Fox News seems to be keenly unaware of the fact that they are personally responsible for turning people away from the Republican Party in droves.

As I have mentioned many times, I was once an avid fan of Sean Hannity. When he set his sights on then, candidate for President, Barack Obama, I began a quest to do my own research to dig into the facts, rather than to accept and rubber stamp his take on the man.

Hannity was relentless in harping night after night, the most insane accusations that were easily refuted by the truth. Words were continuously taken out of context, twisted, and even made up in some cases. Anyone who had a history and lived in the Chicago area, was attached to the hip of the Obama, and was used to attempt to spear and smear him.

The amazing thing is that no matter the effort by many Fox News associates who Joined Hannity in his quest to derail the man's campaign, it did not work.

And like most other hardliners who call themselves "Conservatives," almost a year after America made up their minds, the attacks continue, shamelessly in most cases.

Fox News refuses to understand that our President is under no obligation to give them the time of day. Given the undertones emanated and the outright blatant attacks from Fox News associates, they deserve no recognition from the President. The lines of decency and respect have been crossed too many times.

Glenn Beck was the nail in the coffin, effectively eliminating any notion that the Network is "fair and balanced." They are quite "skewed and tilted" very far to the right.

The only class act that they have left is Shepard Smith, because he is the ONLY on-air personality who takes the concept of being "fair and balanced" seriously. One really has to wonder how long before he will be tossed from Fox News.

Regarding his Fox News evening hosts, who draw more attention than himself and who also enjoy higher ratings as well, he was quoted in a New York Times interview this past June as having said, "There’s a lot of money in opinion, and those guys are fascinating, terrific entertainers. This is a news organization. There can’t be a Fox News without news."

Fox News introduced America to a new and refreshing way to make current affairs interesting to watch. At the same time, they created a monster. Rather than to remain "fair and balanced," they would rather air what draws in the most viewers.

If news was the bulk of their broadcasts, they'd still be way down the list. It's the radical views, the irrational arguments, and the hit pieces by all but a couple of their on-air personalities that have come to define what Fox News is all about these days.

Truth and the facts are always irrelevant and inconsequential, as long as what is being aired holds the interest of an audience.

Thanks, but when I want to take a breather from reality, I'll flip to HBO.

Fox News is spelled Faux News by the critics, although I don't believe most of their political news is fake but rather out of proportion. They obviously lean to the right, and as such report in a like manner. In fairness there is MSNBC and others that tend to lean to the left. I avoid political commentators on all the cable channels, but do read Fox News plus CNN, ABC, CBS, USA, MSNBC, Washington Post, etc on the net to get a broad sense of what's happening.

Fox News Less Biased Than CNN, MSNBC in White House Coverage

http://www.usnews.com/blogs/mary-kate-ca...

Interesting

So true, Clay. I'd much rather watch MSNBC.

Oh, wait...
----------------------------------------------------
Frankly, the fact that the White House is spending their time (essentially our tax dollars) on monitoring everything that comes out of Fox News is absurd. Obama deserves criticism because he holds the highest office in the country and is there to represent us, the American people. If he does not represent a view point that I or anyone else believes in, then we reserve the privilege of voicing our disdain. My same reservations hold for many the clowns in Congress as well.

Interestingly enough, Fox News gets skewered by many on the left because they actually have more on-air personalities that are conservative than almost any other 24 hour news channel. Much of their actual hard news reporting, especially of live events, does seem to lack the conservative stigma that many of their big head personalities portray. Unfortunately, these big heads (Beck, Hannity, O'Reilly, etc) shape many peoples opinion of the news network.

It is important to note that these commentators do bring in some of the highest, if not the highest, ratings for 24 hour news networks at their respective time slots. So let's be honest, these commentators are given a mic, a camera and a time slot because they bring in serious money. I believe Fox News has simply found their honey pot because many of the other 24 hour news channels, and even national network news shows, will lean towards liberal or even liberal progressive ideology.

Many who see through the fog of news slant know where to go to get a more complete view of the story. Personally, I like Google News because it pulls the same story from several news outlets and saves me the trouble of searching around.

EaTn wrote: "I avoid political commentators on all the cable channels, but do read Fox News plus CNN, ABC, CBS, USA, MSNBC, Washington Post, etc on the net to get a broad sense of what's happening."
I'm the same way. The only political "pundits" I enjoy listening to are Steven Colbert and Jon Stewart. And like Aces, I rely on Google. It makes it easy to really get a broad scope of the story, rather than just the narrowminded view of one person from one biased network. Fox is hardly the only biased network around... but since they are the most conservative network is a liberal run government, they will get all the enmity from everyone. C'est La Vie.

