It’s a shame that the only time Fox gets called out is when they smear other reporters, but this is, at least, a start.
I’ve never understood why reporters aren’t openly hostile to Fox “News.” They’re taking the profession of journalism and turning it into even more of a joke. You would think that would upset serious reporters and people who take pride in their work.
Comrade Javamanphil
It would make Sally Quinn’s cocktail parties awkward.
Joey Maloney
Because someday they might need a “job” there.
Unicorns, fairies, leprechauns, the Kraken, and all the other mythical creatures are quite annoyed, too.
me
I got some comments for Doocy. Hey Steve, you are a moronic piece of shit!
inkadu
Reporters are all worried they’ll say something incredibly racist on air and lose their job. When that happens, Fox News is there for them. Why attack your insurance policy?
I’m kinda surprised Michael Richards doesn’t have a show.
Zifnab
Serious reporters don’t work for major news outlets. Even the slightly unserious ones – Keith Olbermann, for instance – aren’t allowed to pick fights with the competition because FOX just starts flinging poo at the network owners.
When O’Reilly started going after GE, Olbermann got his choke-chain yanked.
funluvn
Poor Douchy! Be all fair and balanced and this is the thanks you get.
Gag….
Napoleon
John,
Maybe this has something to do with it:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/07/business/media/07carr.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=fox&st=cse&oref=slogin
geg6
@Zifnab:
I can get behind this theory.
There have, however, lately been some stirrings among the Villagers regarding the wingnut wurlitzer. True, they are faint, faint stirrings, but when the most egregiously CW media outlet starts calling out Fixed News “personalities,” I feel a little of that spidey sense that, perhaps some day soon, the worm will turn.
But then, my hopes have been dashed about a zillion times before, so I only take my spidey sensations with a grain of salt.
JGabriel
John Cole:
It’s important to remember, and easy to forget, that television “reporters” are largely photogenic readers who earn six to seven figure salaries.
Many of them don’t care that much about honest journalism, and don’t want to denigrate a network they may (and hope to) work for someday. Especially if that network’s political agenda helps keeps their tax burdens low.
.
Ash Can
This is 33 flavors of awesome, including Doocy characterizing Politico as an extreme left-wing website, and using an evidently right-wingnut comment from a Politico thread as an example.
Obviously, as you imply, the profession is lacking in “serious reporters,” but the speculation I’ve seen repeated here and there about newsies being unwilling to piss Ailes off out of the fear that some day they’d be forced to work for him makes a lot of sense as well. Still, it’s nice to see Ben Smith (with whom, despite his Politico address, I don’t recall ever having a quarrel), at the very least, standing up to the horseshit.
cleek
where would they do this?
reporters usually don’t talk about other networks. they don’t run stories about the competition.
Stillwater
Hahaha!
Morbo
I have no hard liquor in the house; this sentence makes me want to rethink that.
gene108
@Joey Maloney:
Also, Murdoch and most right-wing
business owners, errr…philanthropists actually, don’t care if they make money on their media enterprises, as long as they can either influence public debate or piss off liberals and hopefully accomplish both at the same time.I mean, who would want to bitch slap a sugar-daddy like Murdoch or any of his “news” outlets around because they are full of crap?
It’s a sweet gig if you can get it, so not only may they get a “job” there, they may well end up in a bullet proof position, where nothing they do can get them fired, so long as they tow the company line.
Rommie
Yeah, like others have said, the serious reporters who take pride in their work LIKE the land of Oz that FOX has created, and they do not want to anger the wizard who might sign the paycheck down the road. Heaven forbid anyone dare pull back the curtain!
If you remember, it was the dog that gave Oz away. What’s the equivalent for revealing FOX crystal-clear?
Allan
Death panels, Obama’s a Kenyan Muslim, government takeover of health care are all important questions about which both sides must be aired so that the American people can make up their own mind.
But Ben Smith can report with 100% certitude that Politico is not a liberal publication and anyone who says so is a dirty liar.
