Fox "News" - Right on ACORN, Wrong On So Much Else
Yup
October 4, 2009
Perhaps you are familiar with an old saying: Even a broken clock is
right twice a day. I've found that maxim valuable as I wade through
the recent hand-wringing and recrimination among journalists and their
critics over the fact that most mainstream media were slow to pick up
on the story of corruption at ACORN.
New York Times ombudsman Clark Hoyt and Andrew Alexander, his
counterpart at the Washington Post, are among those who have asked
whether that laggard performance reflects an unfortunate deafness to
conservative media. As one of my readers put it, "There is a lot wrong
with ACORN, and Fox was the only channel talking about it."
I might join this pity party if I thought Fox a credible news source.
I do not. Consider just a few of the network's and its hosts' recent
lowlights:
JUNE 3: In a column, Bill O'Reilly says he never called murdered
abortion doctor George Tiller "a baby killer."
This is wrong. PolitiFact.com has documented 24 instances just since
2005 of O'Reilly referring to the doctor as "Tiller the baby killer."
JUNE 10: Glenn Beck asks, "Why do we have automatic citizenship upon
birth? We're the only country in the world that has it."
This is incorrect. Canada has it, as do 32 other nations.
JUNE 18: Sean Hannity says that under the Cash For Clunkers program,
"all we've got to do is ... go to a local junkyard, all you've got to
do is tow it to your house. And you're going to get $4,500."
This is false. The program required the car to be drivable and to have
been registered for at least a year.
JULY 22: Beck says the director of the White House Office of Science
and Technology Policy "has proposed forcing abortions and putting
sterilants in the drinking water to control population."
This is untrue. The claim is based on a textbook John Holdren co-
authored in 1977 that analyzed and rejected such coercive means of
birth control.
JULY 31: Kimberly Guilfoyle claims the government will get total
access in perpetuity to the computer of any participant in the Cash
for Clunkers program who signs up at the government website, cars.gov.
This is inaccurate. FactCheck.org reports this claim is based on a
security notice required of "car dealers" who access a secure area of
the website.
Let me make this next point crystalline: Every news organization from
CNN to CBS to Miami's Herald to L.A.'s Times gets it wrong on
occasion, and every single report risks reflecting the biases —
political, racial, religious, class, educational, geographical,
generational — of the reporter. This will be true until the day the
news business is no longer run by human beings.
But Fox is in a class by itself. In its epidemic inaccuracy, its
ongoing disregard for basic journalistic standards of fairness, its
demagogic appeals and its blatantly ideological promotions it is,
indeed, unique — a news source in name only. That's not just an
opinion: A 2003 study found Fox viewers more likely to be misinformed
than those who get their news elsewhere.
Yet because this network that cries wolf, this network of birthers,
terrorist fist bumps and tea party promotions, got it right for a
change, mainstream media should wear sackcloth and ashes for their
failure to take it seriously? No.
What missing the ACORN story suggests is a need for mainstream
reporters to develop more sources among conservative activists and
bloggers. But Fox forfeited any expectation of being taken seriously
by serious people when it made itself an echo chamber less concerned
with reporting news than with affirming the ideological biases of its
viewers.
When faced with a broken clock, after all, the person who wants to
know the time has two options: try to guess when the reading is
right ...
Or get another clock.
Buford Pusser
So you think Beck is wrong about Obama's ties to George Soros through
the Tides Foundation,Apollo Project and SEIU ???
John Q Public
Just more FOX is against me BS, remember the Dems never fail, its
always somebody
elses fault!
Too bad nobody's buying their bullshit anymore
Jerry Okamura
"Yup" <john...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:14549529-3590-4e17...@j28g2000vbl.googlegroups.com...
Leonard Pitts Jr.
October 4, 2009
Perhaps you are familiar with an old saying: Even a broken clock is
right twice a day. I've found that maxim valuable as I wade through
the recent hand-wringing and recrimination among journalists and their
critics over the fact that most mainstream media were slow to pick up
on the story of corruption at ACORN.
New York Times ombudsman Clark Hoyt and Andrew Alexander, his
counterpart at the Washington Post, are among those who have asked
whether that laggard performance reflects an unfortunate deafness to
conservative media. As one of my readers put it, "There is a lot wrong
with ACORN, and Fox was the only channel talking about it."
I might join this pity party if I thought Fox a credible news source.
I do not. Consider just a few of the network's and its hosts' recent
lowlights:
JUNE 3: In a column, Bill O'Reilly says he never called murdered
abortion doctor George Tiller "a baby killer."
This is wrong. PolitiFact.com has documented 24 instances just since
2005 of O'Reilly referring to the doctor as "Tiller the baby killer."
Bill O'Reilly is an opinion maker. Opinion makers have a right to say
whatever they want to say. It is up to the viewers to decide whether to
continue watching him or not. And from everything I have heard about his
show, a whole lot of people watch his shows. Ditto for the rest of your
posting.
Morton Davis
news:QC4zm.25710$tG1....@newsfe22.iad...
>
> "Yup" <john...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:14549529-3590-4e17...@j28g2000vbl.googlegroups.com...
> Leonard Pitts Jr.
>
> October 4, 2009
>
> Perhaps you are familiar with an old saying: Even a broken clock is
> right twice a day. I've found that maxim valuable as I wade through
> the recent hand-wringing and recrimination among journalists and their
> critics over the fact that most mainstream media were slow to pick up
> on the story of corruption at ACORN.
>
> New York Times ombudsman Clark Hoyt and Andrew Alexander, his
> counterpart at the Washington Post, are among those who have asked
> whether that laggard performance reflects an unfortunate deafness to
> conservative media. As one of my readers put it, "There is a lot wrong
> with ACORN, and Fox was the only channel talking about it."
>
> I might join this pity party if I thought Fox a credible news source.
Perhaps the other "news sources" would regain some credibility if they'd
report on ACORN and had reported on the millkoon plus demonstration on the
capitol mall.