Fox News Channel controversies

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Fox News Channel
Image:FNC logo.png
Type Cable television network
Country Flag of United States United States
Availability United States and others; see "International transmission" for other availability
Slogan "We Report, You Decide", "Fair and Balanced", "The Most Powerful Name in News"
Owner News Corporation
Key people Roger Ailes, Chairman & CEO
Launch date October 7, 1996
Website foxnews.com
Main article: Fox News Channel

Since its inception, the Fox News Channel has been the subject of controversy. Critics of the channel accuse it of political bias towards the right, accusations the network has denied.[1]

Contents

[edit] Ownership and management

  • Media mogul Rupert Murdoch is the Chairman and CEO of News Corporation, the owner of Fox News Channel. He has been a subject of controversy and criticism as a result of his substantial influence in both the print and broadcast media. In America, he is the publisher of the conservative New York Post newspaper and the conservative magazine of opinion, The Weekly Standard. Accusations against him include the "dumbing down" of news and introducing "mindless vulgarity" in place of genuine journalism, and having his own outlets produce news that serve his own political and financial agendas. According to the BBC website: "To some he is little less than the devil incarnate, to others, the most progressive mover-and-shaker in the media business" [2].
  • CEO Roger Ailes was formerly a media/image consultant for Republican Presidents Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and George H. W. Bush. Controversy was generated in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks on New York City, when it was revealed that Roger Ailes was sending political advice via "back channel messages" to the Bush administration through its chief political aide, Karl Rove. According to Bob Woodward, in his book Bush At War, the messages consisted of warnings that the American public would quickly lose support for the Bush administration unless it employed "the harshest measures possible" in response to the 9/11 attacks.
  • George W. Bush's cousin, John Prescott Ellis, was Fox News' projection team manager during the general election of 2000. After speaking numerous times on election night with his cousins George and Jeb, [3] Ellis, at 2:16 AM, reversed Fox News' call for Florida as a state won by Al Gore. Critics allege this was a premature decision, given the impossibly razor-thin margin (we now know it was 537 of 5.9 million votes [4]), which created the "lasting impression that Bush 'won' the White House - and all the legal wrangling down in Florida is just a case of Democratic 'snippiness'." [5] Others claim that, by this reasoning, Fox News and the other networks were even more premature in initially calling the state for Gore, a call made while polls were still open, possibly depressing voter turnout for Bush. [6]

[edit] Reports, polls and studies

For more details on this topic, see Media bias.
Statistic from a 2004 survey by the Pew Research Center shows Fox audience conservative
Statistic from a 2004 survey by the Pew Research Center shows Fox audience conservative

According to a Journalism.org survey of 547 journalists from various publications and news outlets, Fox News Channel was found to be most easily identifiable for serving a partisan ideological position:

At the same time, the single news outlet that strikes most journalists as taking a particular ideological stance - either liberal or conservative - is Fox News Channel. Among national journalists, more than twice as many could identify a daily news organization that they think is "especially conservative in its coverage" than one they believe is "especially liberal" (82% vs. 38%). And Fox has by far the highest profile as a conservative news organization; it was cited unprompted by 69% of national journalists.[7]

The "signature political news show" of the Fox News Channel, Special Report with Brit Hume, was found to have a strong bias in their choice of guests, overwhelmingly choosing conservatives over 'non-conservatives' to appear in interviews. This was the finding of the media watchdog group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), noted in a study taken across a 19 week period from June 2003 to December 2003. They found the ratio of conservative guests to liberals to be 50:6. [8]

A study by the Program on International Policy Attitudes,[9] in the Winter 03-04 issue of Political Science Quarterly, reported that viewers of the Fox Network local affiliates or Fox News were more likely than viewers of other news networks to hold three views which the authors labeled as misperceptions [10] :

  • 67% of Fox viewers believed that the "U.S. has found clear evidence in Iraq that Saddam Hussein was working closely with the al Qaeda terrorist organization" (Compared with 56% for CBS, 49% for NBC, 48% for CNN, 45% for ABC, 16% for NPR/PBS). However, the belief that "Iraq was directly involved in September 11" was held by 33% of CBS viewers and only 24% of Fox viewers, 23% for ABC, 22% for NBC, 21% for CNN and 10% for NPR/PBS
  • 33% of Fox viewers believed that the "U.S. has found Iraqi weapons of mass destruction" "since the war ended". (Compared with 23% for CBS, 20% for both CNN and NBC, 19% for ABC and 11% for both NPR/PBS)
  • 35% of Fox viewers believed that "the majority of people [in the world] favor the U.S. having gone to war" with Iraq. (Compared with 28% for CBS, 27% for ABC, 24% for CNN, 20% for NBC, 5% for NPR/PBS)

