Fred Thompson attacks Fox News for being biased

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My biggest problem with Fox News isn't that they are biased or that people watch them, but I get the distinct feeling watching Neil Cavuto's eyes or anyone of the other anchors that they know how manipulative they are and take a perverse pleasure in it. Alot of people out there have their political biases reinforced daily by Fox, but nothing is so sadistic as the reveling on the Network knowing that they are steeped in profit from it.

I wouldn't ban it, but I have my moral lines too.

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CBS, Fox, CNN, MSNBC, you name it, all are biased. Fox is singled out because it is the only one with a conservative bias, but when you look at the things CBS and CNN have been guilty of in their editing or outright use of fake sources, well, that's no good either.

They all present themselves as "fair and balanced" even if Fox is the only channel that actually uses that as their tagline. All have their issues. The people who really care about news will find it (like many on the boards like these on the net).

Basically - Fox-bashing is popular, but to be fair you'd have to equally bash pretty much all mainstream media outlets.

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Fox is worse about it.

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If you happen to lean to the left, then yes, you're correct. Fox will lose the left just as much as CNN will lose the right. They have their specific demographic, and if you ask me, Fox did one of the smartest things they could do in becoming the only Conservative-leaning cable news networks. There was a huge market of those people just waiting to have an option other than CNN or what have you, and Fox swooped them up.

Its all a business and no one network is truly "worse" than another, just different in how they handle their biases. Cable news is more about entertainment and face time than real "news" as people want it anyway.

[JackWhite]

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My biggest problem with Fox News isn't that they are biased or that people watch them, but I get the distinct feeling watching Neil Cavuto's eyes or anyone of the other anchors that they know how manipulative they are and take a perverse pleasure in it. Alot of people out there have their political biases reinforced daily by Fox, but nothing is so sadistic as the reveling on the Network knowing that they are steeped in profit from it.

I wouldn't ban it, but I have my moral lines too.


CBS, Fox, CNN, MSNBC, you name it, all are biased. Fox is singled out because it is the only one with a conservative bias, but when you look at the things CBS and CNN have been guilty of in their editing or outright use of fake sources, well, that's no good either.

They all present themselves as "fair and balanced" even if Fox is the only channel that actually uses that as their tagline. All have their issues. The people who really care about news will find it (like many on the boards like these on the net).

Basically - Fox-bashing is popular, but to be fair you'd have to equally bash pretty much all mainstream media outlets.






Fox is worse about it.


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Not always. Compare Fox News and MSNBC at 8pm. Fox has a Conservative (O'Reilly), MSNBC has a Liberal (Olbermann). The difference? O'Reilly has liberal guests on every single night to give differing points of view. Olbermann never allows any conservative guests. You get one point of view. Dictatorships running state controlled tv allow a greater diversity of viewpoints than Olbermann.

[Ron Burgundy]

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My biggest problem with Fox News isn't that they are biased or that people watch them, but I get the distinct feeling watching Neil Cavuto's eyes or anyone of the other anchors that they know how manipulative they are and take a perverse pleasure in it. Alot of people out there have their political biases reinforced daily by Fox, but nothing is so sadistic as the reveling on the Network knowing that they are steeped in profit from it.

I wouldn't ban it, but I have my moral lines too.


CBS, Fox, CNN, MSNBC, you name it, all are biased. Fox is singled out because it is the only one with a conservative bias, but when you look at the things CBS and CNN have been guilty of in their editing or outright use of fake sources, well, that's no good either.

They all present themselves as "fair and balanced" even if Fox is the only channel that actually uses that as their tagline. All have their issues. The people who really care about news will find it (like many on the boards like these on the net).

Basically - Fox-bashing is popular, but to be fair you'd have to equally bash pretty much all mainstream media outlets.






Fox is worse about it.


[/ QUOTE ]

Not always. Compare Fox News and MSNBC at 8pm. Fox has a Conservative (O'Reilly), MSNBC has a Liberal (Olbermann). The difference? O'Reilly has liberal guests on every single night to give differing points of view. Olbermann never allows any conservative guests. You get one point of view. Dictatorships running state controlled tv allow a greater diversity of viewpoints than Olbermann.

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You're picking out the two worst offenders in the cable news business. Those two really aren't much of a sample size. Overall, Fox is the worst network in terms of effort put into being fair. But still, 99% of every story on every cable news network is either govt propaganda, ridiculous sensationalism, or simply bad/lazy journalism.

[Jack of Arcades]

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My biggest problem with Fox News isn't that they are biased or that people watch them, but I get the distinct feeling watching Neil Cavuto's eyes or anyone of the other anchors that they know how manipulative they are and take a perverse pleasure in it. Alot of people out there have their political biases reinforced daily by Fox, but nothing is so sadistic as the reveling on the Network knowing that they are steeped in profit from it.

I wouldn't ban it, but I have my moral lines too.


CBS, Fox, CNN, MSNBC, you name it, all are biased. Fox is singled out because it is the only one with a conservative bias, but when you look at the things CBS and CNN have been guilty of in their editing or outright use of fake sources, well, that's no good either.

They all present themselves as "fair and balanced" even if Fox is the only channel that actually uses that as their tagline. All have their issues. The people who really care about news will find it (like many on the boards like these on the net).

