# Is Fox News really all that bad? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [October 3, 2012, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fox-news-really-all-that-bad/636625 "2012-10-03T21:14:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 27
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2014, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fox-news-really-all-that-bad/636625/521 "2014-05-03T23:16:27Z")
> [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](#): > > That… Wow. I knew fox was bad, but that just leaves me speechless. Yep. I think the case against Fox News Channel has been made pretty well here. Just one more comment. I was reading some old news articles recently and was reminded that back around 1974 Rupert Murdoch started a tabloid paper called “The National Star”, later known as just “The Star”, which became very profitable and was eventually sold off in the early 90s as part of a News Corp consolidation. “The Star” said a lot about Murdoch’s values: it was a supermarket checkout type rag intended to compete with the _National Enquirer_ – you know, stories like “baby born with three heads”, or “mom abducted by aliens”. Murdoch and the editorial staff were unapologetic about the paper: it was crap, they knew it was crap, and it was _ **supposed** _ to be crap, because it was crap that made a lot of money. In the same era and continuing until recently there was Murdoch’s _News of the World_ in Britain, the paper that was recently forced to fold in the wake of the disgusting email hacking scandal. To me, this is all typical Murdoch. The gigantic empire of News Corp now runs some nominally respectable institutions like the _Wall Street Journal_, but the unmistakable touch is still there in the opinion pages. I have read articles in the WSJ opinion pages on climate change, for instance, that were just simply a pack of lies. Note here that this is not the same as saying that I disagreed with the authors’ point of view, or that the articles were slanted or incomplete. The articles were an unmitigated pack of lies, period. Sort of like the baby born with three heads after Mom came back from the alien encounter. All of this reflects the famous quip of journalist Mike Royko that “no self-respecting fish would want to be wrapped in a Murdoch paper”. If one understands that the same stigma extends to his broadcast holdings, Fox News in particular, then one begins to understand the nature of Fox News, and much of what’s been said here shouldn’t be surprising. ---
**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:** [May 4, 2014, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fox-news-really-all-that-bad/636625/522 "2014-05-04T02:11:20Z")
CNN, MSNBC, and CSPN are all covering the White House Correspondents Dinner live, while Fox is running a one hour special on the Benghazi “scandal.” ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c57346/32.png) [@Little\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Pig)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2014, 8:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fox-news-really-all-that-bad/636625/523 "2014-05-04T08:31:14Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > All of this reflects the famous quip of journalist Mike Royko that “no self-respecting fish would want to be wrapped in a Murdoch paper”. Wow wolfpup. I thought I was the only person left who remembered that quote. I remember reading that in one of Royko’s early columns for the Chicago Tribune, if not the first column after he left the Sun-Times. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c57346/32.png) [@Little\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Pig)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2014, 8:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fox-news-really-all-that-bad/636625/524 "2014-05-04T08:33:02Z")
> [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](#): > > That… Wow. I knew fox was bad, but that just leaves me speechless. Yeah Budget Player Cadet, me too. And for a lot of people that is their only source for “news”. ---
**Author:** ![yanceylebeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yanceylebeef/32/12290_2.png) [@yanceylebeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yanceylebeef)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2014, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fox-news-really-all-that-bad/636625/525 "2014-05-05T21:24:16Z")
> [@TonySinclair](#): > > This isn’t from the Chris Hayes show I mentioned, but it’s the same thing: It includes a video clip. > > [Fox News Ditches Obama Presser Because Reporters Not Asking About Benghazi (VIDEO) - TPM – Talking Points Memo](http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/fox-news-obama-press-conference-benghazi) > > ETA: according to the link, nobody asked about Benghazi, and so they never did return to the press conference. [And they just did it again this morning…](http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/benghazi-fox-news-white-house-press-briefing). ---
**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:** [May 5, 2014, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fox-news-really-all-that-bad/636625/526 "2014-05-05T23:26:08Z")
Fox News did a story on the South Korean ferry sinking, showing people morning the dead. The problem is, they actually showed footage of Tibetans mourning the death of the Sherpas on Mt. Everest. “Hey Bob, get us some footage of the Sooth Koreans mourning.” Bob: “Grumble, grumble. Here’s some vaguely Asian looking people with tears in their eyes. One Gook is as good as another.” > **[Fox News used footage of random sad Asians instead of actual Koreans mourning...](https://theworld.org/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/south-korea/140504/fox-news-swaps-random-sad-asians-mourning-south-koreans)** > > Nope, not The Onion. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c57346/32.png) [@Little\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Pig)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2014, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fox-news-really-all-that-bad/636625/527 "2014-05-06T01:23:48Z")