Fox News contributor Ann Coulter characterized the PIPA findings as "misperceptions of pointless liberal factoids" and called it a "hoax poll". [11] Bill O'Reilly called the study "absolute crap". [12] James Taranto, editor of OpinionJournal.com, the Wall Street Journal's online editorial page, called the poll "pure propaganda." [13] According to OpinionJournal.com and the Seattle Times, although not confirmable on the PIPA site, PIPA issued a clarification on October 17, 2003 in response to misuse of the poll's findings, and to criticisms spawned by that misuse. The reports say that PIPA stated that "The findings were not meant to and cannot be used as a basis for making broad judgments about the general accuracy of the reporting of various networks or the general accuracy of the beliefs of those who get their news from those networks. Only a substantially more comprehensive study could undertake such broad research questions," and that PIPA also noted that the results of the poll shows correlation, but does not prove causation.[14][15]

A poll conducted by Rasmussen Reports during September 2004 found that Fox News was second to CBS as the most politically biased network in the public view. 37% of respondents thought CBS, in the wake of the memogate scandal, was trying to help elect John Kerry, while 34% of respondents said they believed that Fox's goal was to "help elect Bush".[16] In a separate academic content analysis of election news, it showed that coverage at ABC, CBS, and NBC were more favorable toward Kerry than Bush, while coverage at Fox News Channel were more favorable toward Bush.[17]

A study published in November 2005 by Tim Groseclose, a professor of political science at UCLA, comparing political bias from such news outlets as the New York Times, USA Today, the Drudge Report, the Los Angeles Times, and Fox News’ Special Report, concluded that Fox News' Special Report with Brit Hume had an Americans for Democratic Action rating that was closest to the political center, and that Special Report was the most centrist news program on television. Groseclose used the number of times a host cited a particular think tank on his or her program and compared it with the number of times a member of the U.S. Congress cited a think tank, correlating that with the politician's Americans for Democratic Action rating [18] [19].

Geoff Nunberg, a professor of linguistics at UC Berkeley and a liberal National Public Radio commentator, criticized the methodology of the study on his personal blog, and contends that its conclusions are invalid [20]. He points to what he saw as a Groseclose's reliance on interpretations of facts and data that were taken from sources that were not, in his view, credible. Groseclose and Professor Jeff Milyo rebutted, saying Nunberg "shows a gross misunderstanding [of] our statistical method and the actual assumptions upon which it relies" [21].

Mark Liberman, who helped to post Groseclose and Professor Jeff Milyo's rebuttal, later posted how the statistical methods used to calculate this bias posses faults. [22] [23] Mark Liberman is a professor of Computer Science and the Director of Linguistic Data Consortium at the University of Pennsylvania. Mark concludes his post saying he thinks "that many if not most of the complaints directed against G&M are motivated in part by ideological disagreement -- just as much of the praise for their work is motivated by ideological agreement. It would be nice if there were a less politically fraught body of data on which such modeling exercises could be explored." [22]

A Project on Excellence in Journalism study showed that 68 percent of Fox cable stories contained personal opinions, as compared to MSNBC at 27 percent and CNN at 4 percent. The film Outfoxed claims that FOX reporters and anchors use the traditional journalistic phrase "some people say" in a very clever way; instead of citing an anonymous source in order to advance a storyline, FOX personalities allegedly use the phrase to inject conservative opinion and commentary even in reports in which it probably shouldn't be. In the film, Media Matters for America president David Brock noted that some shows, like FOX's evening news program, Special Report with Brit Hume, tend to exhibit editorializing attitudes and behavior when on the air.

A survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press showed "a striking rise in the politicization of cable TV news audiences . . . This pattern is most apparent with the fast-growing Fox News Channel."[24] Another Pew survey of news consumption found that Fox News has not suffered a decline in credibility with its audience, with one in four (25%) saying they believe all or most of what they see on Fox News Channel, virtually unchanged since Fox was first tested in 2000.[25]

[edit] Internal memos

As with many news organizations, Fox News executives exert editorial control over the content of their network's news coverage. In the case of Fox News, some of this control comes in the form of daily internal memos authored by Fox News's Vice President of News, John Moody. Critics of Fox News claim that these memos indicate a conservative editorial bias and often parrot Republican talking points.

