Why aren't liberals screaming about government censorship
& violations of the 1st Amendment?????
PURE CHUTZPAH
Liberal Media blog
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"Several members of Congress sent a letter Tuesday to Rupert Murdoch, owner of Fox News, to express their opposition to what they say is the network's 'unfair and unbalanced' bias towards the Republican Party."
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So reports the UPI yesterday.
The group, composed of 38 Democrats and Independents from the U.S. House of Representatives, has requested that Murdoch meet with them to discuss their concerns.
<font color=blue>"The responsibility of the media is to report the news in an unbiased, impartial and objective manner,"<font color=black> the letter reads.
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"It seems clear that Fox News network has a deliberate bias in favor of, and often serves as an extension of, the Republican Party's policies and ideology."<font color=black>
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Murdoch owns 100 cable channels, 40 television stations, nine satellite networks, one film studio and 175 newspapers, reaching an estimated 4.7 billion people worldwide.
The letter's co-signers include Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., a member of the House Democratic Leadership, Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., ranking member on the House Judiciary Committee, and Rep. Pete Stark, D-Calif., ranking member on the Joint Economic Committee.
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A spokesman for Rep. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said there were legislative avenues that the group could pursue as a secondary measure but declined to speculate on what those might be. (Emphasis mine.)
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"Legislative avenues"<font color=black>?? You mean force Fox to be <font color=blue>"fair and balanced"<font color=black> -- according to the criteria this group outlines? What a hoot!
Where are all the lefty <font color=blue>"censorship"<font color=black> screamers on this
one? This is true censorship -- when the government
threatens to muzzle an outlet of expression. But since Fox
presents a <font color=blue>"threat"<font color=black> to what leftists hold near and dear,
well, it must somehow be <font color=blue>"dangerous"<font color=black> and hence not subject
to free speech protections. Sounds just like an American
college campus, now doesn't it?
The letter cites recent studies by organizations such as Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting and the Program on International Policy Attitudes.
The FAIR report found that Fox's <font color=blue>"Special Report with Brit Hume"<font color=black> overwhelmingly favors conservative and Republican guests over liberals or Democrats at a ratio of 5-1.
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Great! Now maybe the group will go after NBC, ABC, CBS,
CNN, the New York Times, WaPo, etc. using studies by the
Media Research Center and, dare I say, OTLM! Yeah, right.
And maybe Lucifer will wear a parka.
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Two-thirds of Fox viewers, for example, wrongly believed that a link between Iraq and al-Qaida had been found, while only 16 percent of PBS/NPR viewers and listeners and 40 percent of print-media readers shared the same misperception.
In addition, 33 percent of Fox viewers believed that weapons of mass destruction had been found in Iraq, in contrast with 11 percent of PBS/NPR viewers and 19 percent of ABC News viewers.
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"Wrongly believed"? The 9/11 Commission itself said that
al Qaeda and Iraq had links. (<font color=blue>"There was no question in
our minds that there was a relationship between Iraq and
al Qaeda,"<font color=red> said 9/11 Commission Chairman Tom Kean.) Maybe
it's that Fox actually reported on links (and possible
links) instead of stating -- wrongly, like this article --
that there were [definitively] none? And maybe it's only
been on Fox where people saw reports that shells filled
with Sarin and mustard gas were found in Iraq? Or shells
containing blister agents? Aren't these weapons of mass
destruction? Oh, but even though they of course are, a
certain number must be discovered to satisfy the Left.
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"The report suggests the one-sided, partisan reporting of Fox News has the effect of improving the president's standing with the American people on the basis of not news, but disinformation,"<font color=black> said the legislators' letter to Murdoch.
Both polls are featured in the recent documentary <font color=blue>"Outfoxed,"<font color=black> also referred to in the letter, which delivers a highly critical analysis of Fox's alleged political bias and agenda-pushing techniques. It has been widely dismissed by Fox News.
The documentary, sponsored by the Center for American Progress, a think tank headed by former Clinton Chief of Staff John Podesta, and MoveOn.org, an online advocacy group, has sold 100,000 copies since its DVD release two weeks ago.
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MoveOn.org? Podesta? Need more be said?
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MoveOn.org and AlterNet.org, part of the Independent Media Institute, have both filed complaints with the Federal Trade Commission over Fox News' use of the <font color=red>"Fair and Balanced"<font color=black> trademark, which they say is deceptive and misleading.
The complaint by MoveOn.org acknowledges the right of any news channel to present news with a political slant under the First Amendment but charges that the slogan misinforms consumers and does not accurately represent Fox's broadcasts, based on the studies it cites and former Fox employees' testimony.
Gee, isn't that big of MoveOn.org that they <font color=blue>"acknowledge the right of any news channel to present news with a political slant under the First Amendment"<font color=black>? So, when can we expect them to file a complaint about the New York Times' slogan of <font color=blue>"All The News That's Fit To Print"<font color=black>?
Fox, [Walter Cronkite] says, has completely <font color=blue>"eliminated journalism,"<font color=black> a sentiment echoed by several media analysts and former Fox employees featured in the documentary (<font color=blue>"Outfoxed"<font color=black>).
Jon Du Pre, former West Coast news anchor for Fox, says, <font color=blue>"They made it perfectly clear what they expected from us.
"We weren't so much ... a newsgathering organization as we were a proponent of a point of view,"<font color=black> he says.<font size=3>
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