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Can we all agree that Fox News is evil?

Fox is news in the same way that WWE is sport.
They should probably adopt the same naming practice and call it News Entertainment.

What really annoys me about it is that I get the impression that many of their biggest names don't actually believe the stuff that they come out with.
It's just one long party political broadcast, essentially.
 
And on cue, here's Fox News's "straight news" department inviting Ben Stein on to say that President Obama is the "most racist president American has ever had".

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/ben-stein-obama-racist

Anyone who says with a straight face that Fox News isn't just a propaganda arm of the GOP is insane. Sure they don't just read "Obama is racist" as a straight story. They invite guests on to say these crazy things and then don't challenge them when they do.
 
VanillaCone said:
I have to say that O'Reilly has earned a smidgeon of respect from me over the years. I don't agree with pretty much anything he says, but at least he takes the time to explain where he's coming from. But the other Fox News personalities are like pod people with their vacuous stares and precisely calibrated sound bites.
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One thing I like about O'Reilly is that he is willing to take a beating and go on shows like the Daily Show... but that is the only thing I like.
 
sunmaster14 said:
There seems to be a confusion between the news shows and the opinion shows on Fox News. The news shows are quite professional.
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We already went through this when you first joined the forum. Here's Fox News straight up lying about a Christian cross in San Diego. They tell so many lies you really have to watch the whole thing.



They lie about who erected the cross. Who is suing. Why the cross was originally built. And what the legal issue is.

Just complete and total dishonesty and bias.

Anyone interested can watch a whole slew of videos that just rip Fox News to shreds.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLA3BD2524FE99BD4D
 
The thing that bothers me most about fox news is that it is terrible right wing. There are some great journalists out there that operate with a right wing slant. Fox gives the right a terrible name.
 
Tsukasa Buddha said:
And seemingly every attempt to measure this ranks FOX at the bottom. MSNBC and CNN follow closely behind compared to The Daily Show and NPR, to be fair.
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Well I guess that leaves us with Drudge.

I try and read all news sources, including UK and others. I often get a more well rounded report that way. In fact, looking to US sources, especially for political news, nah.

I guess I actually come to JREF as a news source. I like hearing different perspectives from people all around the world. I feel sorry for - or scared of - people that read the news and don't discuss it or consider it skeptically.

Anyone who takes offense with FOX and not the others - it's typical politics I guess.
 
pgwenthold said:
The problem with Fox News is not the bias and propaganda, it's the "We report, you decide" nonsense. MSNBC is partisan, but makes no pretense otherwise.

Watch Bill OReilly's "No Spin (but mine) Zone"
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This is the problem with marketing in general. Take toilet paper for instance. My package of Charmin UltraSoft says, well, ultra soft. Ultra soft compared to what? To sand paper I guess. It also says 75% more absorbent. Once again, relative to what? Saran wrap? Use up to 4x less it says. My ass you can. I tried it. That claim turned to crap, literally. Finally, clog-safe. Well, sure, if you use 4x less, but then you have to wash your hand vigorously, which then raises a host of other questions about the marketing claims of Irish Spring soap (no, it is not manly, and, no, my wife does not like it too).

So, while I can sympathize with your feelings of betrayal in finally realizing that though Fox does report, you do not get to decide, I think you just have to accept that marketing is in large part about deception.
 
Caper said:
The thing that bothers me most about fox news is that it is terrible right wing. There are some great journalists out there that operate with a right wing slant. Fox gives the right a terrible name.
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Maybe it's a false flag thing, run by Democrats. Tricky, tricky Democrats.
 
Unabogie said:
We already went through this when you first joined the forum. Here's Fox News straight up lying about a Christian cross in San Diego. They tell so many lies you really have to watch the whole thing.



They lie about who erected the cross. Who is suing. Why the cross was originally built. And what the legal issue is.

Just complete and total dishonesty and bias.

Anyone interested can watch a whole slew of videos that just rip Fox News to shreds.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLA3BD2524FE99BD4D
Click to expand...

