# Things I Learned Today from Watching Fox News **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 4, 2006, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-learned-today-from-watching-fox-news/375278 "2006-10-04T17:07:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**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 7, 2006, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-learned-today-from-watching-fox-news/375278/21 "2006-10-07T13:22:05Z")
[QUOTE=ivylass] It’s live TV. Mistakes happen. Get over it. [/QUOTE] Actually, it’s not. O’Reilly’s show is taped. I’d like to repeat that: O’Reilly’s show is not live. It’s taped. It’s (ostensibly) edited by actual live people who are supposed to catch errors like that. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2006, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-learned-today-from-watching-fox-news/375278/22 "2006-10-07T14:53:04Z")
[QUOTE=ivylass] So when CNN put a big black X over VP Cheney’s face when he was making a speech, what was that? [/QUOTE] Cite? Date? Anything? ---
**Author:** ![Onomatopoeia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/onomatopoeia/32/4145_2.png) [@Onomatopoeia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Onomatopoeia)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2006, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-learned-today-from-watching-fox-news/375278/23 "2006-10-07T14:55:12Z")
[QUOTE=cosmosdan] Oh…and they don’t give a crap about how obvious the lie or “mistake” is. I’m sure they feel it’s completely worth it to confuse the issue. They can claim it’s “just a mistake” but the damage is done. Some people will see it and believe it without question. What scumbags. [/QUOTE] Some people? I’m sure FOX is counting on ‘most’ of their audience being fooled/confused by this. Let’s face it, FOX knows their fans are not brain surgeons. They’ll uncritically eat any pablum that station feeds them. So, it wouldn’t surprise me in the least if many of their viewers now believe Foley’s a democrat, even after hearing previously that he was a republican. The republicans were probably like “Oh, thank god for FOX news” when they saw the ‘mistake’. And anyway, didn’t something like this happen on FOX before? ---
**Author:** ![BJMoose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/5fc32e/32.png) [@BJMoose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BJMoose)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2006, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-learned-today-from-watching-fox-news/375278/24 "2006-10-07T15:02:02Z")
Got a source for that? While I wouldn’t doubt that O’Reilly would insist on taping the program to suit his schedule, I haven’t heard that. Loathe as I am to defend Fox News, I gotta say that I worked in live TV news production for a number of years and such idiotic mistakes do happen (and sometimes are never noticed). ---
**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:** [October 7, 2006, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-learned-today-from-watching-fox-news/375278/25 "2006-10-07T15:26:24Z")
[QUOTE=ivylass] So when CNN put a big black X over VP Cheney’s face when he was making a speech, what was that? How about when an anchor’s mic was left on and we got to hear her dissing her SIL over Pres Bush’s speech? It’s live TV. Mistakes happen. Get over it. [/QUOTE] The O’Reilly Show is taped, not live. The “mistake” was repeated three times and when the replay was shown later that night, Fox did not replace the (D) with an (R) but simply showed the same graphic without any party label at all. While CNN quickly acknowledged and apologized for obviously unintentional glitches, Fox did not even acknowledge their “mistak” on the air or offer any explanation for it. Plus, let’s face it, Fox simply does not have a lot of journalistic credibility. Blatant lying is part of their MO. One of their own is the current White House mouthpiece, for Shit’s sake. It’s a network that, frankly, hasn’t earned any benefit of doubt. ---
**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:** [October 7, 2006, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-learned-today-from-watching-fox-news/375278/26 "2006-10-07T15:34:54Z")
[QUOTE=BJMoose] Got a source for that? While I wouldn’t doubt that O’Reilly would insist on taping the program to suit his schedule, I haven’t heard that. Loathe as I am to defend Fox News, I gotta say that I worked in live TV news production for a number of years and such idiotic mistakes do happen (and sometimes are never noticed). [/QUOTE] I know that Keith Olbermann made a point of informing his audience that O’Reilly’s show is taped. No cite, but that claim is at least as credible as Olbermann is. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2006, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-learned-today-from-watching-fox-news/375278/27 "2006-10-07T15:46:32Z")
