Truth in Newsvertising

Apparently it must be stated -- over and again. The Fox "News" Channel is not a news channel; it's a Republican Party propaganda channel. As such, its first amendment right to say whatever it likes ought to be protected, but not its "right" to call itself "news". That's false advertising and it ought to be outlawed by whoever it is that regulates such things.

Perhaps if FNC changed their name to the Republican News Channel (or RNC for short), the argument that they are in fact a news outlet, albeit one that presents "news" as spun by the GOP, could be substantiated. Until they do, however, they need to be called out by the rest of us for exactly what they are: a Republican "News" channel.

To that end, recent statements by the White House calling them out as such are right on the money. FNC/RNC should be treated not like a news organization but as one which does little more than promote a specific political agenda.

That public recognition of the long-obvious is long-overdue from Democrats, many of whom continue, foolishly, to treat FNC as merely a news outlet with a "conservative" bent. These Democrats fall into the false equivalence brier patch when they say FNC is merely a "conservative" counterpart to MSNBC. Sure, several of the GE-owned news outlet's primetime shows cover real news from a progressive perspective, but progressivism does not equal liberalism, whatever that is, nor even Democratic-ism.

For the intellectually honest who bother to pay attention to MSNBC's primetime coverage (distinct from its all-rightwing morning coverage hosted for several hours by former Republican Congressman Joe Scarborough) the news outlet's progressive viewpoint is obvious. So is their well-documented penchant for reporting on the scoundrels in, and failings of, the Democratic Party. The truth of such failings are not hidden from viewers.

In contrast, even a few minutes of viewing reveals FNC presenting an alternate reality where Republican hypocrisy, scandals and abuses of power -- are either spun into something they are not, or, as is more frequently the case, simply not mentioned at all. As such, the depths of the historically unprecedented failure that was George W. Bush's eight years in office remain virtually unknown to viewers of FNC/RNC. In the bargain, as the young Obama Administration moves forward, attempting to deal with countless left-over disasters they've inherited, issue after issue now comes as a complete surprise to the majority of Fox viewers.

The resultant spectacle might be amusing were it not so dangerous to our country's future. It's also rather sad to see so many well-meaning Americans pushed into speeding traffic by cynical rightwing powerbrokers using and abusing the good nature of those who have been deceived into following them on a self-destructive fool's errand.

It is with a sense of both shame and bemusement that we now witness good Americans agitated and drafted into protests over the very policies that Republican failure has, itself, created and/or supported uncritically for years:

• Record Big Government expansion and deficits;
• Massive Big Brother invasion of privacy;
• Bureaucratic intrusion between patients and doctors;
• Corporate bailouts with tax-payer largesse...

The list goes on and on, but the frothing Fox "News" teabaggers protest as if the last eight years of all of the above never existed. Rather, these poor saps were presented with a phony version of "reality" produced with Hollywood-style special effects and distractions (missing blonds, steroids in baseball, terrorists around every corner, non-existent "voter fraud"). Now these confused souls roam the streets, town halls and email lists as clueless zombies, unaware of who and what they are fighting for (government-supported corporatocracy) or against (their own self-interest).

Its a long-overdue breath of fresh air to see a White House finally willing to offer an official definition of what the Fox "News" Channel actually is and, in turn, to witness the nattering nabobs of nincompoopery waste their time by spinning viewers with tales of yet another imaginary war, this one where Fox and the First Amendment are both imagined to be under attack. At least in trumping up this war, the folks at Fox News are only hurting themselves.

Addendum: If anybody needed more evidence that the White House is absolutely right about Fox not being a news organization, on Wednesday night, prime time anchor Sean Hannity was forced to admit that he'd falsified footage of a recent "Tea Party" protest on Capitol Hill. When the attendance wasn't large enough to give the impression of the angry Republican mobs Hannity might have hoped for, he and fellow Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann (MN) told viewers the crowd was tens of thousands of angry voters larger than it actually was while showing two month old footage -- from a completely different rally -- to underscore their point.

