Broadcast News: Interview With Ken Auletta About His Fox News Hit Piece

The New Yorker ^ | May 19, 2003

[PJ-Comix]

We know where Ken Auletta's head is at. This morning he was interviewed by Imus and defended Dan Rather bigtime. Yeah, if Dan Rather is objective by Auletta's standards then we know where Auletta is coming from. The fact is you won't find Auletta writing articles critical of CBS News or Petah Jennings over at ABC World News Tonight.

[an amused spectator]

If judged by journalism, Fox News was not No. 1.

I guess Ken Auletta defines "journalism" as "lie like a rug to defend the Left-liberal status quo". ;-)

[Van Jenerette]

...for critical thinking class.

[IncPen]

Check out Auletta's book "Three Blind Mice". It's an unsparing look at the networks and the leveraged buyouts in the 1980s. He's not kind, by any means, towards the anchors.

I'd be interested to see what would happen were he to aim his critique at ABC, CNN, CBS, NBC, PBS or NPR.

Somehow the hysterical rantings toward the heinous conservatism of Fox News would seem to pale in light of the bias of all the other outlets

[I still care]

I do think Fox has a conservative tilt - that is exactly what people find so refreshing.

The point is, the alphabet channels and CNN have a liberal tilt, but they pretend that doesn't exist. ABCCBCNBCCNN's people continually make comments supporting liberal thought, and never present the conservative side.

I remember many segments last year where a there was a focus on how the government was stealing people's land in the name of environmentalism. Nobody but Fox has ever really approached that issue.

[I still care]

By the way, who can forget the faces of the Newsanchors on the alphabet channels when liberals don't win? It is a source of constant amusement to conservatives to recall the faces of Woodruff/Rather/Jennings when liberals are beaten. They look like they are going to cry.

I will never forget watching the night Guiliani won his race for mayor, and there was no Fox to watch on then. They had a black journalist on one of the alphabets, who was so upset that he was storming around. And he said, "Well I guess people are going to get what they deserve", in a very angry way.

Nope, no bias there.

[xJones]

The whining continues. Liberals can't take not being in total control. They are right, they know best, and having outlets for non-liberals is despicable, even though libs are the first to shout for 1st Amendment rights. It's just that 1st Amendment rights shouldn't apply to those they find disgusting, you understand.

The Texas legislature is a prime example of liberals losing power and not being able to handle it. After over 130+ years of Democratic domination, in which gerrymandering became an art form, the corrupt Dems lost out to the Republicans and they staged an incredibly juvenile flight to Oklahoma. We can still hope that they hold their collective breath until they all turn blue, and stomp their widdle feet until their Birkenstocks fall off.

[The Duke]

I do think Fox has a conservative tilt - that is exactly what people find so refreshing.

Nope, it's just LESS LIBERAL. It's easy to confuse the big names on FOX with conservatives because one is unaccustumed to seeing liberals who have integrity.

[ilgipper]

WHen discussing Fox News vs. the other channels, I always say that there is one simple thing they do in almost every segment that illustrates the difference between them and ABC, CNN, and others. Nearly every show allows viewers to write in and/or call, and their opinions are put on air.

It shows the respect Fox has for the viewers, and shows that they are not about 'creating' the news and delivering to the masses to fit their agenda, but providing a forum for the news.

[MEG33]

Well said!

[Stirner]

I was at a (liberal)friend's house this weekend and was waiting for him in his living room and turned on Fox News. He came in and was upset to see it. He said, "They say 'Fair and Balanced', but they're not." I replied, "You're right, they aren't but they are biased in a different way from the others, and that does provide some balance." He refused to think of the others as biased. I have never really expected or demanded that information providers be unbiased because I don't think it's humanly possible to be that way.

[Commiewatcher]

"It is a source of constant amusement to conservatives to recall the faces of Woodruff/Rather/Jennings when liberals are beaten. They look like they are going to cry."

