Fair and balanced = conservative viewpoint

[Spindrift]

I was having a conversation with a casual acquaintence. In the past we never talked much more than sports. I kind of had the sense was right leaning but we'd never really talked politics before. We were talking about the mini-series "The Pacific". At the end of the second part the marines are back on a ship and a galley hand tells them that back home everyone knows what Guadalcanal is, it's on all the front pages and that they're heroes. Well he then comments, "Nowadays, the only place you'd hear about Guadalcanal would be on Fox News. They're the only fair and balanced news source there is." I was taken aback because he said it very matter of fact like. There was no vitriol, it was like he was saying "Nowadays, they have sliced bread." I then asked him does Fox ever say anything he disagrees with? He said sure, they always have some "liberal idiot" on blathering about something stupid. What about the Fox people themselves? Do you ever disagree with them? "Oh, no of course not." At that point I said, "Wow I can't believe Kansas lost to Northern Iowa in the NCAAs.

A bit of a round about way of my realization that conservatives believe "Fair and balanced" equals a conservative viewpoint. I always thought they at least thought that both sides of an argument are presented by Fox, but that doesn't appear to be what they care about. I guess they take it as "balanced with all the other liberal media outlets", not balanced within their own presentation.

 

[Ziggurat]

A bit of a round about way of my realization that conservatives believe "Fair and balanced" equals a conservative viewpoint.

From a sample size of (wait for it)... one.

I always thought they

Your experience indicates what your friend (single) thinks. It doesn't indicate what "they" (plural) think.

 

[Spindrift]

From a sample size of (wait for it)... one.



Your experience indicates what your friend (single) thinks. It doesn't indicate what "they" (plural) think.

Sorry, I should have expanded. On thinking about conversations with other conservatives (I live in a very Republican town) it fits.

I never said it was a scientific study, but I can't think of any other plausible reason that anyone would believe that FoxNews is fair or balanced.

 

[tyr_13]

Sorry, I should have expanded. On thinking about conversations with other conservatives (I live in a very Republican town) it fits.

I never said it was a scientific study, but I can't think of any other plausible reason that anyone would believe that FoxNews is fair or balanced.

Because they say so. Aren't you paying attention?

 

[quixotecoyote]

Msnbc!

Cnn!

Ha!

 

[Richard Masters]

...
A bit of a round about way of my realization that conservatives believe "Fair and balanced" equals a conservative viewpoint. I always thought they at least thought that both sides of an argument are presented by Fox, but that doesn't appear to be what they care about. I guess they take it as "balanced with all the other liberal media outlets", not balanced within their own presentation.

A conservative family member of mine believes Fox is fair and balanced for the same reason. It's ridiculous.

 

[Sword_Of_Truth]

I know lots of liberals who feel the same way about MSNBC.

 

[332nd]

Is the actual news on Fox not "fair and balanced"? What about MSNBC?

 

[Ziggurat]

I know lots of liberals who feel the same way about MSNBC.

Bingo. Everyone thinks they are fair and balanced. So if a news source matches their perspective, the news source must be fair and balanced too. That's really got nothing to do with conservatives, that's just human nature.

 

[Juniversal]

I would say CNN is the most moderate of the major news networks. But Fox definitely tips the scale with their bias imo...

 

[quarky]

Well, I'm not well balanced.

Yet, lying bastards are lying bastards.

 

[Calculon]

Is the actual news on Fox not "fair and balanced"? What about MSNBC?

MSNBC doesn't have the tag line "Fair and Balanced"...and I doubt Dylan Ratigan, Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann ever claim, to be objective..they are rather open in their opinions.

But compare the "regular" news portion of MSNBC vs FOX (or CNN) and see how that appears.

To me, FOX is right wing and corporate while CNN and MSNBC are simply corporate. If you want left wing news, you have to watch Amy Goodman, lol.

 

[Rolfe]

Bingo. Everyone thinks they are fair and balanced. So if a news source matches their perspective, the news source must be fair and balanced too. That's really got nothing to do with conservatives, that's just human nature.

Bingo, I think that's it.

I remember a government employee whistleblower (sorry, ages ago, can't remember her name) who leaked stuff to the Guardian newspaper. She declared she'd done that because the Guardian was the only unbiassed, middle-of-the-road newspaper there was.

The Guardian is well known to be as left-wing as you can get before you hit the actual Socialist Worker.

Rolfe.

 

[Almo]

Bingo. Everyone thinks they are fair and balanced. So if a news source matches their perspective, the news source must be fair and balanced too. That's really got nothing to do with conservatives, that's just human nature.

Sweeping generalization mistake. I know MSNBC has a liberal slant, and I know Fox has a conservative slant. I lean liberal myself. If something matches my perspective, I'm aware that it probably has a liberal slant.

 

[Lurker]

A quick example:

When I have CNN on in the morning I get pretty much straight news. When I switch over to Fox & Friends I get unrelenting attacks on Obama and Democrats.

When I watch the business segments of CNN and Fox it is along a similar vein. On CNN I get business news. On Fox, Cavuto cannot help including his opinion and including non-business stories as long as they reflect poorly on Obama and Democrats.

I see no comparison between the two in their level of bias. I do not watch MSNBC so cannot comment on that.

 

[Spindrift]

MSNBC doesn't have the tag line "Fair and Balanced"...and I doubt Dylan Ratigan, Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann ever claim, to be objective..they are rather open in their opinions.

But compare the "regular" news portion of MSNBC vs FOX (or CNN) and see how that appears.

To me, FOX is right wing and corporate while CNN and MSNBC are simply corporate. If you want left wing news, you have to watch Amy Goodman, lol.

Exactly. FoxNews is the only one to claim fair and balanced. I would defintely agree that MSNBC is left leaning, but they don't claim to be fair and balanced, do they? I don't watch CNN much, but from what I've seen, it appears to be fairly middle of the road.

Why can't conservatives just admit reality, that Fox News is conservatively biased? Of course if they did that, then they couldn't complain about any other media outlet's liberal bias, could they?

 

[Spindrift]

Bingo. Everyone thinks they are fair and balanced. So if a news source matches their perspective, the news source must be fair and balanced too. That's really got nothing to do with conservatives, that's just human nature.

Wrong, I'm a liberal and I'm quite aware when something is presented with a liberal bias. It's not that hard to recognize the bias either way, unless you've got blinders on. It's one of the reasons Olberman irks me, he goes off the deep end too often and just rants about conservatives because they're conservatives.

 

[Meadmaker]

I know lots of liberals who feel the same way about MSNBC.

I know lots of liberals, and none of them feel that way about MSNBC. We all know it's biased. Everyone knows it's biased. They don't pretend otherwise.

If they changed the network to Fox Opinions, no one would complain.

 

[dudalb]

Fox news has a conservative Bias.
And I have other breaking news;The Sun came up this Morning.

 

[Kodiak]

I know lots of liberals who feel the same way about MSNBC.

Exactly right! I don't think FOX News is saying that they are 50% right and 50% left, 50% GOP and 50% Dem.

I think that FOX News is of the opinion that there is a leftist/Dem slant to all the other TV news, and that FOX News has made TV news as a whole "fair and balanced" by their obvious rightist/GOP bias.

If that is true, then all the leftist TV news stations are just as "fair and balanced" as FOX News. The only difference may be that FOX News holds up its end single handedly...