To make matters even more embarrassing, the "incorrect video" that was deceptively spliced in was from a September rally where a Fox "News" producer had been caught on video tape stage managing the crowd, urging them to cheer loudly while on camera.

Hannity's admission to an "inadvertent mistake" -- how "incorrect video" inadvertently edits itself into a new report went unexplained -- came after the doctored video was discovered by The Comedy Channel's The Daily Show, which offers far more accurate, fair and balanced news on a daily basis than Fox "News" could ever dream of.

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Brad Friedman is an investigative journalist, blogger and broadcaster, creator and publisher of The BRAD BLOG and a Fellow at the Commonweal Institute.

 

Follow Brad Friedman on Twitter: www.twitter.com/TheBradBlog

Comments

[Tayo]

FOX News and other conservative media outlets understand the American people better than does the liberal media. Imagine how much coverage has been given to Sarah Palin even here on HuffPost.

[Shaddup]

I've wondered for years why the FCC hasn't come down on Fox for their political rhetoric. Then I saw this: http://www.philly2philly.com/politics_community/politics_community_articles/2009/6/29/4854/fox_news_wins_lawsuit_misinform_public . So they're definitely not news; why are they allowed to advertise as such.

[blizb]

Fox isn't news, in a statement in response to their critics they said "we are comparable to the editorial page of a newspaper".

Editorializing the news isn't news.

In order for all news to be fair there the FCC or some governing agency needs to step in and provide viewer ratings like movie ratings.

There should be a disclaimer on every news program stating whether or not it is an Editorial or Opinion program. That way regardless of the network you will know if you are watching a host that is only presenting a point of view.

Right now viewers watch many "news" programs on many different networks and believe they are watcing news when it is merely the opinion of a particular host.

This does a great disservice to the American people and Fox is the worst of all networks.

When a comedy show like the Daily Show can point out the obvious when Fox presented false footage to provide a slant to a story then you have to wonder how many other falsehoods are presented as fact that the viewing public is duped into believing?

This isn't "fair and balanced" it is just a con game to get advertisers on Fox and on their editorial style programming.

[msbadger]

The price of liberty apparently IS eternal vigilance. And they don't want us watching. LOL!

[joyce2]

http://www.relfe.com/media_can_legally_lie.html about faux noise and how they can embellish about any news they want to.Fox claims not to be a news station but an infotainment station only

[Motherunit]

Beck and Hannity are the professional wrestlers of TV news. How does anyone, regardless of their political leanings, take them seriously?

[Indon]

It's not just Fox's opinion shows. It's their supposed 'news' as well.

[Motherunit]

I get my news from Comedy Central. Much more fair and balanced.

[lgillooly]

Without Fox, talk radio and rabid web sites the GOP would be nothing. Sadly, their elected leaders are petrified to criticize or disagree with these overpaid corporate propaganda specialists. These so called patriots are a serious danger to our country. A Democracy needs an informed citizenry to survive, but the people who control the message and frame the debates represent 4 major interst groups
1. Big oil and coal
2.the financial industry/Wall ST.
3.Military Industrial Complex (see Eisenhower)
4. Health care industry (2.5 trillion dolllars/ yr)
Rush alone has a 400 million dollar contract, yet Clear channel had to lay off 1100 workers this past summer. His twisted, misinformation is extremely valuable to the above industries. They care less that the self proclaimed dittoheads that believe his lies and distortions are voting against themselves .
Why is it against the law to lie when advertising a product, but completely fine to lie about important Political issues? With Patriots like this who needs enemies.

[lapdogs]

FAUX OPINION network is such a big joke.

They all get their daily "talking points" from Roger Ailes and they keep harping on what to report all day long and what phrases to keep accentuating in their "reporting", instead of just reporting the actual news.

And what a joke at how they "forge" the video as a "current event" with tape from months ago.

Now they're too embarrassed to allow their videos to be seen on the internet because they are such a farce.

[Rogan]

I don't think it's embarrassment. They just don't want to get caught so easily any more, with the results seen by so many people. Remember, they aren't really in the "ratings game," along with other tv outlets; they're a political propaganda machine.