[QUOTE=Onomatopoeia] Some people? I’m sure FOX is counting on ‘most’ of their audience being fooled/confused by this. Let’s face it, FOX knows their fans are not brain surgeons. They’ll uncritically eat any pablum that station feeds them. [/QUOTE] It’s worse than that. According to Matt Gross: > [@](#): > > As a former editor at [Foxnews.com](http://Foxnews.com) . . . let me just say that the right-wing bias was there in the newsroom, up-front and obvious, from the day a certain executive editor was sent down from the channel to bring us in line with their coverage. His first directive to us: **Seek out stories that cater to angry, middle-aged white men who listen to talk radio and yell at their televisions.**. . . What followed was a dumbing-down of what had been an ambitious and talented news operation. . . . More and more effort was devoted to adapting FNC “scripts” into Web stories, which meant we were essentially correcting the errors of FNC “reporters” who couldn’t be bothered to get the facts. . . . To me, FNC’s reporters laziness was the worst part of the bias. It wasn’t that they were toeing some political line (though of course they were; see the embarrassing series on property rights from 2000), it was that the facts of a story just didn’t matter at all. The idea was to get those viewers out of their seats, screaming at the TV, the politicians, the liberals – whomever – simply by running a provocative story. – From p. 320, [_The Republican Noise Machine,_](http://www.amazon.com/Republican-Noise-Machine-Right-Wing-Democracy/dp/B000FVQV16/sr=8-1/qid=1160235963/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-3992356-1979117?ie=UTF8&s=books) by David Brock. ---
**Author:** ![BJMoose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/5fc32e/32.png) [@BJMoose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BJMoose)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2006, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-learned-today-from-watching-fox-news/375278/28 "2006-10-07T16:07:21Z")
[QUOTE=Diogenes the Cynic] The O’Reilly Show is taped, not live. The “mistake” was repeated three times and when the replay was shown later that night, Fox did not replace the (D) with an (R) but simply showed the same graphic without any party label at all. \* \* \* [/QUOTE] Doubtless what they did was to cover the offending part of the original graphic, a much easier trick than trying to insert the correct font over “old” video. (Been there, done that, always looked like crap.) I still vote for big ole dumbass mistake, but wouldn’t rule out the possibility of some weisenheimer getting into the script and changing an R to a D before the data was sent to the character generator. And thanks all for the quick response to my piddling question. (Olbermann rocks, but his current Ed Murrow Takes on Joe McCarthy turn may be his undoing, delightful as it is to see him kick some fat plutocratic butt.) ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2006, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-learned-today-from-watching-fox-news/375278/29 "2006-10-07T16:34:58Z")
[QUOTE=BJMoose] (Olbermann rocks, but his current Ed Murrow Takes on Joe McCarthy turn may be his undoing, delightful as it is to see him kick some fat plutocratic butt.) [/QUOTE] What, you think MSNBC will fire him over this? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Golden\_Ass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5fc32e/32.png) [@The\_Golden\_Ass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Golden_Ass)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2006, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-learned-today-from-watching-fox-news/375278/30 "2006-10-07T16:39:08Z")
Once is a mistake. Three times is a pattern. Three times over the span of two nights on a taped show is malicious. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2006, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-learned-today-from-watching-fox-news/375278/31 "2006-10-07T18:20:42Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton] What, you think MSNBC will fire him over this? [/QUOTE] I doubt it-Dan Abrams is said to be fully behind Keith, and from what I gather, his ratings are doing VERY well. Firing Keith would REALLY hurt MSNBC at this point. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2006, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-learned-today-from-watching-fox-news/375278/32 "2006-10-07T19:41:58Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton] Cite? Date? Anything? [/QUOTE] It happened. [Cite](http://www.drudgereport.com/flash3cnc.htm) ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2006, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-learned-today-from-watching-fox-news/375278/33 "2006-10-07T19:59:58Z")
