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-   -   Is Fox less biased than any other news source? (https://greekchat.com/gcforums/showthread.php?t=51994)

Rudey 07-14-2004 11:35 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by piphimaggie
Ritalin is a presciption drug, not usually associated with users. You're an immigrant? WHO KNEW?


...I hope you're legal.

First you just attack me because I'm not poor and stupid and going to a dumb school. Now you attack me because I'm an immigrant.

Actually let me educate you. Ritalin and Adderall have huge abuse issues. The best way is to bop it - sometimes you crush it and you sniff taking the shot straight into your brain. This brings about stronger results in a shorter time span. Essentially you have a form of speed.

-Rudey
--Oh and if we return to the subject at hand, Fox is less biased than other news sources and you have nothing to say otherwise

RACooper 07-14-2004 11:39 PM

I love seeing in which direction your puerile ravings will go... though perhaps you should keep a record of these "insults" so as to keep them straight from now on... okay? Then at least I can seem some new material that would be more entertaining and not just sad...

Oh in case your wondering... or want to update your repertoire:
- yes I'm still at school, but it's post-grad studies now...
- at least I served my country... in a military that soldier to soldier is no better or worse than the US or UK military...
- oh the officer thing actually isn't an insult, because of my "trade" I couldn't be one (nor wanted to)... I don't disparage people who were or weren't officers, but judge them on how competent they were at there job.


FOX is biased...

Rudey 07-14-2004 11:44 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by RACooper
I love seeing in which direction your puerile ravings will go... though perhaps you should keep a record of these "insults" so as to keep them straight from now on... okay? Then at least I can seem some new material that would be more entertaining and not just sad...

Oh in case your wondering... or want to update your repertoire:
- yes I'm still at school, but it's post-grad studies now...
- at least I served my country... in a military that soldier to soldier is no better or worse than the US or UK military...
- oh the officer thing actually isn't an insult, because of my "trade" I couldn't be one (nor wanted to)... I don't disparage people who were or weren't officers, but judge them on how competent they were at there job.


FOX is biased...

Yeah OK...the Canadian military is just as good as any other military out there. And I'm banging the tooth fairy. Post-grad...great...you can be a post-grad by taking a class online...we're impressed. Look at you...you didn't even have anything to say in this thread except some insults about me and a demonstration of how you're so stupid that you can't read, and talk without caring how everyone thinks you're dumb.

-Rudey

IowaStatePhiPsi 07-15-2004 12:00 AM

http://www.outfoxed.org

All you need to know about Faux News.

piphimaggie 07-15-2004 12:02 AM

thanks, Phi Psi....

Rudey 07-15-2004 12:02 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by IowaStatePhiPsi
http://www.outfoxed.org

All you need to know about Faux News.

Ummm right. How about you read the study? They do teach the reading in special-ed right?

-Rudey

Rudey 07-15-2004 12:07 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by piphimaggie
thanks, Phi Psi....
It's not a study. It's not comparing anything. Now that you're done insulting, can you please attempt to read?

-Rudey

piphimaggie 07-15-2004 12:16 AM

IF you want news, go to Reuters, or the AP. OF COURSE Fox News is biased. They are tailoring to a self-selected audience that expects a conservative edge to the information being conveyed. You dont need a study to prove that.

Rudey 07-15-2004 12:19 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by piphimaggie
IF you want news, go to Reuters, or the AP. OF COURSE Fox News is biased. They are tailoring to a self-selected audience that expects a conservative edge to the information being conveyed. You dont need a study to prove that.

Ugh...again, READ THE STUDY.

I bet you don't even read the news.

-Rudey

KSig RC 07-15-2004 01:23 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by piphimaggie
IF you want news, go to Reuters, or the AP. OF COURSE Fox News is biased. They are tailoring to a self-selected audience that expects a conservative edge to the information being conveyed. You dont need a study to prove that.


YES YOU DO.

YOU DO, IN FACT, NEED TO PROVIDE EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE TO SUPPORT YOUR CLAIMS. THIS IS NOT NEGOTIABLE. YOUR OPINIONS OR ANECDOTAL CLAIMS TO EVIDENTIARY SUPPORT CARRY NO WEIGHT IN AN ARGUMENT.

If i ever have to reiterate this again in this forum, I will force my friend/sockpuppet arya to stickey it for me.

-RC
--Sorry for the caps, this is important to me (not the fox news part)

moe.ron 07-15-2004 03:16 AM

Chill with the personal attacks people.

krazy 07-19-2004 06:58 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by piphimaggie
IF you want news, go to Reuters, or the AP. OF COURSE Fox News is biased. They are tailoring to a self-selected audience that expects a conservative edge to the information being conveyed. You dont need a study to prove that.
This is just crazy... C'mon. Have you even seen a newscast given by an FNC journalist? Don't blindly believe the hype. Find out for yourself. Watch a network or another cable news channel and you can taste the liberal bias.

Now, some of their specific programs, such as O'reilly, etc. offer plenty of opinion, but offer it from both sides. But we are talking news here, and the FNC journalists are very good.

GeekyPenguin 07-19-2004 11:25 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by krazy
This is just crazy... C'mon. Have you even seen a newscast given by an FNC journalist? Don't blindly believe the hype. Find out for yourself. Watch a network or another cable news channel and you can taste the liberal bias.

Now, some of their specific programs, such as O'reilly, etc. offer plenty of opinion, but offer it from both sides. But we are talking news here, and the FNC journalists are very good.

http://members.cox.net/pimpbot9000/lollerskates.gif

piphimaggie 07-19-2004 11:39 PM

All caps is rude...come on children, let's play nice. I am entitled to my opinion, and I have no problem saying that I dont trust what FNC dishes out. Why? It's entertainment, and hardly anything more :)

Please continue to rip my views to shreds...although it will be a royal waste since I'm thoroughly bored with this superfluous argument.

Opinions are opinions, let's leave it at that.

Rudey 07-20-2004 01:03 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by piphimaggie
All caps is rude...come on children, let's play nice. I am entitled to my opinion, and I have no problem saying that I dont trust what FNC dishes out. Why? It's entertainment, and hardly anything more :)

Please continue to rip my views to shreds...although it will be a royal waste since I'm thoroughly bored with this superfluous argument.

Opinions and opinions, let's leave it at that.

I proved your "opinion" wrong with this study. In the future, please see a shrink to share your "opinions".

-Rudey
--My opinion is that dragons eat pudding in my bathroom at night! ladee dah!

krazy 07-20-2004 02:18 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by GeekyPenguin
http://members.cox.net/pimpbot9000/lollerskates.gif
ad hominem...

moe.ron 07-20-2004 02:31 PM

Quote:

Still Failing the "Fair & Balanced" Test

Special Report leans right, white, Republican & male

By Steve Rendall & Julie Hollar

FAIR’s latest study of Fox’s Special Report with Brit Hume finds the network’s flagship news show still listing right—heavily favoring conservative and Republican guests in its one-on-one interviews. And, according to the study, Special Report rarely features women or non-white guests in these prominent newsmaker inter-view spots.

