"OutFoxed": How Fox News Is Destroying American Journalism

Sofia:

So why do you seem to shun CommonDreams, AirAmerica, etc?

Yes, Nimh - I have switched to radio for news - and the net.

We still have some serious television news - but it is few and far between - SBS (multi-cultural channel) is good - but at a bad time for me.

I couldn't watch American "news" when I was there - and the crap we get from there, for the reasons you describe. (It's put on late at night and early am - maybe at the same time it broadcasts there?). Lehrer, (is it?), I thought had some substance. I have no idea where he sits in American political terms.

Loved the Beebs!!!!

Intersting that those who contest FOX's "Fair and Balanced" claim seem disinclined to impose the same standard on such as CommDreams and Air America. I suppose its OK to claim bias is balance if that bias is congruent with one's own proclivities.

I contest FOX's "Fair and Balanced" claim - but have no qualm in noting that CommonDreams and Air America appear to be as un-balanced.

So?

I think thats pretty much the whole point, nimh; despite all the energy and excitement on each side of the dispute, as far as I'm concerned, the argument resolves to "So?"

The difference between Fox and commondreams, moveon, or Airamerica, is that Fox is actually influential. There are a lot of people who stupidly swallow it whole and gobble all that biased crap down without questioning it's objectivity at all.

And folks who lean toward commondreams, moveon, and air america have a higher salt intake?

One is mass appeal.

I don't watch Fox, nor do i read CommonDreams nor Moveon.org . . . i refuse to have the excellence of my opinions diluted by mere information . . .

Good one, Set.


<applause>

Nope, there's just fewer of them. Fewer people, especially, who rely primarily on Air America than there are who rely primarily on Fox.

I mean, I do agree with your take (as I understand it) that Fox is more like the counterpart of air america than of CBS and CNN. But when then looking at Fox on the one hand and Air America (or CommonDreams or etc) on the other, there's a difference in terms of impact, no?

I mean, really. Should we not talk about the danger of extremist Islamists because, you know, there's always the odd extremist secularist too? Problems present themselves to us in rank and scope, and the fact that we can always find some more or less marginal counterpart of them on 'the other side' doesn't make them any less urgent.

I agree completely!

You'll get little argument from me there, nimh, and I suspect you expect as much. Without assigning qualitative assessment to the content or bent of any of the aforementioned, it is interesting to note the economic success of FOX; Right, Left, or Wrong, there's deifinitely a market for it, and its been eating steadily into the markets of its competitors. Again, without assigning qualitative assessment, I suspect the quantitative findings say something about "The National Mood"

Nor can one ignore the successful history of "lowest common denominator" marketing. You can fool all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time . . .

I fully acknowledge the lowest-common-denominator theory. It's been said nobody ever went broke due to having understimated the mob.

Nimh--

You think Fox is some sort of danger?

NeoGuin--

The difference in me and the nuts who want to silence Fox,....is I don't seek to silence anyone. I merely enjoy pointing out that Air America is failing miserably.

There are a lot of insecure lunatics, who would pull the plug on Fox because they can't handle free competition, and canno tolerate a dissenting view.

If Al Franken handed me his plug, I'd stick it in the socket. (Whether or not they've been able to pay their bill this month, who knows...?) Control of the airwaves by force doesn't appeal to me as it does to Canada, and some liberal Americans. I enjoy seeing the varied choices thrive in a free market, based on consumer choice. Unlike many in the opposition, I would never take part in trying to silence other views.

One of my favorites, Big Bird . . .


Nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public.

-- H. L. Mencken

Just a bit of trivia; The Sean Hannity Radio Show employs a larger number of staff members than Air America Radio numbers as its broadcast outlets.

Yep. Wouldnt actually want anyone to forcibly pull the plug, no - free country, free media. But I do worry about its popularity, yeah.

I think I already sufficiently explained elsewhere how I think the kind of "news programming" that Timber described so colourfully above is pulling the art of news reporting down the drain. Its substituting infotainment for investigative journalism and critical analysis. Its substituting patriotic conformity with the audience's presumed sensitivities for posing difficult questions and questioning of authority.

I also already noted that I see this happening everywhere. The process is underway here too, but on CNN it's still much worse. And from what I find on the FOXNews website and read about the station, it seems another notch or two down.

I am in favour of a free media landscape in which all tastes are catered for. But if, in a society where an increasingly overwhelming majority of citizens primarily rely on TV for their information, populist and partisan infotainment ever more takes prime billing when it comes to news reporting, I will get pretty concerned about it. Cant and wont shut it down, still get very concerned about it. News reporting is extremely important. It shapes people's knowledge, frames of reference and perspectives on the world, and bolsters or blunts people's habits of critical reflection.

Stuff's still arguably better from back in the 50s here, when each newspaper, even while reporting and reflecting earnestly, always toed a specific political party's line. Though on the other hand, you could always compare a range of such drastically different, earnest perspectives back then. Now, on TV, its all the same superficial fluff, here and even more so there, with Fox apparently adding some particularly jingoistic superficial fluff.

Wild.

OK.