Hannity: Fox Is "Only Media Organization. . .Fair And Balanced Coverage" Of Obama

Hahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!

For bonus points, every time you hear Sean Hannity speak--particularly if he's addressing the camera/microphone--count how many times he starts a sentence with "Hey," or "Now," or even "Hey, now. . ." This pinhead has a limited repertoire.

Karl Rove Thinks it's "Stupid" to Bring Up Reverend Right Again

Turdblossom. Image from source, Raw Story.

Yes, it's true. Karl Rove thinks attacking President Obama using Reverend Right--again--is "stupid." But, I'm really more concerned about Rove himself, and his position at FOX "News." What in the world are they doing, using him as a commentator on the election? He--in his capacity running Crossroads GPS and American Crossroads--is a major player in the election, thanks to the Citizens United Supreme Court decision! Does this not scream "conflict of interest?" It is sure as hell not fair and balanced.

[Excerpt]

Rove: Attacking Obama with Rev. Wright is ‘stupid’

. . .“So, you want to try and do things that are helpful, not hurtful. And look, I thought it was very smart for the Romney campaign to immediately go out an denounce the tactic. It certainly sent a message to everybody in America what they wanted the campaign to be about. And it certainly sent a message to people involved in the super PACs, don’t be doing stupid things like this. . .”

Read more at: The Raw Story

Roger Ailes Admits FOX "News" Has a Conservative Bias?

Ain't he somethin'? Image from source.

I'm shocked, shocked, I tells ya!

[Excerpt]

Roger Ailes Admits Fox ‘News’ Has Conservative Bias

. . .Recently, Fox News President, Roger Ailesz, a former Republican strategist and employee for the Nixon administration, was interviewed by reported Howard Kurtzz. During the interview, Ailes admitted the conservative spin from Fox News proving that the channel is anything but “Fair and Balanced”. . .

Read more at: Addicting Info

Behind the Scenes at FOX "News"

Nothing in this story surprises me in the least. And any conservative reading this would look at the source, Media Matters for America, and dismiss it. Don't be so quick, Mr. Righty-pants! David Brock, the dude that started MMA? He's the guy who who wrote The Real Anita Hill. You believed him then, didn't you?  No, seriously. Does anybody really believe that FOX "News" is "fair and balanced?" Really?

[Excerpt]

FOX NEWS INSIDER: “Stuff Is Just Made Up”



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. . .”
 
Read more at: MediaMatters

The Simpsons Slams FOX "News"

Nope, not the first time they've bit the hand that feeds them, and probably not the last. But it is appreciated every time!

Local FOX Stations Distance Themselves from FOX "News"

See if you can find the "FOX" part of this logo.

Wouldn't you?

[Excerpt]

Fox Affiliates: We Are Not Fox News Channel

If you look at the logo of KMPH-TV in Fresno, Calif., a Fox affiliate, the largest elements are the station's call letters and its channel: 26.



In smaller letters, and barely visible, is the name Fox. This may or may not be an accident.


According to KMPH News Director Jim Turpin, and his colleagues at some other Fox affiliates, disassociating their local news casts from Fox News Channel's conservative slant is often a challenge.

Several news directors say Fox's reputation for right-leaning broadcasts often misleads viewers into thinking their local news reports follow the same approach. . .

Read more at: Media Matters

FOX "News": Hard News? Again, No.

Between catching up on some DVR recordings this morning, I flipped on FOX "News" in my continuing experiment in sampling their "hard news" programming.  At the moment, the program America Live is on, supposedly one of their "non-commentary" shows.  Inside of five minutes: an anti-Obama Administration story with Joe Lieberman, a pro-George W. Bush story (versus a rap artist?), and a pro-Sarah Palin story.  Verdict? Not fair and balanced.  The experiment continues. . .

What FOX "News" Really Means by "Fair & Balanced"

By way of Sarah Palin on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Good stuff.

Is FOX "News" Test Driving a New Slogan?

I just turned on FOX "News" and saw the following slogan used for a promo:

"FOX 'News.' Where America turns for hard news, and real reporting."

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh hahahahahahahahahaha! There we go, I needed a good laugh.

FOX "News" Makes Yet Another "Mistake"

FOX "News" is now well known for making "mistakes," in their on-screen graphics and commentary (or reporting, as they like to call it), that curiously support their right-wing agenda. Things like calling prominent Republicans caught in scandals Democrats. Or using incorrect video that makes it look like right-wing events are better attended than they really are.