In previous studies FAIR has found that looking at a show’s guest list is one of the most reliable methods for gauging its perspective. In the case of Special Report, the single one-on-one interview with anchor Brit Hume is a central part of the newscast, and the anchor often uses his high-profile guests’ comments as subject matter for the show’s wrap-up panel discussion. If Fox is the “fair & balanced” network it claims to be, then the guest list of what Fox calls its “signature news show” ought to reflect a diverse spectrum of ideas and sources. FAIR has studied Special Report’s guest list on two earlier occasions (Extra!, 7–8/01, 7–8/02).

FAIR’s current study looked at 25 weeks of Special Report’s one-on-one interview segments (6/30/03–12/19/03), finding 101 guests. FAIR classified each guest by political ideology, party affiliation (where applicable), gender and ethnicity. When FAIR first studied Special Report in 2001, the dominance of conservative guests was so overwhelming (71 percent of all guests) that we used just two ideological categories, “conservative” and “non-conservative.” The latter included guests with no discernible political ideology.

When FAIR’s second study in 2002 found conservative guests had dropped to less than half of the total, we added a “left of center” category for comparison purposes. Though the “left of center” category was more broadly defined than the “conservative” category— since many right-of-center guests were not counted as conservatives—conservatives still outnumbered those on the left, 14 to one.

For this study three ideological categories were used: conservative, centrist and progressive. Guests affiliated with openly conservative, centrist or progressive think tanks, magazines or advocacy groups, or who openly promote such views, are labeled as such. Guests who do not avow an ideology—such as military operations experts and journalists who decline to reveal their own political inclinations—were categorized as non-ideological.

As with earlier FAIR studies of Special Report, Republicans were not automatically counted as conservatives and Democrats were not automatically counted as liberals. For instance, Georgia Democratic Senator Zell Miller, who champions many conservative causes and openly campaigns for George Bush, is classified as an ideological conservative. Likewise, Georgia Democratic congressmember Jim Marshall, who has one of the most conservative voting records of any congressional Democrat, was classified as a “centrist,” as was Democrat Susan Estrich, who was a member of Republican California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s transition team and has implored Democrats to move to the center (e.g., “Let Clinton Be the Centrist Clinton,” USA Today, 6/22/95). Dennis Ross, who has served under Republican and Democratic administrations and whose positions on the Middle East are center-right, was counted as a centrist for the purposes of this study.

In the past, Special Report featured interviews with moderate Republicans such as Christopher Shays, Christine Todd Whitman and David Gergen who were counted as “non-conservatives” under the earlier classification system. Only one Republican was counted as a “centrist” in the current study period: Noah Feldman, a legal expert who worked for the Bush administration in Iraq.
Conservative & Republican

Fifty-seven percent of Special Report’s one-on-one guests during the period studied were ideological conservatives, 12 percent were centrists and 11 percent were progressives.

Twenty percent of guests were non-ideological. Among ideological guests, conservatives accounted for 72 percent, while centrists made up 15 percent and progressives 14 percent. (The total exceeds 100 percent due to rounding.) Viewers were roughly five times more likely to see a conservative interviewed on Special Report than a progressive.

The five-to-one conservative-to-progressive imbalance is actually a marked improvement from FAIR’s 2002 study, which found that “left-of-center” guests—three percent of the total—were outnumbered 14 to one. In the 2002 study, however, conservative dominance was less marked, at 48 percent of total guests.

Special Report’s guestlist shows a similarly heavy slant toward Republicans. Forty-two guests were current or former Democratic or Republican officials, candidates, political appointees or advisers. Guests who had past affiliations with both Republicans and Democrats were counted as nonpartisan; for example, Dennis Ross—having served under presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton—was classified as non-partisan.

Of the 42 partisan guests, 35 were Republicans and only seven were Democrats—a five-to-one imbalance. Furthermore, of the handful of Democrats that did appear, the majority were centrist or conservative, and frequently expressed views more typical of Republican guests. For example, centrist Rep. Jim Marshall (10/23/03) argued that the media weren’t covering the “good news” in Iraq, while Sen. Zell Miller (11/4/03) talked about his dissatisfaction with the Democratic party and his fondness for George Bush. Thirty-four of the 35 Republicans who appeared were conservatives; only one, Noah Feldman, was classified as a centrist.

The five-to-one partisan imbalance represents a greater slant than FAIR’s 2002 study, which found Republicans outnumbering Democrats by three to two, though it is still better than FAIR’s 2001 study, which found Special Report’s guest list favoring Republicans by more than eight to one (50 vs. 6). After the 2001 study, the show’s anchor, Fox managing editor Brit Hume, told the New York Times (7/2/01) that, though he had yet to read the findings, “if it is a reasonable question, and we find that there is some imbalance, then we’ll correct it.”
White & male

Special Report continues to overwhelmingly favor white and male guests: As in 2002, only 7 percent of guests were women, and the percentage of people of color rose only slightly, to 11 percent from 7 percent in 2001 and 2002. In 2003, only one woman of color was featured in a one-on-one interview: National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice.

As in past studies, those women and people of color who did appear on Special Report were remarkably conservative. Four of the seven appearances by women were by conservative Republicans and two were by centrist Democrat Susan Estrich. No progressive women appeared in the study period. Of the seven guests of color (accounting for 11 appearances), five were conservative and only one was progressive, journalist Charles Cobb of allAfrica.com. The one person of color classified as non-ideological, Mansoor Ijaz, accounted for five appearances. Ijaz, a wealthy investment manager who has expressed support for Hillary Clinton, is also a frequent and vocal booster of neo-conservative causes and difficult to label ideologically. (See sidebar.)

In our second study of Special Report (Extra!, 8/02), FAIR remarked, “While Special Report can claim to have moderated its imbalance with regard to Republican and conservative guests, the show still falls short of reflecting the diverse ideas and communities of the United States.” With current findings indicating that the show has tipped back toward increased imbalance, it becomes harder to defend Special Report from charges that it chooses its guests based on political sympathies, not news judgment.

Research assistance: Daniel Butterworth and Jon Whiten

This study was commissioned for the film Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism by Robert Greenwald.

SIDEBAR:
No Balance From “Liberal” Media

Conservatives often defend Fox’s rightward slant by claiming that it simply counterbalances a predominantly left-leaning media. But previous FAIR studies have found that, across the supposedly “liberal” media, Republican sources dominate—and Fox simply skews even farther to the right.

FAIR’s original 2001 study of Special Report (Extra!, 7–8/01) included a comparison to CNN’s Wolf Blitzer Reports—which favored Republicans 57 to 43 percent. And a 2002 FAIR study of the three major networks’ nightly news broadcasts (Extra!, 5–6/02) found an even greater imbalance than on CNN: Of partisan sources, 75 percent were Republican and only 24 percent Democrats. The differences among the networks were negligible; CBS had the most Republicans (76 percent) while ABC had the fewest (73 percent).

