Fox News

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For those living in an alternate reality, Conservapedia has an "article" about Fox News
There is a broader, perhaps slightly less biased, article on Wikipedia about Fox News

The Fox News Channel (a.k.a. "Faux News", "Fixed News", "Pox News", "Fox Opinion Channel", "Fox Noise" and rarely "Minitrue" to its detractors) is a United States-based cable and satellite "news" channel known for a somewhat blatantly right-wing presentation of the news. Owned by News Corporation, formerly incorporated in South Australia, the company was re-incorporated into Delaware General Corporation Law after a majority of shareholders approved the move on 12 November 2004.

Contents

[edit] Slogan

"Fair & Balanced" (ha ha) is a trademarked slogan of this agency, originally used in conjunction with "Real Journalism"[1].

Slogans also used are:

  • "We Report. You Decide" — Closer to "We Report, You Make Believe."[2] than you'd like to think.
  • "The Most Powerful Name in News" — You don't need to be trusted, just need to be powerful to have people to believe in you.
  • "America's News Headquarters"— Don't go anywhere else, we have all the information you need.

[edit] Ownership

Fox News is part of Australian born, naturalized U.S. citizen[3] Rupert Murdoch's media empire, News Corporation. This empire includes The Sun and The News of the World newspapers in the UK. These papers, well known for high quality and thought-provoking journalism as well as their high level of accuracy in reporting, make a great companion to Fox News. The Sun is also noted for its tastefully nekkid Page Three Girls (Warning: NSFW!).

[edit] Control

As a public company, Fox is technically no longer foreign owned, since anyone can buy a slice of ownership, but it's still very much foreign controlled, which seems to escape the far right.

Rupert Murdock mandated his 'news' outlets (including WSJ) not to report negative stories about China, partly to assure the Chinese he can control what's released and partly to protect his own business interests. When Israel bombed Lebanon's infrastructure rather than Hamas, again Rupert directed Fox to cover his assets.

[edit] Staffing

Fox News employs people on all parts of the political spectrum, from the far-Right to the ultra-Right. Roger Ailes, the president of Fox News, was Nixon’s media advisor.[4]

[edit] Notable (dysfunctional) personalities

[edit] Programming

Fox News' usual programming includes anything containing the words: Paris Hilton, Anna Nicole Smith, celebrity, or other such pointless drivel. Occasionally, they let actual news slip by, but it is always quickly removed. They are also Your National Headquarters for uninteresting Southern California car chases.More detail.

Mostly, Fox enjoys providing deep shallow discussions shouting matches about anything that bothers them. During the temporary short periods of relaxation to catch your breath, they occasionally mention some real "news", but quickly change the subject.

Fox News was the first to inform us that Barack Obama is a Muslim sleeper, trained in a radical Islamic madrasa, a co-conspirator of terrorist Bill Ayers, and salutes his wife with a "terrorist fist jab". Fox is still awaiting a Pulitzer for these notable revelations.

Covering international affairs, Fox News ensures that there is somehow a reason that the US is involved. Such as: "Lots of murder and genocide is going on in that small African country, but fortunately, the US has no plans to send soldiers there at all," or: "The Asian stockmarket crashed today in a total collapse of their economy, as a result the US stock market will likely suffer slightly until the Asians get their act together."

Fox invented the technique of showing one thing on the screen while commenting upon the opposite, such as Sean Hannity repeatedly asserting Rudy Giuliani was winning the 2008 Republican debates, while live polls showed Ron Paul winning.[10] In November 2009, Sean Hannity marveled at the turnout for a conservative political rally while showing footage of another. Fox and Hannity reported long queues for Sarah Palin's book signings, whereas the actual video came from a McCain campaign rally a year earlier.[11]

When a major news story is breaking and the news is injurious to conservatives or Republicans or can't otherwise be avoided, Fox News takes one or more of these strategies:

  1. Remind viewers that President Bill Clinton had fellatio in the White House and damaged the Presidency
  2. Bring in some sort of reminder of 9/11 and emphasize that the nation is safer from terrorism because of what the Republicans are doing
  3. Offer 'proof' President Barack Obama is a radical Muslim / communist / socialist / anti-American / n-n-Negro / terrorist / born in Kenya or somewhere else foreign
  4. Change the subject by presenting celebrity gossip or covering "breaking news" (Fox News Alert), such as an oil refinery fire in Arkansas, far away from the damaging news on Capitol Hill
  5. Blame liberals, leftists, socialists, communists, centrists, progressives, fake Republicans, Democrats, Clintons, France, O.J. Simpson, and/or actual news media
  6. When all of the above fail, just go ahead and change the party affiliation (from R to D) of the person who's in trouble.[12]

