Who's Afraid of the Big, Bad Fox
When Roger Ailes is right, he's right. And he's right.
The Fox News Chairman/CEO warned political candidates Thursday night not to get pressured into bypassing his news operation by groups that don't like the way it reports the news, saying it would be a "terrible mistake."
I might not have phrased it that way, but I can understand his unhappiness. He was receiving a First Amendment award and boycotts of news organizations are anathema to the free flow of information.
The Fox News Channel is the top-rated cable news channel, watched by millions of people. Fox TV station newscasts are on when a lot of people who have to get up early and go to work for a living can see them and still function at 6. a.m.
Whatever you think of its news coverage–and apparently a lot of people think a lot of it–it is an important voice in TV news.
Presidential candidates are adults and can refuse to answer a question if it seems over the top, or perhaps if they are smart enough, turn such questions to their advantage.
But, frankly, Britt Hume is no more aggressive in his pursuit of the story he wants to get or the point he wants to hammer home than is Wolf Blitzer, they just sometimes come at the stories from different angles. The same could be said of any number of reporters for both operations, or reporters for other organizations, or reporters in general.
The Washington Times isn't The New York Times, but both have done good journalism.
Shame on John Edwards for pulling out of that Nevada debate under pressure from moveon.org. It looks like a cave, or a wilt, or a knee-jerk, or a turn-tail or something. But whatever it is, it was the wrong move.
By John Eggerton
jeff gannon commented:
well, brit''''s middle name is mary, is that not a reason to question the honesty of Mr. Hume?
Hmmm... commented:
... Comments don''t display, but the "Comments (#)" number increments, so they are getting posted somewhere -- just not where anyone can see them.
Hokay.
Tom Betz commented:
Is this thing on?
Tom Betz commented:
Nonsense, Eggerton.
Fox News is not a news operation, it is a Republican Party propaganda outlet. And the participants in the debate will have no knowledge of the contents of the chiron, or of the crawl, and have no reason to expect honest commentary form the post-debate attack team.
Democrats need to remember what happened the last time Fox News carried a Democratic debate.
For an example of how disrespectful and counterproductive such Fox News-sponsored Democratic debates are, consider the September 9, 2003 Democratic debate in Baltimore, Maryland, hosted by Fox News in partnership with the Congressional Black Caucus. Fox News graphics, as well as a banner over the stage, titled the event as the "Democrat Candidate Presidential Debate," a misconstruction of "Democrat" used as an an epithet. Fox News then summarized the debate with a story titled, "Democratic Candidates Offer Grim View of America," continuing with such jabs as, "The depiction of the president as the root of all evil began at the top of Tuesday night's debate...." Controversial questions included the accusation that Howard Dean had a racist gun policy by Fox News analyst Juan Williams. There were also multiple interruptions by protesters throughout the debate, leading to four arrests.
Ailes' programming and content choices, dishonestly feeding Republican talking points to its true-beleiver core audience, has de-legitimized Fox News in the eyes of most Americans. He has only himself to blame for Obama and Edwards (and more to come) shutting Fox News out.