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Fair and balanced = conservative viewpoint

Spindrift said:
Wrong, I'm a liberal and I'm quite aware when something is presented with a liberal bias.
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So you're smarter than your friends. That's got nothing to do with them being conservative or you being liberal. And we only have your word for you being aware of liberal bias, I'm sure your friends would say that they can spot conservative bias. I suppose you could argue that my use of "everyone" was too broad, that there are exceptions, and I wouldn't actually disagree. But I still don't see how this is a conservative phenomenon, and not simply part of human nature.
 
Lurker said:
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.
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Omg Obama bowed to a foreign leader!!! OMG Obama only uses mustard on his burgers!!! How elitist!!!! OMG Obama says America's not a Christian Country!!! How anti-American!!! Obama is a Socialist/Communist!!! Obama hates white people!!! Kids sing an innocent song about Obama during black history month? Indoctornation!!! Ahhhh...


John Stewart did a great piece on this last year. Nobody (except those on Fox News) will deny they're biased. They didn't create bias and attack politics but they surely perfected it.

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-october-29-2009/for-fox-sake-
 
Meadmaker said:
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.
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I agree. None of my friends who are liberal even make a point to watch MSNBC. most get their news from NPR. Now, one could state many shows on NPR have a liberal bias, but the news programs are pretty good.
 
Meadmaker said:
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.
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You haven't met Ms. Tricky then. She thinks Olberman and Maddow are God and Goddess, and theat everything they say is true and well-researched. She doesn't like it when I call Olberman the "Rush Limbaugh of the Left". But for most of the self-identified liberals on these boards, you are correct.
 
joobz said:
I agree. None of my friends who are liberal even make a point to watch MSNBC. most get their news from NPR. Now, one could state many shows on NPR have a liberal bias, but the news programs are pretty good.
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I'd say the opinion shows on MSNBC (Maddow, Olbermann) are as slanted left as are the opinion shows on Fox (Hannity, O'Reilly) are slanted right. But the difference comes in everything else. A fair percentage of the time I watch MSNBC (weekday evening and any time on weekends) MSNBC isn't even news at all much less biased news. OTOH during those same times when I turn on Fox it is pretty much always news and/or politics, and almost always slanted right in their presentation of it.

ETA: I used to watch (for my newstalk shows that is) pretty much equal Fox, MSNBC and CNN. Now I'm mostly CNN. I watched Fox for years with no problem but what they've done to my aging parents, i.e., turning previously non-political, non-hating, gentle people into Sean Hannity clones, is just too much. I've quit watching Fox because of the negative associations I have with them. And I've cut back a good bit on MSNBC too (for newstalk I mean...the Dateline repeats, etc, are still good). My main TV news now is AC360 on CNN at 10. I just get tired of the professional wrestling approach to it that Fox and MSNBC takes.
 
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Number Six said:
I'd say the opinion shows on MSNBC (Maddow, Olbermann) are as slanted left as are the opinion shows on Fox (Hannity, O'Reilly) are slanted right. But the difference comes in everything else. A fair percentage of the time I watch MSNBC (weekday evening and any time on weekends) MSNBC isn't even news at all much less biased news. OTOH during those same times when I turn on Fox it is pretty much always news and/or politics, and almost always slanted right in their presentation of it.
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I disagree even after watching MSNBC for the 1st time today I was watching a segment under what appeared to be the news portion where they were talking about a recent Sarah Palin rally. They invited 2 gests to be interviewed, one a conservative talk show host and one a Liberal reporter. The question posed to the conservative was, "Is Sarah Palin smart, or is it just rhetoric" or something along those lines i forget exactly. But it did make me go, "What an inappropriate un-necessary question. Clearly Bias question."
 
Tricky said:
You haven't met Ms. Tricky then. She thinks Olberman and Maddow are God and Goddess, and theat everything they say is true and well-researched. She doesn't like it when I call Olberman the "Rush Limbaugh of the Left". But for most of the self-identified liberals on these boards, you are correct.
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This sounds very familiar. My live in girlfriend isn't quite that bad, but she has her moments. I actually like Olberman and Maddow, but I refer to their shows as "liberal propaganda", just so she doesn't forget. I also think it is good practice for a skeptic to turn a critical eye toward people that you mostly agree with. It's more difficult and in a lot of ways it's more important.
 
Nickolai_88 said:
I disagree even after watching MSNBC for the 1st time today I was watching a segment under what appeared to be the news portion where they were talking about a recent Sarah Palin rally. They invited 2 gests to be interviewed, one a conservative talk show host and one a Liberal reporter. The question posed to the conservative was, "Is Sarah Palin smart, or is it just rhetoric" or something along those lines i forget exactly. But it did make me go, "What an inappropriate un-necessary question. Clearly Bias question."
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I know! What a blatant offer to talk about how smart Palin is.

Damn Righties ;)
 
cornsail said:
There's actual news on Fox (or any cable news channel for that matter)?
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Yes. Things happen, and they report them. The attitude of the OP's friend "Nowadays, the only place you'd hear about Guadalcanal would be on Fox News." is just insane. It's like someone saying "If there was a terrorist attack on America tomorrow MSNBC wouldn't report on it because it would look bad for Obama." or, "If Sahara Palin was arrested for having 5oz of weed on her Fox would keep it quiet."

Yes the commentary has left/right bias, and on those shows or panels they bring up points to preach to the choir, but the news is just the news.
 
The sad part is It took me a while to realize that video was a parody. Poe's law is a bitch.

ETA: "Liberals plot to take back America"
 
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Juniversal said:
Omg Obama bowed to a foreign leader!!! OMG Obama only uses mustard on his burgers!!! How elitist!!!! OMG Obama says America's not a Christian Country!!! How anti-American!!! Obama is a Socialist/Communist!!! Obama hates white people!!! Kids sing an innocent song about Obama during black history month? Indoctornation!!! Ahhhh...
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I see you are up on yesterday's news from FoxNews.
 
I feel like this thread has become a "well our side isn't as biased as your side..."

The fact is all news is biased. But to be news, they must attempt "at least" to remove as much bias as possible.

The major criticism of FOX that makes it different than any other news source is that it doesn't attempt to be unbiased while simultaneously claiming to be fair and balanced.
And for a news organization, the only worse indictment you can make is to claim that they fabricate news.
 
I think part of the issue is that the phrase "fair and balanced" is translated in many minds as "trustworthy". Trust is usually built over time, either by measuring statements versus facts/outcomes (critical thinker), or by feeling something in your world is being protected (child).

Perhaps your friend is correct: over time, they have listened to different news sources, and found Fox's statements to most closely match the facts of a situation as revealed over time, or that their prognostications have most matched actual outcomes. Or perhaps your friend likes the security blanket Fox gives to conservatives who can't deal with the real world.

Regardless of which is the actual case with Fox news, it's a hard call to know why your friend trusts them so, without knowing more about your friend. Could be a little of both.
 
Almo said:
Sweeping generalization mistake. I know MSNBC has a liberal slant, and I know Fox has a conservative slant.
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I am trying to figure out, where does MSNBC deny having a liberal slant?

This is the difference - Fox claims to be fair and balanced. MSNBC never made any such pretense.
 
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