Fox News is pretty much the only news channel I watch... that being said, I do NOT watch Hannity or Glenn Beck. I find that they are too extreme in their views. Other than them, I feel like the majority of voices on Fox are fair and balanced, unlike what I find on the other channels. The fact that the White House is going out of their way to try to turn people away from Fox is absurd-- what are they so afraid of??? Viewers not getting the biased, Kool-Aid drinkers' views from the other networks? Viewers getting the truth??? GASP!
Why don't we head even more toward socialism and just ban Fox News altogether?

We shall see, won't we? Just who gets the last laugh, eh? The truth always, always come out in the end. Maybe when it does the present WH cronies will have succeeded in creating just one outlet for the 'News'. Now, won't that be what every 'good' person wants and has been agitating for? We shall see.

Deja vue anyone?

anyone who listens to any news story, no matter who is telling it, and thinks the he/she is getting the whole truth is a fool. I learned a very long time ago that if a story is not interesting enough then reporters just add whatever they want to make it that way.

When I was a teenager, I was working for a department store locally. I was on the loading dock putting boxes in a box compactor. Foolishly, I was stuffing the boxes down with my foot and got it caught in the compactor. As my foot was being crushed by the machine, a co-worker saw what was happening and stopped the machine. Restarting the machine would have only made it crush more so they called the fire department. When they came they simply cut the back of my shoe out and slipped my foot out the back. Placed my foot in a inflatable splint and took me to the hospital. Nothing broken, just some soft tissue damage. I walked out of the hospital.

When the news got hold of the story, I was crushed from the knee down and may have to be amputated. According to the news and newspaper, they had to use the Jaws-of-Life to rescue me.

That was the first time I realized that the media made up what they wanted just to make it more interesting. I have seen many more instances like this since.

I like to get a good mix of the news and take it all with a grain of salt.

HEY EVERYONE!!!!

Ever see a magician, they have you watching one hand while the other hand does all of the work. Who cares what is going on. The FACT that the white house is publicly scanning a New Channel is ridiculous, they have other things to worry about. It is just like a month ago, while we were busy with Medicare and Wilson's "you lie" Obama extended the Patriot Act, under a different name while making some additions, the right to suspend habius corpus and the ability to have a standing army on U.S. soil. Stop with the political garbage that keeps all of us preoccupied while they ruin the liberties of which we want to keep.

I'm not a big fan of Lamar Alexander, but I believe he covered this issue quite well.

"If the President and his top aides treat people with different views as enemies instead of listening to what they have to say, they're likely to end up with a narrow view and a feeling that the whole world is out to get them. And as those of us who served in the Nixon administration know, that can get you into a lot of trouble."
..............
"As any veteran of the Nixon White House can attest, we've been down this road before and it won't end well. An "enemies list" only denigrates the Presidency and the Republic itself."

Senate speech @ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXABD5uCi...

---------------------------------------

Isn't it amazing how so much of the media operate in lock-step with the wishes and storylines of the current administration? It is no wonder FoxNews is winning the battle for eyeballs, they actually report on things the people of this country need to know about.

The media is not supposed to be the mouthpiece for the government, they should rightly be an adversary holding our leaders accountable.

I'll give everyone one guess to figure out what I think about Fox News.......

Not a fan. But I'm not as down on it as people might imagine.

My favorite program remains, "Meet the Press."

What I like about that show is that tough questions are asked and followed up on. There is no badgering and everyone is treated with the same level of skeptisism and respect.

At the same time, I do think it is appropriate to have some programs where badgering does occur.

The few times I have watched Fox News, there has been an apparent presumption that the White House is lying about X, Y or Z (or all three). I did not see the same level of suspicion directed toward Bush/Cheney. Newscasters would ask questions as if skeptical, but at the end it seemed the questions were more like cues for Republican talking points. Obama does not get the same deference.

If this is your view of the world, you might not even notice this. Or you might approve.

To it's credit, Fox News seems very well produced and apparently engaging and entertaining.

I appreciate that they sometimes do report on issues not covered by other networks, but they can lose me when they get too shrill.

Obviously there is no crime in Fox conducting business the way they do. No one is forcing me to watch. To each his own.

I remember how fox wanted to create a clone of the Daily Show.... "Half Hour News Hour"

Sure was a hit.... the first one anyway... the rest slowly died... not that it wasn't funny... but it was competing with fox's own programming with the same presentation with just a different title.

I couldn't tell the difference. Neither could my Fox News fan brother.

