Canadians want Fox News Now!

<pout>

Hoser. :wink:

http://www.geocities.com/TheTropics/Cabana/5906/canxmas.htm

<psst> McG, don't forget the "Dookie Rule." Unless you're just having too much fun with this....

I've left instructions that my headstone ought to bear "Well, that was a waste of time."

I am inspired. This is a war. It's to the death, and the enemy is cliche.

Still waiting for Ms Wonders stats.

Data on the Fairness Doctrine...
http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/F/htmlF/fairnessdoct/fairnessdoct.htm

Oh my! I have been interested in Fox "News" since hearing the alleged foreign correspondent I blathered about on the US Iraq etc thread.

Anyhoo - just watched a documentary on them - all familiar stuff - I mean, we BRED Murdoch - but then I became struck by something - this was made a bit before the election - and there, appearing on Fox - were most of the slogans and catch-phrases (like flipper-flopper and such stuff) and mud-slinging that appeared, hey presto, as if by magic in the mouths of our more extreme or unthinking right wing people here! It was incredible - as was watching footage of some of their anchors and - I dunno - what are they? - the very aggressive op-ed show people - like Shut-up O'Reilly - is that his name?


Now - one expects slogans and such to be made up by political organizations, right - or by media outlets when they are advertising themselves - but political slogans appearing that are created by media outlets??? OK again - if they are avowedly pushing a particular party line - like the various left or right wing or green rags - but by a news organization that claims to be fair and balanced?

WERE those slogans made up by Fox, or did they actually promulgate those made up by the Republican machine???? ( )

This was truly extraordinary to me - and it will have me scrambling to check out the daily Murdochs here for the same extreme behaviour.

I actually heard some talking heads on a "news" commentary program going on in fake French accents about how awful the French are (and look at the anti-French stuff here - now I think I know where all that comes from) and then going on about how Kerry looks French - and the choice between decent Americans and nasty French-like Kerry!!! I would never have believed such a thing had I not seen it.

Does this sort of stuff occur on any other American network? Is there, for instance, any anti-conservative crap of the same ilk on the major alphabets, that the right here claim to be so biased?

To be fair, this was, of course, an anti-Fox documentary, and was very critical of their standard of journalism, so I was doubtless treated to the very worst of their stuff - but that it exists at all was a shock! And Murdoch's editorial control is, at times, as blatant here as it was being said to be with Fox. (I have seen him in a TV interview stating quite clearly that he was back in Oz to make sure the conservatives won a federal election, as he had given the others a chance at government, and they had blown it. I doubt he would be so foolishly clear about this now - this was 30 years ago.)

(Honestly, Beth, you claim from your POV that Fox and the US alphabets all look alike - but I have never seen such extremes of stuff on any of the other major American network programs I have seen - from the Oz perspective they look different.)

Let's talk about 'movement'. A study by two economists that thomas knows about, which placed social policies of administrations from the Second World War up to the present on a scale of left to right found that the Clinton administration was further right than was Eisenhower's.

It is not the case that democrats have headed quickly south, but that the entire american landscape has gone north, democratic party included.

If one thinks about that for a minute, various pegs drop into place. For example, the increasing distance between America and Europe, or between America and Canada. I can tell you (you don't have to believe me, but you'd be wrong) that Canada's policies on drugs or homosexuality do not represent a leftward shift...they are a continuance of a long-term set of notions about goverance where there is a default trust in considering it best to grant inalienable rights as due an individual when making his/her own life choices...the state can build roads, or put in place the communication media to connect the far-flung parts of Canada (CBC), and promote education, and mitigate against the differences between the English and French cultures, etc. We don't get it perfectly and we can be slow to adapt the inclusive and trusting principle to new situations and new populations, but creaking and groaning, we often get there.

If that premise is correct...that the US has generally - in toto - moved further right, and that this movement is mainly unique to the US, then that is a very interesting phenomenon.

One thing I'm not claiming here is that one country is better or worse than another. One might have a preference for a CEO or a teacher over a chap who shoes horses, but saying one is 'better' is just the notation of one's preferences.

I don't think anyone here would contest that there has been a significant growth in media in the US which mainly (or even, in some cases, uniquely) forwards right side ideas. After all, that's a necessary implication of timber's post above, and posts made by many republicans here...Rush and Fox provide a proper balance to the 'leftist' media.

So, is this new media a consequence of the movement to the right, or is it somehow causal or contributory? Would anyone argue that it is contributory?

I don't see Fox as an arm of the state - but of the Republican party.

It will be anti-"state" when the democrats take power again.

Deb

It is precisely that. Of course, when a 'news' organ leans to this degree in the direction of a sitting administration, it is functioning as an arm of the state. That becomes rather more critical when and if a particular party holds power for a long time.

Here's a cute little bit of fox...where an invited guest says precisely the wrong things and her interviewer is not happy with what has been said. It's a situation quite common on fox broadcasts...I saw another instance last night which I'll try to locate.
http://www.milkandcookies.com/links/24912/

Is such extremity unique to Fox, of the majors?

I mean, bias is inevitable - most places try to limit it. It's called journalism.

(Obviously the answer to that question wil reflect bias too!!!!)

It doesn't have to reflect bias. One can do careful comparisons, or in many cases, quite brief comparisons. There's good analysis out there.

For example, one can go back and study the coverage done by CBS and NBC and ABC during the Whitewater period, or during the runup to the impeachment. Timber's suggestion of pro-democrat bias is decidedly NOT reflected in that coverage...rumor, innuendo, derogative leaks, falsehoods...the networks gobbled them up and spit them out on prime time most every night.

Or watch Lehrer news on PBS at six on every Friday night and one sees a slow and careful and truly balanced discussion between Mark Shields and David Brooks (previously between Shields and Paul Gigot, now editor of the WSJ, and before that, between Shields and David Gergen).

The connections between Ailes at Fox and this White House has no corollary in the other networks.

So was Rush born in Missouri or Canada? That's what I want to know.

And McG......you love Rush? I'm not surprised. But really, aren't you a little bit embarrassed to admit it? The man is off his rocker.

I'm with Dlowan. The fact that a Fox News exists in this country is unbelievable to me. I wouldn't believe it either if I hadn't seen it. Murdoch sucks.

And it's crazy to claim that Fox represents a "proper balance" to anything. It's more like an extreme tilt. Soon we'll be falling over and will need rescue. As a matter of fact, I think it's happened already. Help! Help! The simpleton meanies have kidnapped America.

Lola, I was trying to be witty and referring to Rush, the band from Canada, not Rush Limbaugh. I do not listen to him as I find him to be nauseating.

I should have alerted her.

Ah - I saw the stuff on Ailes - really, no corollary? So one would hope!

Lehrer. I watch him sometimes - he is on our multi-cultural specialist channel. They have fantastic stuff from around the world.

****..I give up

I saw a program on Fox News, on the ABC tonight. Shame on Rupert Murdoch, that's all I can say. He was never quite so blatant in Oz, although he liked throwing his weight around. Fox News has to be an all time low.

Don't watch it.