Fox News: Fair and Balanced My Ass

So President Barack Obama on Wednesday night gave the most important speech of his presidency on an issue, health-care reform, which has taken center-stage in American politics over the past several months. Every single major network and cable-tv news network carried the prime-time address live...except the self-proclaimed Fair and Balanced Fox News.

How better to continue dumbing-down your audience than to censor what they see and hear that just might spoil their partisan delusion. Why give them another side of an issue? Why expose them to a radical/socialist/communist/fascist/terrorist like Obama, right? (can you actually be all of those things at the same time, as he's been accused?) Wouldn't the fair and balanced thing to do be to simply, well, be fair and balanced? To let your viewers see the speech and make up their own minds? Nah, that would spoil the fun and prevent despicable blatant liars like Fox's Sean Hannity from deceiving its audience with its decidedly unfair and unbalanced reporting.

For example, on his program after Obama's speech, Hannity, during an interview with Republican pollster/analyst Frank Luntz, said that Obama"said tonight that insurance company executives are bad people!" " But if Fox's viewers had actually seen the speech, they'd know what the president actually said: "Insurance executives don't treat their customers badly because they're bad people; they do it because it's profitable." Really Hannity? The president called insurance company executives bad people? Seems to the rest of the non-lying world that he actually said just the opposite. But I suppose the truth doesn't matter when you're the unfair and unbalanced network.

At least Obama had a good-natured sense of humor about it all as he rehashed his key points to attendees at a rally Thursday:

"Just in case folks weren't tuned in last night ... if they were watching So You Think You Can Dance. A show Michelle likes, by the way."

So You Think You Can Dance. Need I say more....

Comments

[SewaneeLeftist]

I saw the Hannity clip, and I think it was even more deceitful than you did. Technically, our President DID say "they're bad people." Those WERE the words in the order that he gave them, but the POTUS was giving it a negative construction that made it clear that the import of his sentence was: "the insurance people are NOT bad people because of their practices, it's just the operation of the profit motive at work." What it appears Hannity did was not stupidly misunderstand what the President said, much as that would be the first belief of rational people. Rather, he did the deeply cynical text version of what Hannity's video people do when they cut tape to make it look like someone did the opposite of what he did.

And that's worse than being stupid or lying in front of everybody and thinking you can get away with it -- it's remaking events and generating your own reality. It's the sort of thing the Soviets used to do when an official fell out of favor -- airbrush him out of the May Day Lenin's Tomb lineup. And when all that false reality does is echo away in the right wing fact- and truth-challenged slimy echo chamber that is their Faux News/Tea Bagging world, the repercussions can be very bad for a reasonable discourse on anything, much less a highly charged issue like health care reform.

[SewaneeLeftist]

Some Fake News apologist disagreed with my assessment of the rearranged reality of the Hannity clip by suggesting I go to the Faux News's version of it. Even without the argument that the cooking channel didn't show our President's speech (hint: the cooking channel doesn't have "News" in its title, even if the channel itself does propaganda, not news), the fact that Hannity's show ROUTINELY edits text and video to present its deeply skewed version of the world, as well as the fact that THAT WAS MY POINT, kind of makes certain I won't be using that version as decisive. Thanks anyway.

[GATXER]

It should be noted that FOX's dance show killed in the ratings......Best ever for the show.....Obama however had less viewer than before. Bussiness wise they made a great choice.

If the Fox local channels had covered it.....they would have just shown the same thing they had on Fox News....because Fox Networks...unlike ABCCBSNBCPBS has NO NEWS people. They just use a cast of the Fox News Channel.

[CeceliaMc]

Help me out here, folks. Did the Food Network, Hgtv, the Sci-Fi channel, Lifetime, etc... air the president's address?

Another thing, why put photos of Fox News Channel shows and personalities, if you're not mistakenly under the impression that FNC didn't air the address, or are trying to give that impression to readers?

Why mention that Hannity's viewers didn't have the opportunity to watch Pres. Obama's speech when it was aired on the very channel that Hannity's program airs.?

[LeftRight]

Actually, the point that's being made, now that the correction has been made, is that all the other major networks, all three of them, aired the speech. Fox chose not to.

Does that really matter? Probably not, at least in this era of 24 hour news available. Would it have mattered as recently as a decade ago? Probably.

[Andy Ostroy - Huffpost Blogger]

Why mention Hannity? Did you read my piece? Are you really more concerned with what "decpetive" photo I used than the outright blatant lie that Hannity committed? C'mon, pal, if you;re gonna wear your Republican striped here, at least try and mask 'em a little.

[Scott Heckman]

Because Cecelia people make mistaked just like you do and we all do, but unlike you the rest of choose to forget it and move on, But Oh my god, don't pick on my precious Fox News. Cecelia take you Conservatives ideas back to Mark Koldys place where they belong, because you are in no place to call anyone a liar, considering that you post AT.that hole.
Great Job Andy, keep up the good work at calling Fox Noise,

[tompoe]

Maybe the FEC needs to declare Fox News a political action committee funded by advertiser dollars.

[mikefina]

With concomitant findings for PBS, NBC, ABC, CBS, MSNBC, et. al., ad infinitum.

