# 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:** 7
**Author:** ![John\_Stamos\_Left\_Ear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_stamos_left_ear/32/3198_2.png) [@John\_Stamos\_Left\_Ear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Stamos_Left_Ear)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2012, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fox-news-really-all-that-bad/636625/121 "2012-10-24T12:42:06Z")
I am still waiting for someone who thinks Fox News is hunky dory to refute my post(s). ---
**Author:** ![Knorf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/58956e/32.png) [@Knorf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knorf)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2012, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fox-news-really-all-that-bad/636625/122 "2012-10-24T14:43:46Z")
> [@John\_Stamos\_Left\_Ear](#): > > I am still waiting for someone who thinks Fox News is hunky dory to refute my post(s). Or mine. ---
**Author:** ![bmasters1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b5e925/32.png) [@bmasters1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bmasters1)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2012, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fox-news-really-all-that-bad/636625/123 "2012-10-28T23:16:46Z")
> [@Dr.Colossus](#): > > late to the complaining party, but i go through a lot of this with my folks, esp lately. they are very VERY conservapub christian rights. haaard right. and every. single. time. we. talk, it’s about what fox news said, and how they are the only news channel that will be unbias. they truly believe that ONLY fox news is fair, that all other sources of information are liberally biased. > > they were virtually STUNNED that ABC/CBS/NBC “admitted” obama lost the first debate. > > the problem i see with it is that Fox news doesn’t just push an agenda, they are having an actual dangerous effect on how people think. my folks have always been conservative, but the bitter, divisive anger is new, and i can trace nearly all of it to the start of the obama election last go-round and their increased interest in Fox news…which says everything they want to hear. > > nearly every bit of news my folks discuss (from fox news) is bookended by an extremely biased, fear-mongering, opinion demanding editorialization. but my folk’s fail to see that aspect. > > great example: yesterday we were talking about what a sad turn of events this Lance Armstrong has turned to. > > my dad said he was watching them talk about it on fox news and how the anchor went into a diatribe about personally meeting Lance Armstrong at some event, after press meetings out at a restaurant or something private, and how Lance tried to start a fist fight with him, and how the anchor explained “this is how this guy was. angry, aggressive, hostile and tried to start a lot of fights with journalists all the time.” > > now, any truth in this “report” notwithstanding, my immediate thought was "that sure is an utterly unverifiable personal anecdote you were just fed by your news, one that has since gone to shape your opinion of this person you’ve never met–one you just personally verified by explaining “–and he said he wasn’t the only one that happened to!” > > that’s not news. it’s brainwashing. > > it’s easy to say anyone who watches this channel has poor character, is an idiot, or just wants the sweet, warm hug of bullshit to make them feel better. but i can attest personally there are middle-ground, regular americans who lack a kind of investigative personality to dig deeper into things who are being straight up brainwashed by all this fearmongering. Fox news is demanding people be angry and are widening the gap between political stances by capturing on people’s fears. they harp constantly on how your freedoms are being eroded by everything you find even remotely disagreeable and pour it all into a mixture of actual shit, news, and opinion, call it fair and balance, and people buy PART A because of the caveat of PART B. > > maybe it’s unsophisticated, but my dad always mentions the fact they are the only news who claim to be fair and balanced. because of that claim, he buys some false sense of integrity on their part. and because they scream they are the ONLY honest ones, it makes him think any contradictory news, stats, or facts by any other media outlet is due to THEIR LIBERAL BIAS. > > it’s to the point he’s actually convinced we are heading for a new civil war–and that’s 100% Fox news anger-fear-mongering. Bullseye! Right on the money! This is exactly why I don’t like to watch or listen to FOX “News”! ---
**Author:** ![denquixote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9bd4f/32.png) [@denquixote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/denquixote)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2012, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fox-news-really-all-that-bad/636625/124 "2012-10-29T05:57:23Z")
The best that can be said of Fox News: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/2YypmZyXUpM/hqdefault.jpg "Megyn Kelly Farts Live On Fox News Channel TV") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YypmZyXUpM) ---