[edit] Musical interludes

In 2006, Trent Reznor issued a cease and desist to Fox News for using three songs from Nine Inch Nails' The Fragile on air without permission. The songs "La Mer", "The Great Below", and "The Mark Has Been Made" appeared in an episode of War Stories with Oliver North.[13]

Subsequently, Reznor posted to his blog: "Thanks for the Fox News heads-up. A cease and desist has been issued. Fuck Fox Fucking News."[14]

[edit] Language

Fox News is known to occasionally pervert the English language in order to further its political agenda. Thus, suicide bombers become, in Fox Newspeak, homicide bombers .

[edit] Availability

As of January 2005, it is available to 85 million households in the U.S. and to other viewers internationally. Many of the more outragous or potentially controversial clips, particularly those of their opinion pundits are widely available on YouTube.

[edit] Critiques

The documentary Outfoxed examines the biases and internal pressures at Fox News and their network outlets.

[edit] Popularity

[edit] Polls

A January 2010 survey[15] conducted by Public Policy Polling reveals Fox News as the most trusted name in television, voted tops by three quarters of Republicans and considerably fewer Democrats.

“ “A generation ago you would have expected Americans to place their trust in the most neutral and unbiased conveyors of news. But the media landscape has really changed and now they’re turning more toward the outlets that tell them what they want to hear.” ”

—Dean Debnam, President of Public Policy Polling

[edit] Conservapedia

Conservapedia uses Fox News as a political benchmark. For example, Conservapedia ranks Republican candidates with a column called Fox News Exposure. Unless posted in a rant, a casual Conservapedia reader would never know other American networks exist, at least without a liberal/libertarian/leftest/socialist label.

[edit] Criticisms

Fox News has been the subject of a variety of criticisms. One of the more interesting ones involves the fairly consistent "party switch" from Republican (R) to Democrat (D) when a prominent GOP member is caught up in a public scandal. The following is a list of various examples of such (see here for screen captures of each):

  • Mark Foley - A Republican member of the House of Representatives from Florida, Foley was alleged to have sent sexually inappropriate messages via email and text messages to teenage male pages. Ironically, he also introduced the "Child Modeling Exploitation prevention Act of 2002". In several interviews, Fox News tagged him as a (D), or Democrat, on their subtitles.
  • John McCain - Seen by many as a more moderate Republican during and following the 2004 Republican primaries, Fox News also labeled him a (D).
  • Whitehouse / Chafee - During the pivotal 2006 Senate election in Rhode Island, eventual victor Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse was polling 10+ percentage points over the incumbent Lincoln Chafee. Fox News reported that Whitehouse (R) was leading Chafee (D) by 11 points (see above link for screen capture).
  • Ted Stevens - Prior to the 2008 Senate elections, this Senator from Alaska was facing charges of failing to disclose benefits received. Fox News labeled him a (D).
  • Mark Sanford - A Republican Representative from South Carolina was dramatically found to be having an affair with an Argentinian woman after a week in which his whereabouts were unknown. During his press conference in which he admitted his affair, Fox News identified him as a (D).

[edit] Quotes about Fox News

“ You know what a fake news show on Fox News should give you? Real news! ”

—Lewis Black (speaking about The 1/2 Hour News Hour)

“ Fox tends to lean more to the right than a man who's just had his right leg blown off. ”

—Charlie Brooker, Newswipe

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ↑ And yes, somehow they don't have a problem dropping that phrase (that they admit they are opening the possibility to fake journalism).
  2. ↑ Slogan of parody network CNNNN. see wp:CNNNN
  3. ↑ Murdoch's bio.
  4. ↑ Same Old Party
  5. ↑ Glen Beck at Fox News
  6. ↑ Alan Colmes at Fox News
  7. ↑ Brit Hume at Fox
  8. ↑ Father Jonathan Morris at Fox News
  9. ↑ International Probe Targets Secretive Catholic Group
  10. ↑ Fox's Hannity reports Ron Paul losing when actually winning
  11. ↑ Fox News again accused of airing misleading video
  12. ↑ They really have done this - as documented by the Daily Show on October 4, 2006.
  13. ↑ Reznor, Trent; Fox News, War Stories, and Nine Inch Nails NIN Hotline
  14. ↑ Reznor, Trent; Fuck Fox Fucking News NIN Hotline
  15. ↑ Most Trusted name in TV News {PDF}
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