Even NPR, characterized by conservative critics as “liberal” radio, favored Republican sources over Democrats by a ratio of more than three to two in a recent study of its main news shows (Extra!, 5-6/04). And Republican political domination doesn’t explain the imbalance: In FAIR’s 1993 study of NPR (Extra!, 4–5/93) , when Democrats controlled the White House and both houses of Congress, Republicans still outnumbered Democrats 57 to 42 percent.—S.R. and J.H.

SIDEBAR:
Special Report’s Special Guest

One of Special Report’s favorite guests is Fox News analyst Mansoor Ijaz, an American investment manager of South Asian heritage. Neither a conservative nor a Republican, Ijaz plays a special role on Special Report. Leading all other guests with five appearances during the period studied—he’s appeared on Fox more than 100 times on other occasions—Ijaz regularly echoes Bush White House and neo-conservative claims about global threats, ignoring evidence while citing only shadowy, unnamed sources.

For instance, when anchor Brit Hume (11/10/03) asked Ijaz if there was “evidence of any consequence” linking Saddam Hussein to the September 11, 2001 terror attacks, Ijaz replied, “Absolutely.” But the remainder of Ijaz’s answer contained nothing even vaguely suggesting such evidence. The segment ended with Ijaz criticizing Democrats for questioning the White House’s case for war.

If Ijaz’s support for official policy is central to his current role on the show, it’s not what first made him a star on Special Report (and several other Fox shows). Ijaz came into heavy rotation as a Fox guest after charging in the Los Angeles Times (12/5/01) that President Bill Clinton blew a chance to capture Osama bin Laden in the 1990s. Ijaz claims to have brokered a deal in which Sudan would have produced Osama bin Laden in exchange for the lifting of sanctions on the African country—a deal Ijaz says Clinton failed to act on.

It was a questionable claim—in fact, the September 11 Commission later found no "reliable evidence" to support it (Hearing 8, 3/23/04)—and other news outlets noted that the Clinton administration flatly denied the allegations. Salon.com reported (8/16/02) that “the Clinton administration says there was no deal and that Ijaz never had a role in diplomatic discussions,” and quoted Clinton's National Security Adviser Sandy Berger calling Ijaz’s claims “ludicrous and irresponsible." Even Clinton critic Richard Miniter, in his book Losing Bin Laden: How Bill Clinton's Failures Unleashed Global Terror, saw fit to include a Clinton official's assessment of Ijaz as "a Walter Mitty living out a personal fantasy." But when Ijaz repeated his Clinton-let-Bin-Laden-get-away story on Special Report (11/6/03), Hume simply ended the segment, “Got you. Mansoor Ijaz, great to have you. Thanks very much.”

Rarely naming his sources or even identifying them by nationality or occupation, Ijaz insists on their reliability. When asked by Hume about the whereabouts of Osama Bin Laden (11/20/03), Ijaz replied: “Well, Brit, tonight I can report from my intelligence sources, I consider unimpeachable intelligence sources, that we have eyewitness accounts that both Osama bin Laden, in a modified, disguised form, as well as Ayman al-Zawahiri, the number two in Al Qaeda, are, in fact, in Iran.” This is less than airtight evidence, but Hume apparently needs little convincing; that night, as on many segments featuring Ijaz, the anchor introduced him with lavish praise for his connections: “He is an American businessman by trade, but few people on Earth have better connections and sources in the Mideast than Mansoor Ijaz.”

While many of Ijaz’s claims are so vaguely sourced as to be uncheckable, some have been questioned by other reporters. According to the New York Times (2/4/02), Ijaz once “confirmed” for Fox (2/3/02) an inaccurate report that the body of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl had been found. While Pearl’s body wouldn’t turn up for another three months, and the erroneous story was called a hoax by U.S. and Pakistani officials, Fox invited Ijaz on less than a week later (On the Record, 2/8/02) to speculate again about Pearl’s condition and kidnappers.

Last summer Ijaz told the British Guardian (8/23/03) that the White House had reached a secret agreement with Pakistan not to capture or kill bin Laden in late 2001, following the U.S. war in Afghanistan. Nerves were too raw right after the war, said Ijaz, and the immediate capture or death of bin Laden might inflame unrest in Pakistan and incite attacks on the West elsewhere. “There was a judgment made that it would be more destabilizing in the longer term,” Ijaz told the paper. “There would still be the ability to get him at a later date when it was more appropriate.”

If true—an important qualifier—this story would obviously be huge news. But Ijaz did not repeat his dubious bombshell on Special Report when he next appeared on the show (9/10/03), perhaps because he knew that stories that reflect badly on the Bush White House are not received well there. —S.R. and J.H.

preciousjeni 07-20-2004 02:32 PM

*putting on the WRATH SHIELD - please do not flame*

Rudey, now this is an honest question. I can't remember which study it was about Fox - I read a few - but there was a chart that showed Fox news on the conservative side and others on the liberal side. But, Fox was as conservative as some others were liberal, according to the chart. Is this not true?

Rudey 07-20-2004 03:08 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by preciousjeni
*putting on the WRATH SHIELD - please do not flame*

Rudey, now this is an honest question. I can't remember which study it was about Fox - I read a few - but there was a chart that showed Fox news on the conservative side and others on the liberal side. But, Fox was as conservative as some others were liberal, according to the chart. Is this not true?

No it is not true. Please read the study.

-Rudey

Rudey 07-20-2004 03:09 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by moe.ron
Yeah ummm is that really a study? Who did it? Who are they compared to? How extensive is it?

-Rudey
--The people who are selling something against Murdoch did their own study

ZeroCool 07-20-2004 05:56 PM

Argg. I'm getting really tired of seeing this story all over the place. Fox News is a fine cable news channel...and it just bother me that an openly, highly liberal organization such as moveon has a way to get so many people's attention with this stunt. its just sad. they're ridiculous.

DeltAlum 07-20-2004 11:06 PM

Liberals Step Up Political Assault Against Fox News

By JULIA ANGWIN Staff Reporter, The Wall Street Journal

(July 20) - During presidential election years, conservative politicians have often attacked the media for their liberal bias. But during this year's campaign, liberals are fighting back with what they see as a powerful issue -- the alleged conservative slant of the Fox News Channel, a unit of the media conglomerate Staff Reporter.

The assault on Fox News started on July 8, with a report from media watchdog group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting claiming that in the six months through Dec. 19, 2003, 57% of guests on Fox News's popular evening news show, "Special Report with Brit Hume" were conservatives.

The next week, left-leaning advocacy groups MoveOn.Org and Center for American Progress sponsored the release of a documentary "Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism," which uses clips from the cable channel to show what the filmmakers claim is a pattern of right-wing bias and support for the Republican agenda.

Yesterday, MoveOn.Org and political watchdog Common Cause filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission claiming that Fox News Channel's slogan "fair and balanced" violates the federal agency's prohibition against deceptive advertising. At the same time, the Independent Media Institute, an advocacy group for alternative journalism, announced it had filed a challenge against Fox News' trademark on the term "fair and balanced."