**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:** [October 29, 2012, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fox-news-really-all-that-bad/636625/125 "2012-10-29T13:29:57Z")
> [@tomndebb](#): > > The U.S. tilts Right on the political spectrum by any objective standard and Fox is to the Right of the American center. What “objective standard” involves the center being off-center, exactly? ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2012, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fox-news-really-all-that-bad/636625/126 "2012-10-29T14:01:36Z")
> [@tomndebb](#): > > The U.S. tilts Right on the political spectrum by any objective standard Appears to, certainly, but I wonder how much of that is people being convinced that what they believe is right of center when it’s not. “Communist” and “socialist” are dirty words to the vast majority of Americans, but if you were to describe left-wing/liberal policies without actually labeling them “liberal” or “Democratic”, people LIKE them in large numbers. When the provisions of the ACA are described without attributing them to Obama or the Democrats (or “Obamacare” or “the ACA”), people LOVE them (with the exception of the mandate, but then people never love taxes, however necessary they are). It’s only when you mention Obama or Democrats that the whole shebang become “socialism”! ---
**Author:** ![John\_Stamos\_Left\_Ear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_stamos_left_ear/32/3198_2.png) [@John\_Stamos\_Left\_Ear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Stamos_Left_Ear)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2012, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fox-news-really-all-that-bad/636625/127 "2012-11-02T13:57:53Z")
> [@](#): > > Fat asshole and Fox News president Roger Ailes[just re-upped to run his network through the 2016 election](http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/19/roger-ailes-is-said-to-sign-up-for-another-4-years-at-fox/), and he continues to maintain the grotesque fiction that he operates an independent news outlet and not a vital constituency in the Republican coalition. In case there was any doubt left, though—there isn’t, really—here’s a handwritten note he sent to George W. Bush’s secretary of state in 2005 offering “help off the record” any time. > > Ailes sent the note, which I obtained from the State Department via the Freedom of Information Act, to Condoleezza Rice in March 2005, shortly after she was confirmed as Secretary of State in the Bush Administration. It reads in full: > > > [@](#): > > > > Madam Secretary: > > > > Great first month. You handled hearing beautifully. If I can be of help off the record—just call. > > > > Warm Regards, > > > > Roger > > So there you have it. ([Here is the full note](https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/496256-ailes-and-rice-correspondence.html) and Rice’s response, which was basically a form letter.) For the Bush White House, “help” from the nation’s most watched cable news outlet was just a phone call away. Off the record help. Help that no one needs to know about, and that presumably wouldn’t penetrate to the traditional adversarial relationship an ostensible news outlet maintains with the government it covers. > > It goes without saying, but: Please just imagine for a moment how Fox News would cover the publication of a private note from the editor of the New York Times to an Obama Administration official offering “help off the record.” > > [Gawker](http://updates.gawker.com/post/34763014087/roger-ailes-offered-bush-administration-off-the-record?utm_campaign=socialflow_gawker_facebook&utm_source=gawker_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow) Any of the Fox News supporters care to defend this? ---
**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:** [November 2, 2012, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fox-news-really-all-that-bad/636625/128 "2012-11-02T14:11:28Z")
> [@John\_Stamos\_Left\_Ear](#): > > Any of the Fox News supporters care to defend this? 1. He meant help as in helping her paint her living room or kitchen. 2. He would have sent that same missive out to a Democratic appointee also-he’s just a patriotic guy. 3. They do it toooo! ---
**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:** [November 2, 2012, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fox-news-really-all-that-bad/636625/129 "2012-11-02T15:24:03Z")
1. He was talking about Condi’s budding music career. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2012, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fox-news-really-all-that-bad/636625/130 "2012-11-02T20:25:32Z")
> [@John\_Stamos\_Left\_Ear](#): > > Any of the Fox News supporters care to defend this? _chirp_ _chirp_ _chirp_ ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2012, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fox-news-really-all-that-bad/636625/131 "2012-11-02T20:43:36Z")
I agree that not only is Fox News biased, it really is the propoganda arm of the Republican party. If it weren’t for Shep Smith and Chris Wallace, I’d say nuke it from orbit. It’s blatantly obvious that the GOP IS Fox News. It’s not that they just work together or are sympathetic to the GOP, they are an essential part of it. This is really what separates it from MSNBC and any other “liberally biased” media. ---
