Squawker

I am having a great deal of enjoyment from the lefts outrage over the Fox News Channel. You become so incensed over the “Fair and Balanced” motto. If they don’t spout the News you agree with it isn’t fair. If they don’t give equal time to some left winger minute by minute, they are not balanced. Cry me a river.
What would fair and balanced look like in your superior world view?

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KansasMeg

Are you reading these posts, Squawker? You seem to be totally missing the point. I know you already have it in your mind that liberals are nothing more than crybabies who get outraged by the right-wing view. And this stereotype is so ingrained in you that you totally misread the posts. Let's review, shall we? I will answer your post with points I had already made BEFORE you "responded". Try to keep up.

Squawker says:
I am having a great deal of enjoyment from the lefts outrage over the Fox News Channel. You become so incensed over the “Fair and Balanced” motto. If they don’t spout the News you agree with it isn’t fair.

KansasMeg had already explained:
The reporters/anchor persons on FOX News portray themselves as objective journalists, when in fact they are not. [I am] not saying it is wrong for them to be "opinion journalists" or pundits, that's perfectly fine. Heck, the liberals have Air America.

Ya, I sounded pretty darn outraged there, didn't I.

Squawker says:
If they don’t spout the News you agree with it isn’t fair. If they don’t give equal time to some left winger minute by minute, they are not balanced.

True, if FOX gives more time to Republicans than Democrats it IS unblananced. But that doesn't bother me. Give all the time you want to Republicans. Heck, give them 100% of the broadcast time. I woundn't expect Air America to give Republicans 50% of the air time, so why should I expect anything more from Fox? Like I had said...

There is a clear Republican/Conservative agenda over there at Fox News, no doubt about it. And like I said before, that's fine. But they need to be forthright about their intentions.

Are you getting it yet, Squawker?

The only problem I have with Fox News is that they misrepresent themselves. They portray themselves as "fair and balanced" when they truely are not. And this misrepresentation leads some viewers to believe they are watching unbiased news. I am NOT upset with the greater coverage by Republicans rather than Democrats. I am NOT upset that they spout the news I don't agree with.

Now that you've got the message clear, got a better response?

And by the way, Squawker, in case you can't tell, I'm not mad, outraged or crying over this at all. In fact, I'm having fun.

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Squawker

That is your opinion, not fact. They have Democrat and Republican reporters, journalists, and political pundits.
You are but one speck in the left wing political spectrum. I didn't speak to you specifically.
Do you keep track of the minutes? How do you know they don’t give equal time? Does Al Franken tell you? Lol Of course it bothers you, or you wouldn’t mention it.
There is a clear agenda to present both sides of the issues. You would have to have a chart of how much time they give to both sides to say they are not balanced. Do you have any links to that information, or are you just pulling stats out of thin air?
Of course I am. You are just another leftie spouting off about Fox.
Fox doesn't misrepresent themselves, the left wing political groups do that. They don't want you to believe anything you might hear on Fox that exposes their lies.
I got the message the first time, and I didn't learn anything new the second time.
What would you call fair and balanced?

ShamMol

Really quickly, debate is not saying something purposefully to annoy the other side, as you have been doing Squak. That doesn't make for fruitful conversation, debate, anything.

Now, what would I call fair and balanced. I wouldn't call it any of the current places that we have. Fair and Balanced would be exactly what an NPR show called "Left, Right and Center" is. It wouldn't have Republicans and Democrats, it would have liberals, moderates and conservatives. Just the temrs Democrat and Republican can be deceiving because you could have a conservative Democrat or liberal Republican-it doesn't make for always correct discussion.

Left Right and Center is exactly what Fair And Balanced is supposed to be. A frank discussion of the issues without voices being raised at each other, shouting above each other. If you have one from each viewpoint, you have counters, agreements, and compromises, which makes for a very frank and honest debate. That is what i call fair and balanced, not the crap on Fox or Msnbc or CNN. However much I enjoy some of those things for the novelty of it, I don't believe any of it is Fair And Balanced.

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Squawker

HUH?
I don't see NPR fair or balanced at all. It is funded by the taxpayers and I seldom hear the conservative voice, but it is interesting to see what you view as fair and balanced.

ShamMol

I never said NPR was fair and balanced, I said the idea that you have a conservative, liberal, and moderate debate as being the only option i see as fair and balanced. read my posts before you blipping respond. I said that one exact show, not the station was the perfect example of fair and balanced. jeez.

If you don't hear a conservative voice here is why. They report news. They have talk shows on culture. Their few political shows tend to be very moderate to moderate-liberal because that is what their audience is, just as Fox tends to be very conservative because that is what their audience is. Left right and center however is the one example of the truely fair and balanced show.

Squawker

I read your blipping post, that is why I blipping responded. Whatever that means. You must then agree that Fox is balanced as they allow all sides to have a voice on the issues presented. They may be spread out during the week, but they all have a voice.