From the Whine House, this is FOX News. Get these people their Whine Flu shots!

Olbermann and Maddow are no different than Beck and Hannity. They are just on the opposite side of an issue. GE is getting billions in bail out cash. Fox isn't. NBC, MSNBC, and CNBC will be real nice to the administration. They're getting paid for it.

I disagree... Olbermann and Maddow are middle of the road.. The opposite side of fox doesn't exist.

But I can understand how someone would so far on the right would think so.

Of course, many of those folks find Limbaugh and O'Reilly middle of the road.

That's it... no more keying in my sleep

Imagine if a football coach instructed his staff to respond to all articles of team criticism in this week’s newspaper rather than preparing for the upcoming game. Absurd, right? Mr. President, we’re dealing with issues much more important than an upcoming football game; accordingly, your staff has more important things to do than undermine a news source that criticizes you. Please re-prioritize and show thicker skin.

Dr. King wrote in “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” “If I sought to answer all the criticisms that cross my desk, my secretaries would have little time for anything other than such correspondence in the course of the day, and I would have no time for constructive work.” Learn from him.

eeeeeek said: "Olbermann and Maddow are middle of the road."

LOL. Thanks for the laugh.

That's almost as funny as the time somebody wrote that Obama is a centrist.

Sometimes these forums crack me up.

Let's see, Olbermann, Maddow, Dowd and other left wing commentators and opinion writers go to a secret 2-1/2 hour session with BHO himself at the White House Monday. Oh yeah, that's the way to engender fair and balanced coverage.

2-1/2 hours given to his left wing media lapdogs.

25 minutes given to the General responsible for our troops in Afghanistan.

One has to have priorities, I guess.

Every day, another revelation of the real, radical BHO's agenda, and Hannity rightfully gets to say, "I told you so." Why else would BHO and Emanuel threaten other networks not to pick up Fox News' stories. Too much exposure of the real BHO and the radicals he has hand-picked to "transform America" would shed too much light on the darkness with which they pursue their agenda to destroy capitalism and personal freedom.

The fact that the lefties here only watch/read the White House sanctioned media is what allows the Administration to get away with it.

alprova opined: "Truth and the facts are always irrelevant and inconsequential, as long as what is being aired holds the interest of an audience."

Thank you alprova for this spot-on review of President Obama's recent address to Congress.

You are so right on all points Lightnup.

I remember when CBC in Canada did the same thing, but in the dark of night. We had no other media or voices on the internet speaking up and letting us know what was going on. The only comparison we could make was free speech south of the Canadian border (if we visited the US).

One day we just woke up and discovered our country, our freedoms and values had been sold down the pike-forever. That is why so many Canadians left their country over the years-for America. Just as so many Europeans and Communist countries' citizens did for a freer life. Now look at what we have! Ironic.

With our new FCC "Diversity Czar," government controlled media is only a matter of time. But first they have to lay the groundwork, isolate and marginalize their media enemies, then enact their "for the good of the country" policy of not allowing opposing views to be aired.

That is, until we turn this assault on liberty around in 2010 and 2012.

eeeeeek said: I disagree... Olbermann and Maddow are middle of the road.. The opposite side of fox doesn't exist.

Where is the opposite side of Olbermann and Maddow at MSNBC?

Liberals are all about inclusion until you disagree with them.

Oz, you need to tune in to MSNBC EVERY morning and see Nazi apologist Pat Buchanan and his sidekick Joe "The Dead Intern in his Office" Scarborough. Mika plays the part of the dumb blonde we all have come to love on the Faux News set. We all remember when Joey had to leave his congressional seat due to a little unpleasantness in his private life. Seems to be the GOP theme these days, huh?

rebelliousnature gets it.

Keep us spinning.

anniebelle....you are correct. I did try to watch them about a 6 months ago and it was unpleasant.

Oh...and by the way, Fox does have Geraldo Rivera.

Hey, don't be knockin' Geraldo, now. :)

Hey2! They got the system fixed. Thanx, guys and [dare I say gals??].

Thanx, anyhoo. You got paid time and a half for that work, right? :)

Geraldo is OK for a liberal. FOX was the only network willing to give him another chance. His career was over.

So by your fantasy world Goper logic: Geraldo = Liberal, then I must be = Mother Theresa. I think you do have Faux's hiring plan down. They take all the "garbage" nobody else has any stomach for and give them a slot on Faux Fake News. I predict Lou Dobbs will be their next hire.

anniebelle, despite your objective, well-researched review of Fox News' hiring practices, it seems logical to look at actual ratings to see who employs the "garbage" that nobody else has the stomach for.

