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Politics : The Left Wing Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Poet who wrote (4931)	7/2/2001 5:36:30 PM
From: Lane3	Respond to of 6089

I have some more info for you on Fox. Seems that Howard Kurtz has something to say on the subject in today's Post. washingtonpost.com which led me to FAIR's report fair.org which was similar to my thinking. For some reason, this seeming post hoc "balancing" is disturbing to me That question is mentioned in the FAIR report: <<Some have suggested that Fox's conservative point of view and its Republican leanings render the network inherently unworthy as a news outlet. FAIR believes that view is misguided. The United States is unusual, perhaps even unique, in having a journalistic culture so fiercely wedded to the elusive notion of "objective" news (an idea of relatively recent historical vintage even in the U.S.). In Great Britain, papers like the conservative Times of London and the left-leaning Guardian deliver consistently excellent coverage while making no secret of their respective points of view. There's nothing keeping American journalists from doing the same. If anything, it is partly the disingenuous claim to objectivity that is corroding the integrity of the news business. American journalists claim to represent all political views with an open mind, yet in practice a narrow bipartisan centrism excludes dissenting points of view: No major newspaper editorial page opposed NAFTA; virtually all endorse U.S. airstrikes on Iraq; and single-payer health care proposals find almost no backers among them. With the ascendance of Fox News Channel, we now have a national conservative TV network in addition to the established centrist outlets. But like the mainstream networks, Fox refuses to admit its political point of view. The result is a skewed center-to-right media spectrum made worse by the refusal to acknowledge any tilt at all. Fox could potentially represent a valuable contribution to the journalistic mix if it admitted it had a conservative point of view, if it beefed up its hard news and investigative coverage (and cut back on the tabloid sensationalism), and if there were an openly left-leaning TV news channel capable of balancing both Fox's conservatism and CNN's centrism. None of these three things appears likely to happen in the foreseeable future. >> How do you tease out for yourself "conservatism" versus "Republicanism"? The FAIR report speaks to that, too. They didn't see it the way I did. <<Fox is sometimes forced to juggle two identities--Republican and conservative--that are not always the same. A recent example was the standoff over the downed American spy plane in China. Following appearances on Special Report by conservatives William Kristol (4/9/01) and Fred Barnes (4/11/01), who were critical of Bush for his unexpectedly conciliatory handling of the crisis, Fox (4/13/01) was quick to run a slew of letters from outraged Republican viewers accusing the pundits of trying to "undermine a president of their own party." They "never cut him a bit of slack," one viewer wrote. "Who needs Dan Rather when you have Mr. Kristol to bring down our president?" >> I'm not sure how to explain my own observation. You know how when someone says something you consider biased, you get this visceral reaction? Well, when I find myself getting that, they're usually saying something about polling or about particular office holders or about the Republican party rather than discussing issues. I'm fiercely non-partisan and I tend to react viscerally to partisan baloney. It really makes my teeth hurt. With issues, I'm interested in hearing all sides and I typically respond intellectually to differences of opinion, not viscerally. I know, not very scientific, which is why I couched the impression as I did. Hope you find this stuff useful. The FAIR report is rather long and I don't know how valuable it would be if you are not able to watch Fox. Karen