# Fox News gets Dished **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 2, 2015, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-news-gets-dished/708776 "2015-01-02T15:40:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Fuzzy\_wuzzy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a8b319/32.png) [@Fuzzy\_wuzzy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuzzy_wuzzy)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2015, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-news-gets-dished/708776/41 "2015-01-04T23:13:04Z")
> [@TonySinclair](#): > > Sorry, but this is so typical. To prove “equivalence”, right wingers either equate something said by someone with zero power, e.g. Al Sharpton, to what very powerful Republican leaders in the House or Senate say **and write into bills** , or they go back to a 30-year old example of “grandstanding” and equate that with shutting down the fucking government. > > Just amazing. Those were examples taken off the topof my head. Im sure I can find many others. Neither would I limit social grandstanding on the Democratic side to Al Sharpton. Im sure many others closer to power have similar-ish views on other social issues. Hey, if you want another example of Democratic shysterism; Jonathan Gruber. We can argue here until the cows come home. Much of the disagreement here is based on our own personal politics. Each side believe his side morally or intellectually superior to the other. Well this in fact may be correct. However, I fall back once again on my own knowledge of human nature and political partisanship - that both sides are roughly as bad as each other. This has been the case throughout most historical political partisanship in modern Western society. If politicians can be as bad as each other then their journalistic shrills are just as likely to be as bad. ---
**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2015, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-news-gets-dished/708776/42 "2015-01-04T23:28:30Z")
> [@Fuzzy\_wuzzy](#): > > However, I fall back once again on my own knowledge of human nature and political partisanship… That’s good enough for me. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2015, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-news-gets-dished/708776/43 "2015-01-04T23:43:32Z")
> [@PastTense](#): > > Not anymore: > > [http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/03/politics/huckabee-saturday-announcement/](http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/03/politics/huckabee-saturday-announcement/) _Shudder_ But I almost think I’d vote for _Huckabee_ if the choice was between him and my aunt. I shudder to think she might ever have any political influence. ---
**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:** [January 5, 2015, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-news-gets-dished/708776/44 "2015-01-05T00:25:56Z")
> [@Fuzzy\_wuzzy](#): > > I suspect quite a number of Democrats are as ignorant of science as Darrel Issa(who, from the little I have witnessed of him is very underwhelming). Whoops, mistook Issa for [Inhofe](http://ecowatch.com/2014/11/06/inhofe-senate-environment-committee/#comment-1722895640). Although Issa’s schtick is also pretty blantantly partisan, essentially going for witch hunt after witch hunt, trying to find any scandal to pin to the president, no matter how flimsy the evidence. > [@](#): > > Science opinion of today has changed its “settled opinion” on many issues that it had an opposing opinion on just a few decades ago. Trusting science outright can be almost as alarming as being ignorant of science. At least with the scientifically ignorant settled opinion and settled policy does not change with each passing scientific fad. Of course, if you’re of the impression that climate change is a “fad”, then of course you won’t care about Inhofe’s position on the issue. You’d also be dead wrong and possibly scientifically illiterate. > [@](#): > > What stunt has the Democratic Party pulled? I think I can point to a number of recebaiting speeches and announcements from Democrats to suggest they are just as capable of playing such games. In fact on many social issue its my opinion that Democrats need disharmony just as much as old fashioned white conservatives and supremacists did. Yes, both sides are full to the brim with opportunists. I could also point to older instances of grandstanding such as the Bork hearings. Loving the specifics here. The only specific case mentioned is from decades ago. Or the Jonathan Gruber case, which [didn’t really have a whole lot of meat on its bones](http://www.vox.com/2014/11/13/7211279/obamacare-jon-gruber-controversy). How 'bout “Death panels”? The Birther movement? The removal of welfare restrictions? Hell, pick a random “lie of the year” from politifact and chances are it’s parroted by someone on Fox! Or how about Benghazi? You know, that story Fox basically gave a happy ending to for over a year, and then continued to hype _even after the republican-authored house report found nothing_? Or hell, we can go to statistics. Why is it that in study after study of viewer information levels, FOX viewers rank somewhere between “close to the very bottom” and “literally worse than not watching any news at all”? There is no equivalency. Your “gut feeling” on the subject is simply wrong, and it’s, depressingly, what the republicans are counting on. They _need_ people to think that way, because it lets them have the defense of “Well, look at how crazy the democrats are” _without the democrats actually being crazy!_ ---
