Roger Ailes, president of Fox News, should be ashamed of himself for deliberately obfuscating and backing Fox News' misleading reporting on health care reform. See it for yourself. When Paul Krugman challenges Mr. Ailes he continues with more of the same.
How can Roger Ailes call Fox News news?
I defy anyone to show me any president of a news station agreeing with misleading news and/or whose news station has been caught repeatedly engaging in unethical behavior such as changing background scenes in order to favor a particular author as they did with Sarah Palin.
Fox news continuously repeat untruths spoken by the mouths of their analysts that go unchallenged in order to favor a particular side. This is not news. Mr. Ailes should be ashamed of himself. But he isn't. Later on he even defends Glenn Beck saying that his words were not directed at President Obama. Everyone knows this is a lie.
8 comments:
Krugman points out the the biggest problem is that people are not getting informed. This is what also upsets me. But Fox news is not the only one guilty of this. MSNBC mainly focuses on conflict (public option vs no public option) but never explains what the real difference is (just the facts).
When it comes to misinformation, MSNBC, Fox and Huffington are all responsible for this. Opinion is more important than fact with these outlets. One reason for this is opinion is cheaper - like my father used to say, an opinion is like a nose, everyone has one. PBS had the only good piece on health care - the TR Reid piece in Frontline.
I think they get around the whole "News" thing, by saying their people aren't *really* reporters, but *commentators*.
Zorro - I agree with you that news has become opinion on many networks. I have yet to see such an activist president of a news station like Mr. Ailes.
You introduced me to the TR Reid piece on Frontline and it was just great! I learned a ton. It should, in fact, be required viewing for all citizens. :-)
Oh, and, Zorro, I often appreciate your voice here and elsewhere. Thank you.
Tremas - I don't think those who watch Fox News think that it is opinion. Why call it Fox News? I think the viewers think they're being given facts. According to Glenn Beck's ratings, I assume that every time he writes on the blackboard the viewers think that great factual information is coming forth.
Ailes is simply a jerk, but he is a dangerous jerk. In my opinion, the best news outlet is NPR. They rarely inject opinion and the news people don't seem obsessed with becoming famous. They explain complicated issues quite well. NPR is where I learned what credit default swaps were.
Its also where I learned that Gorbechev was perplexed when Reagan made his 'tear down that wall' speech. He was perplexed because he had recently met with Reagan and discussed how he was planning to open up the Soviet Union. I think Reagan made that speech knowing what was about to happen and wanted to be seen in history as being instrumental in bringing down the Soviet Union. Sorry for the tangent, but I thought it was interesting. I also think the 'tear down this wall' speech is a part of the Reagan myth - and it strengthens the myth to the detriment of our country. Its one big reason why we can't seem to get rid of the stupid 'big government is bad' routine.
I think that routine is the biggest thorn in our side.
Its one reason why Fox is so popular.
I saw Mike Spence (the indiana congressman who chaired the Obama-Repubican event) this weekend say some of Obama's ideas were just like Jimmy Carters ideas. Funny how the Republicans can dump on Carter. How lucky we would be if George Bush had only done as much damage to the country as Carter supposedly did!
Excellent points, Zorro. Thanks for sharing them. You may always go on a tangent whenever desired. They are, by the way, not tangents and always thoughtful. Thanks again! Oh, NPR, is my favorite too. I also watch C-Span but even there you get a lot of ideology from the guests and very little pragmatic ideas. I do enjoy listening to the calls that come in. Sometimes they're great and other times I'm laughing my head off. Some really looney calls get through. Sometimes I'm also astonished that anyone could hold such opinions.
Folks forget that Roger Ailes and Lee Atwater were behind George H W Bush's notoriously slimey 1988 Presidential campaign - including claims that Dukakis had a mental illness. Some of the campaign stunts and claims were so over the top that years later Atwater felt compelled to apologize on his death bed to Mike Dukakis for the "naked cruelty" of it.
Oh, John! I didn't know that! WOW! What a nasty slimy campaign that was! WOW! I remember reading about that death-bed "naked cruelty" Atwater apology. But I didn't know that Ailes had anything to do with that campaign. This is revealing indeed, not that I needed it to see that Ailes is a piece of work. Beck is now bashing Arianna for calling him out on "This Week." Ailes readily came to Beck's defense. Many of these people are such liars that I think that they even forget what they say. I think more than a few are sociopaths. Some of these guys are not acting for ratings. Good thing there is video.
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