox is lying??? who are you kidding???
Is anyone paying attention and have you all forgotten history that quickly?
Ya, I know, we're the same crowd that cheered and supported Obusha too...
THEY ARE ALL in bed together, sucking the blood from our veins, stealing from our children, drowning out the wave of revolt with FBI searches, murdering millions with war, Rx drugs, guns, and suicide by stress or PTSD.
This is a nation of lost souls. So few, so extremely few, have the balls to stand up and fight. There just aren't enough really pissed off people to make the change before it's too late. We are a nation of wimps, we spend less time doing political actions than we do watching Idol. We are Rome.
reporting "news" stories and when found
to be inaccurate they should quickly correct their inaccuracies because after all the "air waves" are leased from the Federal government and it is implicit that if you advertise your network as "fair and balanced" that you at least make an attempt to be that, else they should be made to use a disclaimer stating that items on their shows are opinion and not factually accurate.
Then people who watch Fox News will know that the "news" stories there are opinion and not facts! I believe if you are going to call yourself a "News" network then you should report the "news"
not fabricate it.
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