Alan
IFC’s Onion News Network is the best news on television. It puts the rest to shame.
somethingblue
, said well-known liberal blogger John Cole. But not all observers agree. Moderate commentator William Kristol, for example, observes that …
liberal
Junod wrote that article on Ailes? I don’t know how good an investigative reporter he is, but from his article(s) in a “best true crime” series, he’s a very good writer.
merrinc
Seriously? Where might we find such people? Edward Murrow has probably turned over in his grave so many times that his corpse has disintegrated.
In other news, the newspaper serving the largest city in this state actually thought about using public records laws to get their grubby hands on city and town email lists. Not for any sort of investigative reporting, mind you, as the request came from a product development honcho. After a huge public outcry, they backed down.
kindness
Jesus look at the Washington Press Corps. They are the biggest circle jerk in the world. And keeping with their motto of always protecting who is wanking them at any one time they will trash out at any and all who are not fluffing them.
It’s disgusting that such powerful people will parade their egos around and act like that is an adult behaviour.
DougJ DougJson
They are hostile, they’re just afraid to say so in public because (a) they don’t want to get threats and (b) they fear they may have to get a job at Fox sometime.
shortstop
@Ash Can:
The few times I’ve skimmed the Politico comment threads before my eyes burned and I had to turn away, I’ve been hard pressed to locate anything but right-wing belchings. That’s how Doocy tells Politico is “lefty”–it’s so fiendishly clever it has overwhelmingly wingnut commenters, just to throw off suspicion. But you can’t fool the tall blond fellow with the perpetually bewildered expression and 2cm between his eyes.
slag
@DougJ DougJson:
Spare me. I am old enough to remember when the Obama Administration was calling out Faux on their fauxness. China couldn’t build fainting couches fast enough to accommodate all the hard-working, professional folks of the news media at that time.
mk3872
John:
Because they all WANT to work for Fox News.
The vast majority are willing to sacrifice principles and integrity for the mucho $$ that Murdoch pays.
Best not to p-off Ailes & Murdoch and instead apply for open positions in Fox News or WSJ or Daily News, etc.
RosiesDad
Fear would be my guess. The only two guys with sac enough to go after Fox day after day are Jon Stewart and Olbermann. Because they don’t give a shit what Fox or its viewers think.
catclub
@slag: The NYT article an earlier poster (Napoleon @#7) referred to was from 2008, then the next posting said he had a spider sense that things were changing in the attitude to Fox. That conjunction of postings says to me: no change.
The 2008 NYT article was interesting, and it does reinforce the total war approach of Fox to the rest of the journalism world, while expecting to be treated as an equal. Nice scam they have going.
slag
@catclub: That was an interesting, if not surprising, article. And I would totally get it if the rest of the media stayed silent when the admin went after Faux. But they didn’t. They all became part of the Faux PR machine at that time, which tells me that, not only do they not have spines, they don’t have scruples.
PTirebiter
@Napoleon: That’s an incredible story. Thanks for the link.
GregB
Cole, get ready for a phone call.
The best part of Roger Ailes ended up as a stain on a mattress under that flaccid ass of Luncianne Goldberg.
Oh yeah, Roger Ailes is not Hitler. He’s Hermann Goering minus the silky underwear.
RosiesDad
@Napoleon: Carr is a really good writer and he tells stories well. If you enjoyed that, read his autobiography, “Night of the Gun.” He’s a recovering drug abuser and alcoholic; it’s amazing that he survived his younger life to end up where he is today.
rickstersherpa
By the way, it was David Carr, not David Poague, who had the flame war with Fox two years ago. And I did do the “raise eye-brow” thing when Doocy referred to Politico as “Left Wing” (if Politico is left wing in Doocy’s world view, then he must find “Human Events” and “NRO” dull and centrist).
Napoleon
@RosiesDad:
I heard several interviews with him in support of that book and it did sound very interesting, as did Carr.
Jay Andrew Allen
In all fairness, I’ve talked to that guy, and he’s pretty pissed.
trollhattan
@Alan:
Good lord I finally watched the first episode last night. Hilarious and over the top only begin to describe it. I don’t know whether they’ll be able to keep up the frenetic pace, but I can understand why it’s only once a week.
Loved the anchor’s constant references to her looks, including, “We chose this panel to make me look even better” or something to that effect. Also, too, airlifting in a hair and makeup team so they can be kidnapped and fix the hostage reporter’s flat hair.