This type of concerted campaign against a single news outlet is rare, but not surprising given the tenor of this year's hotly contested presidential election. "In a razor-thin race like this, you need to fire up your base," says Thomas Hollihan, professor at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California. "An issue like this gets those hard-core liberals focused and attentive. It's a kind of issue that people can talk about at work."


'Outfoxed'



Getty


In New York and elsewhere, small groups are screening 'Outfoxed,' an independent film making the case that Fox News Channel carries a conservative bias.
Read Review


The campaign against Fox News Channel partly reflects the growing importance of cable news channels as the main arena in which these elections are played out. Four years ago, more Americans said they got their political news from the broadcast evening news than cable news, according to a study by Pew Research Center, an independent opinion research group based in Washington, D.C. But this year, the study shows that the cable channels have eclipsed the nightly network news. And among cable channels, Fox News Channel wins the highest ratings.

Fox News Channel was founded in 1996 by Roger Ailes, a former Republican political consultant, who wanted to create an alternative to what he believed was the liberal bias of mainstream media such as CNN. Mr. Ailes loaded up the prime-time schedule with conservative commentators such as Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity, but focused on straight news during the daytime lineup.

"If they can attack Fox News to this extreme, then all news organizations are at risk to be targeted by similar attacks," says Fox News Spokesman Rob Zimmerman. "It's best to ignore nuts."

Critics such as MoveOn.Org and Common Cause charge that Fox News leans to the right even during its straight news segments. "We think Fox News is really the poster child for how the concept of journalism in media has been deconstructed," says MoveOn.Org Co-Founder Wes Boyd. "It's no longer about the search for the truth. Fox has taken up a truly partisan role."



Numbers indicate the percentages of people of each political affiliation who say they regularly watch these news programs.


From "News Audiences Increasingly Politicized, Online News Audience Larger, More Diverse" Pew Research Center for the People and The Press. Washington, DC. June 8, 2004.



Common Cause President Chellie Pingree adds that the campaign against Fox News is meant to highlight increasing media consolidation, which many feel threatens to limit diversity. "That goes well beyond one news network," she says. Both Ms. Pingree and Mr. Boyd point out that their campaign is not linked to the Democratic party.

But conservative strategists say they aren't buying it. "They're doing the dirty work of the Democratic party and everybody knows it," says Brent Bozell, a conservative media watchdog. Mark Tapscott, director of the Center for Media and Public Policy at the conservative Heritage Foundation, calls the anti-Fox News campaign "corporate guerilla harassment."

Democratic consultants and strategists say they are pleased that MoveOn.Org is taking a page from the conservative playbook. In 1970, Vice President Spiro Agnew famously attacked the press as "nattering nabobs of negativism," helping boost President Richard Nixon's popularity. Since then, many conservative politicians have found that attacking the liberal media strikes a chord with voters.

"For years, Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly and the other right-wing bozos have been rabble-rousing people on the right," says Karl Struble, a Democratic media adviser. "Now, Democrats and progressives are fighting back."

Paul Maslin, a Democratic pollster who was an adviser to former presidential candidate Howard Dean, says that progressives are finally capitalizing on the fact that "people don't like the media in general." Mr. Maslin says that when Mr. Dean criticized the media conglomerates that control much of the nation's news outlets, his standing in the polls soared.

Rudey 07-20-2004 11:12 PM

The difference is that it isn't an unbiased real study.

The thing is this: People who watch Fox don't change stations. I think it's a damn waste by groups like Moveon. What can possibly happen?

-Rudey


Quote:

Originally posted by DeltAlum
Liberals Step Up Political Assault Against Fox News

By JULIA ANGWIN Staff Reporter, The Wall Street Journal

(July 20) - During presidential election years, conservative politicians have often attacked the media for their liberal bias. But during this year's campaign, liberals are fighting back with what they see as a powerful issue -- the alleged conservative slant of the Fox News Channel, a unit of the media conglomerate Staff Reporter.

The assault on Fox News started on July 8, with a report from media watchdog group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting claiming that in the six months through Dec. 19, 2003, 57% of guests on Fox News's popular evening news show, "Special Report with Brit Hume" were conservatives.

The next week, left-leaning advocacy groups MoveOn.Org and Center for American Progress sponsored the release of a documentary "Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism," which uses clips from the cable channel to show what the filmmakers claim is a pattern of right-wing bias and support for the Republican agenda.

Yesterday, MoveOn.Org and political watchdog Common Cause filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission claiming that Fox News Channel's slogan "fair and balanced" violates the federal agency's prohibition against deceptive advertising. At the same time, the Independent Media Institute, an advocacy group for alternative journalism, announced it had filed a challenge against Fox News' trademark on the term "fair and balanced."

This type of concerted campaign against a single news outlet is rare, but not surprising given the tenor of this year's hotly contested presidential election. "In a razor-thin race like this, you need to fire up your base," says Thomas Hollihan, professor at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California. "An issue like this gets those hard-core liberals focused and attentive. It's a kind of issue that people can talk about at work."


'Outfoxed'



Getty


In New York and elsewhere, small groups are screening 'Outfoxed,' an independent film making the case that Fox News Channel carries a conservative bias.
Read Review


The campaign against Fox News Channel partly reflects the growing importance of cable news channels as the main arena in which these elections are played out. Four years ago, more Americans said they got their political news from the broadcast evening news than cable news, according to a study by Pew Research Center, an independent opinion research group based in Washington, D.C. But this year, the study shows that the cable channels have eclipsed the nightly network news. And among cable channels, Fox News Channel wins the highest ratings.

Fox News Channel was founded in 1996 by Roger Ailes, a former Republican political consultant, who wanted to create an alternative to what he believed was the liberal bias of mainstream media such as CNN. Mr. Ailes loaded up the prime-time schedule with conservative commentators such as Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity, but focused on straight news during the daytime lineup.

"If they can attack Fox News to this extreme, then all news organizations are at risk to be targeted by similar attacks," says Fox News Spokesman Rob Zimmerman. "It's best to ignore nuts."

Critics such as MoveOn.Org and Common Cause charge that Fox News leans to the right even during its straight news segments. "We think Fox News is really the poster child for how the concept of journalism in media has been deconstructed," says MoveOn.Org Co-Founder Wes Boyd. "It's no longer about the search for the truth. Fox has taken up a truly partisan role."



Numbers indicate the percentages of people of each political affiliation who say they regularly watch these news programs.


From "News Audiences Increasingly Politicized, Online News Audience Larger, More Diverse" Pew Research Center for the People and The Press. Washington, DC. June 8, 2004.



Common Cause President Chellie Pingree adds that the campaign against Fox News is meant to highlight increasing media consolidation, which many feel threatens to limit diversity. "That goes well beyond one news network," she says. Both Ms. Pingree and Mr. Boyd point out that their campaign is not linked to the Democratic party.