> [@Lamar\_Mundane](#): > > Fox News did a story on the South Korean ferry sinking, showing people morning the dead. The problem is, they actually showed footage of Tibetans mourning the death of the Sherpas on Mt. Everest. > > “Hey Bob, get us some footage of the Sooth Koreans mourning.” > > Bob: “Grumble, grumble. Here’s some vaguely Asian looking people with tears in their eyes. One Gook is as good as another.” > > [http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/south-korea/140504/fox-news-swaps-random-sad-asians-mourning-south-koreans](http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/south-korea/140504/fox-news-swaps-random-sad-asians-mourning-south-koreans) I doubt their viewers will ever know. ---
**Author:** ![yanceylebeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yanceylebeef/32/12290_2.png) [@yanceylebeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yanceylebeef)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2014, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fox-news-really-all-that-bad/636625/528 "2014-05-06T15:29:59Z")
[Now Fox’s Dana Perino wants America’s meteorologists to ask President Obama about Benghazi.](http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/fox-news-dana-perino-benghazi-weather) These people are bound and determined to create a scandal where none exists. Unbelievable. ---
**Author:** ![racepug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f1d935/32.png) [@racepug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racepug)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2014, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fox-news-really-all-that-bad/636625/529 "2014-05-06T15:48:48Z")
> [@yanceylebeef](#): > > [Now Fox’s Dana Perino wants America’s meteorologists to ask President Obama about Benghazi.](http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/fox-news-dana-perino-benghazi-weather) > > These people are bound and determined to create a scandal where none exists. Unbelievable. Actually, coming from that pack of liars, hypocrites, whiners, and half-wits, it’s VERY believable (unfortunately). Such a shame that so many dipsh1ts find that “news” station to be their one source of “news.” ---
**Author:** ![A\_nice\_guy\_with\_an\_opinion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/76d3ee/32.png) [@A\_nice\_guy\_with\_an\_opinion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/A_nice_guy_with_an_opinion)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2014, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fox-news-really-all-that-bad/636625/530 "2014-05-08T06:21:00Z")
When I think about how bad Faux news is, I have to compare it with something else. So here ya geaux… ["Resist We Much" | Al Sharpton VS The Teleprompter #1 - YouTube](http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ggHWRpsMEmk#)! ---
**Author:** ![zoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zoid/32/336_2.png) [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2014, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fox-news-really-all-that-bad/636625/531 "2014-05-08T06:54:11Z")
What exactly does misreading a teleprompter have to do with outright lies? Are you actually equating the two? ---
**Author:** ![A\_nice\_guy\_with\_an\_opinion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/76d3ee/32.png) [@A\_nice\_guy\_with\_an\_opinion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/A_nice_guy_with_an_opinion)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2014, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fox-news-really-all-that-bad/636625/532 "2014-05-08T07:35:46Z")
> [@zoid](#): > > What exactly does misreading a teleprompter have to do with outright lies? > Are you actually equating the two? Al is an American treasure. I am sorry. Back to faux news. ---
**Author:** ![yanceylebeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yanceylebeef/32/12290_2.png) [@yanceylebeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yanceylebeef)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2014, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fox-news-really-all-that-bad/636625/533 "2014-05-09T14:32:03Z")
[Wow, Geraldo Rivera goes out in Manhattan to do a “man on the street” series of interviews about an EPA employee who was caught looking at porn, and managed to interview two Fox Business anchors](http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/fox-news-geraldo-rivera-interviews-fox-business). Without identifying them. They tried to pass them off as regular Joes, just sitting there and having an opinion. Priceless. ---
**Author:** ![Frank\_Merton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Frank\_Merton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank_Merton)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2014, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fox-news-really-all-that-bad/636625/534 "2014-05-09T14:37:59Z")
As I understand it FOX beats all the others in its rating, and no wonder. It’s entertaining and doesn’t treat you like an idiot. I don’t believe anything I see on TV anyway, and they are as credible as any of them, just a good deal more honest about their slant. They all deny a slant and they all have one. If I want news, I read Christian Science Monitor, not that I’m a Christian of any sort, because I’m not, but because they don’t feel they have to educate you and just tell you the story. ---
