Posted on 06/07/2006 5:55:04 AM PDT by Mike Bates
While some press attention has been focused on the seeming odd-couple of Rupert Murdoch raising money for Hillary Clinton, another fascinating relationship has apparently been developed between Fox News and Hugh Hefner's Playboy. Fox News' Neil Cavuto aired an interview with Hugh Hefner on May 4, on the grounds that the announcement of his "Playmate of the Year" was "business news," and Fox News anchor Shepard Smith is interviewed in the June issue of Playboy magazine.
Asked about Internet stories that "lack veracity" but which serve as news. Smith replies, "Swift Boats," as if the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth had been engaged not in getting out the truth about John Kerry's military career and dubious war crimes charges, but in smearing the Democratic Senator and 2004 Democratic presidential candidate.
I'm sure you all remember that Fox News is supposed to be the conservative channel.
SNIP
It is strange in the sense that Smith talks about his "group" at Fox News, which wants objective news coverage, and other nameless people who don't seem to agree. However, he denies Fox has a conservative agenda, says he's never been asked to push a conservative point of view, and that he loves and trusts Bob Schieffer of CBS News.
Except for the devotion to Schieffer and the smear of the Swift Boat vets, the exchanges are mostly irrelevant and beside the point, which is that a Fox News anchor had made Playboy into a "respectable" forum. I suspect it is part of the same plan that involved Fox News media personalities such as Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity interviewing Howard Stern, who has attracted millions of listeners by talking dirty. This is the kind of audience that is supposed to count.
(Excerpt) Read more at aim.org ...
Says who?
They are supposed to be PROFITABLE and since when does "Fair and Balanced" equal being conservative?
Thank goodness they never show him cross and uncross his legs while being interrogated by police!
I'm sure you all remember that Fox News is supposed to be the conservative channel.
The wife still watches it when she goes in late because she's closing her store. I hardly ever watch it anymore. You're right about all that pandering to TV shows, though. Who cares?
And I NEVER watch F & F on weekends. Julian Phillips makes what little hair I have stand on end. I guess about the only show I watch on FNC is 'Special Report'. Then, either the TV is off, or, if the wife is home, it's on to various Law & Order reruns.
Much of the mainstream media. And have you been to a campus lately? FoxNews is right up there with Bush, Rumsfeld and Wal-Mart in terms of contempt.
I don't define Fox by its slogan, any more than I define CNN by its laughable slogan...I define them by their fairness and objectivity, and their RESEARCH!
Law & Order? Is that the show where the real bad guy is often a white, middle-aged businessman or a religious person?
Bingo! Just another pretty face with a bass voice. He is the quinatessence of that famous headline when Dizzy Dean was hit in the head by a baseball: "X-rays of Dean's head Show Nothing."
The shows on FNC have turned into such drivel it's just not worth the time.
If we could just have Brit do news updates every hour for five minutes that would be enough for me.
The rest of them are so predictable we could all say their dialogue before they even open their mouths.
Or the "bikini" muderer. They spent a fair amount of time on that this morning.
Who cares?
I changed the station and went to the History Channel.
I like the early morning documentaries on the history channel, especially those that discuss the history of the Old West. I wish I was back in that era sometimes, home on the da range, and all that.
Smith once chatted me up in a New York City gay piano bar, bought me drinks, and invited me back to his place. When I declined, he asked me to dinner the next night, another invitation I politely refused.
We sat at the bar chatting and drinking martinis until 3 a.m., our conversation interrupted only when he paused to belt out the lyrics to whatever showtune was being performed."
Yeah! But the acting is better than on most shows. I watch just to spend some time with her in the evening. And, no, she's no flaming Lib; she's as conservative as I am. She just likes to watch TV and doesn't enjoy reading.
Frankly, we find the various L & O series to be about the least objectionable fare on TV anymore. The prime time stuff is garbage, channels like History, A & E, Discovery, etc are either showing the same stuff over-and-over or it's biased, and I can only stand a very minuscule intake of dogs jumping through hoops, food being cooked that I won't eat, or shills for the wealthy showing off properties in the Catskills or Tahiti.
That's my take on TV.
I've been watching the Military Channel lately. They have a great series on Battleplans.
What? No Judy Garland?
I think Shep just wants to be loved by everyone.
The little creep.
Yeah, I stopped watching with any regularity back in March or so.
Smith never appealed to me. Too much makeup for one thing, and I usually listen, rather than watch on my 2.3" tv
next to the pc, any way. Still didn't help.
Then I read an interview he gave. He goes out of his way to edit out adverbs in his copy.
There are other little things that just add up.
Shep also let it hang out during Hurricane Katrina and his stint in New Orleans.
"Conservativism was a good choice because there was a large market for it. There still is, IMHO, but if Fox continues to dilute its point of view like it has been, its ratings will drop."
Two years ago FNS was taking heat because they were perceived, and rightly so, as NOT fair and balanced.
Such can not be said now. They do have a wide range of opinions and it would follow that we conservatives would not agree with all sides.
I see nothing wrong with that. Shep has been more outspokenly left for a year. It is costing him viewers. Could we say sacrificial lamb?
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