Posted on 06/19/2014 7:10:57 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
It isn’t just the left that is cheering Fox News Channel’s Megyn Kelly this morning, a day after she gave former Vice President Dick Cheney and his daughter Liz Cheney a sound grilling over Iraq, many on the right suspicious of an interventionist foreign policy are cheering her as well.
On Wednesday night, Kelly hosted the Cheney’s for what was billed as a discussion about their new political initiative aimed at crafting criticisms of President Barack Obama’s present approach to foreign policy. While there is much that is worthy of criticism in Obama’s handling of foreign affairs, some, including AllahPundit, wondered if the Cheneys could serve as helpful messengers.
Kelly brought those concerns directly to the Cheneys. After reading a portion of a brutal op-ed which essentially accused Cheney of setting in motion the events which have led to the present chaos in Iraq, Kelly voiced her own criticism of the former vice president.
“Time and time again, history has proven that you got it wrong as well in Iraq, sir,” she said
That’s a little harsh, and it’s certainly a debatable point, but the substance of this interview is not what struck me. What was important, and is frankly undervalued by the rest of the political press, is how frequently the supposedly conservative news network veers off what many believe is their script. What’s more, when this sort of contentious interview with a prominent Republican occurs, Fox is rewarded for it by their core audience.
The opposite is not the case, according to a recent Pew Research Center survey on cable news viewers’ satisfaction with the product they are consuming:
One thing that differs when it comes to MSNBC is that it does not draw the same uniformly positive reviews from consistent liberals that FNC does from consistent conservatives. While nearly half (45%) of consistent liberals view MSNBC favorably, that’s not much better than how MSNBC rates among those with mixed ideological views (38%). Nearly half of consistent liberals offer no opinion of MSNBC. By contrast, the vast majority of consistent conservatives offer an opinion of Fox News, with 74% favorable and just 5% unfavorable.
“When MSNBC President Phil Griffin decided to turn his network into a liberal answer to Fox News, he was betting that there was a progressive audience out there to match the conservative faithful on the other side,” Politico’s Dylan Byers reacted. “But people don’t simply watch opinion channels because the programming matches their partisan views. The programming has to be compelling.”
Yes, but it’s more than that. Having watched MSNBC evolve as a network over the last two years, it seems to me that their every answer to ratings challenges is strive to be even more predictable. It has become increasingly rare for an MSNBC host to go off the reservation of progressive thought.
Kelly’s interview of the Cheneys was compelling, but it was also contentious and tension makes for good television. It is possible that MSNBC’s core audience simply does not appreciate having the members of their “team” challenged by those who are supposedly on their side. When was the last time you saw Chris Hayes or Rachel Maddow interrogate a Democratic officeholder from the right?
I’m through with Kelly and several other of the Fox newsbabes. I can’t listen to their strident (word for the Day) voices and the way they talk over their guests. Who do they think they are?
Because they have plenty of other venues (ABCNNBCBS) for their particular slant. Who does the conservative have?
Nothing surprising about this, Kelly is a lefty Obama loving twit.
Kelly’s attitude aside, was Cheney and Bush wrong to invade Iraq?
In other words, would the world be relatively safer with Saddam Hussein still at the helm?
That is still the question.
Megyn Kelly is using Roger Ailes’ , (FOX’s CEO), “Be the Devil’s advocate” definition of “Fair and Balanced” questioning.
Top practitioners of this don’t-forget-the-obsolete-Liberals-point-of-view “Fair and Balanced” method are as follows:
# 1. Neil Cavoto
# 2. Bill O’Reilley
# 3. Megyn Kelley.
Rarely do any of these three pseudo journalists have guests with none-of-the-above Conservative opinions allowed to appear on their shows.
These three “Shows” are a notch above MSNBC Shows.
Note to Roger Ailes:
WE KNOW WHAT THE LIBERAL AND GOP-E POINTS OF VIEW ARE, SO STOP TELLING AND THUS PROMOTING THEIR HARMFUL IDEAS!
Megan Kelly plays devil’s advocate
Fox is getting the ratings, the credibility and, frankly, the Chemeys can take it, and they did - just fine. Bush and cheneys names are all over Iraq. So he had a chance to explain himself
These guys are journalists.
As the writer here says, fox does not fawn , as does msnbc
The thing that bothers me about fox is watching Bret baier and Greta giving Hillary a pass. They should have asked her the obvious , so what about a stupid video , since when do we apologize to our attacker?
What bothers me about Megan is her weird fashion
LOL. Last night she looked like she was going to the beach
Give Kelly points for being equal handed with Cheney. That is what I expect from a fair and balanced media. This examination of both sides of an issue is a refreshing change from what we hear from the Ministry of Propaganda media.
I like the fact that she comes at these interviews from all sides. That is good journalism. Conservatives should never be afraid of hearing varying opinions. We want the truth after hearing what everyone involved has to say.
How does Megan know we got it wrong? what if Saddam stayed in power, took over Suadi Arabia and Kuwait, killed millions and allowed terrorists to have a safe haven?
Almost all of our government and a substantial portion of the free world did not think so.
Iraq's current situation is the natural result of a subsequent administration leaving the job half completed. Is it logical to blame Cheney and Bush for that failure when they had absolutely no say in the matter?
Aside from the fact that each missile fired at our pilots constituted an act of war, I guess if you weren't one of those pilots, it was probably no big deal to you.
YES!!!!
Obama Loves this Iraq Bull , the longer he drags it out the longer it will DISTRACT from his Scandals and when he finally does do something it will be just a stupid as the rest of his decisions
RE: killed millions and allowed terrorists to have a safe haven
Saddam did all that.
Not sure what his relationship with Al Qaeda is though.
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