But conservative strategists say they aren't buying it. "They're doing the dirty work of the Democratic party and everybody knows it," says Brent Bozell, a conservative media watchdog. Mark Tapscott, director of the Center for Media and Public Policy at the conservative Heritage Foundation, calls the anti-Fox News campaign "corporate guerilla harassment."

Democratic consultants and strategists say they are pleased that MoveOn.Org is taking a page from the conservative playbook. In 1970, Vice President Spiro Agnew famously attacked the press as "nattering nabobs of negativism," helping boost President Richard Nixon's popularity. Since then, many conservative politicians have found that attacking the liberal media strikes a chord with voters.

"For years, Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly and the other right-wing bozos have been rabble-rousing people on the right," says Karl Struble, a Democratic media adviser. "Now, Democrats and progressives are fighting back."

Paul Maslin, a Democratic pollster who was an adviser to former presidential candidate Howard Dean, says that progressives are finally capitalizing on the fact that "people don't like the media in general." Mr. Maslin says that when Mr. Dean criticized the media conglomerates that control much of the nation's news outlets, his standing in the polls soared.


KSig RC 07-20-2004 11:30 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by preciousjeni
*putting on the WRATH SHIELD - please do not flame*

Rudey, now this is an honest question. I can't remember which study it was about Fox - I read a few - but there was a chart that showed Fox news on the conservative side and others on the liberal side. But, Fox was as conservative as some others were liberal, according to the chart. Is this not true?


you mistyped, i think - this is a more correct statement:


"Some will perceive Fox News as being right-leaning - however, if you measure the distance of FNC from the center vs. that of other channels, it is smaller, regardless of the direction they lean."


Thus "less biased"

Rudey 07-21-2004 12:05 AM

Funny - I don't like Fox. I find it to be too superficial like most news sources so I tune in but rarely. In fact I probably read more left-wing sources than conservatives ones only because I like their style better and usually the writers are much stronger.

-Rudey

KSig RC 07-21-2004 01:14 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Rudey
Funny - I don't like Fox. I find it to be too superficial like most news sources so I tune in but rarely. In fact I probably read more left-wing sources than conservatives ones only because I like their style better and usually the writers are much stronger.

-Rudey

agreed - most high-end "primary source" literature tends to lean left, and i tend to associate better w/ how they present their ideas.

ZeroCool 07-21-2004 02:02 PM

I agree. Most media outlets, by and large are left leaning. And as you said, this is why a lot of people are yelling and running around flailing their arms, claiming that Fox News is biased to the right. It's aggrevating to hear this mindless flotsum and jetsum from Moveon and these other media outlets pouncing on this as an opportunity to knock down their opponent.

krazy 07-21-2004 06:35 PM

Well MoveOn.org is hardly high-end... they are simply extemist.


I do agree that most literary news that is worth a damn is left-leaning, but I feel I can decipher the opinion from the fact.

FNC doesn't dress up their news; it is as simple as that. You may not like the way it is presented, but it is fair. That is what makes me so livid about the way they are being treated by MoveOn.org, etc. If these groups really wanted to squash biased journalism, they would go after CNN.

DeltAlum 07-28-2004 10:18 AM

Fox vs. CNN: a deepening divide
The Dallas Morning News
By Colleen McCain Nelson

DALLAS _ In the divisive world of cable television news, three letters say a lot about a person.

The TV nation, like the electorate, is split down the middle, with viewers choosing sides: Fox or CNN. And just as in presidential politics, most are committed to their preference, with few swing voters or undecideds up for grabs.

As the race for the White House heats up, the partisan divide is deepening on the TV dial.

Charges and countercharges of bias fly between viewers of the two networks, with Fox watchers labeling the competition liberal and CNN viewers dubbing the other guys GOP-TV.

But are the broadcasts on Fox News Channel and CNN really that different?

For viewers such as Patty Cron, the answer is an unequivocal "yes."

A frequent business traveler, she insists on staying in hotels that offer Fox News.

"A lot of hotels just have the Ted Turner CNN package," she says. "When that happens, I check out and switch hotels."

The result of such unwavering loyalty, media experts said, is a growing disconnect between those who rely on "fair and balanced" news, which Fox says it provides, and those watching "the most trusted name in news," which CNN claims to be.

While a diversity of opinions and information sources is useful, media experts say, the danger of this divide is a lack of consensus on even basic facts.

"The common ground for public understanding and public information may be destroyed in all of this," said Frank Sesno, a former CNN executive and a professor of public policy and communication at George Mason University. "The simple question of what happened today becomes something we're in danger of arguing over."

Network representatives say the question of whether Fox or CNN promotes a point of view is easily put to rest.

No, each said without hesitation.

Both claim to be the best and most unbiased source of news.

"It's obvious that we place the highest premium on being impartial, on providing all sides _ not just both sides _ but all sides," said Matthew Furman, CNN spokesman.

"We try to make sure that everything is fair and is balanced," said Bill Shine, vice president of production for Fox News. "It's our slogan, but it's also what we live by."

Shine said Fox goes so far as to take a stopwatch into the studio to ensure that opposing viewpoints get equal airtime. Furman said that during every step of production _ from guest bookings to script vettings _ fairness is considered at CNN.

For confirmation of their evenhandedness, both networks turn to their audiences. Cable news viewers represent only a sliver of the television universe, but they are an engaged and brand-loyal bunch.

Fox points to its success in the ratings, which have consistently outpaced the competition, making the 8-year-old network No. 1 in cable news. "The American public likes what we do, and that shows in the ratings," Shine said.

At CNN, the network cites studies showing that people of all political stripes are tuning in. "The ideological makeup of our audience most closely mirrors the makeup of the country," Furman said.

A study released last month by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center found that conservatives are watching Fox in greater numbers. CNN's audience has become more Democratic, but the network still draws a politically varied audience.

According to the study, 52 percent of Fox viewers describe themselves as conservative, compared with 36 percent of CNN's audience. CNN has more credibility with viewers _ 32 percent believe what they hear on the network, compared with 25 percent for Fox _ but CNN's rating has slipped in the last couple of years.

Hector Leija was a CNN viewer but gradually grew frustrated with the network. A Republican, Leija abandoned CNN after becoming fed up with what he perceived as undue criticism of the president.

"I got tired of all the negative," he said. "They were bashing my man Bush, so I had to make the switch."

As Leija sees it, all networks slant their stories, so he might as well watch the channel that mirrors his views.

"When people are in agreement with one another, they tend to be good company. Fox and I are good company," he said.

Like Leija, many viewers are seeking affirmation _ not information, experts said.
(bold type added by DA)

"We have too much info to sift through to form our own opinions, so we lean on partisan hosts who form them for us," said Matthew Felling, media director for the Center for Media and Public Affairs.

In a world of sound bites and bullet points, many viewers seek out simplistic, definitive declarations rather than sift through complexity and nuance, said Felling, who likened many people's TV watching habits to eating at a restaurant instead of preparing a home-cooked meal.

