In my opinion, Fox News Channel has reached Dante's Fifth Level (Anger) in their descent to Journalistic Hell. For months, they have been diligent in digging toward this tier by ignoring anything that begins to look like 'journalistic objectivity' or 'journalistic integrity'. Instead, 24/7, they shriek how horrible Trump is, how terrible a president he will be. Never mind that they have no way of knowing what kind of president he will be since he's never held public office. Instead, their matra is 'We'll ignore that and don't bother us with the facts, they're unimportant'.
Fox, as a 'news' outlet, has the obligation to be objective - not
biased. Trump, on the other hand, has no such obligation. He is just
being Trump and he has every right to be Trump. Smart or stupid, good or bad, on point and fact or not - he has just as much right to be who he is as any other individual. Although, given that he is running for the highest office in the land, he does have an obligation to stop being stupid, start being smart, and be presidential in demeanor.
Fox, as a news organization, has a responsibility to remain objective, to report and let viewers decide. If
they are going to slant things as they see fit, regardless of the facts,
they are no longer a news organization. They are an opinion organization and the 'PRESS' credentials can be flushed. It has gotten so bad that Fox News has openly become the television equivalent to the old Soviet news outlet Pravda. They are nothing more than a propaganda outlet for the #NeverTrump campaign.
Look at who they talk to: Rich Lowry of the National Review which put out an entire edition dedicated to #NeverTrump blathering. George Will - also of the National Review and another card carrying member of the #NeverTrump group. Bill Kristol of The Weekly Standard and another Washington Insider who Trump scares the pants off. Karl Rove, a worn out political advisor with a white board. He's the one who brought us George Bush II who brought us the economic melt-down that just won't go away.
When Fox does fumigate its hallways and allow one of Trump's supporters in, they are so snotty, so rude and obviously in pain to allow that person to speak, it's palpable in my living room. It's disgusting.
Fox's tagline should be changed to 'Unfair and Biased', which is observable fact, or they should change their name entirely to Pravda-USA.
Twenty-five years or so ago, CNN was the network 'everyone' watched. It was the first 24-hour news outlet. At first we watched because we didn't have a choice. If we wanted to know what was going on in the world, CNN was the only choice but we still, at the time, adopted from others that CNN stood for
'Clinton News
Network'. It was all Clinton, all positive, all the time - and
it left us feeling cheated. We saw it as nothing more than a propaganda
mouthpiece for the Clinton administration. No matter what Billy-Jeff
did, CNN would ignore or parse the truth until the truth became
unrecognizable.
Then Fox News appeared. It became available on our cable service and as soon as we could, we switched. We were tired of the ridiculous leftist bias and, for the past decade and more, it seemed to be the better choice. They didn't have an obvious bias. They did try to show both sides of the picture and then let the viewer decide.
That, however, has changed and the change is accelerating - sliding into a terminal downward spiral. They'll probably just leap right over Levels Six (Heresy) and Seven (Violence) and settle in at home at Level Eight - Treachery. When I do pause to see what's happening on Fox, there are strong whiffs of sulfur from that Level already.
In the past few years, chinks began to appear at Fox. Little things, like their coverage of breaking news events. We found ourselves glued to CNN because their reporting was broader, more incisive and, overall, better. When disaster struck, Choice No. 1 became CNN. Oh, yeah, we would flip back once in a while, but the majority of our viewing during times of crisis was kept to CNN. We still didn't watch regularly because they still had that heavy leftward tilt.
This election cycle, though, the tilt has gone wildly in the other direction over on Fox. They have such a hate thing going against Trump - almost across the talking-head spectrum - that they have become not just biased, but have made it perfectly clear that they are a major contributor to the #NeverTrump campaign. Perhaps not in dollars, but in free media time, and it's disgraceful.
The list of #NeverTrump campaigners is long: Megyn Kelly, Charles Krauthammer, Chris Wallace, Bill O'Reilly, Brett Baier, David Asman, Karl Rove and many others. Because of their open and flagrant opposition to one political candidate over the other, they have lost any journalistic qualities they might have once had.
Aside from that, they report fluff over substance. Case in point: This morning I turned on the news. It happened that the station was CNN. They were showing a Pentagon debriefing in which a couple of DoD types were talking about the killing of a top leader of ISIS. That is pertinent news - it's top of the stack for most people around the world because what are we all talking about when it comes to world affairs? ISIS. From that, CNN switched to reports about raids and arrests in Belgium. They showed video of one suspect being shot and taken into custody.
Curious, I flipped over to Fox to see what they were reporting and... Laughably, embarrassing to Roger Ailes and his Fox News organization, they were talking about some human interest story somewhere in middle America. Then they started talking about a new iPhone gizmo.
Really? A news outlet that has feeds to major breaking news around the world chooses to show and bloviate about cops shoveling snow (good for them, it's a good deed but not potentially of international import) and a new iPhone doodad. Fox has lost it for me - zero credibility across the board - although I will still watch Fox Business News over CNBC because they, at least have a brain and know where it's kept.
My leaving Fox is primarily because their bias / hatred of Donald Trump is so flagrant. Almost across the board there is absolutely nothing like 'fair and balanced' in their reporting on him. There are exceptions, but they are very few and very far between.
Sean Hannity is one. He does an excellent job of keeping it fair and balanced. My problem with him, though, is that he has a litany of ills that he repeats like the Catechism or a priest's penance after confession. Turning on his show I can count on at least ten minutes every night going through that litany as he ticks them off on his fingers. It's a waste of time after the third iteration and annoying after the fifth.
Lou Dobbs is another. I love that man - he's got a great sense of humor, he's quick and he's smart. When someone says something stupid or questionable, he's not going to give it pass - he'll ask for more or clarification or outright challenge the statement. He's also up to talking in a balanced fashion about the GOP candidates - and I appreciate that.
Neil Cavuto is pure smart / funny. I love him, too (although the constant 'thank you very, very much' gets to be very, very annoying). He's another who keeps it real, who doesn't openly take sides in this match.
Among these three I don't know who is supporting whom in this race - although I have my suspicions - but at least they aren't out trashing one candidate over and over again. If someone does or says something stupid, they report it and move on - they don't belabor it ad nauseum the way Fox Opinion / Pravda-USA does.
So for me, no more. It's open war on Trump, using their FCC license without compunction to sway voters and it's despicable. Fox News has become Pravda-USA - a political propaganda mouthpiece for The Weekly Standard, the National Review, the Washington Establishment and the Donor Class so, since I have a choice, I'll go back to watching CNN.
It is still, disgustingly, the Clinton News Network when the discussion is between the DNC and the RNC or the Dems and GOP, but at least there is some semblance of balance and, when real news is breaking, they're on it.
See ya Roger! Bye Megyn! Hello, Anderson and Don and Dana!
Hope you'll pass the word and then join me.
Best~
Philippa
Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PhilippaStories
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