FOX News Finally Admits Bias... - Eternal Allegiance

Birgerhar · 06-06-2005, 03:30 PM

Fox News Admits Bias!
Its London bureau chief blurts out the political slant that dare not speak its name.
By Timothy Noah

Sound the klaxons! Corporate Message breakdown at Fox News! This is not a drill. Repeat: This is not a drill. Assume battle stations! Fire in the hole! A-woo-ga! A-woo-ga!

The usually disciplined foot soldiers at Fox News have long maintained that their news organization is not biased in favor of conservatism. This charade is so important to Fox News that the company has actually sought to trademark the phrase "fair and balanced" (which is a bit like Richard Nixon trademarking the phrase "not a crook"). No fair-minded person actually believes that Fox News is unbiased, so pretending that it is calls for steely corporate resolve. On occasion, this vigilance pays off. Last year, for example, the Wall Street Journal actually ran a correction after its news pages described Fox News, accurately, as "a network sympathetic to the Bush cause and popular with Republicans." Getting one of this country's most prestigious newspapers to state that up is down and black is white is no small public-relations victory, and if we can't admire Fox News' candor, we can at least marvel at its ability to remain on message. Or rather, we could admire it, before Scott Norvell went and shot his big mouth off.

Norvell is London bureau chief for Fox News, and on May 20 he let the mask slip in, of all places, the Wall Street Journal. So far, the damage has been contained, because Norvell's comments—in an op-ed he wrote decrying left-wing bias at the BBC—appeared only in the Journal's European edition. But Chatterbox's agents are everywhere.

Here is what Norvell fessed up to in the May 20 Wall Street Journal Europe:

Even we at Fox News manage to get some lefties on the air occasionally, and often let them finish their sentences before we club them to death and feed the scraps to Karl Rove and Bill O'Reilly. And those who hate us can take solace in the fact that they aren't subsidizing Bill's bombast; we payers of the BBC license fee don't enjoy that peace of mind.

Fox News is, after all, a private channel and our presenters are quite open about where they stand on particular stories. That's our appeal. People watch us because they know what they are getting. The Beeb's institutionalized leftism would be easier to tolerate if the corporation was a little more honest about it.

Norvell never says the word "conservative" in describing "where [Fox's anchorpeople] stand on particular stories," or what Fox's viewers "know … they are getting." But in context, Norvell clearly is using the example of Fox News to argue that political bias is acceptable when it isn't subsidized by the public (as his op-ed's target, the leftish BBC, is), and when the bias is acknowledged. Norvell's little joke about clubbing lefties to death should satisfy even the most literal-minded that the bias Norvell describes is a conservative one. (Lord only knows where Norvell acquired the erroneous belief that Fox News is "honest" about its conservative slant; perhaps he's so used to Fox's protestations of objectivity being ignored that he literally forgot that they continue to be uttered.)

I don't think it's too much of an exaggeration to compare Norvell's op-ed to the Vatican's belated admission, after 359 years, that Galileo had it right when he said the earth revolved around the sun. Now how about a prime time seppuku by Fox News chief Roger Ailes? Failing that, maybe ABC News could lend Barbara Walters or Diane Sawyer for Ailes' weepy confession. Hey, there, funny face, where's the broken-winged sparrow underneath that tough-guy exterior? Fox News has little to lose in terms of credibility—sensible viewers discounted Fox News for conservative bias years ago—and everything to gain in terms of heightened visibility. Say it with me, Roger: "Eppur si muove!" Doesn't that feel good?

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One biased Station down.... how many more to go? lol. Where are the days of unbiased newstelling gone?

ManSlippers · 06-06-2005, 03:38 PM

I'm sure when a democrat is elected, theyll be up his/her ass. They go with what makes their ratings soar.

Duffyboy · 06-06-2005, 03:54 PM

FOX News were one of the perpatrators who put George W Bush in power in the frrst place!

You'ld think we'd have already realised they are biased by now!

Birgerhar · 06-06-2005, 03:58 PM

I watched Fahrenheit 9/11 and I think that part was wrong.

YesJess · 06-07-2005, 05:28 PM

Bah they're all biased. :P I don't like FOX though heh.

Justin_ea · 06-07-2005, 06:49 PM

It's hard to put aside personal feelings, but I think all that have a job should do only that of their position. A news channel should just report the news, not their feelings. However, an editorial is different. Another example is presidency, a president should rule with his country in mind, rather than his religion, family, et cetera call for. I think keeping their true occupational idea is very important.

Duffyboy · 06-09-2005, 09:35 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Kizzie
They go with what makes their ratings soar.

BREAKING NEWS!

I Am a frog! You heard it first on FOX NEWS!

Birgerhar · 06-09-2005, 09:40 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Justin
It's hard to put aside personal feelings, but I think all that have a job should do only that of their position. A news channel should just report the news, not their feelings. However, an editorial is different. Another example is presidency, a president should rule with his country in mind, rather than his religion, family, et cetera call for. I think keeping their true occupational idea is very important.

Very well said.

ForeverInLoveWithJus · 06-09-2005, 10:39 AM

Sky News is basically Fox here.. Damn them owning sky lol.

Lemons · 06-09-2005, 12:17 PM

Oh God. Its the ONLY Conservative biased channel, and apparently, its not allowed to exsist. If theres going to be Liberal bias (which by the way there is a thousand times more than conservative) there will be small conservative biased.

A news company cant even decide an election. Its not possilbe, Duffyboy. Just because Fox News reported a win for Bush, doesn't mean whatever Fox News says, goes. Fox news is not a giant super-power as you think it is. Micheal Moore has a lot of time on his hands, and a lot of time to think of lies. Lets get real. News Channels can predict elections, not make them. Its common logic. And the Election commity doesn't go with whatever Fox News says, it goes with however the people voted, and apparently, Bush won Florida by 526 votes. And which by the way, IS VERY POSSIBLE.

Even the Bible Code couldn't perfectly predict the 2000 Election. Its been proven to be 96% accurate, and predicted everything in the past, before it happend, and it said " Al Gore, on one axis, President on another axis, then it said Maybe on another axis.

Micheal Moore is just lying and scaring everyone to vote democrat. Its what the democrats are doing. And I hope whenever a Democrat is elected, they get up in their behinds, just like every single media outlet is doing to Bush. The media is often wrong about a lot of things. Remember how much they were crapping their pants everytime Reagan attack the USSR? Lets face it, Reagan was called a "Dumb Coybow" by democrats and news outlets in the 80s. Whose got the last laugh now?

But in my opinion, nothing in this country should be biased. But just remember, that whenever you piss liberals off, its gonna sound like the whole world is against you, because they're in every media outlet and honestly, Liberals have far worse biased than conservatives do. Trust Me..

Some people, they just listen to Micheal Moore just because he is Micheal Moore, they dont even analyze anything he says. Ugh. Especially some of the kids at this school. There is NO talking to them. They're like mini Micheal Moores