Former Fox News producer Charlie Reina explained, "The roots of Fox News Channel's day-to-day on-air bias are actual and direct. They come in the form of an executive memo distributed electronically each morning, addressing what stories will be covered and, often, suggesting how they should be covered. To the newsroom personnel responsible for the channel's daytime programming, The Memo is the Bible. If, on any given day, you notice that the Fox anchors seem to be trying to drive a particular point home, you can bet The Memo is behind it." [26] [27]

Photocopied memos from Fox News executive John Moody instructed the network's on-air anchors and reporters to use positive language when discussing pro-life viewpoints, the Iraq war, and tax cuts, as well as requesting that the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal be put in context with the other violence in the area [28]. Such memos were reproduced for the anti-FOX News film Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism, which included Moody quotes such as, "[T]he soldiers [seen on FOX in Iraq] in the foreground should be identified as 'sharpshooters,' not 'snipers,' which carries a negative connotation."

Two days after the 2006 election, web blog Huffington Post claimed to acquire a copy of a leaked internal memo from Mr. Moody that recommended: "... let's be on the lookout for any statements from the Iraqi insurgents, who must be thrilled at the prospect of a Dem-controlled congress." Within hours of the memo's publication, Fox News anchor, Matha McCallum, went on-air with with reports of Iraqi insurgents cheering the firing of Donald Rumsfeld and the results of the 2006 Congressional election.[29] [30]

[edit] Criticisms of pundits

See also: Bill O'Reilly controversies
  • John Gibson is the host of an afternoon hour of news coverage called "The Big Story", and is frequently cited as an example of Fox News blurring the lines between objective reporting and opinion/editorial programming. Gibson angered some liberals immediately after the 2000 presidential election controversy when, during the opinion segment of his show, Gibson said: "Is this a case where knowing the facts actually would be worse than not knowing? I mean, should we burn these ballots [31], preserve them in amber, or shred them?" and "George Bush is going to be president. And who needs to know that he's not a legitimate president?" [32]. An opinion piece on the Hutton Inquiry decision, in which John Gibson said the BBC had "a frothing-at-the-mouth anti-Americanism that was obsessive, irrational and dishonest" and that the BBC reporter, Andrew Gilligan, "insisted on air that the Iraqi Army was heroically repulsing an incompetent American Military" [33]. In reviewing viewer complaints, Ofcom (the United Kingdom's statutory broadcasting regulator) ruled that Fox News had breached the program code in three areas: "respect for truth", "opportunity to take part", and "personal view programmes opinions expressed must not rest upon false evidence". Fox News admitted that Gilligan had not actually said the words that John Gibson appeared to attribute to him; Ofcom rejected the claim that it was intended to be a paraphrase. (See [34]). Gibson has also called Joe Wilson a "liar", claimed that "the far left" is working for Al Qaeda [35] and openly admitted that he wished that Paris had been host to the 2012 Olympic Games, because it would have subjected the city to the threat of terrorism instead of London [36]. He also said he believed that non-Christians are wrong, and will have to answer to God for following the wrong faith. [7]
  • Business anchor Neil Cavuto, who is also Fox News' vice president of business news and a current member of the network's executive committee, has been described as a "Bush apologist" by critics [37] after conducting an allegedly deferential interview with President George W. Bush. Democratic strategists and politicians boycotted Cavuto's show in 2004 after he claimed, on air, that Bin Laden was rooting for John Kerry in the presidential election, critics contend, in an attempt to create a backlash among voters casting ballots for Bush, against Bin Laden's alleged pick [38]. Cavuto has also received criticism for gratuitous footage and photos of scantily clad supermodels and porn stars on his show, Your World with Neil Cavuto [39].
  • Brit Hume created controversy, particularly with watchdog groups such as Media Matters for America, when he made the factually incorrect claim that "U.S. soldiers have less of a chance of dying from all causes in Iraq than citizens have of being murdered in California," based on deaths per unit of area. Based on population, however, a United States soldier in Iraq is actually 60 times more likely to be killed than an individual in California. [40] [41]. Hume also drew criticism from Media Matters, Al Franken, and Keith Olbermann when, in 2005, he allegedly distorted a quote from Franklin D. Roosevelt to make it sound like Roosevelt would have supported President George W. Bush's Social Security privatization plan.[8]
  • Alan Colmes is touted by Fox as "a hard-hitting liberal" [42], but he admitted to USA Today that "I'm quite moderate" and most left-wing activists consider him too weak to provide an effective balance for self-professed "arch-conservative" Sean Hannity. Liberal viewers have long found Colmes' style infuriating, particularly in contrast to the outspoken Hannity; and Colmes himself has sometimes taken more right-leaning positions, such as supporting Rudy Giuliani for mayor of New York City and defending Mississippi Senator Trent Lott after the latter made alleged racially insensitive remarks at the 100th birthday party for the late Sen. Strom Thurmond. He has been characterized by several newspapers as being Sean Hannity's "sidekick" [43]. Liberal commentator Al Franken lambasted Colmes in his book, Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them, accusing him of refusing to ask tough questions during debates and neglecting to challenge erroneous claims made by Hannity or his guests. [44]
  • Steven Milloy, the "junk science" commentator for FoxNews.com, consistently labels scientific research suggesting that corporate activities are harming the environment or the public health as "junk science". Specifically, Milloy has been critical of the science behind global warming and secondhand smoke as a carcinogen. In a February 6, 2006 article in The New Republic, Paul D. Thacker revealed that ExxonMobil had donated $90,000 to two non-profit organizations run out of Milloy's house.[45] In addition, tobacco-industry documents reveal that Milloy was receiving almost $100,000 a year from Philip Morris during the time he was arguing, from a supposedly independent platform, that secondhand smoke was not carcinogenic.[46] Milloy's website, junkscience.com, received editorial input and content directly from RJR Tobacco.[47] Milloy's supposedly independent non-profit organization was described in a confidential memo as a "Philip Morris tool to affect legislative decisions".[48] In response to Thacker's disclosure of this conflict of interest, Paul Schur, director of media relations for Fox News, stated that "...Fox News was unaware of Milloy's connection with Philip Morris. Any affiliation he had should have been disclosed."[45] Nonetheless, in spite of this acknowledged breach of journalistic ethics,[49] Fox News has taken no action against Milloy.