RosiesDad
@Napoleon: It was scary. He fell as far as you can fall and not end up dead. That he raised his twins to be pretty normal and functional and went on to a career writing at the Times is nothing short of remarkable.
RosiesDad
@trollhattan: SportsDome, (on Comedy Central), their homage to ESPN, is equally hilarious.
Ruckus
@JGabriel:
Lots of money buys off a modicum of pride every day. Most of us do this to some extent in our jobs because we want to keep them. Reminds me of the old joke, We have figured out what you are, we’re just negotiating the price.
trollhattan
@RosiesDad:
Good to know! I kan haz more Onion nao?
Downpuppy
Consider what the AP calls Fact Check
What’s the problem with Fox, again?
RosiesDad
@trollhattan: Sure.
Enjoy!
Steve M.
Ailes is become nearly Loughneresque in his belief that enemies lurk everywhere (Jeff Immelt! Yes, even now that Immelt’s company has rid itself of NBC).
And Ailes has decided that Politico is one of its mortal enemies — or “Left-Wing Politico,” as his Fox Nation site always refers to it these days.
JWL
I don’t put much stock in journalistic “pride”. Think back to the outing of Valerie Plame, and the number of journalists who knew the score but kept their mouths shut. And that’s just for starters.
Caz
Well it’s a wondr then that Fox has all of the top ten news programs. Americans trust Fox to deliver the news in a professional and accurate manner. And Fox provides opinions from both sides so the American people can decide for themselves. There is a reason why more and more people are tuning in to Fox, and leaving MSNBC, ABC, CNN, etc.
If they were so horrible, why are so many people watching? Clearly, biased reporting isn’t why, or MSNBC would be killing in the ratings, and they aren’t – not by a longshot. So it must be for another reason. Hmm, I wonder why.
Instead of constantly criticizing it, perhaps you should actually watch it – you might learn something.
Cris
@Caz: Impressive spoof.
Caz
Cris, what the hell is that supposed to mean? How about giving me a real answer as to why Fox is so popular.
pattonbt
@Caz:
Because simple slogans, blind promises and “common sense” (yet completely impossible) solutions to complex problems are an easier sell to people than facts, hard work and deep policy discussions when dealing with the ills of the nation/world which require serious introspection and personal responsibility for our own actions and beliefs? But, no, that couldn’t be it could it.
The same reasons why reality TV is the most popular form of entertainment – bread and circuses.
Caz
pattonbt, can you give me an example of the following from Fox News:
1. simple slogans.
2. blind promises.
3. “common sense,” yet impossible, solutions.
Unlike reality TV, Fox is not entertainment – it’s news. And I think the viewership of Fox is a lot different than that of reality TV.
If you think Fox doesn’t have deep policy discussions, then you obviously need to watch it more often. Which news channel do you think DOES have deep policy discussions?
pattonbt
@Caz:
Fox is not entertainment? Fox is all entertainment, or more accurately, 2 minutes of actual news (or what I would call straight reporting of events that are or have happened) for every 58 minutes of infotainment/opinion. That said, I don’t think any of the other channels are much better and none have what I would consider deep, intellectually honest policy discussions. That does not sell. TV is not in the business of news, it’s in the business of sales and sensation sells, not facts.
All I’ll say is if you disagree with my statement that Fox is simply a propaganda outfit for the right and not a serious source of news/facts, I would simply have you Google the polls done on how Fox viewers do on factual questionnaires versus non-Fox news watchers. Pretty telling those results.
Triassic Sands
@Caz:
@Caz:
The reason Fox is popular is quite simple and it is the same explanation for countless other perversities in American society — most Americans are really, really stupid. They’re also lazy, selfish, dishonest, and fickle. A perfect fit for Fox’s product.
brantl
How many of those are really left? Seriously
brantl
@Caz: Caz, you really are an idiot. “Lower taxes” isn’t a deep policy discussion.
brantl
@Caz: Maybe it’s because FOX is basic cable, and crazy cheap old people who don’t get out enough to see that they are full of shit watch it, which explains why the median age of the FOX viewer is in the seventies?