"According to MediaBistro, Fox News keeps leading in the ratings month after month, beating out CNN and MSNBC combined. It is also showing the most growth in the younger demo. Since July '08, FNC is up 48% in the total day 25-54 age group and 70% in prime time."

"The winners are:

"The O'Reilly Factor up" 37% over July '08 (#1 for 104 consecutive months.)
"Glenn Beck" up 120% over last year
"On the Record with Great Van Sustern" up 60%
"Hannity" up 41%"

"Among basic cable networks,

FNC ranked third in prime time (after USA Network and TNT)
CNN ranked 15th
MSNBC ranked 26th"

http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-2547-...

The Democrat sheeple obviously get their important political information from watching Dancing with the Stars and American Idol, although apparently a couple hundred of them do tune in to Olbermann and Maddow (undoubtedly Keith's and Rachel's parents and other relatives watching because they have to).

alprova wrote: "And like most other hardliners who call themselves "Conservatives," almost a year after America made up their minds, the attacks continue, shamelessly in most cases."

Are you suggesting that although Americans were misled by a media that was too star-struck to practice any real journalism, and lied to by the candidate who won the election, it's a bad thing to point out the negatives about an elected official that were glossed over by the media during the campaign?

It seems alprova that you are pressing for a different standard now than was followed by those on the left, particularly the media, for the ENTIRE 8 YEARS that Bush was in office.

Sorry to come in so late to this discussion, but I haven't been able to post anything for the past two or three days.

The research about media bias that Sailorman posted, is based on a false premiss. It was comparing the news networks on negative news stories as a percentage of their overall coverage.

During the presidential campaign the Pew Research Center showed that 40 percent of Fox News stories on Obama in a six week period were negative. Similarly, 40 percent of Fox News' stories on Sen. John McCain, were negative.

The report goes on to state that on CNN, negative stories on Obama were at 39 percent and McCain was at 61 percent.

These numbers mean nothing without reference. Perhaps one campaign deserved more negative coverage. Judging by the success of the McCain campaign, perhaps there was more negative stories to report. Maybe these numbers show that FOX News was being overly forgiving (instead of CNN being overly harsh) to the McCain campaign.

Anyone who gives the various news networks an honest look would come to a conclusion that FOX has a decisive slant, and promotes its own agenda more than CNN does.

I was proud to see all news networks stand together yesterday in defense of FOX News. I don't want to see any news organization on a White House hit list. America is best served by freedom of the press.

Amen Oz. I too am very glad that the other networks in the White House press pool acknowleged the threat inherent in banning any single news organization for daring to criticize the President.

Another "Faux" hiring plan has worked too. Don Imus has been a hit with the Fox Business channel.

Red Rover, Red Rover, Bring Lou Dobbs on over.

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment...

Aahh, Imus needs love too, the old curmudgeon. When I watch CNN, BBC or ABC, the agenda just drips, drips, drips from their mouths and they are incredibly boring. Plus, they have more slanted, biased Panels when discussing issues.

FNC has participants that are all over the spectrum of the poli-genda and are not afraid to be unpolitically correct. Except for Geraldo, sigh. 35 years seeing this guy, my skin just crawls. O'Reilly is really a shame now. He used to be unafraid and straight as an arrow. Now, he sounds like a rich Liberal with too much ego and time on his hands. He stands up for the kids which is good, but he's like a dirty old man with the ladies. Gauche.

They all need love though, yup, just turn the channel and kwitcha kvetching.

The NYTimes has an article up concerning the WH war on non-liberal media.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/23/us/pol...

"Speaking privately at the White House on Monday with a group of mostly liberal columnists and commentators, including Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann of MSNBC and Maureen Dowd, Frank Rich and Bob Herbert of The New York Times, Mr. Obama himself gave vent to sentiments about the network, according to people briefed on the conversation."

That sounds to me like POTUS is surrounding himself with kool-aide drunken admirers and whining that big bad FoxNews is picking on his administration.

Doesn't sound very presidential to me. Sounds more like a petulant child.

"WHAAAAA! There so mean and so unfair! WHAAAAAA!!!!

LOL, what an idiot.

Indeed.

It's becoming the Whine House!

"Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear." ––Harry S Truman

For the whining conservatives offended at Obama for meeting with Obermann...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wo3ltG0gw...
http://archive.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2...

hotdiggity, I must have missed the part in there about President Bush holding this meeting against the backdrop of the White House punishing, marginalizing and publicly threatening the other news networks not to follow another network's news stories.

If you notice, Beck was on Headline News then, not Fox.