Once news departments had to “make money” with their programs, journalistic integrity slowly eroded into the sorry state it exists today. It doesn’t matter so much the bias of a news program, but the fact that they are trying to “sell” you the news. Get money for their advertisers, etc.

IMHO.

The Outfoxed documentary was excellent and more important than Farenheit 9/11. It was not funny and clever like Michael Moore, but it exposed the fact that the Republicans domination of politics and the media have become dangerous and unchallenged.

It is interesting to me how the Republicans are unwilling to take responsibility for anything and have now used the “liberal media” as the standard argument for everything that is wrong with America. FoxNews uses this same demagoguery to justify their existence. In a sense they claim to be heroically rescueing America from the “liberal media” with Fair and Balanced coverage.

The whole Foxnews/Republican marriage is looking more like a Kremlin propagandafest. Ironic, in that we won the cold war (give thanks to Ronald Reagan), that we are drifting dangerously toward an Orwellian world where propadanga masquerades as truth.

I have heard two Fox shows attacked here. Neither were news shows. O’Reilly, who is extremely popular, is not giving news – that’s an opinion show. Complaining about its bias is like complaining about an editorial. Also, BTW, I can’t stand the guy, because he is a know-it-all blowhard who abuses his guests. He is not, however, a conservative – he is all over the map.

The other had guests yelling at each other. Most likely, that was Hannity and Colmes. It is Fox’s equivalent of CNN’s shoutfest, except done with more decorum.

As a Vietnam Veteran, I am active in Vietnam Veteran issues this year – specifically anti-Kerry activism. I have rarely seen as much bias as the mainstream media has exerted against those who, with solid credentials, attack Kerry’s wartime or anti-war activities.

Everyone went after Bush for every imagined offense in the TANG (as an ex military reserve aviator, I know how silly those charges were). But when the entire chain of command above Kerry from ‘Nam unanimously pronounced him unfit for command, it was buried. Fox took the group’s spokesman on Hannity and Colmes. All other TV networks completely ignored it, except CBS who did a “kill the messenger” hit job on it..

There is a whole collection of very negative information about John Kerry, both his combat time and his anti-war time. Good luck finding it anywhere but in blogspace.

As a minor example, you would think it would be news when a totalitarian state puts out, via its official news agency, very negative information about the US, and includes John Kerry’s past statements, quoting him by name. Check out the Vietnam News Service for June. Nobody in the press did, at all.

So it hardly surprises me when a hit-Fox show is done. It also doesn’t surprise me when memos that aimed at balance were left out of the memos in the documentary, leaving an unbalanced view of the, well, unbalance.

I also want to point out that a recent Yale study on media bias found Fox News Special Report to be the most centrist of all shows, with all other outlets clustering close together on the scale (rederived ADA rating), farther to the left that the mean of the Democrats in Congress.

I have never considered Fox “fair an balanced,” but compared to such pathetically biased outfits as CBS and the New York Times – FOX is a Heinlein’s Fair Witness.

When you actually have first hand knowledge of issues, it’s a lot easier to judge whether the news is truthful or not. I have that knowledge, and the media scores an F. Not even Fox does that well. Anyone who imagines Fox to be a Republican mouthpiece hasn’t watched it very long. I wish it were… it would help balance out the many Democrat mouthpieces. But it isn’t and it doesn’t.

I used to listen to Communist propaganda – Radio Moscow and Radio Havana. Our main stream media today is at the Radio Moscow stage – they put out well done propaganda, using the standard tricks – pejoratives about conservatives, warm and fuzzy words about the left, facts left out that change the meaning, etc.

A simple example is the Sandy Berger taking highly classified documents story. First, let me comment that what he did was felonious – serious felonies. But if you read the New York Times of the Washington Post, you find out that the real scandal here is someone (presumed to be in the Bush Administration) let the word out. Talk about bias! The real story is this Kerry adviser illegally and on several occasions took extremely classified documents (each time a 10 year felony) and lost some of them.

It would be nice if we had news outlets with a variety of positions. Today, on TV, there are two positions: the Anybody But Bush position of CBS.CNN.ABC.NBC and the position of Fox, whatever that is.

Fox News presents themselves as a fair, balanced reporting. But they clearly are not. There is nothing wrong with them being conservative, but claiming to be otherwise (as they do) is misleading. I guarantee that viewers with whom they resonate believe that they are being given a fair, balanced perspective on the News.

As a moderate, who appreciates a balanced argument, I say — make Fox ditch the “Fair and Balanced” logo. They are welcome to be the Conservative News Network. Or more accurately, the Rupert Murdoch GOP News Network. Or, since all their news is actually conservative opinion in disguise, how about The Rupert Murdoch GOP Conservative Opinion News Network.

Then viewers would have the information they need to make an informed choice. And it has a nice ring to it.

Thank you for helping to produce this thought provoking movie.