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First of all I dont want to turn this into a political discussion, maybe it is impossible, but please try....
Im a foreigner, that i have just moved to the US two month ago. One of the things I looked forward to experience was to follow the presidential election.
Being new to the country, getting onboard the news channels has been a challenge itself. So I have seen a lot of the different news channels during the past 6-8 weeks - CNN, FOX, MSNBS etc...
What strikes me (and the reason why I start this thread) is the bad manners on Fox News. I understand people disagree on opinions, but I have never in my life seen so many pointing finger (the negative way), rolling eyes, negative face attitudes, etc, when they interviewed the opponent. And it all comes from the different anchors - Hannety, Oreilly,etc. I dont know their names as well as you properly do.
I see myself as an neutral observer, but I am surprise to see grown up men behave like that and on national television.
Everything these guys do it what I try to teach my kids not to do. It is simply bad manners.
It is clear to me after these weeks that some of the different channels have a political agenda (and they turn the stories to favor this agenda) but I still believe that this "phenomenon" I am talking about is striking when you switch to fox news.
FauxNews is the worse thing to ever come to the TV. It has subverted our system and spews little truth. ... Some people say Bill O'reilly is one of the most inept yellow journalists around. Never wanting to report anything that might cast a poor light on his Republicans.
There are journalist and then there are political commentators on nearly all the news networks now. It is important to know which is which when evaluating the standards you expect to see. The real journalists are much more professional and the commentators all show more 'personality'. The finger point (Hannity) and spitting on the screen (Olbermann) is a result of that difference, they are not journalists and don't claim to be.
Fox news is the most unfair and unbalanced so called news on television. You must understand that fox is nothing more than the strong arm of the G.O.P. They remind me a lot of Hitlers propaganda machine in the 1930's.It only takes watching them for a few minutes to understand how warped thier ideals are.
NCyank has it right and the other posters are obviously liberals who would see Fox as they have described. If you compare Brit Hume and Shepard Smith (the two news anchors who present the news by the journalists), then you will see very professional, ethical men in my opinion.
You must look at O'Reilly, Hannity, Colmes, Greta, etc. in the same light as the political commentators on other channels. There is an enormous difference between newsmen and commentators/opiners. Don't confuse the two and it might help you to see the difference.
Further, you should realize that O'Reilly, Hannity, Greta, Shep Smith, and Brit's news reports, ALL smash the other networks viewer ratings.
That might help you realize the enormity and importance of having the conservatice voice finally heard on broadcasted air. Just as they dominate the radio. One network vs all the others.
Last edited by CoastalMaine; 11-03-2008 at 04:03 PM..
The ratings tell it all and the ignorant folks that can't tell the difference between editorial commentary and hard news seem to be the angry lefties. If you don't like fox news then don't watch it and quit whining.
And talking about shoving something in someones mouth is just plain juvenile and is to be expected from these types of people.
Fox news, like the Rush Limbaugh radio show and such "sources", bills itself as "entertainment" so that they can take little if any responsibilty for the content that they broadcast. Yes, this is basically decietful as is their motto "fair and balanced". The only reason for normally intelligent people to watch this kind of thing is to keep abreast of the what the political enemy is up to.
First of all I dont want to turn this into a political discussion, maybe it is impossible, but please try....
Im a foreigner, that i have just moved to the US two month ago. One of the things I looked forward to experience was to follow the presidential election.
Being new to the country, getting onboard the news channels has been a challenge itself. So I have seen a lot of the different news channels during the past 6-8 weeks - CNN, FOX, MSNBS etc...
What strikes me (and the reason why I start this thread) is the bad manners on Fox News. I understand people disagree on opinions, but I have never in my life seen so many pointing finger (the negative way), rolling eyes, negative face attitudes, etc, when they interviewed the opponent. And it all comes from the different anchors - Hannety, Oreilly,etc. I dont know their names as well as you properly do.
I see myself as an neutral observer, but I am surprise to see grown up men behave like that and on national television.
Everything these guys do it what I try to teach my kids not to do. It is simply bad manners.
It is clear to me after these weeks that some of the different channels have a political agenda (and they turn the stories to favor this agenda) but I still believe that this "phenomenon" I am talking about is striking when you switch to fox news.
Let me here your take on this......
Interesting that you mentioned this because I read an article about a person who lives in Japan who has some friends here and visits every couple years. He was shocked about how these news shows (such as fox and others) would bring guests onto their shows just to belittle them and make them look stupid by shouting, interrupting, and just down right insulting their character.
This kind of behavior is not seen on most other countries news shows, It is juvenile and just plain rude. The strange thing is that this kind of behavior gets good ratings in America so the shows continue to do it. Not so far away from a Maury or Jerry Springer kind of a show, just that it revolves around a biased political agenda. I certainly do not watch this garbage, but a lot of people do. It is not the news fault that America glorifies this childish behavior, It is simply what Americans like to watch.
It is meant to be entertainment, not news - and it saddens me what this country considers entertaining.
Moreover, the high ratings of such commentary and personality driven broadcasts leaves me wondering what kind of immaturity some people in this country have that they need to be pandered to and told obviously skewed half-truths just to make them feel good about their own political leanings. There is less of a need for a nuanced discussion and careful and thoughtful analysis in this country then the need to be right.
I feel similarly to the other posters about Fox News leaning too far to one side of the political spectrum. The problem isn't that they have political commentary, it's that those commentators are what Fox News is known for, not the news that it broadcasts. Brit Hume may be the Walter Cronkite of this generation, but his broadcasts will be forever tainted by the angry, right wing shouting matches that pass as political commentary.
That being said, I deplore the fact that MSNBC is also starting to head down this road. It was started as competition for CNN, but is quickly becoming the "anti-Fox News." No wonder Brian Williams and the real journalists from NBC no longer want to be associated with MSNBC.
What would be nice is if these networks would spin off their political commentary into another network so that the news could be the news and the commentary could be the commentary and nary the two shall meet.
You are certainly right about the rude manners on both sides. Edward R. Murrow is probably turning over in his grave at all of this.
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