Obama Compares Fox News to Talk Radio
Friday October 23, 2009
President Obama personally jumped into the White House vs. Fox News fray yesterday telling NBC's Savannah Guthrie, "And if media is operating, basically, as a talk radio format, then that's one thing. And if it's operating ... as a news outlet, then that's another."
Recent comments from surrogates from the Obama Administration have been aimed at Fox News in an effort to denigrate the network as something less and a real news operation by blurring the line between reporting and commentary.
Ironically, early television programming sprang from the more popular radio programming of the day. But, that was a long time ago. The White House would have you believe the trend is happening again. Well, if Fox News emulates talk radio (and the White House really means conservative talk radio) then I think it would be fair to suggest MSNBC emulates another player in talk radio: the progressive Air America.
Comments
You are entitled to your opinion but you can’t go into a building and scream fire when there is none. Fox distorts the truth, cherry picks news and reports only what they want to report (fair and balance…laughable) and if they can’t find news to distort to their benefit they will make it up. Basically fox news is the biggest fraud and liars in the media. They abuse freedom of speech by screaming fire when their is none. They spread hate, they are prejudice and are full of gimmicks instead of substance. Wait, kinda like the Republican party. McCain’s whole campaign was gimmick after gimmick. The republican’s still use scare tactics, as does fox, to try to persuade American opinion. Fox why don’t you try the truth and invite the Republicans to do the same.
News has to be written by someone. Then it has to be edited to fit the space or time in which it is to be presented. Someone’s opinion is always there whether we think so or not. Not to defend false or deceitful reporting but to be fair and balanced is one way of saying they present stories you won’t hear necessarily from the others. What is presented on any network is what they choose to present. It is up to the consumer to listen to one source or many and decide for ourselves what is true. If the government gets involved in choosing what the consumer hears then we might as well just have a “news czar” appointed by the president!
It doesn’t matter who you consume information from, radio, tv, internet, ABC, CBS, FOX, right wing, left wing, it is being filtered by whoever is publishing it. Because tv and radio is one-way communication, we have a difficult time standing up and saying, “Wait a minute, that is not quite correct.” It is filtered by how it is said, when it is said or if it is mentioned at all. For example, the financial crisis was a problem long before the news media got around to mentioning it. Consider reading some of Napoleon Hill’s advice and consider multiple sources and sides before coming to your conslusion.
I watch all the TV news stations from time to time, including Fox News. I think the president is correct in his assessment of Fox. They operate more like the Rush Limbaugh radio show than a news outlet. They have a formula that uses controversy and “getting the blood up” to draw viewers and it can be quite entertaining. But someone who forms their opinions of the world based on Fox isn’t informed. Unfortunately you need to seek out a varied lot of news outlets, including foreign media, to have even the slightest chance of discerning something resembling the truth. As we all know the truth is rarely black or white but is some shade of gray. Fox paints everything with the same color brush. There are plenty of people who want to only hear and view the world the way they wish to perceive it.
Ok I tried to my best not to comment on this one but…
From what I have seen with my own 2 eyes is that CNN, MSNBC, NBC, CBS, ABC and local FOX Affiliates is that what one reports the others report the EXACT same way. One sided reports. Then I’ll watch FOX and they will have the same reports but some how they find the opposing viewpoint on nearly ALL of the reports that the others I mentioned only reported on one side. I do believe there is a reason FOX is number one right now and CNN (the fist cable news network is in last place) in ratings and that is that the public’s perception is FOX DELIVERS the news much more accurately than the others with out the personal commentary during the news cast. FOX holds back the commentary for the COMMENTATORS unlike Katie Couric and other so-called journalists. Commentators such as Limbaugh, Beck, Hannity, O’Reilly are just that, commentators, not Journalists. None of them claim themselves to be a news anchor or otherwise. FOX tends to report news as news. They say it and let you make your own opinion. I have never heard one of the anchors report on a story and then say a smart assed little comment at the end of it.
Hell most of the time CNN, MSNBC, CBS or ABC wont even report on a story until the New York Times reports on it! Proof? They wouldnt report on the Acorn for Porn scandal until the Times ran a story on it! Yeah I can see why Obama’s administration has a problem with FOX. FOX reports news as news and is not (and most likely wont ever) lay down and just report what the administration says the ONLY side of a news story. Bravo FOX you are #1 in ratings for a reason! NEVER CHANGE OR GIVE UP!
Yes, Fox is number 1 for a reason, it tells it’s viewers what they want to hear – namely everything is going to hell in a handbasket thanks to the socialist in the white house; and for 8 years things were going great even though we were losing two wars, being stripped of basic rights and more and more financial deregulation about tanked the whole world’s economy. And I am talking about the newscasts. You can see a dozen collages on youtube of Fox running with non-stories like Acorn (as it pertained to Obasma; both parties used Acorn to register voters) one particlarly good one is comparing what they did to Kerry and then attempted to do with Obama – four years difference but the same script used by Fox to imply more and more that a pack of lies or a non-story was the biggest thing going. On election night as I recall it was the news department on air and they acted like they were at a wake, right up to the last hour they were coming up with miraculous scenarios revolving around past elections where the polls and exit polls had been wrong. I don’t get my news from TV, but i do take a look at all of them once in a while and most of the time, a story that in print, online or on other stations is at best “below the fold” is leading and goes for five minutes, invariably it’s anti-Obama. I’ve lost a lot of the hopes I had for Obama myself, but the stuff Fox concentrates on is nothing but Republican talking points. That any group of people can still claim Obama ia a socialist shows at best, a total lack of awareness of what Obama is actually advocating and a clueless grasp of the concept of collectivism. Just because Fox is number 1 and just because it’s reporting the news differently than every other station does not mean it’s the one doing it right. Fox and facts do not mix and fair and balanced is a crock. They’re not as bad as their commentators or talk radio, but that’s a left handed compliment. The liberal media is a myth except for a few commentators. Just because it’s not throwing red meat to the lions doesn’t mean it isn’t slanting things the lions way. Bush hosed this country for six years before the media started telling it like it was; they gave Obama about six weeks, even though he walked into complete total chaos here and abroad. You’d never have known that listening to Fox News.