FAIR is the national progressive media watchdog group, challenging corporate media bias, spin and misinformation.
There’s been a fair amount of speculation about what Fox News Channel will do in the new political climate.The online teaser for tonight’s edition of the O’Reilly Factor gives us some sense of the, uhh, future: Monday, November 10: The Factor confronts Rev. Jeremiah Wright! You won’t want to miss it!
Fresh off his suggestion that his success was proof of the existence of God, Bill O’Reilly draws a new parallel— one that really doesn’t merit a response (at least a verbal one): O’Reilly says his views have made him a target. “My life is dangerous now,” he said. “You know, I have bodyguards and security. […]
New York Times TV reporter Jim Rutenberg (11/2/08) tries to make a case that Fox News and MSNBC are (in Tom Rosenstiel’s words) “reverse images of each other.” Here are the actual quotes used by Rutenberg to demonstrate this supposed parallelism—first, Ann Coulter on Fox (10/30/08): I feel like we are talking to the Germans […]
This is the tease for tonight’s O’Reilly Factor: New Gallup poll shows McCain gaining ground. Karl Rove, Dick Morris and Dennis Miller weigh in.
Anthony DiMaggio finds (ZNet, 10/19/08) “the massive attention surrounding ACORN” as much evidence of “media racism as it is their class prejudice”: In danger of losing its eight year hold on the Presidency, the Republican Party has become increasingly desperate in its attacks on poor and minority groups, who have registered in increasingly large numbers […]
What happens after your credulous reporting helps sell the public argument on the case for the Iraq invasion, and your name becomes more or less synonymous with the broad media failures on the war? You get hired by Fox News, according to today’s Washington Post. Fox‘s John Moody’s comments are worth a special note: “She […]
His CNN show Crossfire was canceled, but conservative pundit Tucker Carlson already appears to have a new cable news home lined up: a primetime show on MSNBC (USA Today, 12/20/04; Daily Variety, 12/21/04). With the departure of host Deborah Norville, MSNBC is reportedly considering Carlson to fill the 9 p.m. timeslot. His show would lead […]
The Senate Intelligence Committee report found that the intelligence about Iraq’s weapons programs was severely flawed, but is there more to this story than what we’ve been reading from mainstream media? Also this week: Robert Greenwald on his new documentary, Outfoxed, which analyzes the relationship between the Fox News Channel, conservatives, and the Bush White House.
June 22, 2004 The Bush administration’s long-running attempts to link Iraq and Al Qaeda were dealt a serious blow when the September 11 commission’s June 16 interim report indicated that there did not appear to be a “collaborative relationship” between Iraq and Osama bin Laden, and that there was no evidence that Iraq was involved […]
Reporting on the ratings rivalry between the Fox News Channel (FNC) and CNN is often misleading—and almost always over-hyped. “Fox Tops CNN as Choice for Cable News,” declared one typical headline (Chicago Tribune , 3/24/03). “Fox News Channel Continues to Crush CNN ,” reported Knight Ridder (Dallas Morning News , 2/3/04) in a column comparing […]
The controversy over comparisons between George W. Bush and Adolf Hitler in two ads submitted to the anti-Bush ad contest run by the online activist group MoveOn.org says less about the state of left discourse than it does about the double standards at Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation. News Corp‘s Fox News Channel started the controversy […]
Hannity & Colmes, Fox News Channel‘s primetime debate show, figures prominently in the cable network’s campaign to market its right leaning programming as “fair & balanced,” the network’s ever-present slogan. Fox News executives argue that the show, pitting conservative Sean Hannity against liberal Alan Colmes with guests from both right and left, presents a spirited […]
Both Fox and CNN try to marginalize or minimize civilian deaths in Afghanistan, and self-censorship is taking place at smaller outlets.
Fox News Channel‘s star performer is undoubtedly Bill O’Reilly. Host of the nightly talk-show The O’Reilly Factor and author of the best-selling book of the same name, O’Reilly epitomizes Fox‘s in-your-face style. A former anchor for the tabloid Inside Edition whose upcoming contract is reportedly worth $20 million (Boston Globe, 3/14/01), O’Reilly poses nightly as […]
Perhaps the most reliable method of gauging an outlet’s perspective is to study its sources. If Fox News Channel is the bastion of balance that it claims to be, then its pool of guests should reflect a full spectrum of debate, from left to right, and neither major party should dominate over the other. To […]
A May 21 FAIR Action Alert addressed the stories of White House “vandalism” during the transition in January. According to anonymous Bush administration sources, Clinton staffers had looted Air Force One and vandalized the White House on their way out of office. The rumors exploded after earlier, more light-hearted stories about minor pranks, such as […]
Last fall, when News Corporation owner Rupert Murdoch joined the board of directors at the Cato Institute, the announcement went unreported in major media. Perhaps it seemed routine for one of the world’s most powerful media moguls to take a leadership post at one of the most influential think tanks in Washington. At future meetings, […]
When two of the world’s most powerful media outlets fight, who do you root for? Are you cheering for Time Warner, the $7 billion-a-year conglomerate, which provides monopoly cable service to 40 percent of the U.S.—and which has used this position to block competitors to CNN, which Time Warner long had a large investment in, […]
