Fox News

After I spent about a week of intentionally switching back and forth between the three major 24 hour US news networks (CNN, MSNBC and Fox News), something needs to be said. I say this not as a progressive, nor as a Democrat, but rather as a member of a scholarly community that employs reason and honestly in the transmission of information. Here it is:

Fox News, not by its existence, but by its persistent claim to be 'fair and balanced', represents everything that is wrong with the world. Believing that Fox News takes a fair and balanced view of news coverage takes a certain special kind of willful ignorance, the perseverance of which in American thought should terrify all honest, reasonable-minded people, and may be the very herald of the kind of American world decline that Fox News representatives seem to fear more than anything else.

And I need to be clear, I am NOT just speaking about the commentary shows like Glenn Beck and Bill O'Reilly which are unapologetically conservative in perspective-- these shows, even by Fox News Network's admission (and rightly so) are not representative of a fair and balanced perspective. Although the existence of these shows on FNN do not help Fox News' case, indeed, even regular news programming on Fox News is almost like a bullhorn for the Republican Party. Bringing on one liberal pundit to a discussion when the anchor and another guest are both clearly conservative is not fair and balanced, it's 2 vs 1 which can not, by any extension of reality be considered balanced or fair.

I make no claim that other news networks are free from inherent biases. The Ed Show on MSNBC does to conservatives what almost all programming on Fox News does to liberals: ganging up on the other guy. I'm even open to arguments that regular news programming on MSNBC leans left; it's almost inevitable when you bring in pundits (outside of their respective commentary shows) like Rachel Maddow, Keith Olbermann, and Chris Matthews to 'reasonably' discuss election results or news items. But MSNBC's motto isn't 'fair and balanced' and reasonable people everywhere recognize it for what it is, a safe place for Democrats to speak their message to people who already agree with them. And yet even MSNBC makes notable overtures to be evenhanded in their approach for most news programs.

The exit of Lou Dobbs from CNN might suggest for some that the network is beginning to lean left like MSNBC, but that's only if your idea of 'leaning left' is the same as 'secular, educated journalism' (which honestly for some unreasonable people out there, it does). Anderson Cooper? Rick Sanchez? Larry King? Wolf Blitzer? These are people that go out of their way NOT to take stands on major issues and to try to get truthful answers from those on their shows (ok, Rick Sanchez sometimes takes a stand on Lindsay Lohan, maybe we should just exclude him from the list). Anderson Cooper's motto is 'keeping them honest' and somehow that makes him liberal, part of the liberal media, seeking the destruction of all conservatives. If honesty would truly bring about the destruction of the conservative agenda, I have serious concerns for the GOP, but I don't think that's the case.

I do think it is the case that it should be imminently necessary for Fox News to strip their misleading motto from their network. I have no problem with Fox News existing; in fact I'm delighted that people are exercising their First Amendment rights in a way that irks others. I'm not delighted that Fox News can manage to whip up mobilized fear through manipulation of ignorance in order to push an agenda that does not have its roots in honesty, fairness, or balance-- with a motto clearly indicates the opposite.