[edit] Other criticisms

  • Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism, a documentary film on Fox News by left-wing activist Robert Greenwald, makes allegations of bias in Fox News by interviewing a number of former employees who discuss the network's practices. For example, Frank O'Donnell, a former employee identified as "Fox News producer", says: "We were stunned, because up until that point, we were allowed to do legitimate news. Suddenly, we were ordered from the top to carry [...] Republican, right-wing propaganda", after being told what to say about Ronald Reagan. O'Donnell worked for Washington, D.C. Fox affiliate WTTG, not the Fox News Channel. Fox News has stressed that affiliates are separate entities from Fox News Channel, and Fox News has no editorial oversight of any Fox affiliate. The network made an official response [50] and a review of select employees [51] featured in the film and their employment (or non-employment) with Fox News.
  • CNN founder Ted Turner accused Fox News of being "dumbed down" and "propaganda" and equated the network's popularity to Adolf Hitler's rise to power in 1930's Germany, during a speech to the National Association of Television Program Executives. [52]. In response, a Fox News spokesperson said "Ted is understandably bitter having lost his ratings, his network, and now his mind. We wish him well." The Anti-Defamation League, to whom Turner had apologized in the past for a similar comparison, said Turner is "a recidivist who hasn't learned from his past mistakes." [53]
  • Carl Cameron, chief political correspondent of Fox News was allowed to cover the Bush Campaign in 2000 despite the fact his wife was campaigning for Bush. During the 2004 presidential campaign Cameron fabricated several quotes by John Kerry, for which Fox apologized on its website.
  • Greta Van Susteren, chief legal correspondent of Fox News was allowed to comment on the Kerry Campaign in 2004 despite the fact her husband, attorney John P. Coale, was a fundraiser for Kerry's campaign.[9][10] Sustren, however, is not a political commentator, and does not voice her personal opinion on politics.
  • Special Report with Brit Hume regularly features a panel of political commentators touted as an "allstar panel" and "diverse" by Fox News. The panel generally consists of three people: Fred Barnes, a self-described neoconservative hawk, Mort Kondracke, a self-described conservative Democrat (Kondracke has said that he is "disgusted with the Democratic Party" and that the only reason he isn't a Republican is because "Republicans have failed to be true to themselves as conservatives", referring to deficit spending in the Ronald Reagan administration), and Mara Liasson, touted as a liberal by the program. In addition, Brit Hume himself maintains a conservative point of view, even taking up that position on the Sunday night equivalent of his own panel, arguing from the conservative Republican position against other, noticeably more liberal, Fox News panelists such as Juan Williams, who rarely makes an appearance on the Special Report. Critics contend this overwhelmingly tilts the so-called "diverse" political discussions into one-sided conservative commentary. The third panel, consisting of Liasson, is reguarly switched to include Charles Krauthammer, a neoconservative, leaving the panel with three conservatives and one moderate on her off days. [54]
  • FOX News Channel has received criticism for seemingly gratuitous airing of footage and photos of supermodels, strippers, and porn stars in revealing or suggestive poses:
  1. On a March 2006 broadcast of Fox News Live, Martha MacCallum reported on a serial killer hunting prostitutes in Florida, a popular Spring Break party spot. During the subsequent interview, footage was shown of young women in bikinis dancing and partying. Critics said this was equating the vacationing girls with the dead prostitiutes.
  2. FOX News' "premiere business news show," Your World with Neil Cavuto, has faced criticism for its constant reporting of stories (in one way or another) relating to pornography. Past guests on the show have included model Anna Benson and former porn star Mary Carey. In December 2005, it ran a story on the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, and Your World was the first show to do an interview with Playboy's "Playmate of the Year" in 2006.
  3. Aside from Your World, FOX News was also criticized for its coverage of the 78th Annual Academy Awards for constantly removing the on-screen text to show the female reporters' revealing dresses (the removal of the texts wasn't done at any other point during coverage).
  • Fox faced criticism for its perceived pushing of the War on Christmas. A large number of notable Fox news commentators, including John Gibson, Brit Hume, Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity devoted much of the air time during the fall 2005 season to alleged acts of "anti-Christian" campaigns by the American Civil Liberties Union to have Christmas decorations removed from public displays. On an episode of Fox News Watch, liberal Fox News pundit Neil Gabler attacked the network's other personalities for pursuing the story. In his words, "Fox News has been pumping the hell out of this thing." [55]
  • Various media watchdogs have noticed a trend in which Fox News reporters, anchors and writers for its website alter their language to immediately parrot the rhetoric of the Bush administration. For example, in 2002 the White House began referring to suicide bombings as "homicide bombings"; Fox immediately complied and changed its own language to match, while most other media outlets continued using the traditional phrase.[56] The same can be said for "terrorist surveillance", referred to as NSA wiretapping by most Fox News commentators until the White House redesignated it.[57] Stories of the War in Iraq are usually accompanied by an on-screen banner reading "War on Terror", a controversial assertion in light of Iraq's minimal role as a terrorist training ground prior to the U.S. invasion.[citation needed] Fox News commentators such as Bill O'Reilly, Neil Cavuto, John Gibson and Brit Hume have also been found to use terms popular within conservative circles, such as "the gay agenda", "abortion on demand", "activist judges" and "secular progressives".[58] [59]
