Yeah, seriously. You’d think if FOX was paying people to spread the good word of FOX, they’d get people with better arguments.
Only if you thought that they were getting better reporters for what they are paying them. (They are getting their money’s worth from their pundits who are keeping the preferred audience stirred up just fine.)
Dismissing something out of hand because it’s from Fox News is a form of ad hominem.
Let’s say, hypothetically, that there were a 6.5 magnitude earthquake in Alaska, and Fox News reported it. If you told someone, “Hey, there was a 6.5 magnitude earthquake in Alaska this morning,” and they asked, “Where you hear that from?,” you responded, “Fox News,” and they snorted, “You believe FOX NEWS? Seriously?”, that would be attacking the source, not the data.
What if it *were *true - that there had been a 6.5 magnitude earthquake in Alaska?
Nice hypothetical you’ve got there. Now try to match it up with reality-show us a real world example of what you are talking about with a link to a post in this thread.
What are you looking for exactly?
An example of Fox reporting an earthquake and someone dismissing it?
… or Fox reporting something and lots of Dopes dismissing it?
Just pointing out that Velocity hasn’t a chance in hell of arguing against the very real points people have against Fox News, which is probably why arguments against hypothetical problems have started-those are easier to “win”.
Also, is an earthquake in Alaska political? So what’s the point of this hypothetical? Though it wouldn’t entirely surprise me if Fox descended to new depths of depravity and blamed Obama for causing it!
But one seriously cannot overestimate the incredible ability of Fox News to politicize and lie about even straightforward natural events. For example, I’m reminded of this Fox News story about why solar power, which is incontrovertibly successful in Germany, will never work in the US. It’s because tree-hugger lefties apparently don’t know that Germany is so incredibly sunny, whereas in comparison the US gets almost no sun. 
It’s “factual science” like this, which permeates pretty much all Fox stories about renewable energy and climate change, that explains why Fox News viewers as a group actually know less about the world than people who watch no news at all, because instead of knowing nothing they “know” a whole bunch of things that are completely wrong. Fox News is a cesspool of lies and distortions of such contrived one-sided mendacity that it’s an embarrassment and disgrace to the entire business of American media.
And I can listen to the North Korean news service to get an accurate forecast for the temperature in Pyongang. What’s your point? No one is saying the Fox news never tells the truth just that its reporting on political matter are heavily biased and so should be viewed with skepticism.
Let’s say, hypothetically, no other news network has picked up on the story. Nothing. Not even local news where the earthquake hit. Would you continue to trust FOX? The interesting thing here is that if anyone else covered it, you’d almost always have a more reputable source. It’s similar to the Natural News effect - if the most reputable source you can find for a claim is a site like Natural News, it’s fair to assume that the claim is bogus. Not just because Natural News is bad, but because if the claim were real, other news networks would be very likely to pick it up.
What’s more, the 6.5 magnitude earthquake leaves virtually no room for political gesturing or commentary. I have no problem accepting FOX on claims like that. It’s almost every other type of claim where I will insist that you find me a source that isn’t so dedicated to the exclusive well-being of the republican party.
Hey, the jobs numbers are out again this morning. Every reputable news source is reporting that 321,000 jobs were gained in November in a big banner on the top of their page. It beat expectations and is very good news.
Or as Foxnews.com is reporting it: “…” (Benghazi is their lead story this morning. I kid you not.)
They have now magnanimously added a link titled “November Jobs Report” with no indication of how good or bad the numbers are (as opposed to the notoriously liberal Wall Street Journal, who titles their lead story as “U.S. Added 321,000 Jobs for Best Year Since 1999”) under the subheading of “Market News” in a font approximately 30 times smaller than the word “Benghazi” that leads the news, apparently. Usually they don’t bother reporting it at all, so this is a step in the right direction.
And the first highlighted story under Latest News is “No evidence linking Christie to bridge plot, report says” (although the story does say several witnesses did not testify and “some important questions remain unanswered” - WTF?) Interesting to see what headlines they highlight in bold; they seem to be the ones that would get their base most riled up.
They are having a banner morning in drummed up news trying to distract from the fact that the economy is demonstrably and dramatically improved. Now their headline is “Hillary: US should empathize with foes”.
This is trying to make some sort of controversial statment of Clinton’s quote:
“This is what we call smart power,” Clinton said to a small audience at Georgetown. “Using every possible tool and partner to advance peace and security. Leaving no one on the sidelines. Showing respect even for one’s enemies. Trying to understand, in so far as psychologically possible, empathize with their perspective and point of view. Helping to define the problems, determine the solutions. That is what we believe in the 21st century will change – change the prospects for peace.”
Which is so uncontroversial and obvious that it doesn’t even bear stating. Anything to avoid the good jobs numbers.
Interestingly, they have since changed that title to “SYMPATHY FOR THE ENEMY? Hillary urges US to show ‘respect’ for foes”.
which changes the word she actually used “empathize” to “sympathy” which is not what she said, and is really fraudulent journalism.
No, no…didn’t you see the question mark?
True. I forgot about that ruse.
I had to go and look at the Fox News website myself after reading the above recent posts because it’s so outrageous that it’s literally hard to believe. I had just been looking at the CNN site where the lead stories were actual news, like the successful first flight of the Orion spacecraft and the continuing controversy over the police killing in New York. And this is what I saw…
It’s really true. The lead story on the Fox News site, the hot breaking news of the day, is that Hillary Clinton has “sympathy” for the enemy. In case some of their readers are too stupid to understand this despite the giant headline, the key point is illustrated with a sort of pictograph: two side-by-side pictures, Hillary Clinton juxtaposed with a picture of a masked ISIS fighter carrying the ISIS flag in one hand and a submachine gun in the other. Underneath the one-sentence summary of the story are four (4) smaller headlines relating to separate stories about… Benghazi! Really, I’m not kidding. Apparently, the other breaking news of the day!
If one clicks on the “sympathy for the enemy” headline, one gets an expanded story that just simply repeats the lie, which Fox pads out by getting comments about it from handy sources. Since Fox News is “fair and balanced”, they sought out two unbiased sources to give a balanced perspective. One was Karl Rove, who called Clinton’s comments “the wrong language”. To get a balanced view from the other side, they sought out Oliver North, a Fox News host, who called her comments “irrational”.
Fox News – the gift that keeps on giving! 
In the short time since I posted the above, the following changes have occurred:
On CNN, the Orion space flight story has dropped to a lower level and the lead story is now about the growing protests in New York.
On Fox News, Hillary’s love for the enemy is still the lead story, but the “Sympathy for the Enemy” headline has been replaced with the cleverly worded “Empathy for the Devil” and they managed to find an even scarier ISIS picture to put beside Hillary’s. The four Benghazi stories are still there.
This surprises me. I would have expected them to give credit for the good economy to the newly elected Republicans in the Senate.
Never mind that they haven’t been sworn in and done anything yet.