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Posted on 05/20/2003 12:51:04 PM PDT by PJ-Comix
It's always amazing that establishment media figures, who are unable to discern any liberal bias at ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC, PBS, the news magazines and major newspapers, such as the New York Times, are so easily able to recognize conservative bias on the Fox News Channel. The latest examples: CBS's Dan Rather and New Yorker writer Ken Auletta, who has just written a story about FNC for that magazine.
Auletta's article is not online, but the DrudgeReport.com over the weekend relayed from it Rather's take on the Rupert Murdoch- owned FNC: "He finds it to his benefit to have media outlets, press outlets, that serve his business interests. There's nothing wrong with this. It's a free country. It's not an indictable offense. But by any clear analysis the bias is towards his own personal, political, partisan agenda...primarily because it fits his commercial interests." Presumably, that "political" agenda is conservative. For Drudge's item: www.drudgereportarchives.com
Back in 2001, Bernard Goldberg recounted how Rather considers the New York Times editorial page to be "middle of the road." Goldberg recalled in a May 24, 2001 Wall Street Journal op-ed: "In 1996 after I wrote about liberal bias on this very page, Dan was furious and during a phone conversation he indicated that picking The Wall Street Journal to air my views was especially appalling given the conservative views of the paper's editorial page. 'What do you consider the New York Times?' I asked him, since he had written op-eds for that paper. 'Middle of the road,' he said." www.mediaresearch.org
Monday night on CNBC's The News with Brian Williams, MRC analyst Brad Wilmouth observed, Williams asked Auletta: "They're very proud slogan is 'Fair and Balanced.' In all of your research, have you been able to come to a conclusion if they are either or both?" Auletta told Williams the slogan is a fraud:
"'Fair and balanced' is a political slogan that like many political slogans doesn't accurately capture what Fox News does. Fox News is lively, it is interesting, it tries to mend some of the liberal biases that they complain about. But it's not fair and balanced....and it's not fair and balanced in several different ways." He argued: "If you look at the commentators, the commentators tend to be stacked to the right. That is to say, you have many more conservative commentators than liberal commentators."
Auletta complained on the May 19 show: "The liberal commentators they tend to have -- like Alan Colmes, for instance - - seem as if they're sedated. They're no match for Sean Hannity, let's say. But in addition to that, the anchors -- and not just in the evening in prime time with people like Bill O'Reilly who have great ratings obviously, but all throughout the day -- many of their anchors are biased, they're people who express opinions throughout the newscast, be it 'axis of weasels' to describe France but never describing what France's position was. You could disagree with what France did, but a job of a journalist is to explain what they did and why they took the position they did, and not just dismiss them as 'axis of weasel.' But in addition to that, many times you'll see reporters who are biased in the sense that they're expressing a point-of-view, a sense of outrage about certain things that are being done. And usually it is a pro-Bush administration point-of-view. My only argument here is that, is in terms of a slogan, 'Fair and Balanced' is very clever. 'We Report, You Decide' is very clever. But it's not accurate."
The liberal Geraldo Rivera too "sedated"?
Auletta's comments to Williams match what he expressed in an online New Yorker interview about his profile of Ailes and FNC.
The New Yorker's Amy Tübke-Davidson asked: "You spent four months watching Fox News. What did you see?"
Auletta: "I saw a news network that was not, as advertised, free of bias and 'fair and balanced.' This is not to say that Fox News doesn't do some things well. It is to say that the network, like many political candidates, is not always what it claims to be. The network proclaims, 'We report. You decide.' But, too often, Fox both reports and decides. The anchors are opinionated throughout the day, not just in the evening hours, with Bill O'Reilly or Sean Hannity. Too often, the commentators tilt to the right and don't provide both sides-certainly not the nonconservative side -- and many of the network's "liberal" commentators are somewhat meek. Many Fox reporters do offer opinions. In its desire to right the excesses of what it sees as liberal press bias, Fox often goes overboard."
Tübke-Davidson: "Who watches Fox News?"
Auletta: "The largest segment of cable-news viewers is made up of conservatives. 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 percent more cable news than CNN viewers do. This intensity of viewing on Fox helps account for its ratings success, since length of viewing and not just total number of viewers is counted by the Nielsen ratings service. Fox's core viewers are conservatives, and they would seem to identify with Fox as their club for news...."
For the entire interview: newyorker.com
For Auletta's look at FNC, pick up a copy of the May 26 New Yorker.
The jig is up, we're on to them, and they can't stand it!LOL!
Remarkable. Has any network, cable or broadcast, ever described the positions of conservative public figures? Because let' face it, that's all we need. If the public were given an honest accounting of the policy debates between Left and Right, even more people would migrate to the conservative position. Instead, we get nothing. He's concerned about a Fox anchor referring to the "Axis of Weasels"? Where was he when major networks referred to the "Taliban wing" of the GOP, or the "right wing fanatics" of Waco and Montana? How about the airing of pickets referring to conservatives as fascists and Nazis without a single word refuting the charge or even itemizing the conservative position? F*** him.
Did you catch Wayne LaPierre from the NRA BLAST them on their own air the other day for this story? He was quite animated in his response, you would love it.
-PJ
And there is balance on say, ABC's sunday show with Geo. Steponallofus?
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This is great! It spells out FNC's target viewers. Waiting for FNC all these years while having to put up with CNN's "TARGETED VIEWS" was making us all fall asleep and shoot our TV sets. This is telling us all where to tune in to get back in the swing of things!
As Sidney said, "Kinda Cool"......:-)
Who said bias was a one way street?? When ABCCBSNBCCNNCSPANCSPAN2NPRETC not only admit their leanings and bias, but actually advertise their bias to gain new viewers then finally the BS might stop and real information will flow! Viewers will finally have an admitted perspective of which bias they are tuned in to.
But don't hold your breath waitin' on this fairy tale.
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