Recently, after having been caught at this sort of behavior several times in a short time frame, FOX issued a "zero tolerance" policy, and assured the public that such mistakes would be met with swift employee terminations. Now that they've made yet another "mistake" of this nature, it would seem that "zero tolerance" might be just about as literal as "fair and balanced."

[Excerpt]

Confronted with clear falsehood, Fox News scraps its "zero tolerance" policy

On November 23, Fishbowl DC published an internal Fox News memo detailing the network's new "zero tolerance" policy for errors. Today -- barely two weeks later -- Fox News attempted to explain why it wasn't going to take any action to correct the following December 4 segment in which three Fox hosts and the Fox News graphics department used a string of falsehoods to turn "59 percent" into "close to 100 percent. . ."

Read more (with video) at: Media Matters

NPR Pulling Employees Off of FOX "News"?

Image from source, AAR

Most intelligent, rational humans recognize that the FOX "News" slogan, Fair & Balanced, is just that: a slogan, nothing more. It's certainly not true. The fact that legions of FOX fans angrily defend the channel and its slogan is no more persuasive, especially because nearly all of these fans are themselves arch conservatives.

One thing that always screams out to me "not balanced" is the pedigree of the commentators selected for FOX programs, particularly FOX "News" Sunday. They'll counterbalance extreme right-wingers (Bill Kristol, Liz Cheney) with reporters and commentators from National Public Radio. As though NPR is the logical equivalent ideologically as The Weekly Standard. Phooey. Still, I'm surprised--after so many years of lending out their talent--that NPR has waited so long to publicly protest. But I am right behind them on the issue.

[Excerpt]

NPR Execs Want Their Pundits Off Fox News

Executives at National Public Radio are none too comfortable with the obvious right-wing bias emanating from Fox News. In fact, they recently went so far as to ask one of their top political correspondents, Mara Liasson, to “reconsider” her regular appearances on the network. . .

Read more at: Air America Radio

FOX "News" Sunday Compares Obama to Untouchables Gangsters

OK, so Chris Wallace, the vaguely creepy host of FOX "News" Sunday is trying to prove that FOX "News" really is news by using the right-wing favorite trope of accusing President Obama of "Chicago-style" politics? And Al Capone-era Chicago at that? It would seem that FOX is still in a defensive crouch over the White House's oh-so-provable claim that FOX "News" isn't actually news. But it is so funny that their defense is to continue proving that they aren't!

Chris Wallace of FOX "News" Gets Snotty

I covered this before, but I've found the video. FOX "News" and its rabid fan base will often try to say that only their "opinion" shows like Hannity and The O'Reilly Factor are rightward biased. The rest is Fair and Balanced™ don'tcha know? Vaguely creepy Chris Wallace anchors the FOX version of a hard-news Sunday morning show. Wallace occasionally asks a probing question or two of his conservative guests, but the agenda is not hard to spot.

Then, when they get to the "opinion" part of the show (the ludicrously named "Power Panel") all pretense of objectivity goes right out the window, with a couple of fringy nut neo-cons, two milquetoasty barely liberals, and Wallace as a moderator. But check out which side of the argument Wallace comes down on here.

[Excerpt]

Wallace defends torture, snidely says it’s ‘purely coincidental’ U.S. hasn’t been attacked since 9/11.



In an interview with Fox News’s Chris Wallace that aired on Fox News Sunday this morning, Vice President Cheney adamantly defended the Bush administration’s torture policies. “The thing I keep coming back to, time and time again Chris, is the fact that we’ve gone for eight years without another attack,” Cheney argued. During the panel discussion later in the program, NPR’s Juan Williams ridiculed the entire debate. . .

Read more at: Think Progress

Lazy Weekend, FaceBook and FOX "News"

I woke up extremely late today, and was quite surprised. I woke up at 7 am, fed the cat, and went back to bed "for a little while." Then I woke up at nearly noon. Weird. I guess feeding the cat removed her "alarm cat" function, and she just let me lay there. Ack! Now, my whole day and sense of time is wrecked.

So, I got up, logged in to FaceBook, which is something of a new phenomenon to me. It's been a lot of fun in the last two weeks, but a time-eater if ever there was one. I decided to do a couple of posts listing what I've been up to over the last 25 years (and the previous 18 as well), to have a handy reference for old friends who ask, "so what have you been up to?" Logging a yearly retrospective of your life takes a lot of thought, and more effort than I would have thought.

While doing this, I put on FOX "News," which is something I can only stomach if I'm also doing something else (much like watching American Idol). Otherwise I feel guilty. FOX "News" on the weekend is something of a train wreck. While on weekdays, their shows are manned (or womaned) by seasoned--if outlandish--personalities, their weekend shows are staffed by second- or third-stringers. And while the weekday shows acknowledge (barely) their political bias, the weekend shows are for the most part news. Allegedly.

