Fox News Channel is often described as a cable news station. On occasion, the words "conservative" or "biased" are attached to that description. But few dispute the journalistic orientation of the overall enterprise.
This is a mistake. Fox is something new--something for which we do not yet have a word. It provides almost no actual journalism. Instead it gives ideological guidance to the Republican Party and millions of its supporters, attacking its opponents and keeping its supporters in line. And it does so at a hefty profit, thereby turning itself into the political equivalent of a perpetual motion machine.
Recall that last spring, David Frum lost his appointment at the conservative American Enterprise Institute before observing, "Republicans originally thought that Fox worked for us, and now we are discovering we work for Fox." This is literally true in the case of at least four likely Republican candidates for president in 2012: Sarah Palin, Mike Huckabee, Newt Gingrich, and Rick Santorum. In fact, as two Politico writers observe, "With the exception of Mitt Romney, Fox now has deals with every major potential Republican presidential candidate not currently in elected office."
In the first place, one must note the oddity of this situation. After all, what are political candidates doing working for a "news" station? Isn't that inconsistent with very idea of journalism? Can these candidates be trusted to tell the truth about themselves, their supporters, and their opponents? What's more, what is it about Fox that would entice these candidates to give the station exclusive access to their appearances?
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Now they're into supporting the wingnuts with cash. It used to be just free "advertising" in the form of editorial comment. Now they're giving money to the wingnuts. For starters, $2 million, and that's just what we've learned of in the past few days.
Watching Fox "News" is like watching a George Orwell "Hate Half-Hour", from his novel.
For 8 years, Fox carried water for Bush2. Ailes the cousin to Bush was left to run interferences for him. Critical and unpleasant news were ignored but propped up events to boost Bush's imagine were encouraged.
The MSM timidly stood by while this train wreck was going on.
Then they went into denial. They said that there was a different for their pundits, opinionated shows and their so called regular show. Well, who has been hoodwinked? The American public at worst and the media at best.
Then when the Obama team tried to caution the media and the public, the MSM pounded the administration. Even after Fox had declared itself the opposition. They did that in 13 months of the Obama administration, 2X. The media pretended that they heard nothing and saw nothing. Then Helen Thomas was canned. Ed Henry and his colleagues rewarded Fox with a front roll seat at the White House press room, over NPR and Bloomberg. Pathetic.
Today, Fox gets to slab MSM around and still has no apologies for reporting falsehood and misinformation. MSM once again, sees no evil and hears no evil, while the public is not served.
What Fox has done to this nation, more division is unforgivable.