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terpfan1980

Join Date 08/2004

+13

Proof positive: Fox News Biased (and others aren't)

From The Washington Post (not always known as an unbiased source), which reports (via a Howard Kurtz column) using a report from "The Project for Excellence in Journalism" (which I guess is code-word for "liberal research center").

Headline (as usual) linked.

On Fox News, No Shortage of Opinion, Study Finds

By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, March 14, 2005; Page C01

In covering the Iraq war last year, 73 percent of the stories on Fox News included the opinions of the anchors and journalists reporting them, a new study says.
By contrast, 29 percent of the war reports on MSNBC and 2 percent of those on CNN included the journalists' own views.

Adding some commentary in-line here:

That could be because at places like MSNBC or CNN the "reporters" aren't allowed to have their own views, only the views of the mothership above them. It could also be because most liberals couldn't identify liberal bias if it jumped up and bit them in the ass. They see bias only when it's coming from the right, without ever realizing that seeing such bias in others may be an indication that they have a bias of their own.

It's somewhat like Archie Bunker and George Jefferson. Archie was obviously bigotted and opinionated, as well as being homophobic, racist and several other things. If you looked at the Jeffersons (his neighbors), they were "normal" and never had any such flaws. Until later on, when you saw George Jefferson more frequently on his own show and you realized that George Jefferson had his own biases and bigotry which didn't show up until the spotlight was on him.

Continuing with the original news article....

These findings -- the figures were similar for coverage of other stories -- "seem to challenge" Fox's slogan of "we report, you decide," says the Project for Excellence in Journalism.

You knew that had to be coming didn't you. Another nice swipe at Fox's slogan. Michael Moore himself would be proud.

Nice to know that the "main stream media" types can so easily determine that if an opinion might be included in a news report that the viewers must not be able to decide for themselves on the issue they just saw reported about. Once opinion is there and obivous, it's too late, and you won't be able to decide on your own any more.

This is where, at least in the view of the main stream media, Fox "gets you," which is very, very bad for the good old MSM (Main Stream Media) types -- and is exactly why they waste column inches covering the topic. Once Fox "gets you" you can't be reclaimed. You'll be gone, over to the right, and they'll lose yet another member of their viewing public. Again, very, very bad. Mustn't let that happen. Stop it at all costs.

Excerpt continues...

In a 617-page report, the group also found that "Fox is more deeply sourced than its rivals," while CNN is "the least transparent about its sources of the three cable channels, but more likely to present multiple points of view."
The project defines opinion as views that are not attributed to others.

Oh, so here we get to see that Fox is biased because it uses so many different sources (most of which are identified and seen), while CNN -- the "least transparent about its sources" can't possibly be biased, and is "more likely to present multiple points of view".

Quickly, someone get me some toilet paper to wipe with before the stuff is taxed more (see other articles and posts on that topic). What complete and utter abject b.s. Speaking generally, most Fox viewers are smart enough to be able to watch a CNN report and fairly quickly see the bias in them. Just as quick as the MSM types are to watch a Fox news piece and declare it biased.

Unfortunately the authors of the report cited in Kurtz article don't seem to be as capable. What a bunch of crap. (Hence the need for the t.p.)

Finally, wrapping up the excerpts....

Last March, Fox reporter Todd Connor said that "Iraq has a new interim constitution and is well on its way to democracy."
"Let's pray it works out," said anchor David Asman.
Another time, after hearing that Iraqis helped capture a Saddam Hussein henchman, Asman said: "Boy, that's good news if true, the Iraqis in the lead."
Fox legal editor Stan Goldman challenged the hiring of attorney Gloria Allred to represent Amber Frey (Scott Peterson's mistress), saying: "If you want to keep a low profile, Gloria is not the lawyer to represent you."
In an interview, Fox's executive daytime producer, Jerry Burke, says: "I encourage the anchors to be themselves. I'm certainly not going to step in and censor an anchor on any issue. . . . You don't want to look at a cookie-cutter, force-feeding of the same items hour after hour. I think that's part of the success of the channel, not treating our anchors like drones. They're, number one, Americans, and number two, human beings, as well as journalists."
CNN spokeswoman Christa Robinson says the study "reaffirms what anyone watching CNN already knows: CNN's reporting is driven by news, not opinion." MSNBC declined to comment.
The Project for Excellence in Journalism, a Washington-based research group, offers a three-part breakdown of cable journalists voicing their opinions. From 11 a.m. to noon, this happened on 52 percent of the stories on Fox, 50 percent on MSNBC and 2.3 percent on CNN. Among news-oriented evening shows, journalist opinions were voiced on 70 percent of the stories on Fox's "Special Report With Brit Hume," due in part to its regular analysts panel at the show's end; 9 percent on MSNBC's "Countdown With Keith Olbermann"; and 9 percent on CNN's "NewsNight With Aaron Brown."
As for the most popular prime-time shows, nearly every story -- 97 percent -- contained opinion on Fox's "O'Reilly Factor"; 24 percent on MSNBC's "Hardball With Chris Matthews"; and 0.9 percent on CNN's "Larry King Live." King devoted nearly half his time to entertainment and lifestyle topics, twice as much as O'Reilly and more than three times as much as Matthews.
The project describes cable news reporting as pretty thin compared with the ABC, NBC and CBS evening newscasts. Only a quarter of the cable stories examined contained two or more identifiable sources, compared with 49 percent of network evening news stories and 81 percent of newspaper front-page stories.

... more crappage at original article if you care to read it

Bleh. I'm too tired to write much else on the topic. I need to go get another dose of Fox news and refill my conservative tank so I can add more commentary here.

I know, I'll just Blame Bush. Bush and his buddies at Fox News. It's all their fault.

Yeah, that's the ticket.

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Hmm, is it Fox news that is biased, or just their anchors, whereas CNN is just biased and their anchors are clueless?

I know a fantastic unbiased "journalist" how about Al Franken? ( It is spelled Air Amerika right?)

It is refereshing to watch the "cheer or jeer" mentality of the Fox and friends morning show. Opininated? Hell yes the co-anchors are opinionated, BUT, the stories are presented, and you decide.

So do the show host.................

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Daiwa

Join Date 07/2001

+351

The project describes cable news reporting as pretty thin compared with the ABC, NBC and CBS evening newscasts.

Good grief. The network newscasts have been so useless (and so clearly biased) for so long that I gave up on them years ago - absolutely pointless to watch, more propaganda than news, but without disclosing it as such.

It's really difficult to make any comparisons between the network evening newscasts and the cable channels - they do different things. Since the networks are sort of limited to news that everyone gets in a dozen other ways long before 6:00pm, no wonder viewership is down. The cable channels make no bones about presenting commentary and analysis of news, something the networks can't give you in 30 minutes. I think people have no problem identifying commentators from reporters on the cable channels, and find what's going on on the cable channels much more intellectually stimulating and challenging.

BTW, terp - did you lose your job or something?

Cheers,
Daiwa

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The reporters on Fox are not restrained from giving their opinion because they are hired to share the opinion of the owners and producers of the network, those of the radical right.

All news reports are biased these days, biased to be entertainment. Conflict is more important than getting information out.

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