While watching America's News HQ, something you'd expect to be actual news, I was taken by the naked, right-wing slant. Sure, MSNBC has a leftward slant on weekdays, as FOX does in the opposite direction. But to be fair, MSNBC's slogan is "The Place for Politics," and "news" is nowhere in their name. FOX claims to be both "Fair and Balanced" AND has "news" in their name. Bull pucky to the former and the latter.

America's News HQ sounds like a straight news program, right? Then why were hosts (a pleasant looking, brunette man/woman combo; no idea what their names are) so overtly right-wing? On the subject of health care reform, they were scarcely better than the "deathers." Sneers all around, scary what-if scenarios, skepticism abounding. I can't get into more detail, because as I said, I was busy. But there was absolutely no question about where the hosts fell on the issue, and on others as they came up.

It was something of a surprise to see that they aired a President Obama town hall meeting in full. It was unsurprising to see the commentary afterward, flat-out calling Obama a liar. Nice. Fair and Balanced my pale white rear end.

More FOX "News" Unfair and Unbalanced

I got into a little tiff with radio host Nancy Skinner right here on the blog a couple of days ago. My only real problem with her as a media personality is her FOX "News" connection. First, I do not consider FOX "News" to be a legitimate news organization (hence the quotation marks). For all the hand-wringing over MSNBC's liberal shift in its prime-time opinion shows, they have nothing on FOX for full-time, full-on partisan bias.

Bizarrely, fans of FOX will vehemently protest any accusation that the network is tilted extremely to the right, like a teeter-totter with a 220-lb. weight on one end. Forget that anyone with eyes, ears and a brain can plainly see the bias. The fact that nearly every FOX defender is a right-winger ought to be enough. Yet, they will deny it (perhaps with an acknowledgement of a slight bias), and insist that it only applies to the "commentary" shows like The O'Reilly Factor (allegedly libertarian or independent) and Hannity. All the rest is straight news, don't you know?

To buy this theory, you'd have to ignore FOX's in-house advertising of practically anything, not the least of which their aggressive push for the non-partisan (ha!) "tea parties." You'd also have to ignore the practice of two-, three- and four-on-one ratios of conservatives to liberals on panel discussions. This is Nancy Skinner's claim to fame, as the "token" liberal in a sea of conservatives. I do not know her level of success in this milieu, having no distinct memory of her on television. But often--in my experience--the token liberal is not only outnumbered, but fairly moderate, and not terribly forceful.

Today, out of curiosity (and because of my discussion with Skinner), I decided to check out a stretch of FOX "News." I watched a program that is designated in the listings as news, not opinion. The program was Live Desk with Trace Gallagher. I found the program to be as skewed, and as obvious about it as anything on Hannity.

The ongoing "torture memos" controversy was always framed as "interrogation." Popularity polls of the President were picked apart into the minutia to prove Obama is really not that popular. And the three-on-one conservatives vs. liberal was in evidence, if you count the FOX "Newsbot" female host (and I do). Token Bob Beckel gave it a game try, explaining what was so important in this "interrogation" controversy. But he was outgunned by sheer numbers. On FOX "News," not only is it unsettled whether or not water boarding is torture, apparently it doesn't matter. Torture keeps us safe! OK. . .

FOX "News" Promotes Tea Bagging

The vague protests the conservatives have planned for tomorrow have provided the left with nearly as much comedy material as Sarah Palin. The obvious double entendre of "tea bagging" has many of us in juvenile giggle fits. As a person who lets his inner child rule his sense of humor, this has been a lot of fun for me. One of my favorite bits was on The Stephanie Miller Show this morning, when Steph and the mooks were speculating on what future conservative protests might be called (example: illegal immigration=dirty sanchez).

But aside from all the low-brow comedy (and the fact that "tea bagging" has entered the general vernacular), it has provided one of the clearest examples of FOX "News" being in the tank for the Republican Party. They're not merely reporting on the tea parties, they're promoting them, even apparently hosting them. "Fair and Balanced" my immature ass.

FOX "News" Calls a Clear Win a "Split"

MSNBC has gotten a tremendous amount of heat of late from conservatives who lambaste them for their bias. They're supposedly "in the tank" for Barack Obama, because they have two--count 'em, two--left-leaning hosts. They might have a point were it not for a couple of things.

