The Problem With Fox is Not Simply Bias

Cenk Uygur of Air America believes Fox Has Jumped the Shark. It actually isn’t that Fox recently jumped the shark but that the Democratic Party is finally acknowledging it by not allowing Fox to host the Nevada debate. Uygur links to several sites with examples of their bias, including these memos and this recent collection of screen grabs. I’ve discussed Fox News many times many times here, with a collection of my older posts added here.

What is important in comparing Fox News to legitimate news organs is that Fox, like Air America and talk radio, is designed to advocate a particular point of view and is not by any meaningful definition of news a news organization. The problem is not simply that Fox is biased but that it is a propaganda outfit. ABC might regularly repeat right wing talking points under political director Mark Halperin but there remains some attempts at objective reporting. While NBC is also overly friendly to conservatives, they do not match Fox as a propaganda outlet. Republicans might see Tim Russert as one of their best ways to get out their spin, and MSNBC might have had a quota system to limit liberal guests, but now Keith Olbermann gives some balance to their many conservative shows. CNN took a sharp move to the right after Ted Turner sold it, but even right wingers like Wolf Blitzer rarely match the propaganda efforts of Fox.

Conservatives try to excuse Fox by claiming that they offer a lone conservative viewpoint. They typically see any news that is either objective or mildly right of center as having a liberal bias, expecting “news” to reinforce the common Republican talking points failing to realize they are often factually incorrect. Conservatives are wrong in both ignoring the conservative leanings of the other broadcast networks and in failing to realize that purposely expressing such a political viewpoint is counter to the idea of presenting news. You cannot be a news outlet when your major function is to further the aims of one political party, especially when you are willing to present falsehoods to achieve this goal.

To counter the harm done by Fox, it is necessary for viewers to realize that this is not just a news source with a conservative bias but an outright propaganda outfit. As Uygur concludes:

Fox has jumped the shark. Fox News needs to come out, as professional wrestling did, and finally admit they are fake. It’s just entertainment, not the real thing. The World Wrestling Federation eventually changed their name to World Wrestling Entertainment.

Fox has it even easier. The name will almost be the same as before. Fake News Channel.

1 Comment

  1. 1
    m says:

    I have always preferred the moniker:
    “The Fox Noise Network” or
    “The Fux Noisy Nutwork” or
    “Fox’s Noisome Network”.
    Or any combination thereof. I have always prayed for the eventual death of the Simpsons just to cause Fox to start losing money.
    I feel so guilty.
    M.Braun

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