# For those of you still harboring the illusion that Fox News is "fair and balanced"....
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-of-you-still-harboring-the-illusion-that-fox-news-is-fair-and-balanced/583089
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [May 25, 2011, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-of-you-still-harboring-the-illusion-that-fox-news-is-fair-and-balanced/583089 "2011-05-25T00:07:13Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2011, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-of-you-still-harboring-the-illusion-that-fox-news-is-fair-and-balanced/583089/1 "2011-05-25T00:07:13Z")
New York Magazine ran a pretty interesting profile on Fox New chief Roger Ailes this week. It’s been getting a lot of attention because of a quote from an unnamed source about how Roger Ailes apparently believes Sarah Palin is an idiot who is dragging down the conservative movement (Fox News of course issued a non-denial denial). Anyway that’s probably one of the few things in the story that makes him look good.
More interesting is the story’s focus on his role as a GOP kingmaker:
> [@](#):
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> A few months ago, Ailes called Chris Christie and encouraged him to jump into the race. Last summer, he’d invited Christie to dinner at his upstate compound along with Rush Limbaugh, and like much of the GOP Establishment, he fell hard for Christie, who nevertheless politely turned down Ailes’s calls to run. Ailes had also hoped that David Petraeus would run for president, but Petraeus too has decided to sit this election out, choosing to stay on the counterterrorism front lines as the head of Barack Obama’s CIA.
and
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> At dinner last summer, they talked about pension reform and getting tough with the unions, and Ailes saw in Christie a great candidate: an ordinary guy, someone you’d be comfortable talking to over your back fence.
and
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> Even Rupert Murdoch, sensing the shifting tectonic plates, contemplated a move to the middle. In the summer of 2008, Ailes confronted Murdoch after he learned Murdoch was thinking of endorsing Obama in the New York Post; Ailes threatened to quit. It was a politically vulnerable time for Ailes. Murdoch’s children were agitating for a greater role in the company. Ailes surely understood that their politics, along with those of then–News Corp. president Peter Chernin and communications adviser Gary Ginsberg, differed greatly from Murdoch’s.
Can you imagine the reaction from the right if, say, the president of CNN or NBC News were discovered to be lobbying some Democrat to run for high office, or if they were encouraging some Democratic governor to increase funding for Planned Parenthood or fight for union bargaining rights. Their fucking heads would explode.
He also apparently drinks his own Kool-Aid:
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> But early on, Axelrod learned he couldn’t change Ailes’s outlook on Obama. In one meeting in 2008, Ailes told Axelrod that he was concerned that Obama wanted to create a national police force.
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> “You can’t be serious,” Axelrod replied. “What makes you think that?”
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> Ailes responded by e-mailing Axelrod a YouTube clip from a campaign speech Obama had given on national service, in which he called for the creation of a new civilian corps to work alongside the military on projects overseas.
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> Later, Axelrod related in a conversation that the exchange was the moment he realized Ailes truly believed what he was broadcasting.
Anyway the story is pretty long (about 6,000 words), but it’s an interesting read if you’ve got the time and contains some juicy bits of gossip about life inside Fox News, if you’re into that kind of stuff.
> **[Print Page](https://nymag.com/print/?%2Fnews%2Fmedia%2Froger-ailes-fox-news-2011-5%2F)**
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### Author:  [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2011, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-of-you-still-harboring-the-illusion-that-fox-news-is-fair-and-balanced/583089/2 "2011-05-25T00:25:34Z")
Shouldn’t this go in GD?
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### Author:  [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2011, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-of-you-still-harboring-the-illusion-that-fox-news-is-fair-and-balanced/583089/3 "2011-05-25T00:35:40Z")
> [@TriPolar](#):
>
> Shouldn’t this go in GD?
I thought about it, but figured there was a good chance it’d wind up in the pit anyway.
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### Author:  [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2011, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-of-you-still-harboring-the-illusion-that-fox-news-is-fair-and-balanced/583089/4 "2011-05-25T01:28:25Z")
It’s not really a surprise, right? Roger Ailes was a media consultant to Nixon, Reagan, and Bush. He’s got a really long tradition of Republican politics. I don’t think he’s ever hidden that.
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### Author:  [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2011, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-of-you-still-harboring-the-illusion-that-fox-news-is-fair-and-balanced/583089/5 "2011-05-25T03:40:36Z")
> [@TriPolar](#):
>
> Shouldn’t this go in GD?
Nope.
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### Author:  [@Meatros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meatros)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2011, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-of-you-still-harboring-the-illusion-that-fox-news-is-fair-and-balanced/583089/6 "2011-05-25T11:56:55Z")
Who actually has the view that Fox is ‘fair and balanced’? Among those that I know who watch it, they **admit that it’s slanted**. Their excuse is that every other station is slanted to the left.
