Ever since White House communications director Anita Dunn said that Fox News is "opinion journalism masquerading as news," Fox’s rating has actually gone up.
At first, there was little reaction from other media. Then on Thursday, the administration tried to make them complicit in an actual boycott of Fox. The Treasury Department made available Ken Feinberg, the executive pay czar, for interviews with the White House "pool" news organizations -- except Fox. The other networks admirably refused, saying they would not interview Feinberg unless Fox was permitted to as well. The administration backed down.
This was an important defeat because there's a principle at stake here. While government can and should debate and criticize opposition voices, the current White House goes beyond that. It wants to de-legitimize any significant dissent. The objective is no secret. White House aides openly told Politico that they're engaged in a deliberate campaign to marginalize and ostracize recalcitrants, from Fox, to talk Radio, to health insurers, to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
With Rahm Emmanuel warning the other networks not to "be led [by] and following Fox," and Anita Dunn and David Axelrod praising “Compliant Networks,” I am wondering if the Main Stream media is finally starting to get it? It used to be that the Media was considered almost the 4th Branch of Government. However, Since the Clinton Era, they have lost the independence and have become more of a Propaganda Arm of the Democratic Party. Gone are the Woodward and Bernstein’s of the day. Instead we have people like Chris Mathews, whose leg tingles when Obama speaks.
I am not sure if it is because Fox has been right on so many topics that the rest of the media has ignored, or if it is because Fox’s ratings are sky-rocketing, however, in watching CNN at different times, I have noticed some stronger questioning by the hosts. They are challenging their White House guests more. They appear to be pushing back. Friday night on the "CBS Evening News," White House correspondent Chip Reid corroborated the idea of the networks standing up behind Fox News. "All the networks said, that's it, you've crossed the line," he said.
Perhaps they are beginning to realize, if they let it happen to Fox, perhaps it could happen to them. What will happen, when ABC, CNN, CBS, runs a story critical of the White House? Will there be push back? Is it possible that other news agencies could get boycotted? Or will the White House threats be enough for News Agencies to self-censor and submit to the White House wishes of only positive stories? What Happened to Spirited Debate?
What the White House has failed to notice is the difference between the News Room at Fox, and the commentators at Fox. Beck, Hannity, and O’Reilly are commentators not reporters. There is a BIG difference, and you can’t make an intelligent argument for or against Fox without acknowledging it.
Whether you agree with them or not, at least Fox isn’t afraid to ask tough questions. Unless something changes, it may be the only voice of criticism on telvision.
And for you Anti-Fox types, if you haven’t watched lately, you missed the fact that Fox has been equally as tough on Republicans as they have been on Democrats.
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Comments: 73
that ain't "news"
SPIN SPIN SPIN
Just because you dont like the questions now, doesnt give the reason to complain about it now. Where were you for the last 8 years? Sticking up for what was right, or joining in on the Bash beating? I would say the latter.
~M
They were caught a few years ago photoshopping & distorting the faces of people they didn't like, showing them looking uglied up. I posted that here a few years ago. But it's an OOOOLD gather article by now.
http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474977388769&nav=MyGather
But...I've also heard that same day that the MSM and White House staff met behind closed doors without Fox, so now I'm not so sure...
In EIGHT years President Bush NEVER met with ANY member of the "Liberal" Media. Wanna see the press photos of Bush meeting with the reich wing media? All you have to do is use that silly "Google" thing! LOL
There must be a blindness in some who actually say FOX is the only voice of decent. Lies and distortions are not decent and shouldn't be claimed as such. Somehow those who think FOX is the end all for reporting must have a clitch in their eyes which refuse to see how their distortions stand out light a light.
10 for you! Blessed are the Truth Seekers!
Uh-huh.
Oh, yeah. I almost forgot. FOX News isn't a "real news" channel. Rachel Maddow said so!! In the words of Bugs Bunny....."What a moron! What a bufoon!!".
In the days preceding TV newspapers were more influential than they are now, but even then the influence was balanced by differing opinions, limited for the most part to the editorial pages of the newspaper. The newspaper's influence was even more limited on the national level, because prior to the advent of USA Today, no newspaper had a national audience, so in total there were even more opinions, dictated for the best part by the local audience to which the newspaper had to appeal to maintain and grow the number of daily subscribers.
