Tuesday, November 04, 2008

FOX in the Twilight

A well-deserved RIPPING of Fox "News":
I recognize that every station or every show has some bias, whether slight or pronounced, implicit or overt.

But FOX has migrated to a different league -- less a news source with a particular slant than a government-run propaganda mouthpiece detached from any sense of objectivity. Everyone that is not an ultra-conservative recognizes the irony of FOX's "Fair and Balanced" moniker, which only accentuates its actual bias.

FOX has always been oriented to the right, but until recently it remained a valuable source of information nevertheless. Not anymore.

Just like John McCain threw his lot with the base of the Republican Party by selecting Sarah Palin as his Vice-President, so too FOX has decided to appeal ... err ... pander to the far right, leaving behind any effort to appeal to independent viewers.

The transformation has been so deep that an impartial viewer cannot escape the conclusion that FOX has given up on broadcasting news, and has instead committed to telling its viewers what they want to hear, substituting "information" for an "affirmation" of the basest kind -- fomenting hatred, stereotypes, suspicions and divisions.

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FOX in the Twilight

Five years later, consider FOX News.

I recently returned from a week in Israel, where the only American news station available on basic cable was FOX, as Israel replaced CNN back in 2006 in retaliation for what it perceived as biased coverage of the Hezbollah war. So with only one week left before the election, I was stuck with FOX to keep up with TV election news.

Watching FOX for a whole week was frustrating to the core, but fascinating as a social experiment. It truly felt like the Twilight Zone.

On the web, diverse polls and news sources seemed to convey momentum by the Obama campaign and its message. But if all you saw was FOX News, you'd bet McCain and Palin would be clear victors. You'd assume nobody in their right mind would ever vote for Obama -- the communist, socialist, liar, and terrorist.

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