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### Author:  [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2011, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-of-you-still-harboring-the-illusion-that-fox-news-is-fair-and-balanced/583089/7 "2011-05-25T16:27:32Z")
[quote=“joebuck20, post:1, topic:583089”]
Can you imagine the reaction from the right if, say, the president of CNN or NBC News were discovered to be lobbying some Democrat to run for high office, or if they were encouraging some Democratic governor to increase funding for Planned Parenthood or fight for union bargaining rights. QUOTE]
Why would that be any different from what we’ve been complaining about for years? NBC/MSNBC/CBS/ABC continually sing the praises of Obama as being the best thing for this country since sliced bread. Just as one example, remember this little exchange between Chris Matthews and Joe Scarborough?
> [@](#):
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> CHRIS MATTHEWS: Yeah, well, you know what? I want to do everything I can to make this thing work, this new presidency work, and I think that –
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> JOE SCARBOROUGH: Is that your job? You just talked about being a journalist!
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> MATTHEWS: Yeah, it is my job.
The liberal media does this sort of stuff daily. It would be business as usual, nothing more.
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### Author:  [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2011, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-of-you-still-harboring-the-illusion-that-fox-news-is-fair-and-balanced/583089/8 "2011-05-25T16:28:45Z")
> [@Meatros](#):
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> Their excuse is that every other station is slanted to the left.
I see what you mean.
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### Author:  [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2011, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-of-you-still-harboring-the-illusion-that-fox-news-is-fair-and-balanced/583089/9 "2011-05-25T16:35:51Z")
Matthews is a commentator, not a journalist, and he was a former speech writer for Jimmy Carter. He isn’t running MSNBC and setting editorial positions. He does not have a position comparable to Ailes. The “liberal media” is a right wing media myth.
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### Author:  [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2011, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-of-you-still-harboring-the-illusion-that-fox-news-is-fair-and-balanced/583089/10 "2011-05-25T16:43:22Z")
Wow, good one, **Clothahump**! I mean, the parallel is so exact, so direct…except, of course, that Tweety Bird doesn’t run MSNBC, he’s isn’t in the same position relative that Ailes or Murdoch are to Fox Gnaws. He just works there. But other than the fact that they are nothing alike, the parallel is striking!
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### Author:  [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2011, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-of-you-still-harboring-the-illusion-that-fox-news-is-fair-and-balanced/583089/11 "2011-05-25T16:44:24Z")
Great minds think alike. Twisted minds as well, it would seem…
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### Author:  [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2011, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-of-you-still-harboring-the-illusion-that-fox-news-is-fair-and-balanced/583089/12 "2011-05-25T16:48:31Z")
> [@joebuck20](#):
>
> Can you imagine the reaction from the right if, say, the president of CNN or NBC News were discovered to be lobbying some Democrat to run for high office, or if they were encouraging some Democratic governor to increase funding for Planned Parenthood or fight for union bargaining rights.
> [@Clothahump](#):
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> Why would that be any different from what we’ve been complaining about for years?
It would be different because it would be the President of the organization doing it, and not one of his on-air staff.
> [@Clothahump](#):
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> NBC/MSNBC/CBS/ABC continually sing the praises of Obama as being the best thing for this country since sliced bread.
I wonder what sliced bread was the best thing since.
> [@Clothahump](#):
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> Just as one example, remember this little exchange between Chris Matthews and Joe Scarborough?
No. But I don’t watch so-called news programming on television.
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### Author:  [@Jas09](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jas09)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2011, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-of-you-still-harboring-the-illusion-that-fox-news-is-fair-and-balanced/583089/13 "2011-05-25T16:50:14Z")
Not to mention the pundit that Matthews is talking to was an actual honest-to-God Republican Congressman. So you have two pundits, one an open liberal and one an open (and previously elected) conservative. And _that_ is your example of unfairness?
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### Author:  [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2011, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-of-you-still-harboring-the-illusion-that-fox-news-is-fair-and-balanced/583089/14 "2011-05-25T16:55:51Z")
Fairness itself has a liberal bias that needs to be balanced by solipsistic reactionism.
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### Author:  [@Dan\_Norder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dan_Norder)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2011, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-of-you-still-harboring-the-illusion-that-fox-news-is-fair-and-balanced/583089/15 "2011-05-25T16:56:31Z")
> [@Clothahump](#):
>
> The liberal media does this sort of stuff daily. It would be business as usual, nothing more.