  • During the Terri Schiavo controversy in early 2005, Fox came under attack for its coverage of the affair, led by Fox news personality Sean Hannity, who camped outside of the hospital where Schiavo lay dying after her feeding tube was removed. Every major personality on Fox News — Brit Hume, Bill O'Reilly, Neil Cavuto, and John Gibson — called for her feeding tube to be reinserted, and claimed that opposition to such a move came entirely from secular Americans and Democratic politicians, despite polls showing overwhelming public support among "mainstream Protestants" (hovering around 77%) for the tube's removal[60]; in fact, a majority of Republicans also supported removal of the feeding tube.[61] [62] [63]. The main controversy surrounding Fox's coverage of the event, however, centered around the refusal of the network to inform its viewers that one of the main proponents of continuing tube feeds was Randall Terry, a notorious figure in conservative circles for his often violent acts and his calls for the murder of abortion doctors and so-called activist judges.[64] When a Republican "talking points" memo authored by Senator Mel Martinez's staff went into circulation [65], suggesting ways in which the Republicans could use the issue for political gain, Fox News personalities immediately attacked the memo and claimed that liberals and/or Democrats had forged the memo.[66] [67] Later, after the memo was proven to be genuine, Fox did not do a followup acknowledging their error.
  • Critics of the network contend that Fox specializes in "political sabotage" by putting up moderate to conservative "Democrats" as token liberals against more staunchly conservative Republicans. Examples of the so-called Fox News liberal include:
  • Another point of contention among Fox's critics is its perceived habit of ridiculing, in some cases viciously, liberal protesters. Examples include Bill O'Reilly referring to some protesters at the Republican National Convention in 2004 as "terrorists" (though he added, "most protesters are peaceful") [73], and Fox News online columnist Mike Straka referring to anti-war protesters at the September 24, 2005 march in Washington, D.C. as "jobless, anti-American, clueless, smelly, stupid traitors" and "protesters from hell".[74] [75] [76]'
  • The Simpsons, an animated sitcom shown on the Fox network, has often parodied Fox News (and the Fox network in general), as in the episode Mr. Spritz Goes to Washington.[77]
The Fox News report on Malmö was replayed on Swedish television, here on SVT1
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The Fox News report on Malmö was replayed on Swedish television, here on SVT1
  • Iranian-Swedish newspaper commentator Behrang Kianzad wrote in the Expressen newspaper that "there are lies, damned lies and Fox News"[78], in response to a Fox News story about allegedly Muslim violence in the city of Malmö. The report focused on the borough of Rosengård where 2 out of 1000 school students were ethnic Swedes.[79] Kianzad wrote that rock throwing against police, firefighters and ambulance personnel happened "not just in Rosengård and not as a Muslim custom."[78]
  • In August 2006, two Fox News producers resigned from the network, citing its coverage of the Israel's conflict that month with Hezbollah in Lebanon. Their resignation letter read in part: "We can no longer work with a news organization that claims to be fair and balanced when you are so far from that...Not only are you [Fox News] an instrument of the Bush White House, and Israeli propaganda, you are war mongers with no sense of decency, nor professionalism." During an interview with Amy Goodman on the Democracy Now! radio program, Serene Sabbagh, one of the producers that resigned, said, "I was devastated at the way that Fox was handling the coverage from Lebanon in the U.S., and I felt there was bias, the slant, the racist remarks, the use of the word "we" meaning Israel, and it was just unbearable up until basically the massacre at Qana ... I switched to Fox News to hear some of their anchors claiming that these little kids that were killed ... were human shields used by Hezbollah. And one of the anchors went as far as saying they were planted there by Hezbollah to win support in this war ... this is when I decided, me and my colleague Jomana, to hand in our resignation." [11] Defenders of Fox argue the coverage could not be 'fair and balanced' without citing such facts of the situation. The two women, Serene Sabbagh and Jomana Karadsheh, are both Jordanian Arabs.
  • On March 23, 2003 the FOX News channel headline banners were rolling: "Huge chemical weapons factory found in Iraq... Reports: 30 Iraqis surrender at chem weapons plant... coal. troops holding Iraqi in charge of chem. weapons." On the next day the Dow Jones Newswires reported that U.S. officials had admitted that morning that the site contained no chemicals at all and had been abandoned long before the Iraq War.
Foley, on the O'Reilly Factor
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Foley, on the O'Reilly Factor
  • A news article on the Fox News website during October 2004 by Carl Cameron, chief political correspondent of Fox News, contained three fabricated quotes attributed to Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry. The quotes included: "Women should like me! I do manicures," "Didn't my nails and cuticles look great?" and "I'm metrosexual [Bush's] a cowboy." Fox News retracted the story and apologized [80], citing a "jest" that became published through "fatigue and bad judgement, not malice."
  • In early October 2006, during a sex scandal involving Florida Republican Congressman Mark Foley, The O'Reilly Factor incorrectly labeled Foley as a Democrat in on-screen captions beneath video clips of Foley.[81]
  • On November 7, 2006, the night of the 2006 midterm elections, Fox News was the last news organization to report that the Democrats had taken the United States House of Representatives.[citation needed] *On November 8, 2006, Fox News delayed the reporting of the new Democratic majority taking over the U.S. Senate. They waited after the Associated Press broke the news on Democrat Jim Webb winning the last uncalled seat in Virginia, giving the Democratic Party a historic sweep of both houses of Congress to rival that of the Republicans in 1994.

