Thursday, March 3, 2011

Palm Trees and Punches in Wisconsin - Brought To You By Fox News

You know how some people say that Fox News is dishonest or they purposefully distort the news to fit a conservative narrative?

Well, there's a reason these allegations are made. And that reason is...Fox News does do those things.

A couple very recent examples come from the network's coverage of the labor protests in Wisconsin.

In one case, as reported HERE Fox News runs footage of an altercation at a union solidarity rally in California (complete with palm trees in the background) at the end of an on air discussion about the possibility that protesters in Wisconsin are now infiltrated with thugs and left wing radicals bent on violence. If you've ever been to Wisconsin, you are aware that you don't see palm trees growing. But if you weren't paying attention you'd come away inaccurately thinking that, wow, there are some pretty aggressive people protesting in Wisconsin. But for Fox, that inaccuracy is "mission accomplished."

And in another situation, as reviewed HERE, Fox News reporter claims he was "punched" by a protester...except of course he was not.

Are these the worst things ever done on TV news? No. But, it gives you insight into how Fox operates, what their goal is (in my estimation it is to contextualize the news through a conservative lens to influence popular political thought in a conservative direction) and what they're willing to do.

2 comments:

Montana said...

O’rielly, what a joke, didn’t he say “video comes in video comes out never a miscommunication”. Why is it that so many fools follow this liar? It looks like that the top republican candidates for president will be coming from “Fake News/ Fox News”, or should I say “Big Business”, how funny.

I wonder if “Fake News” has a stable of likely republican supreme court justices (I am sure they will all attend the republican state of the union, unlike Antonin Scalia, Samuel Alito, and Clarence Thomas, scum bags).

Marc said...

Yeah, pretty lame all the way around at Fox News.

The other thing they seem to do very well is that when the Rs are caught doing something bad or questionable, they quickly dig up something that the Ds have done that might possibly be similar (often it is not, but they try) and then report it - basically delivering the mesage of "everybody's doing it so don't blame the Republicans."

That channel ain't news.