Posted on 02/27/2007 4:38:45 PM PST by SJackson
There is no question that Fox News is a mouthpiece for the Republican Party, and that is what makes the cable and broadcast television operations of Australian-born billionaire Rupert Murdoch so noxious.
If Fox was an ideologically conservative network, that would be fine.
In fact, we think the United States could use more ideological diversity in its broadcast networks. Most of them have replaced civic and democratic values with commercial and entertainment impulses that dumb down the discourse and discourage active citizenship. A network that offered a consistently conservative take on the news would be a lot better than the celebrity obsession, dressed-up weather reporting and stenography to power that passes for "news" on CNN, ABC, CBS and NBC.
But there is nothing conservative or liberal about Fox. It is a mouthpiece for the Bush White House and the Republican National Committee. And it does the dirty work of those entities most recently evidenced by the network's peddling of false reports suggesting that Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, a contender for the Democratic presidential nomination, had been educated as a Muslim fundamentalist.
Fox's ugly efforts to slander Obama, which parallel those of another Bush/RNC mouthpiece, radio personality Rush Limbaugh, are reprehensible. And it is certainly reasonable to ask whether the obsessive focus on Obama has something to do with his race. After all, Fox has not been above playing the race card when it is to the advantage of the administration and the party it serves.
But what should be done about Fox?
Obama is fighting back. According to the Washington Post, "the Obama camp has 'frozen out' Fox News reporters and producers in the wake of the network's major screw-up in running with the erroneous Obama-the-jihadist story." While the Post's characterization of the network's spreading of lies as "erroneous" is comic in its naivete, the Obama campaign's response is clearly an expression of its frustration with a network that is out to get its candidate.
Still, as bad as Fox is, we're of the view that Obama should talk to the network's reporters and appear on its shows if only to challenge the network directly. When candidates get into the game of deciding which reporters to talk to and which to "freeze out," the public is ill-served.
Fox deserves no respect whatsoever. But the people who view it do. Instead of refusing invitations to appear on what for better or worse is a significant national forum, Obama should seize the opportunity.
Go on Bill O'Reilly's show and poke back at the bully. Go on Sean Hannity's show and tell the fact-mangling fool that he is wrong. Talk about the obvious and consistent pro-Bush, pro-RNC biases of the network. And if they refuse to air the criticisms, make a story of that refusal.
It is far better to confront critics than to avoid them.
In Britain, during the Margaret Thatcher era, the conservative prime minister's Cabinet members did interviews even with the publication Marxism Today. They were willing to confront their critics. They enjoyed the clash of ideas. They relished the opportunity to prove that they were without fear, and they dared their critics to distort their words.
That's the sort of swashbuckling politics that Obama and the other men and women who would be president owe the United States. "Freezing out" Fox says a lot more about the timidity of particular politicians than it does about that sorry excuse for a "news" network.
Madison: 84 square miles surrounded by reality.
ABC's
Obama Bin Ladin gaffe
http://videos.humpingfrog.com/17433/2007/02/the-views-obama-bin-laden-incident.html
I'll bet this guy loves Chrissy Mathews.
Are abc,cbc,nbc,cnn etc part of the democrat party, hmm???
So now truth equals slander? Who knew?
The next thing we'll hear is that he really has small ears, but Fox News started the rumor about his ears being too big.
sleazy site for that link....
Pure crap. What is the point of giving these loonies the hits on their website? Liberals don't want to hear anything different than their view and they don't want anyone else to hear it either.
Of course they are, but to them, that is the real "mainstream".
This "article" takes the Fox-News-Lies story a bit further than some of its counterparts, but this just continues on the adage: repeat a lie often enough and it becomes truth!
Obama himself is the source of Fox News (Doocy) talking about Obama attending a muslim school as a child. Here is the quote from Obama's first book Dreams of my Father:
“In Indonesia, I had spent two years at a Muslim school,” he wrote in his first memoir, “Dreams from my Father.” “The teacher wrote to tell my mother that I made faces during Koranic studies.”
This is ridiculous...never a word about CNN, NBC and all the rest being so closely aligned with the DNC.
But I do have problems with Fox...Shep Smith and his hysterics over every issue and story, the tabloid emphasis, etc. But there are some great ones there...Brit, John Gibson, Cavuto some times, Hannity's new show, O'Reilly some times. They need more real news though. But they do seem balanced to me anyway. And I didn't see an attack against Obama, they seemed to be covering him in a positive way actually.
Good Ol' Reliable CapTimes, birdcage liner.
What a big time @ssclown. Hillary was behind it. She gets a pass every time.
"And it is certainly reasonable to ask whether the obsessive focus on Obama has something to do with his race."
So Fox may be biased against BHO's white mother?
There is a pizza commercial on TV in which four men with excessively large face parts (what is the right collective word?) discuss the merits of a pizza. When I see the guy with the big ears, I think of Obama.
What kind of expert are you? I get tired of reading the self-proclaimed military, political and cultural experts that think that they know the only way to enlightenment.
Everyone that writes a letter to the editor or is allowed to have a column is a military expert and we must "cut and run" to get out of Iraq now.
Everyone who writes a letter to the editor or is allowed to have a column is a political expert, proclaiming the demise of certain candidates and the stardom of their choice.
Everyone who writes a letter to the editor or is allowed to have a column is a cultural expert, stating that their way, Pro- or anti-abortion is the only way.
Your diatribe against Fox is a combination of two of the above. You are a self-proclaimed expert on political and cultural events, specifying nothing but innuendo and speculation.
Have to more or less agree with that. Fox certainly isn't particularly conservative on social issues.
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