**Author:** ![jimbuff314](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c57346/32.png) [@jimbuff314](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jimbuff314)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2015, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-news-gets-dished/708776/45 "2015-01-05T00:47:33Z")
The discussion has moved somewhat far afield but my local CBS affiliate has been running a banner at the bottom of the screen stating that their parent company is trying to negotiate a new carriage agreement with Dish Network. If it’s not completed by the 15th, it lists several popular CBS programs that will no longer be available to Dish Networkians after that date. I didn’t suppose it reached down to the local affiliate level. ---
**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2015, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-news-gets-dished/708776/46 "2015-01-05T01:25:13Z")
> [@jimbuff314](#): > > The discussion has moved somewhat far afield but my local CBS affiliate has been running a banner at the bottom of the screen stating that their parent company is trying to negotiate a new carriage agreement with Dish Network. If it’s not completed by the 15th, it lists several popular CBS programs that will no longer be available to Dish Networkians after that date. I didn’t suppose it reached down to the local affiliate level. FWIW, and to atone for taking the thread off on a tangent, I was a Dish customer who left it something like ten years ago, when they briefly stopped carrying CBS over a contract dispute. I switched to DirectTV, and got some nice discounts, and since then I’ve been on a couple of different cable companies, but I’ve never gone back to Dish. And reading that they are still pulling this stuff, I’m not inclined to, no matter how good the deal is. And I’m not anywhere nearly as fervent a fan of CBS as many Fox News viewers are of that channel. I would expect this to hurt Dish more than it hurts Fox News in the long run. ---
**Author:** ![Fuzzy\_wuzzy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a8b319/32.png) [@Fuzzy\_wuzzy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuzzy_wuzzy)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2015, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-news-gets-dished/708776/47 "2015-01-05T01:46:55Z")
> [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](#): > > Whoops, mistook Issa for [Inhofe](http://ecowatch.com/2014/11/06/inhofe-senate-environment-committee/#comment-1722895640). Although Issa’s schtick is also pretty blantantly partisan, essentially going for witch hunt after witch hunt, trying to find any scandal to pin to the president, no matter how flimsy the evidence. > > Of course, if you’re of the impression that climate change is a “fad”, then of course you won’t care about Inhofe’s position on the issue. You’d also be dead wrong and possibly scientifically illiterate. > > Loving the specifics here. The only specific case mentioned is from decades ago. Or the Jonathan Gruber case, which [didn’t really have a whole lot of meat on its bones](http://www.vox.com/2014/11/13/7211279/obamacare-jon-gruber-controversy). How 'bout “Death panels”? The Birther movement? The removal of welfare restrictions? Hell, pick a random “lie of the year” from politifact and chances are it’s parroted by someone on Fox! Or how about Benghazi? You know, that story Fox basically gave a happy ending to for over a year, and then continued to hype _even after the republican-authored house report found nothing_? > > Or hell, we can go to statistics. Why is it that in study after study of viewer information levels, FOX viewers rank somewhere between “close to the very bottom” and “literally worse than not watching any news at all”? > > There is no equivalency. Your “gut feeling” on the subject is simply wrong, and it’s, depressingly, what the republicans are counting on. They _need_ people to think that way, because it lets them have the defense of “Well, look at how crazy the democrats are” _without the democrats actually being crazy!_ Here’s another example. Again, linked to Jonathan Gruber. The release of the Senate Intelligence Report on torture just last month. Its release was timed to the very day that Jonathan Gruber was hauled before a Congressional Committee. Gruber’s high profile appearance had been advertised a few weeks in advance. The Senate report was released at the timing of Senate Democrats(despite being asked by natioal security people to delay releasing the report). Coincidence? No way. So, yes, call me skeptical when you claim Democrats _arent_ full of it just as much as Republicans. ---
