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Should we consider FOX a good news outlet?

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Hoplite

Hoplite

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I think this question needs to be asked as it's very important that we understand where our media is coming from.

Can we consider FOX to be an objective source of good news?

For the purposes of this discussion, I dont care what MSNBC or CBS or CNN does. We aren't talking about anyone but FOX at the moment, just assume that for this discussion, FOX is the only media outlet.


I personally say no. I can find dozens of examples of FOX reporting that can objectively be classified as very poor journalism and that break the basic tenants of journalism. Constantly repeating a slogan over and over doesn't make it true and I feel that FOX is acting more as a PAC for Conservative viewpoints that it is a news broadcasting service and that they are more concerned with ad revenue than with actual journalism.

With this in mind, I dont really see how we can give FOX credit as a reliable news outlet.
 
They are not a news outlet. They are infotainment
 
I think Fox is credible and we can trust them as a news outlet. They do what most media outlets don't do, and that's report on critical issues and actually air things contrary to what Obama wants. The fact that the Obama administration has acted like a child and said "they aren't a real news outlet" only proves that they have hard hitting journalists and aren't afraid of being mocked and demonized. From what I see I think it's fairly balanced and very fair. I don't see interviews go in directions as to incriminate the person they are interviewing and I think they are willing to break away from some political correctness to report what needs to be reported. By all means Fox is a credible news outlet, and I would say it's the most credible out of all the cable news networks.
 
digsbe said:
I think Fox is credible and we can trust them as a news outlet. They do what most media outlets don't do, and that's report on critical issues and actually air things contrary to what Obama wants. The fact that the Obama administration has acted like a child and said "they aren't a real news outlet" only proves that they have hard hitting journalists and aren't afraid of being mocked and demonized. From what I see I think it's fairly balanced and very fair. I don't see interviews go in directions as to incriminate the person they are interviewing and I think they are willing to break away from some political correctness to report what needs to be reported. By all means Fox is a credible news outlet, and I would say it's the most credible out of all the cable news networks.
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The thing is an objective observation of news stories individually or their trend as whole shows that FOX severely lacks some of the key elements of journalism.

  1. Journalism's first obligation is to the truth.
    [*]Its first loyalty is to the citizens.
  2. Its essence is discipline of verification.
    [*]Its practitioners must maintain an independence from those they cover.
  3. It must serve as an independent monitor of power.
    [*]It must provide a forum for public criticism and compromise.
  4. It must strive to make the significant interesting, and relevant.
    [*]It must keep the news comprehensive and proportional.
    [*]Its practitioners must be allowed to exercise their personal conscience.
The highlighted areas are areas where FOX tends to, more often than not, fail in its reporting and these are very serious problems. This is a somewhat idealistic list but if you fail that many criteria, I find it difficult to make any real strong case that FOX is objective in any way.
 
I don't regard opinion shows and infotainment from pretty blonds as news.
 
Lachean said:
I don't regard opinion shows and infotainment from pretty blonds as news.
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Regardless of the relative beauty or lack there of, opinion shows, be it Beck or Obeman are not news.

As to the question, Fox essential gives the same "news" as all the other networks. So, their "news" portion is just as credible.
 
Boo Radley said:
Regardless of the relative beauty or lack there of, opinion shows, be it Beck or Obeman are not news.

As to the question, Fox essential gives the same "news" as all the other networks. So, their "news" portion is just as credible.
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As I said, we're not discussing other networks here.
 
Hoplite said:
As I said, we're not discussing other networks here.
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Wasn't aware I was discussing another network. Merely noting there really isn't much difference. No where would I consider political entertainers news.
 
Objective? No. Good? Probably not, which makes them equal to ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC and CNN. C-SPAN and PBS are good.
 
Boo Radley said:
As to the question, Fox essential gives the same "news" as all the other networks. So, their "news" portion is just as credible.
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Just sucks that their "news" portion is like 5 minutes of every hour :lol: if that much!
 
The thing with Fox is that while they do give objective news reports, it is difficult to pick out those little bits of flotsam from the sea of political commentary that thakes up most of their airtime. And that political commentary is far from objective.
 
