Fox News is close to state-run media
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Todd Christensen
Published: October 29, 2008
If you are not watching Fox News, you should be.
Of course Fox has always leaned to the right, but during this election season it has fallen all the way over.
While Fox News is not state-run media, it is the closest (hopefully) that we will ever come to having state-run media. Watching Fox News gives us the opportunity to see what that would be like.
I know that there are many of you who believe that the CNNs and CBSs of the world are the biased media, but the facts do not bear that out.
Todd Christensen
Culpeper
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Posted by ( OrdinaryWoman ) on November 01, 2008 at 8:23 pm
RJMA: I understand where you’re coming from, in trying to understand research, but I do that for a living. I go to the heart of an organization. The people that started this research, have roots in what I wrote about in previous post. Just keep searching, you’ll find it. Don’t stop at Pew.
The economy, as is has run for many, many years, is sound. Don’t take a feed bite from a press delegation (quoting McCain), and run with it. Dig deep. The economy, as it should be run without greed, with regulation and proper oversight, can be great. But that is what has led to its downfall.
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Posted by ( Geriberi ) on November 01, 2008 at 9:03 am
That’t the other reason I don’t watch MSNBC - they’re just a tad “slow.“
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Posted by ( caveman823 ) on November 01, 2008 at 3:51 am
Shocking! I was so surprised by this headline “Study: Media coverage favors Obama”.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27480205/
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Posted by ( copper ) on October 31, 2008 at 12:38 pm
The Democrats are attacking Joe for exposing the real Obama, the Socialist, who wants to spread the wealth. Thanks Joe for asking a good question and getting a real response.
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Posted by ( copper ) on October 31, 2008 at 12:36 pm
What a joke!!!!!HAHAHAHHAHAHAHA!!! The primary reason FOX NEWS is constantly ranked number one in viewership is because they are fair and balanced and report both sides. Hillary Clinton, John McCain and Barack Obama all went on the Factor and got grilled. They have not let Palin go on the Factor because many feel O’Reilly is too tough on guests. MSNBC is clearly in the tank for Obama, so much so that Chris Mathews and Oberman were removed from doing any more election coverage because of complaints about them bashing McCain repeatedly. ABC, NBC, and MSNBC are the Obama networks. If you are a democrat tune in to Maddow and Oberman each night for two hours of McCain and Palin bashing, real fair and balanced. Explain why there are more Democrats in the US than Republicans and yet FOX News rates number one on a regular basis. Because people with common sense tune in and get to see both sides and can then make up their own minds.
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Posted by ( rjma ) on October 31, 2008 at 9:46 am
I checked out the Project for Excel. report. It is a Pew research project. I didn’t see anything about anyone from the Times, Sun, etc. involved, although that may be. I don’t watch Fox or much of any TV for that matter, but what I do see Hannity, O’Reilly, etc. is decidedly pro-Bush, McCain, Palin in my view. I can’t imagine how anyone could not come to the same conclusion.
I don’t put a lot of faith in such research such as the Pew project, in part because defining “tone” is a murky area. If McCain says “the economy is basically sound”, the media will and should report that. Is that negative? It’s what happened. I just don’t think that there is a clear line between negative and positive that can be easily measured and inserted into a graph.
I think a more useful exercise is to take the front page the Wash Post and Wash Times and analyze for bias on a given day.
I just wish Fox would quit with the “fair and balanced” boast. That is for us to decide, not them. Same with “most trusted” that I think other networks use.
I don’t have any problem with Fox reporting the way they want. There is a market for that sort of thing as I know there is a market for Keith Olberman hammering on McCain and Palin. Don’t call either unbiased. Actually I don’t think there is a such thing as unbiased. We all have our own built-in bias, many that we dont’ even recognize as such.
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Posted by ( Geriberi ) on October 31, 2008 at 7:52 am
OrdinaryWoman - you beat me to it - I was going to post those results this morning myself!
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Posted by ( OrdinaryWoman ) on October 31, 2008 at 7:45 am
Todd and rjma,
The facts actually do not prove what you say. Though only seen on O’Reilly last night, The Project for Excellence in Journalism, whose top heads are people from LA Times, NY Times, and the Baltimore Sun, did a study that came up with MSNBC being the worst. 73% negative reporting on McCain and only 14% on Obama. And the negative reporting starts at prime-time 7 pm EDT with Matthews and ends up with Obberman.
Fox score was 40% Obama and 40% McCain.
So there’s your examples unbiased and accurate.
Best thing to do is watch all of them, and you can see for yourself, and thus not print something inaccurate.
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Posted by ( KTrick ) on October 31, 2008 at 5:48 am
I switch from FOX to MSNBC and have found FOX to be much more fair than MSNBC…or CNN for that matter.
FOX kills their own image of “balanced” though, by hiring right-wingers like Karl Rove and Newt Gingrich.
Dumb move.
But they also have Democrats Susan Estrich and Kirsten Powers on their payroll for discussion panels and debates and they get equal time.
I’ve also noted that FOX will run full-length Obama speeches every day, while MSNBC does not air a McCain speech in full.
Now factor in Megyn Kelley and Jamie Colby (gush…!) and FOX wins. (BTW, both are pretty, but also licensed attorneys).
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Posted by ( Geriberi ) on October 30, 2008 at 10:05 am
Don’t take the word of Todd Christensen, or me, or any other poster. Watch FOX. Watch all of their programming. What are you afraid of - the truth? O’Reilly? Gives equal time, if not a little extra to libs. He has annoyed me no end with what I felt was undeserved defense of Obama. That’s why I watch - I get both sides. Hannity & Colmes? One right, one left - they go at it every night, and have both sides equally represented. I watch the reporting on and off most days, and don’t find their non-opinion shows to be particularly biased.
On the other hand, I try to watch the other stations, but they ooze bias favoring Obama. I can’t give specific examples because I can’t stand to watch for long. Same with most newspapers - I stopped buying even the Sun. Wash Post for that reason, and find that even many of the local papers seem to be leaning left.
With Hollywood and the entertainment industry in general getting downright ugly in their attacks on McCain/Palin, FOX is the only source I’ve found that feels like a fairly safe place to go for the truth. Just because they don’t parrot the other networks doesn’t make them “state-run” - just the opposite. This was a pretty pathetic letter by Mr. Christensen. State-run broadcasting is EXACTLY what the liberals want with their Fairness Doctrine. Watch FOX while you can, folks - if Obama makes it, FOX may not.
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