I love those "LiberalViewer Presents" videos because parsing the first sentence is always a nice mental challenge. The one about the cross lasted 43 seconds.
 
I noticed at one point that the Fox News website turned off comments to stories. I like to think it was because it showed how their fans thought. Then a lot of them went over to the CNN pages just to comment there.
 
SezMe said:
Great post. Next time I'm looking for the perfect example of the tu quoque fallacy, I'll just cite your post.
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How so? I make no attempt to discredit the OP's position, I don't even disagree with it. I consider all news coverage to be suspect, and always has been.
I'm simply asking what makes FoxNews such an egregious offender to claim preeminence?
The OP is entitled "Can we all agree...?". I'm willing to consider it as long as you can establish that it stands out in a field where distortions are the norm, not the exception.
If, in regards to news reporting, you consider any variance from absolute fact as "evil", then I would say yes to the question. FoxNews is evil.
If, OTOH, they are judged according to the number of infractions, level of deceit used in statements, and other quantitative criterion, then the poster of the OP needs to state his case.
Otherwise the best I can do is state," All news reporting is evil, including FoxNews."
 
varwoche said:
No, I don't think so. Despite the many sins of the news business at large, it's clear to me that Fox has laid claim to the BS realm to a unique extent, even compared to the agenda-driven MSNBC.

Maybe we could devise a test of some sort -- a thought experiment if you will -- where we compare BS levels in a semi-structured fashion, rather than the typical tedious and vacuous tu quoque that permeates these threads. What do you say?
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That seems like a good idea.
Suppose we dispense with editorials, as they are just what they represent themselves to be.
We should (IMO) also disregard entertainment shows, like Hannity and Stewart (Hannity is a talk show host, Stewart is a comedian).
Next (again,IMO) we should limit ourselves to hard news examples of outright disinformation that would reach egregious levels (felonies, as it were, as opposed to misdemeanors). I include this to weed out wave after wave of trivial complaints such as the one already posted here about the cross in San Diego. I don't believe it rose to the level of "lie" as the original declaration did include the phrase "and to those who lost their lives for our freedoms", indicating that was at least some intent to erect the cross (albeit, IMO, a misdirected one) as a memorial to those fallen. While I personally agree that the memorial, since it contains a singular religious symbol, violates the First Amendments prohibition against respecting an establishment of religion, I fail to see how FoxNews admittedly biased reporting rose to a particularly egregious level. Heavy spin? Yes. Outright lie? Not really.
The only problem I have with this is that it is basically FoxNews against everyone else which somehow seems a bit unfair, but I'm willing to go along with it since that will keep us within the confines of the OP.
Is this what you had in mind?
 
Fox News has been a major contributing factor in the Death of Professional Journalism. They package news as opinion and opinion as news and viewers have become decreasingly able to understand that opinion does not equal fact.

And Fox cancelled Firefly after crapping all over it for one season. For that alone Rupert should be kicked through the intake of a jet turbine.
 
As expected, there is the false notion that "other stations do it to" has come into the thread. We see this all of the time from the Right. When Fox is pointed out to be nothing but a propoganda station for Republicans, they cite MSNBC as being equivalent. This is, of course, a lie. Just like the lie that there are just as many "extremists" in the Democratic party as there are in the Republican party. Lies are all they have because the facts relay the wrong message to the public.
 
thaiboxerken said:
As expected, there is the false notion that "other stations do it to" has come into the thread. We see this all of the time from the Right. When Fox is pointed out to be nothing but a propoganda station for Republicans, they cite MSNBC as being equivalent. This is, of course, a lie. Just like the lie that there are just as many "extremists" in the Democratic party as there are in the Republican party. Lies are all they have because the facts relay the wrong message to the public.
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It sure is convenient for the Republican Party that its propaganda arm is actually a money-maker rather than a cost center. Too convenient.
 
I will say that this is probably mostly limited to the Network news. Our local news that happens to be on that network is actually the best in town, no hype, no slant, no bias, just great reporting of the news.
 
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