"They go to the opinion mongers rather than prepare their own because it's easier and saves time _ much like eating out," he said.

CNN viewer William Newbill agreed, saying that many people are unwilling to debate issues and prefer to boil things down to digestible, black-and-white answers. Fox News, he said, is populated with talking heads making grand pronouncements _ regardless of whether the evidence supports their opinions.

"It would be one thing if they were just right-wingers," he said. "But they don't get their facts right, and they go out of their way to dispute facts that mainstream media reports accurately."

But Fox News president Roger Ailes has asserted that the rest of the media is so far left of center that an objective network such as Fox seems conservative by comparison.

Brent Baker, vice president of the conservative Media Research Center, said Fox News breaks from media "groupthink" by presenting story angles that weren't being covered by left-leaning networks.

"It provides an alternative because they're offering information you can't get elsewhere," he said.

Baker acknowledged many of the prime-time commentators at Fox are conservative and said that some CNN anchors are more fair than others. But in general, CNN appears to be a liberal network, he said.

"Overall, the Fox News Channel is more fair and balanced than anybody else," Baker said.

Bias appears to be in the eye of the beholder, though, as many longtime journalists disagreed.

"This is a very complicated issue," said Sesno, who consults for CNN and teaches a class about media bias. "What you see mostly depends on where you stand."

CNN, he said, takes a traditional approach to news, reporting from a detached perspective and raising tough questions.

"There's a sense that when you watch Fox, you're on America's side," he said. "They have built a network that people expect to be more conservative, more supportive of the current administration."

Viewers and experts point to the two networks' coverage in Iraq and Afghanistan as an example of how CNN and Fox approach news differently.

In some ways, the two networks aren't even speaking the same language, as they use dueling spellings and phrases when referring to the same people and places.

Fox News' word choice often mirrors that of the Bush administration. The network regularly reports Iraq news under the heading "Operation Iraqi Freedom," and Fox is one of the only news outlets that refers to the al-Qaida leader as "Usama" bin Laden.

CNN has reported on "the fight for Iraq," "the war in Iraq" and the "countdown to handover." And its anchors call bin Laden "Osama."

Breaking news dominates CNN's Iraq coverage _ bombings, soldiers' deaths and government news receive prominent play. But Fox anchors make a concerted effort to tell positive stories about progress in Iraq. They regularly show pictures of grinning Iraqi children and ask viewers to write in describing soldiers' good deeds.

"While other networks focus only on the bad news in Iraq, we try to balance it out," Linda Vester told viewers recently. "Here's a little boy clearly grateful for the help."

Whether such feel-good pieces are newsworthy could be debated. But the coverage leaves the impression that the network is unwilling to ask challenging questions, said Joe Angotti, professor and chairman of the broadcast program at Northwestern University.

"Fox continues to take a flag-waving approach," said Angotti, a former vice president and executive producer at NBC News. "While the other networks are acknowledging people killed in the war. ... Fox considers that almost unpatriotic."

But regardless of which side viewers fall on in the TV news debate, viewer Jim Depew said the recalcitrant positions both sides have taken are discouraging.

"People are just too wrapped up in their views," he said. "They want their side to be right, even if they're wrong.

"For me, if I turn on the news, I just want to see news," Depew said.
(bold type added by DA)

Rudey 07-28-2004 11:04 AM

I agree. People flock to news sources they tend to feel more comfortable with. I don't, but I can see others that do. The difference though comes down to finding out who is biased (we all tend to agree they all are) and how much they are biased since everything is relative.

-Rudey
--The study I offered at the beginning of this thread is the only such measure of bias I've seen that is reputable.

Quote:

Originally posted by DeltAlum
Fox vs. CNN: a deepening divide
The Dallas Morning News
By Colleen McCain Nelson

DALLAS _ In the divisive world of cable television news, three letters say a lot about a person.

The TV nation, like the electorate, is split down the middle, with viewers choosing sides: Fox or CNN. And just as in presidential politics, most are committed to their preference, with few swing voters or undecideds up for grabs.

As the race for the White House heats up, the partisan divide is deepening on the TV dial.

Charges and countercharges of bias fly between viewers of the two networks, with Fox watchers labeling the competition liberal and CNN viewers dubbing the other guys GOP-TV.

But are the broadcasts on Fox News Channel and CNN really that different?

For viewers such as Patty Cron, the answer is an unequivocal "yes."

A frequent business traveler, she insists on staying in hotels that offer Fox News.

"A lot of hotels just have the Ted Turner CNN package," she says. "When that happens, I check out and switch hotels."

The result of such unwavering loyalty, media experts said, is a growing disconnect between those who rely on "fair and balanced" news, which Fox says it provides, and those watching "the most trusted name in news," which CNN claims to be.

While a diversity of opinions and information sources is useful, media experts say, the danger of this divide is a lack of consensus on even basic facts.

"The common ground for public understanding and public information may be destroyed in all of this," said Frank Sesno, a former CNN executive and a professor of public policy and communication at George Mason University. "The simple question of what happened today becomes something we're in danger of arguing over."

Network representatives say the question of whether Fox or CNN promotes a point of view is easily put to rest.

No, each said without hesitation.

Both claim to be the best and most unbiased source of news.

"It's obvious that we place the highest premium on being impartial, on providing all sides _ not just both sides _ but all sides," said Matthew Furman, CNN spokesman.

"We try to make sure that everything is fair and is balanced," said Bill Shine, vice president of production for Fox News. "It's our slogan, but it's also what we live by."

Shine said Fox goes so far as to take a stopwatch into the studio to ensure that opposing viewpoints get equal airtime. Furman said that during every step of production _ from guest bookings to script vettings _ fairness is considered at CNN.

For confirmation of their evenhandedness, both networks turn to their audiences. Cable news viewers represent only a sliver of the television universe, but they are an engaged and brand-loyal bunch.

Fox points to its success in the ratings, which have consistently outpaced the competition, making the 8-year-old network No. 1 in cable news. "The American public likes what we do, and that shows in the ratings," Shine said.

At CNN, the network cites studies showing that people of all political stripes are tuning in. "The ideological makeup of our audience most closely mirrors the makeup of the country," Furman said.

A study released last month by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center found that conservatives are watching Fox in greater numbers. CNN's audience has become more Democratic, but the network still draws a politically varied audience.

According to the study, 52 percent of Fox viewers describe themselves as conservative, compared with 36 percent of CNN's audience. CNN has more credibility with viewers _ 32 percent believe what they hear on the network, compared with 25 percent for Fox _ but CNN's rating has slipped in the last couple of years.

Hector Leija was a CNN viewer but gradually grew frustrated with the network. A Republican, Leija abandoned CNN after becoming fed up with what he perceived as undue criticism of the president.

"I got tired of all the negative," he said. "They were bashing my man Bush, so I had to make the switch."

As Leija sees it, all networks slant their stories, so he might as well watch the channel that mirrors his views.

"When people are in agreement with one another, they tend to be good company. Fox and I are good company," he said.