**Author:** ![Passion\_of\_the\_Shrubber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a5b964/32.png) [@Passion\_of\_the\_Shrubber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Passion_of_the_Shrubber)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2012, 9:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fox-news-really-all-that-bad/636625/132 "2012-11-03T09:57:16Z")
I’m really enjoying this discussion and it’s very timely for me, considering the upcoming election and all of the disinformation Fox is putting out regarding Benghazi etc. I belong to another webboard [Bagism.com](http://Bagism.com) and yes, it is a Beatles/John Lennon-related site primarily, or used to be until the Foxtards took over. I have tried to do everything I can to reason with these people, showed them facts, tried to help them be a little more critical about which information they accept, but they’ll just have none of it. It would be funny if it wasn’t so sad. Anyone ever have luck getting through to a Foxtard at all? If so, any pointers? Or, should I just forget it and have some fun with it instead? ---
**Author:** ![John\_Stamos\_Left\_Ear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_stamos_left_ear/32/3198_2.png) [@John\_Stamos\_Left\_Ear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Stamos_Left_Ear)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2012, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fox-news-really-all-that-bad/636625/133 "2012-11-20T23:58:52Z")
…For Science in particular. > [@](#): > > **Is News Corp. Failing Science?** ([.pdf](http://www.ucsusa.org/assets/documents/global_warming/Is-News-Corp-Failing-Science.pdf)) > © 2012 Union of Concerned Scientists > > UCS’s analysis finds that: > > • Over a recent six-month period, 93 percent of Fox News Channel’s representations of climate science were misleading (37 out of 40 instances). > > UCS’s examination finds that the misleading citations include broad dismissals of human-caused climate change, disparaging comments about individual scientists, rejections of climate science as a body of knowledge, and cherry picking of data. Fox News Channel citations also included several discussions in which misleading claims dominated accurate ones. Furthermore, much of this coverage denigrated climate science by either promoting distrust in scientists and scientific institutions or placing acceptance of climate change in an ideological, rather than fact-based, > context. ---
**Author:** ![chargerrich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chargerrich/32/5399_2.png) [@chargerrich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chargerrich)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2012, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fox-news-really-all-that-bad/636625/134 "2012-11-23T16:34:56Z")
> [@Aeschines](#): > > Fox News is Conservative, but all network news shows ares fundamentally Conservative, inasmuch as they subtly and unsubtly validate the status quo. I think on a purely fundamental level, this is wholly inaccurate. Most media outside of radio is heavily liberal so perhaps when you see Fox being more conservative - which they are - swimming in a pool that is almost 100% more liberal, it seems out of place. As someone who is more moderate than anything else, I prefer CNN mainly because I like their “style and presentation” better than Fox. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Stamos\_Left\_Ear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_stamos_left_ear/32/3198_2.png) [@John\_Stamos\_Left\_Ear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Stamos_Left_Ear)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2012, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fox-news-really-all-that-bad/636625/135 "2012-11-23T16:37:13Z")
> [@chargerrich](#): > > I think on a purely fundamental level, this is wholly inaccurate. Most media outside of radio is heavily liberal so perhaps when you see Fox being more conservative - which they are - swimming in a pool that is almost 100% more liberal, it seems out of place. This is false and dumb. ---
**Author:** ![chargerrich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chargerrich/32/5399_2.png) [@chargerrich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chargerrich)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2012, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fox-news-really-all-that-bad/636625/136 "2012-11-23T17:06:15Z")
I do find it a bit hypocritical that hardcore liberals will go borderline violent about how “right” Fox is, show their hatred for clear conservatives like Hannity and O’Reilly but wont concede that hosts like Maddow and Olberman are JUST as bad in the other direction. I personally cannot stand any of the above, I’ll take Colbert and Stewart please 😃 ---
**Author:** ![John\_Stamos\_Left\_Ear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_stamos_left_ear/32/3198_2.png) [@John\_Stamos\_Left\_Ear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Stamos_Left_Ear)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2012, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fox-news-really-all-that-bad/636625/137 "2012-11-23T17:10:09Z")
> [@chargerrich](#): > > I do find it a bit hypocritical that hardcore liberals will go borderline violent about how “right” Fox is, show their hatred for clear conservatives like Hannity and O’Reilly but wont concede that hosts like Maddow and Olberman are JUST as bad in the other direction. Except that you didn’t say one person on MSNBC and one person currently unemployed. You said: > [@chargerrich](#): > > Most media outside of radio is heavily liberal. This may come as a shock to you, but those two people are NOT “most media.” ---