[edit] FOX News responds

In June 2004, CEO Roger Ailes responded to some of the criticism with a rebuttal in an editorial in the Wall Street Journal's OpinionJournal[82], claiming that Fox's critics intentionally confuse opinion shows such as The O'Reilly Factor with regular news coverage. Ailes noted that Fox News has broken stories harmful to Republicans, stating "Fox News is the network that broke George W. Bush's DUI four days before the election" as an example. The story was broken by then-Fox affiliate WPXT in Portland, Maine, though Fox News correspondent Carl Cameron also contributed to the report.

Upon the release of the Robert Greenwald documentary "Outfoxed", Fox News issued a statement[83] denouncing Moveon.org, Greenwald and The New York Times for copyright infringement. Fox dismissed their judgments of former employees featured in the documentary as the partisan views of disgruntled workers who never vocalized concern over any alleged bias while they were employed at the network. Ailes also shrugged off criticisms of the former Fox employees by noting that they worked in Fox affiliates and not at the actual channel itself. Fox News also challenged any news organization that sought to portray Fox as a "problem" with the following proposition: "If they will put out 100 percent of their editorial directions and internal memos, FOX News Channel will publish 100 percent of our editorial directions and internal memos, and let the public decide who is fair. This includes any legitimate cable news network, broadcast network, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and The Washington Post."