Like Leija, many viewers are seeking affirmation _ not information, experts said.
(bold type added by DA)

"We have too much info to sift through to form our own opinions, so we lean on partisan hosts who form them for us," said Matthew Felling, media director for the Center for Media and Public Affairs.

In a world of sound bites and bullet points, many viewers seek out simplistic, definitive declarations rather than sift through complexity and nuance, said Felling, who likened many people's TV watching habits to eating at a restaurant instead of preparing a home-cooked meal.

"They go to the opinion mongers rather than prepare their own because it's easier and saves time _ much like eating out," he said.

CNN viewer William Newbill agreed, saying that many people are unwilling to debate issues and prefer to boil things down to digestible, black-and-white answers. Fox News, he said, is populated with talking heads making grand pronouncements _ regardless of whether the evidence supports their opinions.

"It would be one thing if they were just right-wingers," he said. "But they don't get their facts right, and they go out of their way to dispute facts that mainstream media reports accurately."

But Fox News president Roger Ailes has asserted that the rest of the media is so far left of center that an objective network such as Fox seems conservative by comparison.

Brent Baker, vice president of the conservative Media Research Center, said Fox News breaks from media "groupthink" by presenting story angles that weren't being covered by left-leaning networks.

"It provides an alternative because they're offering information you can't get elsewhere," he said.

Baker acknowledged many of the prime-time commentators at Fox are conservative and said that some CNN anchors are more fair than others. But in general, CNN appears to be a liberal network, he said.

"Overall, the Fox News Channel is more fair and balanced than anybody else," Baker said.

Bias appears to be in the eye of the beholder, though, as many longtime journalists disagreed.

"This is a very complicated issue," said Sesno, who consults for CNN and teaches a class about media bias. "What you see mostly depends on where you stand."

CNN, he said, takes a traditional approach to news, reporting from a detached perspective and raising tough questions.

"There's a sense that when you watch Fox, you're on America's side," he said. "They have built a network that people expect to be more conservative, more supportive of the current administration."

Viewers and experts point to the two networks' coverage in Iraq and Afghanistan as an example of how CNN and Fox approach news differently.

In some ways, the two networks aren't even speaking the same language, as they use dueling spellings and phrases when referring to the same people and places.

Fox News' word choice often mirrors that of the Bush administration. The network regularly reports Iraq news under the heading "Operation Iraqi Freedom," and Fox is one of the only news outlets that refers to the al-Qaida leader as "Usama" bin Laden.

CNN has reported on "the fight for Iraq," "the war in Iraq" and the "countdown to handover." And its anchors call bin Laden "Osama."

Breaking news dominates CNN's Iraq coverage _ bombings, soldiers' deaths and government news receive prominent play. But Fox anchors make a concerted effort to tell positive stories about progress in Iraq. They regularly show pictures of grinning Iraqi children and ask viewers to write in describing soldiers' good deeds.

"While other networks focus only on the bad news in Iraq, we try to balance it out," Linda Vester told viewers recently. "Here's a little boy clearly grateful for the help."

Whether such feel-good pieces are newsworthy could be debated. But the coverage leaves the impression that the network is unwilling to ask challenging questions, said Joe Angotti, professor and chairman of the broadcast program at Northwestern University.

"Fox continues to take a flag-waving approach," said Angotti, a former vice president and executive producer at NBC News. "While the other networks are acknowledging people killed in the war. ... Fox considers that almost unpatriotic."

But regardless of which side viewers fall on in the TV news debate, viewer Jim Depew said the recalcitrant positions both sides have taken are discouraging.

"People are just too wrapped up in their views," he said. "They want their side to be right, even if they're wrong.

"For me, if I turn on the news, I just want to see news," Depew said.
(bold type added by DA)


DeltAlum 08-03-2004 09:37 AM

Anchor begins criticism of Gore only 40 seconds into speech. Fellow FOX commentator would have done it differently. O'Reilly "quotes" Teresa...

""The newspaper pinheads claim that because we (Fox News) aren't covering the speeches we aren't fair. That, of course: a bunch of baloney. . . How desperate some in the print media are to smear Fox News. In the words of Teresa Heinz Kerry, the newspaper critics can shove it."
- BILL O'REILLY, responding to Howard Kurtz on O'Reilly's criticism of Al Gore's speech before Gore finished his speech"


Here are part of Brit Hume's comments:

"But sometimes even pinheads have a point, as some Fox staffers, both publicly and privately, acknowledge.

"I don't know if that was the right call or not," says Brit Hume, Fox's Washington managing editor, who replayed a few minutes of the Gore speech two hours after O'Reilly passed it up. "At that point we were in a program that is principally about one man's analysis. It wasn't part of our live coverage. If it had been my hour, I'd have done it. Bill O'Reilly chose not to do it. It's his program."

On Tuesday, O'Reilly interrupted an interview with Jerry Brown to listen to about four minutes of Ted Kennedy's 25-minute address. On Wednesday, he took Al Sharpton for two minutes of a 20-minute speech, interjecting: "That's our pal Sharpton, doing what Al does. He's whipping them up."


Frankly, I think this is preposterous. Even if O'Reilly did read the speech in advance, if you begin covering something, you owe it to the audience to make it's own judgement. 40 seconds isn't enough to do that.

Kevin 08-03-2004 09:59 AM

So how do y'all feel about MSNBC?

Rudey 08-03-2004 10:36 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by DeltAlum
Anchor begins criticism of Gore only 40 seconds into speech. Fellow FOX commentator would have done it differently. O'Reilly "quotes" Teresa...

""The newspaper pinheads claim that because we (Fox News) aren't covering the speeches we aren't fair. That, of course: a bunch of baloney. . . How desperate some in the print media are to smear Fox News. In the words of Teresa Heinz Kerry, the newspaper critics can shove it."
- BILL O'REILLY, responding to Howard Kurtz on O'Reilly's criticism of Al Gore's speech before Gore finished his speech"


Here are part of Brit Hume's comments:

"But sometimes even pinheads have a point, as some Fox staffers, both publicly and privately, acknowledge.

"I don't know if that was the right call or not," says Brit Hume, Fox's Washington managing editor, who replayed a few minutes of the Gore speech two hours after O'Reilly passed it up. "At that point we were in a program that is principally about one man's analysis. It wasn't part of our live coverage. If it had been my hour, I'd have done it. Bill O'Reilly chose not to do it. It's his program."

On Tuesday, O'Reilly interrupted an interview with Jerry Brown to listen to about four minutes of Ted Kennedy's 25-minute address. On Wednesday, he took Al Sharpton for two minutes of a 20-minute speech, interjecting: "That's our pal Sharpton, doing what Al does. He's whipping them up."


Frankly, I think this is preposterous. Even if O'Reilly did read the speech in advance, if you begin covering something, you owe it to the audience to make it's own judgement. 40 seconds isn't enough to do that.

Are these news shows or are they commentary talk type shows? Again, when bias is compared across news networks Fox is the leasy biased.