**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:** [November 23, 2012, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fox-news-really-all-that-bad/636625/138 "2012-11-23T17:18:29Z")
> [@chargerrich](#): > > I do find it a bit hypocritical that hardcore liberals will go borderline violent about how “right” Fox is, show their hatred for clear conservatives like Hannity and O’Reilly but wont concede that hosts like Maddow and Olberman are JUST as bad in the other direction. > > I personally cannot stand any of the above, I’ll take Colbert and Stewart please 😃 As has been stated here so many times it defies description: It isn’t the conservatism of the above-named persons that is being protested-it is the lies, inaccuracies and deceptions that spring from their lips on a regular basis. ---
**Author:** ![BigAppleBucky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigapplebucky/32/178_2.png) [@BigAppleBucky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigAppleBucky)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2012, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fox-news-really-all-that-bad/636625/139 "2012-11-23T20:47:48Z")
> [@TonySinclair](#): > > I don’t see how anybody could watch Fox and say it’s not biased. It’s obviously biased, but that wouldn’t be so bad if > > a) they didn’t claim they were fair and balanced, and > > b) they didn’t make shit up, or persist in reporting false stuff long after they know it’s false. > > MSNBC is NOT the same. They may be as biased to the left as Fox is to the right, but **they don’t claim to be fair and balanced** , **and they don’t make shit up**. > > Disclaimer: I only watch the big guns, i.e. Matthews and Maddow on MSNBC, and O’Reilly and Hannity on Fox. I guess it’s possible that Shep Smith may be less biased than Al Sharpton. Jon Stewart - Fox’s bullshit mountain: https://www.youtube.com/embed/QIrAEp8-Ft0?feature=oembed&wmode=opaque https://www.youtube.com/embed/mxVGw22SVFA?feature=oembed&wmode=opaque My favorite Faux News bit was their showing “riots” in Madison Wisconsin in February 2011. The “riots” had green palm trees in the background. First, there were never any riots during the January - April 2011 protests in Madison. During that entire time, about 30 people were arrested for what would be called riotous behavior. - That’s fewer than the usual number arrested on a single football Saturday. Second, the only green vegetation on Capitol Square in Madison are evergreen trees. There are no palm trees nor any other kind of leafy green trees. (BTW, During the biggest weekend protest, there were three bus loads of counter-protest folks from around Wisconsin bused-in by the Koch Brothers.) Colbert saw the same thing: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/IrHvx51aUr4/hqdefault.jpg "protest rally and palm tree in madison wi 3.5.11.AVI") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrHvx51aUr4) ---
**Author:** ![BigAppleBucky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigapplebucky/32/178_2.png) [@BigAppleBucky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigAppleBucky)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2012, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fox-news-really-all-that-bad/636625/140 "2012-11-23T21:15:43Z")
More YouTube clips on Faux News. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/WKH5rLVhxK4/hqdefault.jpg "Tom Coburn vs. Fox News") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKH5rLVhxK4) [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/nL7oWBMxm4I/hqdefault.jpg "Bill O'Reilly Attempts to Rewrite History") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nL7oWBMxm4I) [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/5rqdtZlec0s/hqdefault.jpg "FOX NEWS- LIES, LIES, LIES --See For Yourself (part 1 of 2)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rqdtZlec0s) [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/GT4rrkNFcyg/maxresdefault.jpg "Romney Stung by Fox News Lie in Debate Win for Obama?") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GT4rrkNFcyg) [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/IETQJouWaCM/maxresdefault.jpg "Fox News Creates False Obama Contradiction on Immigration?") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IETQJouWaCM) [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/h172eAPdPFo/hqdefault.jpg "Sean Hannity caught in a blatant lie") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h172eAPdPFo) Just search Fox News lies. BTW, MSNBC is not innocent of slanted editing, but the extent is so much less and out and out factual misstatements are rare and usually corrected later. Faux just shuts up when they’ve been called to account. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fox-news-really-all-that-bad/636625.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fox-news-really-all-that-bad/636625.md?page=8)