It was hard to beat Dan Blather's "performance" as he was watching the RATS lose the Senate. He continued to try to explain how the RATS could still win long after we all knew it was over. He looked so sickly you could have sent him a case of Pepto Bismol and it wouldn't have helped.

I hadn't seen Blather in many, many years prior to that but decided to tune in to see how bad he really was. And that he was.

[Congressman Billybob]

The fascinating aspect of this "hit piece" is what it is forced to say, despite itself. Though Auletta wants to slam Fox News, he is forced to admit that it is successful with the viewers. And that is the bottom line purpose of any TV channel, regardless of its politics or style.

Also fascinating is the report (from Pew Research of all people) that "46% of Fox viewers are conservative," but "40% of CNN viewers are conservative." That is not a major difference between those two networks. It suggests strongly, though Auletta fails to notice this point, that CNN still has some substantial audience bleeding to go. Those numbers alone tell the thoughtful analyst (Auletta excluded) that Fox will continue to widen its lead.

Even though this is a hit piece, it fully confirms that Fox is now the 700-pound gorilla of cable TV news. And it also confirms that if present trends continue, Fox will shortly be the 700-pound gorilla of ALL TV news, including the declining broadcast networks.

Hearty congratulations are in order for both Roger Ailes, and the citizens of the US who have seen a new path to TV news, and embraced it. Perhaps Mr. Auletta will favor us with a new hit piece when Fox overtakes CBS News.

Congressman Billybob

Latest column, now up FR, "News Unfit to Print."

[PeoplesRep_of_LA]

Thus, on the occasion of Ronald Reagan's birthday, in February, Fox treated it as a cause for celebration, with live remotes throughout the day from the Reagan ranch and with interviews with former friends and associates.

Ah the liberal that is Ken Auletta is unmasked! You want to "out" a Progressive that is claiming to not have a bias? Ronald Reagan is your litmus test. Its been 20 years and they STILL can't stop hating this man. In fact, the reporter didn't even bring up The Great Communicator, this editorializer pulled him out of nowhere to bash. "Thus" he brings this up first--the fact that they dared even give the appearance of honoring Reagan as his best example of Conservative bias.

Its wonderful to see these people so bitter, I have a sweatshirt from the Reagan National Library that I enjoy wearing.

[PJ-Comix]

So, Ken Auletta, what is your opinion about Peter Collins' claim that Peter Jennings forced him to alter his reporting from Nicaragua so that it would be favorable towards the Sandinistas? What's that, Ken? Speak up. I can't HEAR YOU!!!

[PJ-Comix]

MSNBC used to be interactive with its viewers but they ditched that when they got scared of the opinions of the "peons."

[thegreatbeast]

You're right about some of the anchors on Fox. Bill O'Reilly is no conservative. Recently he called a number of us FReepers nazis (yes, that's a quote) because we didn't agree with calling out the Nat'l Guard to stop the separate proms down in Georgia.
Mr. Auletta does some analytical gymnastics here: "According to a Pew Research Center poll, forty-six per cent of Fox
viewers identify themselves as conservative, compared with forty per cent of CNN viewers. But, because Fox viewers are more intense, they watch seventy per cent more cable news than CNN viewers do." I'm quite sure that Auletta is viewing the polling data through his own biases.

[kezekiel]

I do think Fox has a conservative tilt - that is exactly what people find so refreshing.

I know I and my family certainly do. Besides, it's not that anyone should oppose the idea of a media outlet that is tilted in one direction or another--throughout modern history, that has been more the norm than the exception--but rather, the illusion of pure objectivity when the tilt is obvious for everyone to see.

[rocky88]

I wonder how Auletta would feel if Fox News started simulcasting Brit Hume's show on the Fox Network? After he unfurls himself from the fetal position, we'll ask him!

By the way, I often wonder WHY doesn't Fox do this? There would finally be a real, fair challenge to Jennings, Brokaw and Rather PLUS who is really going to miss yet another rerun of Seinfeld in the 6pm hour anyway??

[nutmeg]

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