Is the feud between Fox News and the White House stupid? Yes. Should Barack Obama waste even a single breath addressing people like Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity? Of course not.
But White House Communications Director Anita Dunn’s statement on Fox wasn’t off base at all: “[Fox is] widely viewed as a part of the Republican Party: take their talking points and put them on the air, take their opposition research and put it on the air. And that’s fine. But let’s not pretend they’re a news organization like CNN is.”
Do other networks have a slant? Yes. Is Keith Olbermann a tremendously obnoxious self-important pompous douchebag? Of course he is. But there’s a huge difference between CNN running a stupid fact check of an SNL skit and a systematic, years-long effort to promote a political party, its ideology, and actual skewing of facts in order to make it all happen.
Just check out this compilation of “news” from the Fair and Balanced network.
Nearly every clip in that video is from Fox Opinion shows.
To use a Hannity OPINION show as evidence that Fox is slanted is akin to using Olbermann as evidence MSNBC is a mouthpiece for the Democrat Party. Do you think Chris “I get shivers up my leg” is any less partisan than Beck?
Perhaps you believe CBS had no axe to grind when they fabricated materials regarding Bush’s National Guard service — remember the fake, but accurate argument?
Does Fox have a right wing bent — sure. At least admit CBSNBCABCCNNMSNBCNPR and The Washington Post and NY Times have a decided Democrat bias.
If I had the time, or desire, I could cull a similar biased sounding montage of clips from the major networks’s opinion shows (Maddow, Mathews, Olbermann, etc.). When Presidential representatives are emailing MSNBC while on the air, I think there might be a little bias going on?
The White House needs to quit whining and move on. Trying to ban Fox reporters from the White House Press Pool is a move that scares me. Is there no longer respect for the First Amendment? That is worth a post, my friends.
I am sure we will have to agree to disagree on this one too.
That would be “Chris ‘I get shivers up my leg’ Mathews”…
[...] 23, 2009 by Josh While the battle over whether Fox News is a real news outlet at all continues (really, we’re having this fight?), we figured we’d head on over to [...]
I did not claim Fox was fair and balanced. They have their bias. My point is they are NO MORE biased than MSNBC or CBS or NBC or ABC and especially NPR (but no one listens to them anyway) or CNN.
If you can’t see it you are blind.
The White House should quit the crybaby “thet are man to me” and move on.
First of all, you and I agree — all of us agree: you have to separate the opinion shows from this entire discussion. But geez, look at the guests they have on, look at the balance in round tables, look at a morning show where Gretchen Carlson — Stanford educated Gretchen Carlson — pretends to not know what a czar is. Fox’s content is dumbed down and disingenuous and not just in their opinion coverage.
You’re also right that the White House should spend literally zero time in this “war.” It is worth noting though, that Fox has become an appendage of the RNC. The tea party nonsense wasn’t grassroots; it grew with help from Glenn Beck and Fox News.
Ignoring all of their opinion guys (even though that’s what most of them are — Hannity, Beck, O’Reilly), their “news” people couch their questions in loaded terms. Their questions often refer to Obama’s “socialist” agenda, they refer to the “Democrat Party.” In other words they do all the things Republicans are doing when they go on these shows and these channels. Just the other day, their morning crew spent 15 minutes saying a poll that showed 59 percent of Americans are in favor of the public option was wrong because it didn’t ask an equal number of Democrats and Republicans the question, disregarding the fact that in every. single. poll self-identified Democrats outnumber Republicans in this country right now by about 33-20 percent.
http://mediamatters.org/research/200910210035
Sure all media has a slant, but in this country — and this is our point — it’s unprecedented for a major media outlet to be running an actual campaign that includes misinformation and deception aimed at undermining a sitting president.
Your “NO MORE biased” point: that’s just disingenuous.
“Sure all media has a slant, but in this country — and this is our point — it’s unprecedented for a major media outlet to be running an actual campaign that includes misinformation and deception aimed at undermining a sitting president.”
You are right, except for the “fake but accurate” bullshit at CBS. And countless other examples from the other mainstream media during Bush’s pathetic last term, when every major newscast started with a quote from Carville or other Democrat talking heads.
Other than that, you are absolutely right.