-Rudey

DeltAlum 08-03-2004 11:47 PM

In my opinion, if they billboard live coverage of the convention, they cross the line into News shows.

I didn't see either the show(s) in question or MSNBC. I only posted the coverage with my personal comments about the length of the live carriage before beginning the commentary.

By the way, a well crafted survey can "prove" just about anything. I had one call from "a national opinion survey" the other night with really leading questions about a number of highly contentious issues. They terminated the call quickly when I countered their negatively phrased questions with double negative answers. I don't think they were getting what they wanted.

NickLc24 08-03-2004 11:59 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by preciousjeni
Fox news is HORRIBLE!
Quote:

Originally posted by Rudey
You are HORRIBLE.

-Rudey

Can't we all just get along? I rarely watch television...maybe it's a good thing. :D

NickLc24 08-04-2004 12:14 AM

*Warning: Graphic images*

http://www.kdp.pp.se/2604.jpg

http://www.kdp.pp.se/1.jpg

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http://www.kdp.pp.se/3.jpg

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http://www.kdp.pp.se/6.jpg

http://www.kdp.pp.se/7.jpg

http://www.kdp.pp.se/10.jpg

http://www.kdp.pp.se/hal.jpg

http://www.kdp.pp.se/halx6.jpg

http://www.kdp.pp.se/11.jpg

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http://www.kdp.pp.se/hal8.jpg

http://www.kdp.pp.se/16.jpg

Seen enough? Imagine 5,000 of them. Strewn throughout the town and countryside. Oh, wait what is your defintion of weapon of mass destruction? Ladies and gentlemen, you don't have to have a nuke to have a weapon of mass destruction.

The pictures were taken in the aftermath of Saddam's attack using chemical weapons and cluster bombs on the Kurdish city of Halabja (population estimated at 70,000) on March 17, 1988. Halabja is located almost 200 miles northeast of Baghdad and 8-10 miles from the Iranian border. The attack, said to have involved mustard gas, nerve agent and possibly cyanide, killed an estimated 5,000 of the town's inhabitants. Saddam is also said to have used chemical weapons in attacking up to 24 villages in Kurdish areas in April 1987.

I apologize for the graphic images. However, sitting back quietly and listening to people here in the U.S. condemn Operation Iraqi Freedom has made me sick. We drive our gas-guzzling SUVs, we have air conditioning, we live luxurious lives while many lived and still live under tyranny. Saddam probably did not pose a threat to you Joe Smith or Jenny Wilson, but he did to the men, women, and children living under his iron fist. Have a good one and just some thoughts...

Rudey 08-04-2004 01:18 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by DeltAlum
By the way, a well crafted survey can "prove" just about anything. I had one call from "a national opinion survey" the other night with really leading questions about a number of highly contentious issues. They terminated the call quickly when I countered their negatively phrased questions with double negative answers. I don't think they were getting what they wanted.
What survery are you talking about? Perhaps you should read the study since you do work in media and I did take the time to find you the actual paper.

-Rudey

DeltAlum 08-04-2004 09:59 AM

I'm talking about ANY survey -- whether about FOX News, CNN, the price of eggs in Great Britain, whether cigarette smoking is good for cows -- it doesn't matter.

My opinion (important word: opinion) is based on the principals running the network whom I either know fairly well or have at least met. By the way, that goes for other networks, too -- although I don't know that many people at CNN.

I watched part of Brit Hume's show last night. He, at least, has a background in network journalism, and seems to me to at least give the pretense of covering both sides of a story. The outcome was that during the 30 minutes or so that I watched, every single story (except for the hurricane) was Republican based. Even on the story of The President's bad showing in a recent poll, the only interview was with the GOP media advisor who gave the Republican "spin" on the survey. The rest mentioned the Democrats only in passing. I don't know what kind of news day it was overall, but surely Kerry and Edwards did something.

I've also sat on the other side of the one way mirror during focus group surveys, etc and helped craft survey questions. For years, the cigarette industry could "prove" that their product isn't harmful. The drug companies can "prove" their products work by paying for slanted surveys.

As they say, "Figures lie and liers figure."

One final thought. Maybe we're at the point where media won't even give the impression of "fairness." I don't think anyone will agrue that talk radio isn't heavily oriented toward the political right. So, if that's what the public wants, so be it. Those of us who grew up under the so called "Fairness Doctrine" of the Communications Act of 1934, later amended, will just have to learn to deal with the change in paradigm. But let's not be hipocritical about it. If it's OK for radio and FOX to be tilted right, let's stop bitching about other networks being tilted left. It's been that way in newspapers -- who were never controlled by an agency like the FCC -- for many years.

I don't like it, but I'm only one voice and one opinion -- even though highly experienced are reasonably well educated on on the topic.

Rudey 08-04-2004 10:51 AM

Sure, but less talk about opinions and surveys and more talks about studies.

-Rudey

Quote:

Originally posted by DeltAlum
I'm talking about ANY survey -- whether about FOX News, CNN, the price of eggs in Great Britain, whether cigarette smoking is good for cows -- it doesn't matter.

My opinion (important word: opinion) is based on the principals running the network whom I either know fairly well or have at least met. By the way, that goes for other networks, too -- although I don't know that many people at CNN.

I watched part of Brit Hume's show last night. He, at least, has a background in network journalism, and seems to me to at least give the pretense of covering both sides of a story. The outcome was that during the 30 minutes or so that I watched, every single story (except for the hurricane) was Republican based. Even on the story of The President's bad showing in a recent poll, the only interview was with the GOP media advisor who gave the Republican "spin" on the survey. The rest mentioned the Democrats only in passing. I don't know what kind of news day it was overall, but surely Kerry and Edwards did something.

I've also sat on the other side of the one way mirror during focus group surveys, etc and helped craft survey questions. For years, the cigarette industry could "prove" that their product isn't harmful. The drug companies can "prove" their products work by paying for slanted surveys.

As they say, "Figures lie and liers figure."

One final thought. Maybe we're at the point where media won't even give the impression of "fairness." I don't think anyone will agrue that talk radio isn't heavily oriented toward the political right. So, if that's what the public wants, so be it. Those of us who grew up under the so called "Fairness Doctrine" of the Communications Act of 1934, later amended, will just have to learn to deal with the change in paradigm. But let's not be hipocritical about it. If it's OK for radio and FOX to be tilted right, let's stop bitching about other networks being tilted left. It's been that way in newspapers -- who were never controlled by an agency like the FCC -- for many years.

I don't like it, but I'm only one voice and one opinion -- even though highly experienced are reasonably well educated on on the topic.


Kevin 08-04-2004 11:07 AM

You can call into question the conclusion of the study. But it is difficult to call into question the fact that it shows a definite pattern of certain news sources using certain sources for information -- some using liberal sources, one (FOX) using a good mixture of both.

Just looking at the raw data, you could come to the same conclusion. You can argue against the conclusion, but I think the methodology is pretty sound.


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