As for radio, it never got into the news business until much later in the game, after it had ceased to be the public's main source of daily entertainment. What opinion oriented shows there were limited to about one-half hour one day a week. As for actual news, it was available on a daily basis, but only for about an half-hour to hour, three times a day and presenting just the news, which had to include sports and weather, left little time for expressing opinions. I don;t even recall the radio stations broadcasting 24 hours a day seven days a week when I was younger, but there must have been some, because I have a distinct memory of searching the radio dial for a station that was still broadcasting when most people in their broadcast area were asleep.
Early television being mainly a source of entertainment, followed the pattern established by radio, and perhaps to a more severe degree since they didn't broadcast 24-hours a day.
It wasn't until the advent of cable television, and the later introduction of 24 hour news stations that the nations news junkies could really satisfy their appetites for news and there was time available for expressing opinion on a daily basis. It was somewhere around then that the line between news and opinion got blurred.
The more discerning viewers have learned to distinguish between programs that present news and those the express opinion. We don't look at opinion based shows as a source of anything but breaking news that sometimes cuts into the time available for the hosts to entertain us with their expressions of opinion which we generally expect to be one with which we basically agree.
I could say more on this subject, but I have to work on cooking dinner. So this is it for now.
I will agree with you Carol that there has been some bluring between news and commentary. What I hate is that on all Channels, if they have a guest to interview for a 5 min segment, they will spend 3 mins, talking our asking questions and only allowing the guest 2 minutes at most.
Unfortunately, the ignorant masses have taken it as truth....
And now, even "event stories" are slanted with particular "points of view".
Sad for journalism's integrity loss.
Novelist Jeffrey Archer in his work The Fourth Estate made the observation: "In May 1789, Louis XVI summoned to Versailles a full meeting of the 'Estates General'. The First Estate consisted of three hundred clergy. The Second Estate, three hundred nobles. The Third Estate, six hundred commoners. Some years later, after the French Revolution, Edmund Burke, looking up at the Press Gallery of the House of Commons, said, 'Yonder sits the Fourth Estate, and they are more important than them all.'"
That explains a LOT!
You're skills in the arena of debate are diminishing as you get older.... and older....... and older.......
Yeah, that Hitler sure could turn a phrase, couldn't he??.......
Fox has certainly crossed the line between a news organization and an advocacy organization by using its own money to promote and finance advocacy groups and events. The administration should have played it differently.
And why was this gay protitute allowed access to the W H at all hours of the night???
Who was impressed by him? Bush or Chenney?
Brown: So do you think FOX News is biased?
Jarrett: Well, of course they're biased. Of course they are.
Brown: OK. Then do you also think that MSNBC is biased?
Jarrett: Well, you know what? This is the thing. I don't want to--actually, I don't want to just generalize all FOX is biased or that another station is biased. I think what we want to do is look at it on a case-by-case basis. And when we see a pattern of distortion, we're going to be honest about that pattern of distortion.
Brown: But you only see that at FOX News? That's all that--you have spoken out about FOX News.
Jarrett: That's actually not true. I think that what the administration has said very clearly is that we're going to speak truth to power.
This goes to Poli's point that other news organizations are catching administration spokespeople "off guard," and it will have reverberations within the administration. Jarrett was so quick to say "of course they are," and backtracked so quickly, when challenged about MSNBC in comparison, it was almost comical.
Kudos to Campbell Brown. She's got balls.
Good for Campbell Brown for sticking up for a competitor (albeit at the expense of a lesser competitor). And it's pretty funny how Jarrett, after smugly asserting, "Of course they're biased," did not make a pretense of standing by her position when Brown asked a question she would have been prepared for if she had spent any time thinking this through.
Even more risible, though, is the claim that the administration "is going to speak truth to power." Hello, Valerie? Your boss is the president of the United States! No one is more powerful. As we suggested Friday, it really seems as if Obama and his men do not understand what it means to be president. Because their power is constrained--thank you, Founding Fathers!--they labor under delusion that they are powerless.
Yet while this is all hilarious, it is also scary when you think it through. Great power entails great responsibility. There is little to suggest that Obama and his aides appreciate their responsibility, and much, including their incessant complaining that the previous president did a lousy job, to suggest an attitude of total irresponsibility.
The job of those in power is not to "speak truth to power," though it would be nice if they spoke the truth once in a while. It is to exercise power responsibly. The effort to bully Fox News Channel would be an abuse of power were it not so pathetically inept.
LAST NIGHT THE BROADCAST NET DID GREAT...The White House had NOTHING to do with it though. Last night Fox was carrying the World Series.
