Media Bias

The thing people don't realize about Fox News is that it's actually run by a Republican - Roger Ailes. Just do a quick profile search on the guy and you see that he spent most of his career as a Republican political operative (like Karl Rove) and only later got into media. That's totally different from other news stations and should be pretty revealing about where Fox is coming from.

The quality of newscasts has dropped through the floor. The only factor keeping me from throwing objects at my tv in disgust is the amount of money it costs. How people can watch the pure drivel that FOX broadcasts and accept it as anything approaching fact appalls me. I'm an effing republican and I just don't get it. Do people just like hearing their own viewpoints coming out of the television so much that they are not only completely willing, but EAGER, to completely suspend disbelief and nod along, slack-jawed with whatever talking head is spouting off? It's pathetic.

Honestly I don't really care much for CNN or Fox or MSNBC for that matter. I expect news outlets to report the news not have some talking head telling me their opinions as if they were fact. My main problem with Fox is that they claim to be "Fair and Balanced" which I find very insulting. Seriously, that has to be a joke. They often dumb down their news, almost to a Jerry Springerish level.

And yes, there is biased everywhere. To be human is to have bias even if you don't think you have none.

That's true but it's one thing to inadvertently project personal bias onto a story/issue, completely another to build bias into your network's identity.

At least Fox never pushed phony documents on the public in an attempt to discredit a politician they didn't like. Dan Rather is still telling people he thinks they were real. But what am I saying. CBS did an internal investigation and determined that nothing that happened there was the result of bias. So, CBS has spoken and CBS says that CBS is not biased.

The thing people don't realize about Fox News is that it's actually run by a Republican - Roger Ailes. Just do a quick profile search on the guy and you see that he spent most of his career as a Republican political operative (like Karl Rove) and only later got into media. That's totally different from other news stations and should be pretty revealing about where Fox is coming from.

This is great. Roger Ailes is the only Republican that runs any major news outlet in this country so that is taken as a sign of bias. If he were a Democrat like all the others, he would, by definition, be unbiased. I think Fox should agree to fire everyone who is a Republican on the same day that all the other networks fire all their Democrats.

I often struggle to see why it is simply accepted that Fox News is right wing fanatic while mainstream media is simply cneter-left. For my money watching Fox News I often wonder if the fact that they are not left simply makes them appear so much more conservative than they really are.




BINGO !! :goodjob: you win .

I don't think that's necessarily true. Moreover, Bush hasn't been a great success. He's pretty unpopular with people of all political affiliations. I support the surge, but the Iraq Qar was a mistake of massive proportions. Bush has managed to alienate most of our allies, even after they rallied to our cause after 9/11. The economy is in or headed for a recession. The Bush administration has been riddled with scandals and the list goes on. Again, I'm no leftie, but it's pretty hard not to be hard on Bush.

You may be the only person in the country who is "not a leftie" and also doesn't think that PBS has a Liberal Bias. That's not a position that Centrists or Conservatives generally hold. It's an interesting technique, though. You hear it on C-Span call in shows a lot: "I've been a Republican all my life, but this year I'm voting for the Democrats". Sure. Whatever.

You may be the only person in the country who is "not a leftie" and also doesn't think that PBS has a Liberal Bias. That's not a position that Centrists or Conservatives generally hold. It's an interesting technique, though. You hear it on C-Span call in shows a lot: "I've been a Republican all my life, but this year I'm voting for the Democrats". Sure. Whatever.

No need to imply that I'm lying about my centrist credentials. As many left-leaning people on this site who are familiar with me know (dmek, Matty, Shane), I am FAR from a "leftie." I'm pro-surge, pro death penalty, pro free trade/globalization, detest Hillary Clinton, anti-late term abortion etc. I'm also pro-choice (with limitations), pro gay marriage, and will most likely vote for Obama. In the minds of most of my friends off of this site, I'm known as more right leaning than left leaning. I'm only viewed as more left-leaning than right-leaning by party-line conservatives.

As for PBS' supposed bias, please elaborate? My guess is you don't watch it that much.

I am an Independant, but I certainly lean to the right, that being said, I will agree Foxnews caters to the right, however, I listen to them because they are the only ones that will actually speak about right wing issues. NBC is notorious for being left, and when you watch, they will do their best to deter you from listening to the right wing issues. I enjoy watching foxnews for the simple fact they will speak about all the issues, and all the angles. I feel they are much easier to learn from instead of watching other shows and being bombarded by what the person you are watching thinks.

No need to imply that I'm lying about my centrist credentials. As many left-leaning people on this site who are familiar with me know (dmek, Matty, Shane), I am FAR from a "leftie." I'm pro-surge, pro death penalty, pro free trade/globalization, detest Hillary Clinton, anti-late term abortion etc. I'm also pro-choice (with limitations), pro gay marriage, and will most likely vote for Obama. In the minds of most of my friends off of this site, I'm known as more right leaning than left leaning. I'm only viewed as more left-leaning than right-leaning by party-line conservatives.

As for PBS' supposed bias, please elaborate? My guess is you don't watch it that much.

I don't think you're being dishonest. I also don't think that detesting Hillary Clinton or being against Partial Birth makes you right leaning. After all, Baraq is the more liberal of the two. I don't go along with everything the right believes but that hardly makes me a "centrist". The pundit-class has made a fetish of the notion of being in the "center". There is an assumption that if you are part one thing and part another you are more thoughtful or even psychologically more balanced. I don't accept that.

I watch PBS quite a bit. The NewsHour is reasonably fair. Probably more balanced than many others, however:

Charlie Rose -Liberal
Tavis Smiley -Liberal
Bill Moyers -Liberal
Frontline -Liberal
American Experience -Somewhat Less Liberal

I also suspect that Norm Abram from This Old House was in the Weather Underground, though I have never been able to prove it. And don't get me started on Big Bird or that guy from Blues Clues.