Don't bother with a reply--you have none, just more partisan bleating.

[tompoe]

Decided a reply might be appropriate. What are you talking about?

[GATXER]

Good idea......as soon as they declare MSNBC part of the Whitehouse Press office they should get right on that.

[CeceliaMc]

ummm.... I don't know how to break the news to Mr. Ostroy...but there's a difference between Fox News Channel that airs Sean Hannity's show (and did air the president's speech) and the Fox cable channel that shows reruns of Buffy the Vampire Slayer...(which did not air the president's speech).

[Scott Heckman]

Once again Cecelia he made a mistake, just like Fox News does by calling itself Fair and Balanced. No go back to the Marky Koldy's echo chamber and make up more lies.

[Dana Alkhatib]

It is unbelievable how much deceiving the media has become ...

[rbenjamin]

If Fox were actually balanced and fair why would they need to trumpet it? Wouldn't viewers notice? Fair and balanced just sounds better than "You're sheep, don't read much, vote Republican and will repeat. anything we tell you."

[kps888]

Didn't Fox News carry the speech? But not the actual network? If that's the case, then how is that different than what Hannity is being accused of?

[LeftRight]

I don't know for sure whether Fox News (the cable network) carried it or not, but in reading the post it implies that both Fox (the network) and Fox News (the cable network) did NOT carry it.

[mikefina]

READ the article and the disclaimer that precedes it. Stop guessing. It's all right there for the taking.

[CynAnne]

Oh, Andy! Snark-tastically good, and straight to the point(ed) heads of those who take Faux's bizarrely twisted view of "Fair and Balanced" as gospel, and spout the talking points from Faux's mouthpieces like so many slack-jawed parrots, arrogantly preening themselves in their collectively misguided belief of 'being well informed'..! ;) ...

[Steven Duke]

Time to end the Newscorp monopoly (and the rest of them too) Make Murdoch choose print or television. Its time to call propaganda what it is and time to bring truth back to broadcasting (Fox News having gained first amendment protection for lies) The only reason to lie is to perpetrate an underlying fraud. Just because lies are free speech doesn't mean the underlying fraud is not criminal. When is someone going to grow a pair and sue them for defamation?

[jcole]

THE ONLY WAY WE ARE GOING TO MAKE FOX CHANGE THEIR WAYS IS FOR US NOT TO TUNE IN, BECK AND HANNITY HAVE SHOWN THEIR RACISM AND BIGOTRY TOWARD THE PRESIDENT BOGGLE THE MIND, HANNITY NEW WHAT THE PRESIDENT SAID, BUT FOX WOULD NOT KNOW THE TRUTH IF IT WAS WRITTEN IN STONE, BUT WHAT I DON'T UNDERSTAND IS WHY THE FCC LET THEM CALL THEMSELVES A NEWS STATION, THEY ARE NOT SERVING THE PUBLIC WITH WITH THE LIES AND MISINFORMATION, THE EARLY SHOWS THAT ARE SUPPOSE TO KEEP THE PUBLIC UP DATED ON WHAT IS GOING ON IN THE WORLD DO NOT REPORT ANY NEWS WITHOUT DISTORTION AND LIES, THEY ARE GIVEN THEIR MARCHING ORDERS AT THE BEGINNING OF THE DAY AND ALL OF THEM MARCH TO THE SAME TUNE, i THOUGHT CHRIS WALLACE WAS A FAIR NEWS CASTER BUT I WAS WRONG, I WATCHED SHEPARD SMITH FOR A SMALL TIME AND HE SOUNDED LIKE HE WAS CREDITABLE IN HIS REPORT.

[realpolitic]

"Fair and Balanced" was one of the most cynical marketing slogans in history. Fox could not be more extreme and one-sided. To champion the militantly conservative side any more they would have to ask children to inform on their parents for thought crimes. They are insidious and all liars. To work there, one must have to have a broken system of morality. Only Fox sheep believe the "fair and balanced" nonsense! What is balanced about listening to Beck, Hannity, and O'Reilly harangue Democrats, shout them down, accuse them of being traitors, and wave the flag at all things conservative. Not to mention the overt racism heard on Fox!

[GATXER]

UMMM....it was on FOX News......just not the local stations...you do know the differnce right?

Way to drop the ball!

[BillTheRealDealMcNeill]

Dude, I hate to say this, but "YOU LIE!!!" It was FOX network... Faux News Channel carried the speech. Look I don't like them either, but if we are going to call on the carpet those who would lie to further their agenda, we must hold ourselves to a higher standard. Thus, I must call you on your mistake. Sorry, them's the way things goes 'round here...

[jotunloki]

No where does the blog state that it was not on Faux News. Most people know that Fox Network is not Fox News, they're just owned by the same orc.

[kps888]

"Every single major network and cable-tv news network carried the prime-time address live...except the self-proclaimed Fair and Balanced Fox News."

Read again please.

[LeftRight]

Um.... The blog piece DOES say that Fox News didn't carry the speech. As I wasn't watching Fox News during the speech, I didn't see it they showed it or not, so I cannot speak about that, but if they did, the post is indeed lying.