# For those of you still harboring the illusion that Fox News is "fair and balanced".... **URL:** \ **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:** 2
**Author:** ![Cort](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/77aa72/32.png) [@Cort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cort)\ **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/583089/21 "2011-05-25T18:24:58Z")
> [@Diogenes](#): > > 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. Oh, man. Hannity and Rollins…that’d be a…well, I don’t know what that’d be, but I’d certainly fucking watch it! ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tooth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2011, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-of-you-still-harboring-the-illusion-that-fox-news-is-fair-and-balanced/583089/22 "2011-05-25T18:38:08Z")
> [@Cort](#): > > Oh, man. Hannity and Rollins…that’d be a…well, I don’t know what that’d be, but I’d certainly fucking watch it! It would be a light snack for Mr. Rollins is what it’d be. I think Jello Biafra would humiliate Hannity more resoundingly, though. ---
**Author:** ![Enderw24](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba9def/32.png) [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2011, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-of-you-still-harboring-the-illusion-that-fox-news-is-fair-and-balanced/583089/23 "2011-05-25T18:45:37Z")
Hannity and John Ensign? Ens-Hannity! ---
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2011, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-of-you-still-harboring-the-illusion-that-fox-news-is-fair-and-balanced/583089/24 "2011-05-25T19:01:59Z")
There is no such thing as “fair and balanced.” Everything is filtered through some sort of bias, whether you can identify it or not. Not sure what the outrage is here. People have agendas and try to promote them. I’m SHOCKED! ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2011, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-of-you-still-harboring-the-illusion-that-fox-news-is-fair-and-balanced/583089/25 "2011-05-25T19:10:00Z")
> [@PunditLisa](#): > > There is no such thing as “fair and balanced.” Everything is filtered through some sort of bias, whether you can identify it or not. > > Not sure what the outrage is here. People have agendas and try to promote them. I’m SHOCKED! It’s more than just promotion of an agenda. I think it’s the degree in which the head of a news network is wrapped up in the internal machinations of a single political party. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2011, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-of-you-still-harboring-the-illusion-that-fox-news-is-fair-and-balanced/583089/26 "2011-05-25T19:11:06Z")
Who’s outraged? The OP isn’t telling people to be outraged, just pointing out that anyone who claims Fox is anything close to “fair and balanced” is either lying or delusional. In fact, even most conservatives will admit that Fox is a right wing operation. They just try to justify it by pretending that the rest of the media is equvalently left wing. That is still bullshit, of course. There is unconscious bias (which most professional journalists make an effort to be aware of and filter out), and there is intentional distortion of truth and promotion of a political agenda. Fox is a top down propaganda outlet, an an arm of the Republican party. There is no left wing analog for it. ---
**Author:** ![saoirse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@saoirse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saoirse)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2011, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-of-you-still-harboring-the-illusion-that-fox-news-is-fair-and-balanced/583089/27 "2011-05-25T19:24:33Z")
I used to think that Fox News was nothing more than a front for the Republican Party. Lately, it seems apparent that it’s the other way around. ---
**Author:** ![Asympotically\_fat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e47c2d/32.png) [@Asympotically\_fat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asympotically_fat)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2011, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-of-you-still-harboring-the-illusion-that-fox-news-is-fair-and-balanced/583089/28 "2011-05-25T19:25:07Z")
I think it’s good that stupid people have their own channel they can watch. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2011, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-of-you-still-harboring-the-illusion-that-fox-news-is-fair-and-balanced/583089/29 "2011-05-25T19:27:26Z")
> [@PunditLisa](#): > > ThPeople have agendas and try to promote them. I’m SHOCKED! It’s not their agenda, it pretending it is fair and balanced. If somebody wants to root for their team, fine; but don’t tell you aren’t biased. ---
