Great Article on the Faux News Channel

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Frederick

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Mar 1, 2001, 2:14:21 PM3/1/01

The full link to the article is down below, but here is an appetizer:

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It was the last Sunday in January, and Vice President Dick Cheney was making
the morning talk-show rounds. On ABC, Sam Donaldson posed hard-hitting
questions about the new Administration's failure to alleviate California's
energy crisis, the wisdom of George W. Bush's proposed tax cut and John
Ashcroft's elusive answers to questions during his confirmation process. On
NBC, Tim Russert challenged Cheney on the President's plans for deterring a
recession, his commitment to campaign finance reform and how Ashcroft's
pledge to enforce the law on abortion squares with the President's
antichoice positions.

And on Fox? Brit Hume and Tony Snow--two of the news channel's most
conservative anchors--pitched softballs to the new Vice President, prodding
him to denounce the Clinton Administration and positioning him to pronounce
the energy crisis in California the product of federal clean-air regulations
and evidence of the need for offshore oil drilling. About Ashcroft, in a
soundbite replayed on Fox throughout the day, Hume asked: "Do you sense in
some of the opposition to him, that his faith and his devotion to it is
being held against him? And do you sense in that, perhaps, a kind of
anti-Christian bigotry?"

It was a typical question on a typical Sunday on the Fox News Channel.
Although its right-wing talk-show hosts like Bill O'Reilly have received
copious press attention, the conservative slant of Fox's regular news
coverage has not. And while much has been written about Fox's gaffe on
election night involving George W. Bush's cousin (which some think caused
the public to regard Bush as the legitimate winner), there's been far less
focus on the blatant partiality of Fox's regular staff, contributors and
guests. It all combines to create a calculated mouthpiece for the right that
remains thinly veiled behind its misleading mantra, "fair and balanced." And
Fox could have real influence: According to Editor & Publisher magazine, a
TV monitor in the White House press briefing room that aired CNN throughout
the Clinton Administration was recently switched to the Fox News Channel.