**Author:** ![Fuzzy\_wuzzy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a8b319/32.png) [@Fuzzy\_wuzzy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuzzy_wuzzy)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2015, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-news-gets-dished/708776/48 "2015-01-05T01:54:41Z")
> [@jimbuff314](#): > > The discussion has moved somewhat far afield but my local CBS affiliate has been running a banner at the bottom of the screen stating that their parent company is trying to negotiate a new carriage agreement with Dish Network. If it’s not completed by the 15th, it lists several popular CBS programs that will no longer be available to Dish Networkians after that date. I didn’t suppose it reached down to the local affiliate level. Sorry, my fault. I simply wanted to point out that politicians on both sides are as by and large as bad as each other. If the politicians are as bad as each other then their journalist allies are too; if their journalist allies are as bad as each other then so are their viewers. All are pretty much as biased, bigotted, lying pieces of shit(when needing to be) as each other. Each side may have different biases in different areas, but the bias is there. _Bias will out._ ---
**Author:** ![sqweels](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f19dbf/32.png) [@sqweels](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sqweels)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2015, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-news-gets-dished/708776/49 "2015-01-05T03:13:56Z")
> [@Fuzzy\_wuzzy](#): > > Here’s another example. Again, linked to Jonathan Gruber. The release of the Senate Intelligence Report on torture just last month. Its release was timed to the very day that Jonathan Gruber was hauled before a Congressional Committee. Gruber’s high profile appearance had been advertised a few weeks in advance. The Senate report was released at the timing of Senate Democrats(despite being asked by natioal security people to delay releasing the report). Coincidence? No way. So, yes, call me skeptical when you claim Democrats _arent_ full of it just as much as Republicans. But you’re citing one single example and acting that this eclipses all biases on display by Republicans and/or Fox News. > [@Fuzzy\_wuzzy](#): > > Sorry, my fault. I simply wanted to point out that politicians on both sides are as by and large as bad as each other. If the politicians are as bad as each other then their journalist allies are too; if their journalist allies are as bad as each other then so are their viewers. All are pretty much as biased, bigotted, lying pieces of shit(when needing to be) as each other. Each side may have different biases in different areas, but the bias is there. CNN is not as biased in favor of Democrats as Fox is in favor of Republicans. Democrats are not as biased in favor of liberalism as Republicans are in favor of conservatism. Liberalism is not as biased as conservatism. ---
**Author:** ![Lamar\_Mundane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2015, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-news-gets-dished/708776/50 "2015-01-05T03:13:58Z")
> [@Fuzzy\_wuzzy](#): > > Sorry, my fault. I simply wanted to point out that politicians on both sides are as by and large as bad as each other. If the politicians are as bad as each other then their journalist allies are too; if their journalist allies are as bad as each other then so are their viewers. All are pretty much as biased, bigotted, lying pieces of shit(when needing to be) as each other. Each side may have different biases in different areas, but the bias is there. > > _Bias will out._ Why can’t you point out examples of liberal media bias, then? The Fox thread in GD has tons of examples of outright lying and disinformation. Where are your examples? I especially want to see them from the New York Times, which is frequently used as an example. I know of one story that was fabricated by a crack addict, but it wasn’t political in any way. The one other example that was political was Judith Miller’s work on the Iraq connection to terrorism, which was in full support of the Bush2 administration. ---
**Author:** ![Fuzzy\_wuzzy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a8b319/32.png) [@Fuzzy\_wuzzy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuzzy_wuzzy)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2015, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-news-gets-dished/708776/51 "2015-01-05T05:47:37Z")
> [@armedmonkey](#): > > Yep. And that was less than three months ago. I don’t like Fox News, but I think the visceral hatred some have over the fact that a “news”\*\* outlet is mostly anger-stoking propaganda (a feature of various “news” outlets since the invention of the printing press) is ridiculous\*\*. Then you add in the fact that the O.P.'s anger is such that he got his facts about who pays the fees 100% completely wrong and the irony is hilarious. This is spot on imo. Every era has it’s media biases as does every political persuasion. Not to get religous(really im not) but one bias begets another bias. What one side does affects the other, both learn from one other. To believe that the liberal bias does not exist to roughly the same extent as conservative bias is just downright head in the sand stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Fuzzy\_wuzzy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a8b319/32.png) [@Fuzzy\_wuzzy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuzzy_wuzzy)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2015, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-news-gets-dished/708776/52 "2015-01-05T06:10:50Z")