And yet you, and idiots like yourself, never actually come up with any comparable examples, let alone “daily” ones.
Fox News is a marketing machine targeted at the willfully ignorant – not stupid people, mind you, but people who refuse to use their brains because thinking leads to conclusions that show their deeply-held opinions about the world to be idiotic. It’s an ongoing church sermon for followers the right wing faith.
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### Author:  [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2011, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-of-you-still-harboring-the-illusion-that-fox-news-is-fair-and-balanced/583089/16 "2011-05-25T16:57:06Z")
> [@Jas09](#):
>
> Not to mention the pundit that Matthews is talking to was an actual honest-to-God Republican Congressman. So you have two pundits, one an open liberal and one an open (and previously elected) conservative. And _that_ is your example of unfairness?
It speaks volumes that this is the best example of “liberal bias” that **Clothahump** could come up with.
Fox news is pretty clearly the Republican party network - it is being directed that way from the very top. Other networks have commentators that may give a liberal point of view (in addition to other commentators who do not).
**Clothahump** sees this as a complete equivalency.
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### Author:  [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2011, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-of-you-still-harboring-the-illusion-that-fox-news-is-fair-and-balanced/583089/17 "2011-05-25T17:56:37Z")
That was a very interesting article - not very surprising, but fascinating to read. I wasn’t aware that all prospective GOP Presidential candidates have to prostrate themselves before Roger Ailes, but it doesn’t shock me.
In a weird way, Glenn Beck comes off as almost likeable in the article just because he doesn’t give a crap about the usual Fox News command protocols, says whatever he wants, and basically was just using Fox as a platform to promote his other stuff. Beck is transparently in it for the money.
I enjoyed some of the gossipy bits - Laura Ingrahm screams at her crew during commercials, O’Reilly can’t stand Hannity (I’ve long suspected that), Ailes thinks Palin is an idiot (he is correct), and her ratings have been disappointing (her 15 minutes are over, whether she know it or not, and even her television career, such as it is, probably has an expiration date).
The most interesting aspect is that Old Man Murdoch is getting older, and that his kids are evidently not right wingers. Murdoch’s wife is an Obama supporter and did a fundraising function for him. That could bode for some big changes down the line at Fox News. I’d like to see Hannity get a new co-host - someone along the lines of Rahm Emmanuel, or maybe Henry Rollins. That would be entertaining.
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### Author:  [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2011, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-of-you-still-harboring-the-illusion-that-fox-news-is-fair-and-balanced/583089/18 "2011-05-25T18:14:53Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#):
>
> The most interesting aspect is that Old Man Murdoch is getting older, and that his kids are evidently not right wingers. Murdoch’s wife is an Obama supporter and did a fundraising function for him. That could bode for some big changes down the line at Fox News. I’d like to see Hannity get a new co-host - someone along the lines of Rahm Emmanuel, or maybe Henry Rollins. That would be entertaining.
I’d really like to believe that and more, but regardless of politics, I can’t imagine someone killing the cash cow that Fox is. Stop perpetuating the myth that Fox is the only channel for right-leaning viewers? Their veritable monopoly on the niche audience would fade away to other channels and venues. Way too much money involved to make too many changes.
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### Author:  [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2011, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-of-you-still-harboring-the-illusion-that-fox-news-is-fair-and-balanced/583089/19 "2011-05-25T18:17:33Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#):
>
> In a weird way, Glenn Beck comes off as almost likeable in the article just because he doesn’t give a crap about the usual Fox News command protocols, says whatever he wants, and basically was just using Fox as a platform to promote his other stuff. Beck is transparently in it for the money.
Yeah, that was probably the most surprising thing to me. Don’t get me wrong, I still think Beck is a massive douche but on a certain level, I respect that he plays by his own rules and isn’t afraid of bucking the company line.
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### Author:  [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2011, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-of-you-still-harboring-the-illusion-that-fox-news-is-fair-and-balanced/583089/20 "2011-05-25T18:24:24Z")
> [@Rhythmdvl](#):
>
> I’d really like to believe that and more, but regardless of politics, I can’t imagine someone killing the cash cow that Fox is. Stop perpetuating the myth that Fox is the only channel for right-leaning viewers? Their veritable monopoly on the niche audience would fade away to other channels and venues. Way too much money involved to make too many changes.
Fox will likely remain right wing (as you said, it’s just too big a cash cow to radically alter its business model), but I have a feeling that the younger Murdochs would reign in some of the network’s crazier impulses and make an honest effort to cut down on the shenanigans (putting a “D” next to the names of Republicans caught up in scandals, deceptive headlines, fallacious editing, etc.).
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