First of all, conservatives have long claimed that NPR, CNN, PBS, ABC, NBC, CBS and many other media outlets are "liberally biased." Assuming that's true (not that I believe it is), how does that make MSNBC different then? And then there is the criticism of giving Rachel Maddow her own show, when she is a progressive radio host, and therefore biased. Horrors! Let me rattle off a few conservative radio hosts who have (or used to have) their own shows on cable news: Tony Snow, Brian and the Judge, Glenn Beck, Michael Savage, Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity. So much for reason two.

But the biggest and most egregious reasoning is actually a counter-claim--by the same people--that FOX "News" is fair and balanced, and not in the tank for John McCain. This despite just about every program on the channel showing blatant bias in many, many ways. NewsHounds is a website dedicated to "watching FOX so you don't have to," and there I found just the latest example. Watch as the reporter calls an almost unanimous vote for Barack Obama as a "split vote." Priceless.

FOX "News" Fair & Balanced Toward Democrats?

With that headline, I almost went into hysterics again (after Sean Hannity said he was "fair" to the Clintons). Friend and contributor, Stupid Monkey Planet sent me an email with the FOX "News" website's top stories. Here's a simple cut and paste. You tell us, is this spin-free news? And these are just the headlines!

[From FOXNews.com]

Clinton Speech Aims to Put Party Tensions to Rest
Read Full Story

Top Stories:

Obama Associate Bill Ayers Unrepentant for Acts of Terror
A Look Back at Hillary Clinton’s Greatest Hits Against Obama
Newly Released Documents Highlight Obama’s Relationship With Ayers
Union Warns Candidates Against Breaking Their Promises
Page Turns for Democratic Party, But Bill Clinton Still Has Role
AT&T Makes Its Presence Felt at Dem Convention

Good catch, Monkey!

FOX "News" Amps Up "Fair and Balanced" Image

There are websites dedicated to proving--daily--that FOX "News" is anything but fair and balanced. Even if there weren't, people with eyes, ears and brains can figure it out for themselves. Do a search for "FOX" at the top left of this page to find dozens of examples on this site alone--and that isn't even my focus!

Still, for some unfathomable reason, FOX "News" is once again trumpeting their slogan (this time as "balanced, fair" and their other standby, "we report, you decide" in a new advertisement. The first time I saw it, I actually burst out laughing. If--as is my hope--Democrats once again attain the White House this fall, FOX might do well to abandon this tack once and for all, and just brand themselves "Your Conservative Center for News" or something. I mean, what are they gonna do without their daily White House talking points?



Found at: Newshounds

UPDATE: At the Newshounds comments section (link above), I found this hilarious script for a more truthful ad:

Bill O'Reilly: "Soapy Boobs"
Megyn Kelly: "No, you're never gonna get it."
Sean Hannity: "SIEG HEIL!"
Alan Colmes: "I'm the evil cheating Wrassler that hits people over the head with a chair when they're not looking" Boooooooo!
Shepard Smith: "I'm the Gay one"
Greta Van Susteren: "I inform you of missing White Women"
Megyn Kelly: "Don't you wish your Girlfriend was a freak like me?"
Trace Gallagher: "I read off the prompter thingie"
Martha McCallum: "I am the cute one"
Brit Hume: "I like funny youtube clips"
Bill O'Reilly: "Great Big Soapy Boobs"
Fox News: We are on TV. (Posted by Escape Goat News Network)

FOX "News" Poll Asks Loaded Questions

Image from source, TPM

That is perhaps one of the least shocking headlines I've ever written. Of course FOX "News" would ask leading questions in their polls. To not do so would be completely out of character for a channel that lays its political agenda out there for the world to see.

Still, many people--almost universally conservatives--will maintain that FOX isn't biased. They buy into the "Fair and Balanced" slogan, just like they buy into anything the hosts of the programs tell them.

I remember back in the late nineties, a time when most people were blissfully unaware that The O'Reilly Factor, and Hannity & Colmes even existed, a drive in Las Vegas to get Prime Cable to carry FOX "News." The drive was headed by local right-wing talk radio host Alan Stock. Stock and his listeners cajoled Prime (now Cox) into slotting the network alongside CNN and CNN Headline News. MSNBC was there too, I believe, but to this day it exists many numbers up the dial, for unknown reasons.

So why, if FOX is unbiased, are such campaigns waged by conservatives? Enquiring liberal minds want to know. . .

[Excerpt]

Fox News Poll: Do You Have A Neighbor Who Says Obama "Scares Them"?

Hmmm. It looks like Fox News is asking some rather loaded questions in its latest poll:

Have you heard any of your friends and neighbors say there is something about Barack Obama that scares them?

Yes 49%
No 50%

Read more at: TPM