Cable News Ratings: Fox News Remains Dominant
CNN slips to fourth in weeknight prime demo
By Marisa Guthrie -- Broadcasting & Cable, 10/27/2009 2:36:12 PM
CNN slipped to fourth in primetime at 7, 8 and 10 p.m. among cable news networks in the key sales demographic for the month of October, Nielsen data showed. The meager showing in primetime marks a decline of 78% in the demo compared to October 2008, when the election was juicing cable news numbers across the board.
October 2008 was a particularly strong month leading into last year's election. As such, all networks showed year-to-year declines in total viewers and news' target sales demographic of 25-54-year-olds. MSNBC is down 63% in the primetime demo while Fox News Channel was off 36% and HLN and CNBC were each down 29%. But CNN was also down 22% from its October 2007 prime demo average.
In primetime (Mon-Sun 8-11 p.m.), CNN averaged 664,000 viewers with 186,000 in the demo. That was just enough to edge out its cable sibling HLN in the demo (185,000). HLN also finished fourth in total viewers with 513,000. But for weekday prime, CNN was down to fourth in the demo (202,000 viewers) compared to perennial leader Fox News Channel (689,000), MSNBC (250,000) and HLN (221,000).
Fox News remained dominant across all day-parts. In primetime (Mon-Sun, 8-11 p.m.), Fox News averaged 2.1 million viewers with 560,000 in the demo. MSNBC was second with 699,000 viewers, 234,000 in the demo followed by CNN and HLN.
Fox News has also been aided by the White House’s strategy to de-legitimize the network. The administration’s battle with Fox News was the fifth most covered story for the week ended Oct. 25 accounting for 15% of the news hole, according to the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism weekly coverage index. The economic crisis was first followed by Afghanistan, the health care debate and swine flu. The network is up 9% in total viewers and up 14% in the demo since the feud started three weeks ago.
Fox News also had all ten of the top-ten shows in cable news in both the demo and total viewers led by The O’Reilly Factor (3.3 million viewers, 875,000 in the demo), Glenn Beck (2.7 million viewers, 712,000 in the demo), Hannity (2.3 million, 659,000 in the demo) and On the Record with Greta Van Susteren (1.9 million, 533,000 in the demo).
MSNBC notched second place finishes in most of the key week-night prime-time hours. At 7 p.m., Hardball with Chris Matthews was second in the time slot averaging 649,000 viewers with 182,000 in the demo. HLN’s Issues with Jane Velez-Mitchell out-rated CNN’s Lou Dobbs Tonight in the demo (168,000 to 163,000) while Dobbs prevailed among total viewers (631,000 to 462,000).
Fox Report with Shepard Smith was the most-watched program at 7 p.m. with 1.9 million viewers and 463,000 in the demo.
At 8 p.m., MSNBC’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann bested HLN’s Nancy Grace, among total viewers (1 million to 830,000) and the demo (294,000 to 269,000), while CNN’s Campbell Brown was stuck in fourth among total viewers (648,000) and the demo (161,000).
The O’Reilly Factor was the top-rated cable news program in the 8 p.m. hour for the 107th consecutive month.
At 9 p.m., MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show bested CNN’s Larry King Live in total viewers (880,000 to 842,000) and the demo (246,000 to 224,000). That was enough for a third-place finish for LKL against HLN’s newest entry, The Joy Behar Show which averaged 535,000 total viewers and 183,000 in the demo. Fox News' Hannity was the top-rated program for the hour.
At 10 p.m., Anderson Cooper 360 dropped to fourth in the demo (210,000) against reruns of Nancy Grace (222,000) and Countdown (218,000).
Fox News ran with San Bernardino ACORN video without needed fact check. On September 15 and 16, Fox News devoted significant programming to conservative filmmaker James O'Keefe and Townhall.com columnist Hannah Giles' video of their interactions with a San Bernardino ACORN worker who claimed she murdered her ex-husband and gave advice on how to run a brothel, but stated after the video was released that she had merely been attempting to "shock them as much as they were shocking me." In running with the video, Fox News hosts frequently promoted the fake claim that the ACORN employee killed her ex-husband without fact-checking the allegation or indicating that they had contacted ACORN for a response. In fact, ACORN called the video "an obvious set of lies and manipulations," and the San Bernardino Police Department found her former husbands "alive and well."
