Fox hounded - How the Democrats are turning on Fox News.

LA Times ^ | March 16, 2007 | Ronald Brownstein

[neverdem]

In the history of capitalism has any company had more success with just a wink and a nod than the Fox News Channel? And can Democrats be successful in the 2008 campaign by refusing to wink or nod back?

Last week's decision by Nevada Democrats, under pressure from liberal activists, to drop Fox as the co-sponsor of a party presidential debate has the virtue of crystallizing the questions about the network's nature and its unique role in the modern media ecosystem.

Fox cloaks itself in the mantle of objectivity with the nudge-nudge insistence that it—and it alone—provides "fair and balanced" coverage of the news. Then it advances its financial and ideological interests by promoting lurid accusations from conservatives against Democrats, accusations that are routinely debunked later by the mainstream media. Many Fox reporters are fair. But overall the network—through its language, its news decisions and its hosts—generally functions more like a cog in the Republican message machine than as a conventional news organization that attempts to abide, however imperfectly, by the traditional standards of (yes) fairness and balance.

Fox's possible participation in the Nevada debate, one of several the state party is sponsoring before next January's presidential caucus, presented Democrats with a conundrum that may become increasingly common for both sides as they navigate a media landscape in which overtly partisan sources of information are proliferating.

Democrats, with justification, consider Fox tilted against them. Yet the network has a large audience, at least some of whom may be open to Democratic arguments (though exactly how many remains subject to spirited dispute). The question the party faced was whether access to Fox's viewers was worth the validation the network would receive from hosting a Democratic debate.

Initially, the Nevada Democratic leaders answered yes. Party officials said they had no illusions about...

[Drango]

Ronald Brownstein has no view on NPR's fairness and balance, yet he still claims to be a journalist.

[RunningWolf]

How the Democrats are turning on Fox News.

To the dems, you know some things do not occur in a 24 hour cycle and this will have long term implications against you.

Bill Clinton has been a major attack dog at Fox and I think that will finally expose him and his wife for what they are.

The Dems are notorious for overplaying their hand, in the end they get sucked into the 'rope a dope' real good.

Can I now make a very early POTUS call of Hunter/Thompson or vice versa :-)

[tomnbeverly]

WOW if FOX is Conservative Bias then that leaves only ...

ABC,CBS,NBC,MSNBC,CNN,PBS,NYTIMES,LATIMES ok all Big City News Organizations that are Liberal Biased...

Well enough of this already time that we unleash the Fairness doctrine...

[Lancey Howard]

Then it advances its financial and ideological interests by promoting lurid accusations from conservatives against Democrats, accusations that are routinely debunked later by the mainstream media.

I've heard of this prankster Ronald Brownstein before. Trust me, he laughed his rear-end off when he wrote this. He's playing the role of "simple buffoon" here just to amuse himself. NOBODY writes something like this with a straight face.

[Question Liberal Authority]

Ann Coulter recently pointed out that Fox News has more Liberal commentators than all the other networks combined have Conservative commentators.

Michael Medved recently pointed out that Fox News has more non-conservative VIEWERS than CNN has TOTAL VIEWERS.

Meanwhile, Dems complain that they "didn't get their message out", while passing up a free shot at the biggest audience in cable news.

[Question Liberal Authority]

Can I now make a very early POTUS call of Hunter/Thompson or vice versa :-)

I can almost guarantee that Hunter S. Thompson will never be President Of The United States.

[Theresawithanh]

I hope this bites dems in the butt big time. I still don't get why you'd throw a fit about it being FOX news and not take the chance to debate and perhaps sway some of it's viewers.

But then again, I also don't get why anyone thinks the other alphabets aren't biased toward the liberal POV.

[citizencon]

The Democrats hate Fox News because it is only 50% (fair and balanced) pro-liberal...whereas CNN, ABC, NBC, MSNBC and CBS are 99.9% pro-liberal...

[Bernard Marx]

I've observed Ron Brownstein for years. He's one of the most reliably left-partisan columnists in the L.A. Times's stable. If a lefty "journalist" can't get hired at the New York Times, the L.A. Times is always waiting with open arms. I call him a liar.

[TheThinker]

I've got one word for Nevada Democrats: Cowards! Democrats can't stand scrutiny. Fox is finally a news channel that challenges their accusations and assertions and it's enough to give modern Democrats fits. The organized labor and civil rights machine is running out of steam and they're panicking because there is no cover, no realm of infallibility and security that the mainstream media provided them.

[highlander_UW]

To "turn" on Fox would require that the dems were ever in favor or support of it...a premise that has never been true.

[TheThinker]

This move is a sign of weakness. I think conservative media is finally getting to the libs.

[GATOR NAVY]

The situation isn't exactly parallel. For all the howling on the right, it's difficult to argue that mainstream news organizations operate with anything approaching Fox' partisan and ideological agenda.

Uneffin' believable on so many levels. This guy is either a totally blind moron or a stone cold effing liar. Neither option says anything good about him.

[Mark]

On a TOTALLY different-NOT- topic, Ronald Brownstein, why is your rag of a paper going down the tubes?

[ME-262]

In spite of what the LA Times says, more and more people are watching Fox and less and less are subscribing to the LA Times.

It's fun to watch the Left Wing Media outlets bitch and moan about how the one balanced news organization is an organ of the Republican party. They held their monopoly of the news for so long that most of the folks in the media grew up thinking that being a left wing activist was somewhere in the center of the political spectrum.

I stopped watching the big three after NBC blew up a GM truck with pyrotechnics during what they claimed was a crash test, and then told people to buy an import truck to be safe.

By the time Rathergate hit I knew not to believe anything from the big three. I actually told my wife that the self-implicating records that suddenly appeared kept, signed, and released just before election by a dead guy to verify a democrat mantra, were false even before they appeared on the web. I did not even need to see them to know they were fake. I've had to deal with a lot of crooks and liars in the business world and sometimes you can smell a lie coming without even hearing or seeing it. So... Word to the wise: In the last three months leading up to the 2008 election Don't believe a frickin thing the big three say with regard to politicians, polls, scandals, history, or any other angle which an author might use to influence your vote. The liberal hacks which make up the big three have already demonstrated and continue to believe that the end justifies the means, and that lying to get the "correct" people elected is not only OK, but it is their duty as crusading liberal journalists for the communal good of society.

Due to liars you can not believe much of what you hear or read.
Thanks to liars using Photoshop and CGI you can not believe much of what you see either.

If NBC wanted to blow up a GM truck or SUV today they wouldn't have to rig it with pyrotechnics, they could just cut and paste flames over it and make smoke with the spray-can tool. They could drive the "exploded" SUV to pick up their Emmy!

[RunningWolf]

No my dear! Duncan Hunter/Fred Thompson

sigh ;)

regards

[Question Liberal Authority]

Duncan Hunter of the Clan, Hunter?

There can be only one.

[moonman]

FoxNews .... "promoting lurid accusations from conservatives against Democrats, accusations that are routinely debunked later by the mainstream media."

Oh! Which ones?

Besides, 'debunked' is hardly the correct term. 'Liar allies' best describes the DemonRats and MSM relationship.

[G Larry]

"lurid accusations from conservatives against Democrats, accusations that are routinely debunked later by the mainstream media"

Uhh....for instance?

Actually most of the time on Fox is spent debunking liberal myths, generated and supported by the MSM.

[Leftism is Mentally Deranged]

Expect the dems to pass the "fairness doctrine" which is not fair and is not a doctrine but a stalinist way of controlling free speech.