Fox News personality Eric Burns has suggested in an interview that Fox "probably gives voice to more conservatives than the other networks. But not at the expense of liberals." Burns justifies a higher exposure of conservatives by saying that other media often ignore conservatives. [84]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Media Bias Is Real, Find UCLA Political Scientist by Tim Groseclose, UCLA, December 14, 2005
  2. ^ Rupert Murdoch: Bigger than Kane by Andrew Walker, BBC News, July 31, 2002
  3. ^ Fox executive spoke five times with cousin Bush on Election Night, CNN.com, December 12, 2000
  4. ^ 2000 Official Presidential General Election Results
  5. ^ Cousin John's calls tipped election tally by Melinda Wittstock, The Guardian, November 19, 2000
  6. ^ Moore's Myths by John R. Lott Jr. and Brian Blase, New York Post, July 12, 2004
  7. ^ Press Going Too Easy on Bush by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, Journalism.org
  8. ^ Fox's Slanted Sources; Conservatives, Republicans far outnumber others by Steve Rendall, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), July/August 2001
  9. ^ PIPA / Knowledge Networks Poll Misperceptions, the Media, and the Iraq War. Program on International Policy Attitudes October 2003
  10. ^ Political Science Quarterly (PDF), The Academy of Political Science, Winter 2003-2004
  11. ^ Crazy-Like-A-Fox News Viewer by Ann Coulter, Townhall.com, May 13, 2004
  12. ^ The O'Reilly Factor, February 22, 2006)
  13. ^ Best of the Web Today James Taranto. OpinionJournal, The Wall Street Journal. October 7, 2003.
  14. ^ Best of the Web Today James Taranto. OpinionJournal, The Wall Street Journal. May 11, 2004.
  15. ^ Study shows TV news viewers have misperceptions about Iraq war Kay McFadden. The Seattle Times, October 20, 2003.
  16. ^ Broadcast Bias
  17. ^ Stephen Farnsworth and S. Robert Lichter, The Nightly News Nightmare: How Television Portrays Presidential Elections, Second Edition, Rowman & Littlefield, 2006
  18. ^ Media Bias Is Real, Finds UCLA Political Scientist December 14, 2005
  19. ^ A Measure of Media Bias by Time Groseclose and Jeffery Milyo, UCLA
  20. ^ Geoff Nunberg, "'Liberal Bias', Noch Einmal". Language Log, July 05, 2004
  21. ^ Mark Liberman, "Groseclose and Milyo respond". Language Log, 2 August 2004
  22. ^ a b Liberman, Mark (2005-12-23). Multiplying ideologies considered harmful. Language Log. Retrieved on 2006-11-06.
  23. ^ Liberman, Mark (2005-12-22). Linguistics, politics, mathematics. Language Log. Retrieved on 2006-11-06.
  24. ^ Trends 2005, Media Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, 2005. (PDF file)
  25. ^ Online Papers Modestly Boost Newspaper Readership The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, 2006.
  26. ^ Journalism 101 by Rich Tucker, CNSNews.com, November 07, 2003
  27. ^ Fox News, Source Watch
  28. ^ 33 internal FOX editorial memos reviewed by MMFA reveal FOX News Channel's inner workings, Media Matters, July 14, 2004
  29. ^ [1], Internal Fox Memo
  30. ^ [2], MSNBC interview about the leaked internal Fox memo
  31. ^ Fox Reporter on Florida Ballots: Burn Them or Shred Them?, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, December 20th, 2000
  32. ^ Fox Reporter on Florida Ballots:Burn Them or Shred Them?, YAAAMS.org
  33. ^ Liar Liar by John Gibson, FoxNews.com, January 29, 2004
  34. ^ Standards Cases - Upheld cases; The Big Story: My Word, Ofcom, January 28, 2004
  35. ^ Matthews, Gingrich, Hannity, others seize on new bin Laden tape to discredit war critics, Media Matters, January 20, 2006
  36. ^ Fox's Gibson on "golden opportunity" missed: If France had been selected for 2012 Olympics, terrorists would "blow up Paris, and who cares?", Media Matters, July 8, 2005
  37. ^ Waking to Reality; Bush Numbers Drop as Americans Reject Spin (editorial), Daily Camera, June 13, 2005
  38. ^ Cavuto defended suggestion that bin Laden was wearing Kerry campaign button in videotaped message, Media Matters, November 4, 2004
  39. ^ [3] [4]
  40. ^ ‘Sexed Up’ Claims Knocked Down by Brit Hume, FoxNews.com, August 27, 2003
  41. ^ Franken Accuses Hume of "Obscene...Trivializing" of Troop Deaths, Free Republic, September 26, 2003
  42. ^ Alan Colmes' Bio, FoxNews.com, October 10, 2002
  43. ^ An Aggressive Conservative vs. a "Liberal to be Determined" by Steve Rendall, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, November/December 2003