"Death book" distortions abound on Fox News Sunday. On the August 23 edition of Fox News Sunday, Chris Wallace hosted former Bush administration aide Jim Towey to discuss his Wall Street Journal op-ed, "The Death Book for Veterans," and in doing so promoted numerous distortions about an end-of-life educational booklet used by the Veterans Health Administration (VHA). In addition to forwarding the smear that the booklet is a "death book," Wallace promoted Towey's distortion that the booklet encourages veterans to "pull the plug" -- it doesn't; Wallace and Towey both suggested that the Bush administration suspended use of the booklet -- it didn't; and Wallace claimed that a VHA document requires doctors to direct veterans to the booklet -- it doesn't.
Fox trumpets CAIR conspiracy theory charges made by author with anti-Islam history. Repeated Fox News segments reported that, in Bret Baier's words, "Republican lawmakers say the Council on American-Islamic Relations, CAIR, is trying to infiltrate Capitol Hill by placing interns in key positions," an allegation stemming from a right-wing book whose author has a history of making outrageous and anti-Islamic assertions and is published by WorldNetDaily, which has its own history of making outrageous allegations and inflammatory remarks. Moreover, the document that Republican Reps. Sue Myrick (NC), John Shadegg (AZ), Paul Broun (GA), and Trent Franks (AZ) cited as evidence of CAIR's alleged activities is stolen and does not support their claims.
Fox News' Hemmer "[kept] track of the stimulus money" -- by lifting research from GOP website. On April 23, America's Newsroom co-host Bill Hemmer repeatedly suggested information about four "interesting" projects reportedly funded by the economic recovery act was obtained through Fox News' own research, even though nearly all of the information Hemmer mentioned, as well as that included in on-screen text and graphics, first appeared on Rep. Eric Cantor's Republican Whip website.
America's Newsroom pushed discredited GOP calculation of Obama's cap-and-trade proposal. On April 2, guest host Alisyn Camerota asserted that the cost of Obama's cap-and-trade proposal "would be $3,100 per U.S. household." The claim was advanced by the House Republican Conference in a March 23 "Talking Points" press release, and the Republicans reportedly purported to back up the claim by pointing to a 2007 study by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). But MIT professor John Reilly, one of the authors of the study, has disputed the GOP's calculation, stating that his study "has been misrepresented" and that the Republicans' claim of an average household cost of $3,128 was significantly higher than the correct figure. PolitiFact.com rated the $3,100 figure a "pants on fire" falsehood.
Cut and paste: "FOXfact[s]" about GOP budget nearly identical to GOP Rep. Ryan's op-ed. While interviewing Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) on April 1, Fox News' Happening Now aired "FOXfact[s]" purporting to describe facts about the House Republican budget. However, all of the seven on-screen "FOXfact[s]" were nearly identical to portions of an op-ed Ryan published in that day's Wall Street Journal. The "FOXfact[s]" were aired again later that day.
Fox passed off GOP press release as its own research -- typo and all. In purporting to "take a look back" at how the economic recovery plan "grew, and grew, and grew," on February 10 Fox News' Jon Scott referenced seven dates, as on-screen graphics cited various news sources from those time periods -- all of which came directly from a Senate Republican Communications Center press release. A Fox News on-screen graphic even reproduced a typo contained in the Republican press release. The following day, Scott apologized -- for running the typo. Scott's apology was criticized by Washington Post media critic and CNN host Howard Kurtz, who said: "We sometimes jab at the pundits for using talking points, but in the case of Fox News anchor Jon Scott, it was literally true this week. ... You should be apologizing for using partisan propaganda from the GOP without telling your viewers where it came from. Talk about missing the point."
Fox News doctored Biden quote to falsely claim he was praising economy in March. On March 16, Live Desk co-host Martha MacCallum claimed that "after weeks of economic doom and gloom, the Obama administration is now singing a slightly different tune. Take a look at what was said in recent interviews this weekend." Live Desk then aired clips of administration officials purportedly giving an optimistic view of the economy, which included video of Vice President Joe Biden stating, "The fundamentals of the economy are strong." However, Biden did not make those remarks during an "interview" that weekend; he made them at a September 2008 campaign event in which he criticized statements by Sen. John McCain. MacCallum apologized the next day.
Fox News reporter distorted Obama comments on health care. On April 24, White House correspondent Wendell Goler cropped a comment by Obama and took it out of context -- effectively reversing the statement's meaning -- to falsely suggest that Obama supports creating a health care system "like the European countries."