ShamMol

no, i don't. i don't think that they are that at all. what i think is fair and balanced is having a show where you get all three perspectives. This isn't balanced out over a week. This is balanced out over an hour. Fair and balanced is always being fair and balanced in all your stuff, not just over a weeks course. Nobody is fair and balanced in my opinion.

Squawker

That seems to be an unreasonable goal for a media outlet, but how would you know Fox doesn't do that if you are not watching every hour, and taking notes of who is interviewed. The people who are questioned during the shows I have seen are usually just labeled as Rebublican or Democrat. They could be conservatives, moderates, or liberals, but that isn't pointed out. There is some programming that is just news, without commentary.

KansasMeg

Squawker:
You are but one speck in the left wing political spectrum. I didn't speak to you specifically.

"Speck", nice. Actually, Squawker, you had quoted my entire post within your response. I think that signifies that you were speaking to me specifically. You may not have intended to aim that comment at me, but your posts reads that way.

Squawker:
They have Democrat and Republican reporters, journalists, and political pundits.

True. They do have liberals/democrats in some of their programming. But they are much fewer in number and are less likely to stand up for their points. Basically, weak liberals are brought on to represent that side. For instance, look at Alan Colmes. He's treated like Hannity's pet liberal...merely a token on that show. Like I've said before, that's fine. But that's beside the point. Saying that Fox News does have some liberals on the air does not mean that they can now claim they are "fair and balanced". Air America regularly features some Republicans in their shows. Does this make Air America a "fair and balanced", non-biased radio station. Hell no!

Squawker:
Do you keep track of the minutes? How do you know they don’t give equal time? Does Al Franken tell you? Lol Of course it bothers you, or you wouldn’t mention it.There is a clear agenda to present both sides of the issues. You would have to have a chart of how much time they give to both sides to say they are not balanced. Do you have any links to that information, or are you just pulling stats out of thin air?

For the umpteenth time, what bothers me is that FOX misrepresents itself by using the tag line "fair and balanced". It does not bother me that the liberal side is not represented. I wouldn't expect it to be respresented on a conservative network. That's like getting upset because Rush Limbaugh didn't spend enough time focusing on the good points of Kerry's campaign. That would be stupid.

And as far as media studies on Fox News. There is an organization called FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting) which has collected data from the network. I'll include a few clips from one of their studies. This one focused on "Special Report". (See http://www.fair.org//page=1187 for the entire article.)

If Fox is the “fair & balanced” network it claims to be, then the guest list of what Fox calls its “signature news show” ought to reflect a diverse spectrum of ideas and sources. FAIR has studied Special Report ’s guest list on two earlier occasions (Extra! , 7–8/01, 7–8/02).

FAIR’s current study looked at 25 weeks of Special Report ’s one-on-one interview segments (6/30/03–12/19/03), finding 101 guests. FAIR classified each guest by political ideology, party affiliation (where applicable), gender and ethnicity. When FAIR first studied Special Report in 2001, the dominance of conservative guests was so overwhelming (71 percent of all guests) that we used just two ideological categories, “conservative” and “non-conservative.” The latter included guests with no discernible political ideology.

When FAIR’s second study in 2002 found conservative guests had dropped to less than half of the total, we added a “left of center” category for comparison purposes. Though the “left of center” category was more broadly defined than the “conservative” category— since many right-of-center guests were not counted as conservatives—conservatives still outnumbered those on the left, 14 to one.

So Aquapub, where's your data to back up that 95% news media is liberal owned?

And, Squawker, where are your numbers to back up your claim that Fox is indeed "Fair and Balanced"?

Squawker:
What would you call fair and balanced?

"Fair and Balanced" would be a consistent equal amount of time spent on all political sides or stating the news of the day without spin. Am I naive enough to believe any news outlet can claim they are totally fair and balanced? No. The media owners, producers, and reporters are all human with their own preconceived ideas and even if you make an effort, your bias is going to come across. It's near impossible to make sure you give every story a fair amount of coverage or that you even able cover all the news stories out there. For time purposes alone, news sources have to pick and choose what it is they will cover. And when stories, sides of stories, etc are chosen over others there is bias. Now, the Fox News network overwhelmingly chooses the conservative side above all else. Like I said before it would be more honest of them to rewrite their tagline...maybe "Giving Conservative View Its Due Time" or something along those lines. There's nothing wrong with Fox News being a conservative news channel. I just don't understand why they feel the need to try to convince their viewers they are giving both sides fair coverage. Honestly, Squawker, most of the Fox viewers I know watch the channel because of the fact that it supports their conservative view. The fact that conservatives consistently tune in to and defend the Fox News network should tell you something about its "conservativeness". It's yours, own it, embrace it.