  44. ^ An Aggressive Conservative vs. a "Liberal to be Determined" by Steve Rendall, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, November/December 2003
  45. ^ a b "Smoked Out: Pundit for Hire." Paul D. Thacker. The New Republic, 6 Feb 2006.
  46. ^ Philip Morris budget for "Strategy and Social Responsibility", detailing $180,000 in "fees and expenses" paid to Steven Milloy. Accessed 5 Oct 2006.
  47. ^ Activity Report, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., December 1996, describing R.J.R. Tobacco's direct input into Milloy's junkscience website. From the Legacy Tobacco Documents Library at the University of California, San Francisco. Accessed 5 Oct 2006.
  48. ^ Philip Morris Corporate Affairs Budget Presentation, 1994, from the Philip Morris Document Archive. Accessed 5 Oct 2006.
  49. ^ Code of Ethics of the Society of Professional Journalists. Accessed 11 Oct 2006.
  50. ^ FOX News Channel Statement on 'Outfoxed', FoxNews.com, July 13, 2004
  51. ^ Details About Employees Featured in 'Outfoxed', FoxNews.com, July 13, 2004
  52. ^ Fox News 'propaganda' says mogul, BBC News, January 27, 2005
  53. ^ ADL: Ted Turner Hasn't Learned From His Mistakes, Anti-Defamation League, January 26, 2005
  54. ^ The Most Biased Name in News by Seth Ackerman, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, July/August 2001
  55. ^ Fox News Watch panelist Gabler: Fox News "pumping" Christmas "war", Media Matters, December 5, 2005
  56. ^ FOX News doctors AP reports to mimic White House terminology, Media Matters, February 23, 2005
  57. ^ Fox follows Bush's lead, renames domestic spying program as "terrorist surveillance program", Media Matters, January 31, 2005
  58. ^ O'Reilly: The ACLU is "behind all abortion on demand, euthanasia, and coming soon perhaps, infanticide for impaired babies" , Media Matters, April 20, 2005
  59. ^ Conservatives quick to opine on Brokeback Mountain's "agenda," slow to actually see film, Media Matters, January 20, 2006
  60. ^ O'Reilly, Morris falsely painted Schiavo case as battle between religious, secular Americans, Media Matters, April 1, 2005
  61. ^ O'Reilly, Morris falsely painted Schiavo case as battle between religious, secular Americans, Media Matters, April 1, 2005
  62. ^ Only on Fox: John Gibson suggested that "Republicans stand for parents' rights and life, and Democrats have sided for questionable husband and dying", Media Matters, March 23, 2005
  63. ^ John Gibson's and Fox News' description of Schiavo case: "Terri's Fight", Media Matters, March 29, 2005
  64. ^ Who is Randall Terry?, Media Matters, March 21, 2005
  65. ^ Mel Martinez, Wikipedia
  66. ^ After GOP source of Schiavo memo was confirmed, Hume, Kristol failed to acknowledge their roles in suggesting Democrats had authored it, Media Matters, April 8, 2005
  67. ^ Dissecting a right-wing smear: How conservatives used trumped-up evidence to blame Democrats for Schiavo memo, Media Matters, April 7, 2005
  68. ^ Who is Pat Caddell?, Media Matters, September 16, 2004
  69. ^ Hannity & Colmes substitute host Estrich: progressive standard-bearer?, Media Matters, June 9, 2004
  70. ^ FOX News contributor-to-be "Democrat" Zell Miller. Media Matters, December 16, 2004
  71. ^ Kondracke: "For all I know," Iraq insurgency "designed ... to help elect John Kerry", Media Matters, September 17, 2004
  72. ^ Fox falsely labeled former Rep. Hayes as Democrat; ignored party reversal, Media Matters, January 9, 2006
  73. ^ Small Minority of Protestors Can Cause Big Trouble by Bill O'Reilly, FoxNews.com, August 26, 2004
  74. ^ Fox & Friends' Kilmeade called G8 protesters "morons without jobs," insisted new Goldberg attack book not skewed, Media Matters, July 6, 2005
  75. ^ Grrr! Protesters From Hell by Mike Straka, FoxNews.com, September 27, 2005
  76. ^ Mike Straka Believes All Demonstrators are "Jobless", News Hounds, September 27, 2005
  77. ^ Swipes at Fox on The Simpsons by Brian Petersen (Maintained by Bruce Gomes), The Simpsons Archive
  78. ^ a b Expressen: Räven går i Rosengård Behrang Kianzad
  79. ^ Harrigan, Steve Swedes Reach Muslim Breaking Point Fox News, November 26, 2004
  80. ^ Trail Tales: What's That Face?, FoxNews.com, October 1, 2004
  81. ^ Salon.com link describing O'Reilly's misidentification of Mark Foley as a Democrat. Accessed 10 October 2006.
  82. ^ Elite, Arrogant, Condescending; The L.A. Times' editor is terrified of Fox News. How pathetic. by Roger Ailes, OpinionJournal, Wall Street Journal, June 2, 2004
  83. ^ [5]
  84. ^ [6]

[edit] External links

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