Happening Now cropped clips of Obama to promote "another apology tour." On the June 2 Happening Now, Scott asked if "the president's upcoming trip [to Europe and the Middle East will] be what conservatives might call another apology tour," and both Scott and co-host Jane Skinner aired cropped clips of Obama's remarks from an April 3 speech in France to falsely suggest that Obama criticized only the United States. In doing so, Happening Now joined conservative commentators and Fox News hosts who have cropped or misrepresented Obama's overseas remarks to falsely suggest, in the words of Hannity, that Obama was "blam[ing] America first" and, more broadly, that Obama's earlier overseas trip constituted an "apology tour."
All courtesy of Media Matters.
November 01, 2009 5:39 pm ET
Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace dedicated the first half of his November 1 program to an interview with radio host Rush Limbaugh, during which Wallace allowed and in some cases prompted Limbaugh to advance numerous misleading, baseless, or outrageous claims, as well as engage in inflammatory attacks on President Obama.
Limbaugh repeats discredited claim that individual health care mandate is unconstitutional. Limbaugh responded to Wallace's question about whether he thought the "individual mandate is constitutional" by stating, "No. ... I do not think it's constitutional. Chris, this is -- these are dark days for the country. This is deadly serious stuff. This is a total attempt to remake the country as founded and constituted. And it worries me greatly." Several other conservative media outlets including The Washington Times and Fox News have pushed the claim that health care reform proposals under consideration by Congress are unconstitutional.
In fact, legal experts have disputed claim that individual mandate is unconstitutional. In an October 23 Politico piece, University of California, Irvine law professor Erwin Chemerinsky stated, "Under an unbroken line of precedents stretching back 70 years, Congress has the power to regulate activities that, taken cumulatively, have a substantial effect on interstate commerce." According to Slate.com's Timothy Noah, Yale law professor Akhil Reed Amar and Fordham Law School dean William Treanor debunked conservatives' argument that the individual mandate could be considered a "taking" in violation of the Fifth Amendment, noting that such a policy is permissible under the Commerce Clause. George Washington University law professor Orin Kerr, who served as Republican Sen. John Cornyn's special counsel for Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation proceedings, has responded to a similar claim made by Fox News senior judicial analyst Andrew Napolitano by stating that Naplitano's argument that "President Obama's health care proposals are unconstitutional because they exceed the commerce clause power" was filled with "errors, misstatements, and plainly weak claims."
Limbaugh claimed Obama administration has "destroyed jobs," "lost 3.3 million jobs" since stimulus passed. From the November 1 edition of Fox News Sunday:
LIMBAUGH: I mean, just a couple days ago, they talked about these 650,000 jobs that they've created or saved. There's no such thing as a saved job. Besides that, they've destroyed jobs. They've lost 3.3 million jobs in this country since Obama's stimulus plan, and it's going to get worse.
In fact, the recession that began in 2007, not Obama's policies, continues to drive job losses. Contrary to Limbaugh's assertion that job losses this year resulted from Obama administration policies, data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that the trend of increasing unemployment resulting from the recession that began in December 2007 took root long before Obama was elected or inaugurated.
Unemployment data suggest job losses are slowing. Limbaugh asserted that the Obama administration has "lost 3.3 million jobs in this country since Obama's stimulus plan, and it's going to get worse." In fact, job losses have generally slowed since January.
Limbaugh also repeated his baseless claim that the Obama administration played a role killing his bid to purchase a stake in the St. Louis Rams. After asserting that NFL Players Association executive director DeMaurice Smith "is Obama," Limbaugh claimed that the controversy surrounding the bid was due to upcoming contract negotiations between the league and the players association, saying that Smith "has suggested that the Congress, the White House might get involved to stop a player -- an owner lockout." Limbaugh speculated: "So, I think -- and he got involved in this, too, you know? He was out participating in the spreading of quotes I didn't say, warning Goodell and the owners what might -- I think this was a warning shot across the bow saying to the NFL, 'Look, we're going to be close to running this league, not you. We don't want this guy here.' "
Wallace ignored Limbaugh's extensive history of making racially charged remarks about minorities. For instance, Limbaugh stated in 2007: "Look it, let me put it to you this way. The NFL all too often looks like a game between the Bloods and the Crips without any weapons. There I said it." Additionally, Limbaugh has referred to Obama's economic policies as "reparations"; said that "[w]e're being told that we have to hope he succeeds, that we have to bend over, grab the ankles ... because his father was black, because this is the first black president"; and said that "in Obama's America, the white kids now get beat up with the black kids cheering."
http://mediamatters.org/research/200911010011?lid=1073652&rid=36806427