**Author:** ![Death\_of\_Rats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a6a055/32.png) [@Death\_of\_Rats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Death_of_Rats)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2011, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-of-you-still-harboring-the-illusion-that-fox-news-is-fair-and-balanced/583089/30 "2011-05-25T19:40:40Z")
> [@Cort](#): > > Oh, man. Hannity and Rollins…that’d be a…well, I don’t know what that’d be, but I’d certainly fucking watch it! That would be about the minimum of what it would take to get me to actually watch Sean Hannity. ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2011, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-of-you-still-harboring-the-illusion-that-fox-news-is-fair-and-balanced/583089/31 "2011-05-25T19:57:38Z")
If someone wanted to see their name on the BBQ pit front page fairly often, all they need do is start a Fox News Story of the Day thread similar to the SRIotD. ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2011, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-of-you-still-harboring-the-illusion-that-fox-news-is-fair-and-balanced/583089/32 "2011-05-25T20:38:49Z")
Another interesting profile of Ailes, running this week in _Rolling Stone:_ > **[How Roger Ailes Built the Fox News Fear Factory](https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/how-roger-ailes-built-the-fox-news-fear-factory-244652/)** > > The onetime Nixon operative has created the most profitable propaganda machine in history. Inside America's Unfair and Imbalanced Network Covers a lot of the same ground as the _New York_ piece, but delves more deeply into his history as a political operative and various paranoias. Anyway I enjoyed this anecdote, about when he first became chief at Fox News: > [@](#): > > Murdoch installed Ailes in the corner office on Fox’s second floor at 1211 Avenue of the Americas in Manhattan. The location made Ailes queasy: It was close to the street, and he lived in fear that gay activists would try to attack him in retaliation over his hostility to gay rights. (In 1989, Ailes had broken up a protest of a Rudy Giuliani speech by gay activists, grabbing demonstrator by the throat and shoving him out the door.) Barricading himself behind a massive mahogany desk, Ailes insisted on having “bombproof glass” installed in the windows – even going so far as to personally inspect samples of high-tech plexiglass, as though he were picking out new carpet. Looking down on the street below, he expressed his fears to Cooper, the editor he had tasked with up-armoring his office. “They’ll be down there protesting,” Ailes said. “Those gays.” ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2011, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-of-you-still-harboring-the-illusion-that-fox-news-is-fair-and-balanced/583089/33 "2011-05-25T21:13:17Z")
> [@saoirse](#): > > I used to think that Fox News was nothing more than a front for the Republican Party. Lately, it seems apparent that it’s the other way around. From the Rolling Stone story I linked to above: > [@](#): > > “Republicans originally thought that Fox worked for us,” said David Frum, the former Bush speechwriter. “Now we’re discovering that we work for Fox.” ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2011, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-of-you-still-harboring-the-illusion-that-fox-news-is-fair-and-balanced/583089/34 "2011-05-26T01:03:14Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > The “liberal media” is a right wing media myth. > [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > They just try to justify it by pretending that the rest of the media is equvalently left wing. > > … > > Fox is a top down propaganda outlet, an an arm of the Republican party. There is no left wing analog for it. Oh that’s bullshit and you know it. Go out and do some research–they’re positively _dwarfed_ by the reach of the left-wing media elite. Soros et al are influencing the media and … and … and oh crap, I can’t even type this with a straight face. Anyway, here’s a bit from that bastion of journalism and truthiness, [Foxnation.com](http://Foxnation.com). [Soros-Funded Lefty Media Reach More Than 300 Million Every Month:](http://nation.foxnews.com/george-soros/2011/05/25/soros-funded-lefty-media-reach-more-300-million-every-month) > [@](#): > > Books, newspapers, radio stations, TV stations, websites and cutting edge videos. The pieces of the George Soros media empire are as diverse as the nations of the world and just as widespread. From nakedly partisan left-wing media like Think Progress, the blog for the Center for American Progress, and a TV show on MSNBC, to the supposedly impartial National Public Radio, Soros has impact on the flow of information worldwide. > > It gives him incredible influence. Every month, reporters, writers and bloggers at the many outlets he funds easily reach more than 330 million people around the globe. The U.S. Census estimates the population of the entire United States to be just less than 310 million. > … Is it me or are they including the entire NPR audience? ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2011, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-of-you-still-harboring-the-illusion-that-fox-news-is-fair-and-balanced/583089/35 "2011-05-26T01:11:18Z")
nm. I got momentarily whooshed. ---
