In a 2001 study, FAIR found that in its regular one-on-one interviews, Fox News‘ flagship news show Special Report With Brit Hume favored Republican guests over Democrats by a greater than 8-to-1 ratio. After the FAIR report, Hume told the New York Times (7/2/01) that if the data warranted, he would rectify the bias: “If it is a reasonable question, and we find that there is some imbalance, then we’ll correct it.” A 2002 follow-up study (Extra!, 7-8/02) showed some improvement–a mere 3-to-2 bias in favor of GOP over Democratic guests–but by 2004, FAIR showed, the ratio had crept back up to a 5-to-1 advantage for Republicans.
Last night, in an attempt to rebut White House communications director Anita Dunn’s recent claim that Fox News “often operates almost as either the research arm or the communications arm of the Republican Party,” Fox News‘ Bill O’Reilly brought on Brit Hume as an expert on media bias (O’Reilly Factor, 10/12/09).
Hume claimed that Fox doesn’t feature “very many people who are down-the-line advocates for whatever the Republican party is up to,” and that “the Republican party takes a fair amount of fairly sharp criticism on Fox News and has for a long time.” Hume offered no evidence and ignored the overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
And, though it is beside the point of whether or not Fox News is an arm of the GOP, Hume wheeled out Fox‘s old attack on the rest of the corporate media. Citing his pre-Fox career at outlets like ABC News, Hume told O’Reilly: “It wasn’t that I couldn’t report the news in the way that I saw fit. It was that I often had to argue for doing it a different way than the headlines on the front page of the New York Times seemed to direct the network coverage.”
With bias experts like Hume, one might wonder if Fox would feature the Unabomber as an expert on domestic terrorism. Certainly no one can say that Hume didn’t get to report the news the way he “saw fit” at Fox.
A couple of weeks ago President Obama appeared on every other major network, and one minor network, without giving Fox News an interview.
Will Anita Dunne, Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi or Harry Reid agree to an unscripted interview on the Fox Network?
When you can get those people to appear without conditionals I think the numbers quoted in this article will change.
Michael Moore is justified in refusing to be interviewed on Fox. He cannot expect an intelligent or respectful exchange of views from their faux journalists.
Michael Moore is a national hero and he deserves to be treated with respect, not derision. He is a truth-teller, and Fox News hates the truth more than anything else. Rupert Murdoch may have tons of money, but he has not one shred of decency. He has “gained the whole world, but lost his own soul”.
Fox calling itself news, let alone fair and balanced is like how North Korea calls itself the Democratic People’s Republic: none of the above. OK so they are a republic, but their people are starving and they are certainly not democratic.
As for Rupert Murdoch, he sold his soul so long ago he probably hasn’t missed and hasn’t much use for it any way. He may not have the devil on his payroll, but he’s probably on retainer.
Fox News makes sure that lies republicans like Limbaugh and Hannity say are told repeatedly so that it is the truth to their viewers. They believe these lies because they want to believe them. That is the difference from other news. You can read and listen to a lot of views on any subject on other networks. It is just the GOP way on Fox.
Dan Bush,
Why should any person with a modicum of intelligence appear for an interview on Fox? It would be like trying to have a sane discussion with the “mad hatter” in “alice in wonderland”.
As for rupert murdoch, he is arguably the most dangerous immigrant in this country. Instead of targeting mexican peasants for deportation, murdoch should be hunted down and deported. He is the modern “joseph goebels” and “julius streicher” combined”
FOX viewers don’t want the facts, they want the spin. Nothing we and FAIR do or say will change that. smartest course of action: ignore them. Pay attention only to more objective news sources. Praise, defend, and encourage them when the FOX viewers try to press their case through other outlets.
Extend the isolation to all of Murdoch’s empire.
Let them to their political and ideological inbreeding.
Remember during the campaign Obama did appear on Fox news. Also Michael Moore has gone on Fox News about his film. One way to reach another’s closed audience is to go on. It is risky if you aren’t familiar in how to work it. But it can be done. Rachel Maddow has on those, she pleads for them to come on, and lets them talk then she slices into them. On the facts alone, not personal attacks, she tries to get them to come clean. It is good to see it. We need more.
Two words: Fairness Doctrine. Three more: Bring it Back. Conclusion: Faux News would sink out of sight and take all those corporate-protected talk show hosts with it.