[QUOTE=dalej42] It happened. [Cite](http://www.drudgereport.com/flash3cnc.htm) [/QUOTE] :dubious: I should hope any Doper knows better than to use the Drudge Report as a reliable cite for, well, anything, except perhaps for examples of dishonest and/or dumbass conduct by Matt Drudge. Also . . . that blurb talks about “subliminal” x-ing of Cheney. Sublims [don’t work,](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_187.html) and I would expect the folks at CNN to know that. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2006, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-learned-today-from-watching-fox-news/375278/34 "2006-10-07T20:31:19Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton] :dubious: I should hope any Doper knows better than to use the Drudge Report as a reliable cite… [/QUOTE] [Here’s a righty cite](http://michellemalkin.com/archives/003970.htm), a [lefty cite](http://bagnewsnotes.typepad.com/bagnews/2005/11/cheney_latest_m.html), and a CNN cite: [CNN apologizes for ‘X’ over Cheney’s face](http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10177072/from/RSS/). ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2006, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-learned-today-from-watching-fox-news/375278/35 "2006-10-07T20:57:40Z")
[QUOTE=Squink] [Here’s a righty cite](http://michellemalkin.com/archives/003970.htm), a [lefty cite](http://bagnewsnotes.typepad.com/bagnews/2005/11/cheney_latest_m.html), and a CNN cite: [CNN apologizes for ‘X’ over Cheney’s face](http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10177072/from/RSS/). [/QUOTE] That’s better. Well, CNN says it was a “technical glitch.” Seems perfectly believable to me. Fox giving a “mistake” explanation re the topic of the OP does not seem believable to me – but that’s just because CNN has credibility as a journalistic institution, and Fox has not. Anybody in this thread think different? ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2006, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-learned-today-from-watching-fox-news/375278/36 "2006-10-07T22:08:12Z")
[QUOTE=Squink] [Here’s a righty cite](http://michellemalkin.com/archives/003970.htm), a [lefty cite](http://bagnewsnotes.typepad.com/bagnews/2005/11/cheney_latest_m.html), and a CNN cite: [CNN apologizes for ‘X’ over Cheney’s face](http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10177072/from/RSS/). [/QUOTE] And, best of all, [here’s the hilariously inept pit thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=346902) **Clothahump** started over the incident. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2006, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-learned-today-from-watching-fox-news/375278/37 "2006-10-07T22:37:29Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton] That’s better. Well, CNN says it was a “technical glitch.” Seems perfectly believable to me. Fox giving a “mistake” explanation re the topic of the OP does not seem believable to me – but that’s just because CNN has credibility as a journalistic institution, and Fox has not. Anybody in this thread think different? [/QUOTE] The “news” portion is pretty good, although that’s only a small portion of their programing. Basically, it’s Shepard Smith’s show that comes on at 4PM (I think). I also like the little round table dsucssion Brit Hume has on his show for the last 15 minutes. And Chris Wallace’s show on Sunday is not bad. But O’Reilly would be O’Reilly on any network, as would Hannity and that other clown-- the guy who comes on before Brit Hume’s show. ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2006, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-learned-today-from-watching-fox-news/375278/38 "2006-10-07T22:41:15Z")
[QUOTE=John Mace] The “news” portion is pretty good, although that’s only a small portion of their programing. Basically, it’s Shepard Smith’s show that comes on at 4PM (I think). I also like the little round table dsucssion Brit Hume has on his show for the last 15 minutes. And Chris Wallace’s show on Sunday is not bad. But O’Reilly would be O’Reilly on any network, as would Hannity and that other clown-- the guy who comes on before Brit Hume’s show. [/QUOTE] John Gibson. And I agree (and have said as much in the past) with you on Special Report and Fox Report, as well as Fox News Sunday. I generally watch Fox News Sunday followed by Meet the Press. It can be a very interesting contrast some weeks. I can’t decide on Your World with Neil Cavuto. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2006, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-learned-today-from-watching-fox-news/375278/39 "2006-10-07T22:58:09Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton] Cite? Date? Anything? [/QUOTE] [As you wish](http://donsurber.blogspot.com/2005/11/cnn-xs-out-cheney.html) CNN said it was a “glitch,” but you can see in the article how lathered up one side can get when it comes to “bias.” Just like the OP. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2006, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-learned-today-from-watching-fox-news/375278/40 "2006-10-07T22:59:42Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton] but that’s just because CNN has credibility as a journalistic institution, and Fox has not. [/QUOTE] In YOUR opinion. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-learned-today-from-watching-fox-news/375278.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-learned-today-from-watching-fox-news/375278.md?page=3)