Basically - Fox-bashing is popular, but to be fair you'd have to equally bash pretty much all mainstream media outlets.






Fox is worse about it.


[/ QUOTE ]

Not always. Compare Fox News and MSNBC at 8pm. Fox has a Conservative (O'Reilly), MSNBC has a Liberal (Olbermann). The difference? O'Reilly has liberal guests on every single night to give differing points of view. Olbermann never allows any conservative guests. You get one point of view. Dictatorships running state controlled tv allow a greater diversity of viewpoints than Olbermann.

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O'Reilly has liberals on the program so he can shout at them/political theater, etc. It's not like he's running a program to air out political opinions and have honest discourse.

[vbm]

The first time I saw Fox News when visiting the states, I found it really really funny. It probably took me, four or five hour long sessions of watching it to realise that it was actually serious.

I mean it was so biased and right wing, you just couldnt take it seriously, then every 5 mins the slogan 'fair and balanced' would flash up. lol

I find it difficult to beleive anyone could see this as a serious news channel.

[Bedreviter]

You live in UK and are probably familiar with The Guardian. That newspaper is at least as far to the left, probably even more so than the Fox News Channel is to the right, and still people seem to view The Guardian as a serious newspaper.

[vbm]

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You live in UK and are probably familiar with The Guardian. That newspaper is at least as far to the left, probably even more so than the Fox News Channel is to the right, and still people seem to view The Guardian as a serious newspaper.

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Yeah I read it everyday [img]/images/graemlins/blush.gif[/img]. While I broadly agree with you, I think that the Guardian is a fair bit more balanced than Fox. Also if the Guardian had an editorial every other page telling you how fair and balanced it was, then I agree you would take it even less seriously.

[Bedreviter]

Biggest difference I see between Guardian and Fox News (besides one being a newspaper and other being cable-tv, and one being biased for the left and other being biased for the right) is the language and how they present their news/opinions.

Guardian have a more sophisticated apporach, they dont present themselves as populistic as Fox News, and they lack the commentators who will whack you over your head and tell you how the other side is awful for this and that, and that they are enemies of Britain. But even though their apporach is classier and not so "dumbed-down" as that of Fox News its basically same [censored]; different wrapping.

But we are accustomed to liberal media, and we are accustomed to the method The Guardian uses to present their news and commentary, so we dont react to it. Fox News on the other hand is one of few major media outlets that are clealry right-wing, and they arent ashamed of being simple about things or behave like loud morons at times. Underneath it all I dont find The Guardian to be any better than Fox News, its just that The Guardian are less obvious about it.

Whether The Guardian has a "fair and balanced"-slogan or not does not change much.

[xorbie]

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If you happen to lean to the left, then yes, you're correct. Fox will lose the left just as much as CNN will lose the right. They have their specific demographic, and if you ask me, Fox did one of the smartest things they could do in becoming the only Conservative-leaning cable news networks. There was a huge market of those people just waiting to have an option other than CNN or what have you, and Fox swooped them up.

Its all a business and no one network is truly "worse" than another, just different in how they handle their biases. Cable news is more about entertainment and face time than real "news" as people want it anyway.

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See, you just don't get it. The reason that all these channels suck isn't because they are "too liberal" or "too conservative", it's because it is in their interest to paint every solution and every person as either "conservative" or "liberal", to the exclusion of talking about actual problems or actual solutions.

Fox is by far the best about drawing the line, about dividing people into one convenient box or the other. Worse yet, they convince people to support the box they were put into not because it's right or because it makes sense, but because the people in the other box are out to get you, and if you don't yell louder than they do, that just might succeed.

[4 High]

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My biggest problem with Fox News isn't that they are biased or that people watch them, but I get the distinct feeling watching Neil Cavuto's eyes or anyone of the other anchors that they know how manipulative they are and take a perverse pleasure in it. Alot of people out there have their political biases reinforced daily by Fox, but nothing is so sadistic as the reveling on the Network knowing that they are steeped in profit from it.

I wouldn't ban it, but I have my moral lines too.

[/ QUOTE ]

CBS, Fox, CNN, MSNBC, you name it, all are biased. Fox is singled out because it is the only one with a conservative bias, but when you look at the things CBS and CNN have been guilty of in their editing or outright use of fake sources, well, that's no good either.

They all present themselves as "fair and balanced" even if Fox is the only channel that actually uses that as their tagline. All have their issues. The people who really care about news will find it (like many on the boards like these on the net).

Basically - Fox-bashing is popular, but to be fair you'd have to equally bash pretty much all mainstream media outlets.

[/ QUOTE ]

Fox is worse about it.

[/ QUOTE ]

If you happen to lean to the left, then yes, you're correct. Fox will lose the left just as much as CNN will lose the right. They have their specific demographic, and if you ask me, Fox did one of the smartest things they could do in becoming the only Conservative-leaning cable news networks. There was a huge market of those people just waiting to have an option other than CNN or what have you, and Fox swooped them up.

Its all a business and no one network is truly "worse" than another, just different in how they handle their biases. Cable news is more about entertainment and face time than real "news" as people want it anyway.

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CNN/MSNBC are no where near as biased towards the left as Fox News is biased to the right.