2013-12-27 22:41:13 -0500

Naomi, I’m frankly curious where you’re getting the idea that Fox News applies bias LESS than elsewhere. I understand you’ve been paying attention to these things for much of your 70 years, and I honestly commend you for having done so. But the record of Fox News simply doesn’t conform to your interpretation.



This website is filled past the brim with example after example of precisely the bias and fact manipulation you are claiming is not as much of an issue elsewhere.



Even if we were to completely ignore the pundit shows on Fox News, which comprise most of their viewership numbers, we would still be left with multiple, multiple examples of blatant right wing spin. Bret Baier’s show regularly has a panel, in which Charles Krauthammer will drive a discussion about how dire things are for Democrats and for President Obama. On the evening when President Obama was re-elected, Krauthammer took time during the election coverage to attack the President for his campaign, and Bill O’Reilly took a minute to say that this was all due to people wanting to get free stuff.



Throughout 2012, Fox News was replete with predictions of impending doom for President Obama and a landslide for candidate Mitt Romney. Polls showing the reverse were discounted on pretty much all of the Fox News programs and anchors regularly expressed their belief that President Obama simply couldn’t win. Dick Morris and Karl Rove were given multiple platforms and spotlit while they offered “analysis” of how these assertions were true. Of course, this all turned out to be right wing desperation in the face of the actual facts, which had always shown Romney losing in precisely the way it happened.



During pretty much any major news story, Fox News has repeatedly applied a right wing spin to whatever the story is. If it’s Trayvon Martin being shot to death by George Zimmerman, Fox News plays up any material that paints Martin as a dangerous threat and Zimmerman as a guy who had no choice but to shoot Martin. That, in the face of the factual evidence showing that Zimmerman initiated the confrontation and had a demonstrable history of violence. If it’s any potential scandal involving a GOP Presidency, whether it be the Valerie Plame affair, the firing of the attorneys, the WMD scam that led gullible people to agree to invade Iraq, or the total collapse of the economy during the W. Bush years, Fox News downplays any wrongdoing and refuses to cover the matter as an actual news story. Instead, they’ll spin whatever facts they can to try to rewrite the history or blame someone else, anyone else. If it’s any potential scandal involving a Democrat President, then Fox News comes in guns-a-blazing. We’ve already have at least six “major” scandals in the Obama Administration, if you were to listen to Fox News, and every time, Fox News anchors have spun the situation to demand impeachment. That, in the face of the reality that the situations are nothing like the earth-shattering matters that Fox News has purported them to be. In multiple, demonstrable cases like Fast & Furious and Benghazi and the IRS , Fox News has completely misrepresented the facts. In cases like the ACA , Fox News has worked to scare people away from signing up for the exchanges, using completely debunked talking points to do so.



We should also keep in mind that Fox News was never intended to be an unbiased news channel. It was designed by Roger Ailes as a right wing alternative to mainstream news outlets like CNN and the regular networks. Bias was in the plan from the very beginning.



I agree that anyone watching any media channel should take what is presented with skepticism. But the notion that Fox News is somehow LESS biased doesn’t hold water when it’s held up to the light of day.