> [@sqweels](#): > > But you’re citing one single example and acting that this eclipses all biases on display by Republicans and/or Fox News. > CNN is not as biased in favor of Democrats as Fox is in favor of Republicans. > Democrats are not as biased in favor of liberalism as Republicans are in favor of conservatism. > Liberalism is not as biased as conservatism. I cited other examples earlier. I can cite further examples if I searched for them. I did not say CNN is as biased in favour of Democrats as Fox is of Republicans. I did compare MSNBC as a rough equivalent to Fox. My point during most of this thread has been that bias on both sides exist. Each bias may not express itself in exactly the same way, but the bias is there. It’s as prevalent in liberals as it is in conservatives, libertarians, reactionaries, anarchists, communists, fascists, anti-fascists, anti-communists, greens, monarchists and free-marketeers. The outlets and opportunities for biases in favour of these ideologies will vary, but bias is intrinsic in the followers and proponents of each and every one of them. If both sides have their own news networks then they will both play a roughly equivalent game. Can I say that MSNBC are wrong only 31% of the time compared to Fox’s 49% of the time? No, I cannot and I would not point to such a relatively meaningless stat. I will point to the fact that both sides are a mirror of each other, that both will resemble one another more than they differ. ---
**Author:** ![Fuzzy\_wuzzy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a8b319/32.png) [@Fuzzy\_wuzzy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuzzy_wuzzy)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2015, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-news-gets-dished/708776/53 "2015-01-05T06:21:02Z")
> [@Lamar\_Mundane](#): > > Why can’t you point out examples of liberal media bias, then? The Fox thread in GD has tons of examples of outright lying and disinformation. Where are your examples? I especially want to see them from the New York Times, which is frequently used as an example. I know of one story that was fabricated by a crack addict, but it wasn’t political in any way. The one other example that was political was Judith Miller’s work on the Iraq connection to terrorism, which was in full support of the Bush2 administration. To be fair I don’t think I have been asked for any examples. If you wish to find some examples of liberal bias then maybe do a search for them yourself. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2015, 8:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-news-gets-dished/708776/54 "2015-01-05T08:09:30Z")
> [@Fuzzy\_wuzzy](#): > > To be fair I don’t think I have been asked for any examples. If you wish to find some examples of liberal bias then maybe do a search for them yourself. You won’t give examples when asked because nobody asked you for examples? Hard to argue with that. ---
**Author:** ![Imasquare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Imasquare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Imasquare)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2015, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-news-gets-dished/708776/55 "2015-01-06T08:07:32Z")
> [@Fuzzy\_wuzzy](#): > > To be fair I don’t think I have been asked for any examples. If you wish to find some examples of liberal bias then maybe do a search for them yourself. Yes you have. > [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](#): > > “WAAAH! I’M PART OF ONE OF THE LARGEST POLITICAL GROUPS IN THE COUNTRY AND WE’RE SOOOO PERSECUTED!” > > LOL > > No, the reason they get so much criticism is because they lie. Consistently and constantly, with each of their lies pointing in the same political direction. > > Except that this is blatantly false. Blatantly. **Who on the democrat side is quite as ignorant of science as, say, Darrel Issa? And is that person being put in a position of power when it comes to science and environmental policy? What stunt has the democratic party pulled recently that came close to the debt ceiling standoffs? Or the government shutdown? Or hell, even the 50+ votes to repeal Obamacare (one or two “symbolic” votes is one thing; 50+ is fucking ludicrous)?** This idea of “both sides do it” is false. Are there scumbags on both sides of the aisle? Sure. But don’t even for a second pretend that they’re somehow equivalent. They aren’t. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-news-gets-dished/708776.md?page=2)