So many newbies or those new to the subject have to have it pointed out to them that Fox News has hard news shows and commentary shows. When it comes to hard news they are the best. In the Austin plane crash thread where I was simply keeping the thread posted with new developments, all that news and all those scoops (where Fox News came out with info first) came from FNC.

In one instance the name of the pilot came first on Fox, another time the hero of the crash came first on Fox, and where MSNBC was reporting that the pilot was angry at his wife and took the plane off in a rage against her, Fox was reporting that he set his house ablaze railing against the IRS.

Fox gets hard news right. Fast, fair and right.
 
We don't really have a "good" news outlet anywhere. FOX's bias is the easiest to see because it's so thinly veiled, but the other networks aren't much better.
 
Hoplite said:
I think this question needs to be asked as it's very important that we understand where our media is coming from.

Can we consider FOX to be an objective source of good news?

For the purposes of this discussion, I dont care what MSNBC or CBS or CNN does. We aren't talking about anyone but FOX at the moment, just assume that for this discussion, FOX is the only media outlet.


I personally say no. I can find dozens of examples of FOX reporting that can objectively be classified as very poor journalism and that break the basic tenants of journalism. Constantly repeating a slogan over and over doesn't make it true and I feel that FOX is acting more as a PAC for Conservative viewpoints that it is a news broadcasting service and that they are more concerned with ad revenue than with actual journalism.

With this in mind, I dont really see how we can give FOX credit as a reliable news outlet.
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I don't like FOX News at all. I tend to listen to the tv while I look at the computer screen when I'm online. I don't like how the FOX commentators sound when they speak. I can't look at the screen when I try to anyways, since FOX has SO many things flashing all over it that it's hard to concentrate on what's being said and going on. I'm starting to think that FOX News doesn't so much infotain their viewers as they hypnotize them with flashy graphics and urgent tones from their broadcasters. FOX News is the Speed Racer of broadcasting.

I must also say that I'm starting to get tired of watching these 24-hour news channels all the time. It's starting to get to the point where you have different people every few hours but all they're doing is commenting on the same news. I don't need each and every person on a news channel telling me their opinion of killer whales in captivity. It gets old and boring after awhile.
 
samsmart said:
I must also say that I'm starting to get tired of watching these 24-hour news channels all the time.
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I've felt that way for a long time. I turn them on occasionally, but mainly for entertainment purposes. The only channels that are useful for actual information are PBS and C-SPAN.
 
*cartman voice* Yessssss Let me bathe in the sweet tears of your envy.....


Yes Fox gives a fair shot to conservative voices.

Its also the most popular and most trusted source for news.

You liberals have MSNBC, NBC, ABC, CBS, PBS, and CNN in your back pocket and you still want more.

Incredible. You are just angry the liberal dominance of tv news is over.
 
Well we know that Fox New won a lawsuit based on their own admission that they are not required by law to be truthful.

We know they are the opposition outlet for the GOP.

We know they do not cover news stories equally but rather promote stories that are conservative leaning and ignore or do a touch n go on more liberal stories.

We know that their commentators have all been very wrong about most things during the Bush admin but never seem to lose credibility with their audience (probably because they ignore having been wrong).

So it's pretty obvious.
 
mpg said:
I've felt that way for a long time. I turn them on occasionally, but mainly for entertainment purposes. The only channels that are useful for actual information are PBS and C-SPAN.
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I completely agree. I don't get C-SPAN, but I do get PBS. The programming there is top notch. Boring (as in no theatrics), but very informative.
 
Middleground said:
I completely agree. I don't get C-SPAN, but I do get PBS. The programming there is top notch. Boring (as in no theatrics), but very informative.
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I would agree as well.
 
In your hypothetical?

Absolutely not.

Fox has a large definitive slant. If they were the only news organization available they would not be a good thing.

That said, your hypothetical is idiotic.

MSNBC has a large slant. If they were the only news organization available they would not be a good thing.

CNN has a moderately sized slant. If they were the only news organization available they would not be a good thing.

NBC, CBS, ABC all have some slant. If they were the only news organization available they would not be a good thing.

What it really comes down to is if you're going to give a hypothetical with ONLY one news organization there are very, very, very few news organizations...especially 24/7 ones...that are around today that I'd consider "good" in that scenario.
 
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