**Author:** ![Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/budget_player_cadet/32/205_2.png) [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Budget_Player_Cadet)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2011, 8:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-of-you-still-harboring-the-illusion-that-fox-news-is-fair-and-balanced/583089/36 "2011-05-26T08:59:44Z")
> [@Clothahump](#): > > > [@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. > > 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? > > The liberal media does this sort of stuff daily. It would be business as usual, nothing more. …What? Other people have already pointed out the issue with this kind of thinking, but you know what else is wrong? _The liberal media corrects itself_. When was the last time you saw a pundit on Fox News say something _blatantly wrong_, then publically retract it later based on, you know, _the facts_? My favorite example of a “Left-Wing Pundit” is Cenk Uygur, the head moderator of “The Young Turks” (he also works for MSNBC and does his daily “Con-Job” segment). You know why? Because he’s just as radical as the people from Fox, but _he works with facts_. Like, he doesn’t just throw around random opinion claims all that often on political issues, and he _cites his sources live_. That’s GOOD JOURNALISM. He was also not above praising a local Fox News affiliate for a very strong, unbiased story (just a few days back). But he’s not acting like the people at Fox News, who mistake “Opinion” and “Lies” for “Facts” and “Data”. :rolleyes: And yeah, he’s the most extreme liberal bias that I know. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2011, 9:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-of-you-still-harboring-the-illusion-that-fox-news-is-fair-and-balanced/583089/37 "2011-05-26T09:36:55Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Shouldn’t this go in GD? Oh, definitely. It’s way up there with the other great puzzles of our age: [ul][li] Where was Obama born?[/li][li] Is the world really round?[/li][li] Is 2+2 really 4 ?[/li][li] Are right-wingers capable of rational thought?[/li][/ul] In the not-so-distant future, when an historical account of America’s fall is written, the popularity of FoxNews will be cited with much puzzlement. ---
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2011, 10:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-of-you-still-harboring-the-illusion-that-fox-news-is-fair-and-balanced/583089/38 "2011-05-26T10:22:54Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > It’s more than just promotion of an agenda. > > I think it’s the degree in which the head of a news network is wrapped up in the internal machinations of a single political party. [Quote=Fear Itself] It’s not their agenda, it pretending it is fair and balanced. If somebody wants to root for their team, fine; but don’t tell you aren’t biased. [/quote] Back in March, the head of NPR, Vivian Schiller, was forced out after an NPR executive, Ron Schiller (no relation), was taped slamming tea partiers to potential large contributors to NPR, who turned out to be plants. I don’t know about you, but I put way more stock in the journalistic integrity of NPR and found the news about these dismissals very unsettling. NPR’s statement following the resignations: “NPR is fair and open minded about the people we cover.” Sound familiar? Apparently they’re under the same delusions that FoxNews folks are. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2011, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-of-you-still-harboring-the-illusion-that-fox-news-is-fair-and-balanced/583089/39 "2011-05-26T11:14:52Z")
> [@PunditLisa](#): > > Back in March, the head of NPR, Vivian Schiller, was forced out after an NPR executive, Ron Schiller (no relation), was taped slamming tea partiers to potential large contributors to NPR, who turned out to be plants. I don’t know about you, but I put way more stock in the journalistic integrity of NPR and found the news about these dismissals very unsettling. > > NPR’s statement following the resignations: > > “NPR is fair and open minded about the people we cover.” > > Sound familiar? Apparently they’re under the same delusions that FoxNews folks are. No, it doesn’t sound familiar. You are making a false equivalency about one statement made in private with the daily on air bias of the entire Fox News organization that pretends to be journalism. Fox News is dedicated to disseminating false and misleading information on a daily basis. You cannot show any evidence that NPR has ever done that, much less on the scale of Fox News. No, I do not accept that comparison. ---
**Author:** ![Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/budget_player_cadet/32/205_2.png) [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Budget_Player_Cadet)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2011, 11:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-of-you-still-harboring-the-illusion-that-fox-news-is-fair-and-balanced/583089/40 "2011-05-26T11:15:16Z")
To be fair, the tea party is _fucking insane_, and there’s not much liberals _can_ do other than bash the shit out of them. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-of-you-still-harboring-the-illusion-that-fox-news-is-fair-and-balanced/583089.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-of-you-still-harboring-the-illusion-that-fox-news-is-fair-and-balanced/583089.md?page=3)