Tuesday, October 27, 2009

IS FOX NEWS OR ISN'T IT?

For those of us who have long felt that media outlets ought to be limited to one owner and have felt that Rupert Murdoch's empire has become to overpowering, it is uplifting to see some people actually standing up to the megalomaniacs who think they are running the country, not the executive branch, the judicial and legislative branches.

Recently Adele Stan, AlterNet. Posted October 24, 2009. 8 Reasons Fox Is Not a News Organization. She made some excellent points and you may wish to read the article. If so, click here. This is part of what was said: "Now the fearmongers at Fox are crying foul since the president and his aides declared Fox not to be a news organization. Earlier this month, White House Communications Director Anita Dunn called Fox an "arm" of the Republican Party. Obama went even further, suggesting this week that Fox "is operating basically as a talk-radio format," and we know what that means: A format in which the most provocative opinions dominate the discourse and facts are optional." The eight reasons should be clear to any intelligent person who watched Fox News, but should some intelligent person have missed them, here they are: 1. Glenn Beck, the community organizer -- No other news operation in memory has ever hired its own community organizer, at least not one tasked with the mission of organizing paranoid people to march through the streets of the nation's capital with signs depicting the president of the United States as a mass murderer.

2. Fox's alliance with the corporate-funded astroturf group Americans for Prosperity - 3. On-air fundraising for Republican PACs 4. Bill O'Reilly, stalker of those whose opinions he doesn't like 5. Sunday talk-show host who promotes Republican falsehoods "Once upon a time, Chris Wallace, son of the aforementioned Mike, was a real journalist, just like his dad. Then he joined the Fox team, as host of Fox News Sunday, which airs on the Fox's broadcast network." 6. Fox News anchors, show hosts and pundits parrot GOP press releases, or just make up stuff 7. Fox News hosts urge viewers to join a particular political group "During the run-up to the big right-wing 9-12/Tea Party march on Washington, Fox News entities and personalities repeatedly flogged viewers to join the Tea Party Express, a bus tour of anti-Obama activists." 8. Glenn Beck, deranged inventor of paranoid conspiracies

The White House Cites Opinion Shows as Basis for Fox News Complaints
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs refers to "Beck" and "Hannity" as the reasons why the Obama administration is criticizing Fox News.

White House Makes Security Changes to Web Site Following Complaints Over E-Mails
The e-mail address set up for people to report "fishy" information about health care reform has become inactive. The White House also has added two new filter devices to its "Contact Us" section on its Web site, following complaints from people who said they were receiving unsolicited e-mails from the administration. Read more....

Perhaps the public should get the FCC to revert back to the days when it was sane, fair, followed the law to prevent the kind of monopoly-like situation we have today. Despite Murdoch's attempts to control the news that reaches Americans' ears, he forgets about the Internet and the access we all have to the rest of the world. Unfortunately, too many people still do not know how to do that. I'm amazed at how many people still don't have or use computers! Sadly, it points to the state of our voters...misinformed. too lazy to decide for whom to vote, believe their vote doesn't count (forgetting that if others felt the same, we definitely would get the wrong people in office as we have in the past).

1 comment:

Frank J. Lhota said...

Newser has an interesting take on all of this: the dispute between the White House and Fox news goes on endlessly because it is good for both sides. Both Obama and Fox appeal to their base. The fight is as fake as pro wrestling, and the only loser in this fight is the first amendment. See

http://www.newser.com/off-the-grid/post/316/have-fox-news-and-roger-ailes-goofed.html?utm_source=otg&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20091026