**Author:** ![yanceylebeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yanceylebeef/32/12290_2.png) [@yanceylebeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yanceylebeef)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2014, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fox-news-really-all-that-bad/636625/535 "2014-05-09T14:44:38Z")
Looks like someone at Fox news reads the Dope. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2014, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fox-news-really-all-that-bad/636625/536 "2014-05-09T14:47:45Z")
> [@Frank\_Merton](#): > > As I understand it FOX beats all the others in its rating, and no wonder. It’s entertaining and doesn’t treat you like an idiot. Read the post right above yours(and most of the rest in this thread). _All_ they do is treat you like an idiot. ---
**Author:** ![Sterling\_Archer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Sterling\_Archer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sterling_Archer)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2014, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fox-news-really-all-that-bad/636625/537 "2014-05-09T14:57:49Z")
> [@Frank\_Merton](#): > > As I understand it FOX beats all the others in its rating, and no wonder. It’s entertaining and doesn’t treat you like an idiot. Have you WATCHED “Fox & Friends” in the morning? Fox assumes their viewers are idiots more than any network on TV. (well, maybe not TLC and MTV) ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2014, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fox-news-really-all-that-bad/636625/538 "2014-05-09T15:08:35Z")
> [@Frank\_Merton](#): > > As I understand it FOX beats all the others in its rating, and no wonder. It’s entertaining and doesn’t treat you like an idiot. I don’t believe anything I see on TV anyway, and they are as credible as any of them, just a good deal more honest about their slant. They all deny a slant and they all have one. > > If I want news, I read Christian Science Monitor, not that I’m a Christian of any sort, because I’m not, but because they don’t feel they have to educate you and just tell you the story. Indeed, the Christian Science Monitor does treat their readers intelligently: > **[Global warming trend continues, so why are we all shivering?](https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/USA-Update/2014/0122/Global-warming-trend-continues-so-why-are-we-all-shivering)** > > There's a difference between climate events, such as this week's frigid cold wave, and climate trends. The global warming trend just marked its 37th year, government climatologists say. Their interview of Climate researcher Gavin Schmidt did not include any dumb “counterpoint” from deniers. Meanwhile at FOX: > **[To Fox, A Legally Mandated Climate Change Report Is Just Another Distraction](https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-legally-mandated-climate-change-report-just-another-distraction)** > [@](#): > > Fox News attempted to spin a new climate change report as a mere distraction from “multiple scandals swirling around the administration,” ignoring that the report was legally mandated by Congress under a law signed by former President George H.W. Bush. > > On May 6, the Obama administration released the third National Climate Assessment (NCA), a report compiled by over two hundred climate scientists over a four-year period. The report concluded that unabated climate change would pose many dangers to the U.S. including increasing drought and wildfires in the Southwest, and coastal flooding from rising sea levels and increased precipitation in the Northeast. > > The May 6 edition of America’s Newsroom opened with co-host Bill Hemmer’s supposition that the Obama administration’s “dire new report on global warming” may be intended “to distract Americans” from the “multiple scandals swirling around the administration.” Co-host Martha MacCallum went on to elevate Sen. Jim Inhofe’s claim that the climate change report is “part of the game the president is playing” to distract Americans from “his unchecked regulatory agenda”: Anything but the science and the problem of human emissions causing global warming, FOX does treat their viewers as idiots indeed. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2014, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fox-news-really-all-that-bad/636625/539 "2014-05-09T17:40:19Z")
I read the _Christian Science Monitor_ too. I don’t really understand why you would equate it in any way with Fox News. ---
**Author:** ![K364](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k364/32/5_2.png) [@K364](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/K364)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2014, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fox-news-really-all-that-bad/636625/540 "2014-05-09T18:31:32Z")
[stephen-colbert-ridicules-fox-newss-latest-hilariously-uninformed-benghazi-conspiracy/](http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/05/08/stephen-colbert-ridicules-fox-newss-latest-hilariously-uninformed-benghazi-conspiracy/) “Fox News’s The Five‘s Eric Bolling,” Colbert continued, “has an iron-clad explanation for why they did whatever it is we’re accusing them of having done after the Benghazi attack.” He then cuts to Bolling, who is saying “that there’s one more piece to this. Don’t forget that [Benghazi] was prior — prior — to Osama bin Laden being taken down, and the thought was, the discussion was, ‘Is President Obama, going into the reelection, soft on terror or not?’” Bolling then interrupts himself, as an off-screen producers informs him of something: “What, it was after?” “Yes, much after,” Dana Perino can be heard saying. “My bad,” Bolling said, “I take it back.” “But a great point, if it were true,” Perino added. “Yes,” Colbert replied, “that’s undeniable. A great point, and a fantastic new motto: ‘Fox News: Fair and Balanced. A Great Point If It Were True.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fox-news-really-all-that-bad/636625.md?page=26) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fox-news-really-all-that-bad/636625.md?page=28)