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Pew Survey

Posted: April 16th, 2007, 11:42 am
by ken123
A Pew Survey shows that viewers of The Fox News ( Propaganda ) Channel are the least informed consumers of news. Are you surprised ? Where do you go for news and information ? :cry:

Re: Pew Survey

Posted: April 16th, 2007, 12:06 pm
by pktrekgirl
ken123 wrote:A Pew Survey shows that viewers of The Fox News ( Propaganda ) Channel are the least informed consumers of news. Are you surprised ? Where do you go for news and information ? :cry:
I am not surprised in the slightest. I was subjected to that station for about 25 minutes in my dentist's waiting room the other day, and once again I was positively astounded at how horribly 'spun' that 'news' is.

In fact, I really hesitate to even call it news. Because a true journalist tries to record the facts - ALL of the facts. Not just the ones that are favorable to one side. And certainly not with the level of editorializing that even the REPORTERS do on that channel.

And then there is O'Reilly...who is so far right that he has dropped off the edge of the earth and is clearly living in the vacuum of space, along with his pal Ann Coulter.

IMO, these two are flat-out DANGEROUS and destructive to this country...and the fact that FOXNews is harboring them is proof in itself that that channel is nowhere near 'fair and balanced'.

As for where I get my news...well, I normally get it from a combination of sources - MSNBC, Public Broadcasting, The Atlanta-Journal Constitution, CNN occasionally, the BBC on a regular basis, and the MSN website.

And Jon Stewart. :P

Posted: April 16th, 2007, 12:20 pm
by movieman1957
My resources are a combo too. Web sites of CNN, MSNBC, Worldnetdaily, Townhall.com, Washington Post and the Baltimore Sun. I figure I have it all covered.

Re: Pew Survey

Posted: April 16th, 2007, 12:23 pm
by SSO Admins
pktrekgirl wrote:Because a true journalist tries to record the facts - ALL of the facts. Not just the ones that are favorable to one side. And certainly not with the level of editorializing that even the REPORTERS do on that channel.
That's actually something I appreciate about Fox News. I used to be a journalist in my former life, and taught an online journalism workshop for reporters nationwide on AOL back in the early 90s.

I became convinced over time that my training was wrong -- that striving for objective coverage is pretty much impossible. Even slight word choices betray a reporter's opinion. Today, with cable news taking over, reporters are being called upon not just to report the news but to analyze it.

I don't think CNN or MSNBC are in any way "liberal," at least as I apply the word. Nor is Fox "fair and balanced." CNN is trying to maintain objectivity, but I don't necessarily think that's a good thing. Rather than striving for an impossible-to-acheive objectivity, I think the news would be much better if reporters simply made their biases known up front.

Now, this isn't a defense of Fox News. As that Pew Survey shows, they're doing a lousy job of reporting the news. But I have no issue with their conservative agenda, although it would be preferable if they'd stop denying it.
And Jon Stewart. :P
Interestingly, I think Jon Stewart is as close to an objective reporter as we have. He may be personally liberal, but he's not going to let that stop him from skewering the Democrats when they do stupid things, because above and beyond all, his main agenda is to be funny. That certainly seemed unbalanced before November, since the Republicans were the ones in power. But his show is not liberal -- he's going after the ones in power. I have no doubt that he'd be just as hard hitting if the Dems were in power, although he might have to work a bit harder for material.

Posted: April 16th, 2007, 1:19 pm
by pktrekgirl
^ Well, I don't have a problem with a 'normal' conservative agenda - IF they would stop denying it and take the 'fair and balanced' out of their propaganda bits.

However, I DO have a problem with their giving the likes of O'Reilly and Coulter a 'legimate' place to spew their hate.

Because he is attached to a 'real' news station, there are conservatives out there who actually believe O'Reilly to be telling the objective truth. Most rational people, conservative or liberal, know the guy is off his rocker...but some, especially down here in the South where I live, take his word as gospel...partly because FOX News, a 'fair and balanced' legitimate channel, has done such a good job of harboring and legitimizing him.

However, in doing this, FOX News is actually legitimizing the division and hatred the guy generates. And as you know, there is no shortage of folks here in the South who are EAGER to have their hate legitimized.

IMO, the 'shock jocks' like Coulter and O'Reilly have done almost as much to destroy this country as Bush and Cheney. They work HARD at dividing us, and would like nothing better than to see the people of this country tear each other apart.

Because of the division these guys have helped to generate, there is no longer much rational thought being applied to politics these days. There is no longer any commitment to 'right and wrong'. Only to 'right and left'.

On the one hand this gang egged the whole thing on when the Rebublicans went after Clinton relentlessly for 8 years and impeached him for lying about having sex with another consenting adult civilian. But this same gang has found a way to rationalize, justify, and even MAKE NOBLE, Bush's lying...which got us into 2 wars, has us illegally occupying two countries at incredible expense, and for which 3,100+ Americans and untold innocent civilians of said countries have DIED unnecessarily. As in, 'will have no chance to live life'. As in, 'dead and gone forever'. As in, 'NEVER coming home to their wives, children, and mothers'.

The scale of this whitewashing by the conservative press is absolutely STAGGERING in it's proportions. I mean, how lying about a bl*w job can somehow be WORSE than lying about WMD and getting 3,100 young Americans KILLED is really mind-boggling to me.

But the wackos like O'Reilly have spun it so that their listeners, who are more interested in right v. left than right v. wrong, can rationalize it in their own minds.

The moral compass is just completely GONE. And guys like O'Reilly have contributed to it's destruction by offering legitimacy to hatred.

That is the main reason why I dislike Fox News so much. To me, there is a difference between favoring the 'normal' conservative agenda and the 'journalism' that is directly contributing to the destruction of this country.

And Fox condones, and even encourages, both.

Posted: April 16th, 2007, 2:00 pm
by SSO Admins
I don't disagree with anything you said. But as Chris pointed out in the Olberman/O'reilly thread (proving again that he is at least as wise and diplomatic as he is wrong :)) those guys are pundits. Their job is to give opinions.

If people are getting their news from pundits on the left or the right that's a problem, but that's not the same as having reporters be up front about their biases.

Posted: April 16th, 2007, 2:10 pm
by movieman1957
[quote="jondaris"]I don't disagree with anything you said. But as Chris pointed out in the Olberman/O'reilly thread (proving again that he is at least as wise and diplomatic as he is wrong :))

Thanks(?) :)

Posted: April 16th, 2007, 4:01 pm
by SSO Admins
Well it was a compliment.

Posted: April 16th, 2007, 9:27 pm
by movieman1957
I know. Thanks

Posted: April 17th, 2007, 1:05 pm
by Ayres
It is my husband's contention that the tone of these "shouting commentators" is leading to a general breakdown of civility and the kind of interactions we are so weary of reading on the original TCM discussion forum.

Posted: April 17th, 2007, 1:13 pm
by ken123
Civility doe not exist in 21st Century America. :cry:

Posted: April 17th, 2007, 3:28 pm
by movieman1957
Ken:

It's alive and well and quite comfortable right here.

Posted: April 17th, 2007, 5:36 pm
by ken123
Movieman1957,
You are correct. This site is an Oasis of sanity,in a sea of lunacy. :lol:

Posted: April 18th, 2007, 7:30 pm
by klondike
Wall Street Journal over breakfast, MSN.com late morning, BBC World News over supper, Paul Harvey News & Comment, usually about twice mid-week, over lunch.

Posted: April 21st, 2007, 6:47 am
by Mr. Arkadin
I hate all those news channels. Local channels are good for weather and that's about it. I take a couple of different papers.