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Posted on 02/21/2005 4:48:48 AM PST by fanfan
Making airwaves Liberal thought-control cops just can't tolerate Fox News
By Paul Jackson -- Calgary Sun
"The CBC would be laughed off the air in the United States. It's so blatantly dishonest," -- Bill O'Reilly, Fox News
Well, Bill, forgive me, but I've been saying that for years.
That said, your nightly presentation, The O'Reilly Factor, has now become my favourite TV show. So much so that, if I have a commitment elsewhere, I tape it. It's a no-miss event.
Yes, friends, through Starchoice I've become a devotee of Fox News, (www.foxnews.com) the most popular all-news TV network in the U.S., and the one the Liberal-dominated Canadian Radio-telecommunications and Television Commission (CRTC) tried to prevent Canadians from watching.
Why? Because it openly gives a voice to conservative commentators rather than the Lib-Left establishment. And, naturally, the thought-control police of the Jean Chretien/Paul Martin regimes can't tolerate anything that doesn't walk the official Lib-Left line.
Think of 1984's George Orwell and his perceptive warning: "I believe totalitarian ideas have taken root in the minds of pseudo-intellectuals everywhere."
They surely have in each and every agency of the Liberal government.
If we Canadians were allowed to hear another viewpoint on the airwaves, we might start having doubts about the propaganda the Liberal machine and its seemingly wholly-owned subsidiaries, the CBC and Maclean's magazine churn out.
Hey, is this a democracy or not? Only, apparently, if you toe to the Lib-left line. If you don't, you're rated as "someone of suspicion," a "heretic," and somewhat "unCanadian."
I guess I am all three in the Liberal Black Book.
Even CTV NewsNet -- my favourite Canadian TV news channel -- has to operate in a straitjacket so its shameless equivalent, CBC Newsworld, gets a free ride on all the big stories -- and gives them a Lib-left slant. If you want fairness, Global-TV is a far better watch than CBC any day of the week.
Whatever, for years Canadians were forbidden to watch Fox News -- Big Brother saw to that -- but the CRTC made one huge error. It gave the green light to the Islamic terrorists' favourite network, al-Jazeera, to pipe its anti-America drivel into Canadian minds, and with that, the charade that there wasn't enough room for another all-news channel fell through.
So now, I get to watch the likes of O'Reilly -- simply the best commentator on TV anywhere -- Sean Hannity, Rita Cosby, Geraldo Rivera, Greta Van Susteren and Col. Oliver North giving me the true goods.
Now, some 20 years ago, when North was being hounded over the arms-for-contras operation (That helped free Nicaragua from Communist rule) I sent $25 US to his defence fund, and have had a soft spot for him ever since. Stars such as Rivera and Van Susteren fled the other networks for Fox News
Fox News' slogan, echoed by all, but I like it especially when quoted by the gorgeous newscaster Page Hopkins, is: "Only one network has Real Journalism. Fair and Balanced. That's why we're Number One."
Fox News is No. 1, too. When asked about this, Ted Turner, founder of CNN (Clinton Network News, as it is mockingly called), spluttered something like, "Yeah, well Adolf Hitler was the most popular politician in Germany for a while, so what do numbers matter?" Obviously, Ted's a poor loser. He should never have got tied up with "Hanoi" Jane Fonda.
Yet aside from being No. 1, Fox News really is fair and balanced. OK, it has frequent conservative guests such as North, Ronald Reagan's secretary of defence Casper Weinberger and Reagan's secretary of state Alexander Haig, but it gives an awful lot of time to Liberals and Democratic senators, including the tiresome Teddy Kennedy -- who still needs to take swimming lessons, majoring in lifesaving -- the fatuous Hillary Clinton, and the ranting minority House leader Nancy Pelosi.
This is quite clever -- the more viewers see and hear the banalities these hypocrites have to say, the more principled and prescient American conservatives appear.
As an aside, the only Democratic senator who is talking sense these days is Joseph Lieberman. A top-notch fellow, who must privately anguish over what his party has become.
To demonstrate, again, how fearful the Liberal establishment in Canada has become over Fox News' appearances in our benighted land, the CBC's Fifth Estate recently did a knife job on it! O'Reilly said Canadians should be ashamed their government was subsidizing such trash. True, Bill, but I thought it was great publicity for Fox News.
I'll never forget the day Murdoch announced he was creating a new 24 cable news station to compete with CNN. The MSM laughed. They're not laughing today.
What a good article to start the day off with!
I still shudder at the thought that the USA has become so socialistic that a liberal like Geraldo Rivera would be thought of as a "conservative" ?!!?
This is why FOX is Fair and Balanced! To all those naysayers that complain about some of the leftist that appear on FOX, thats what makes the programming so great. Yes, Juan Williams and the likes of him are lefties but so what, I would rather hear both sides than just the party line, it shows how foolish they are.
It wouldn't be "Fair and Balanced" if it was ALL conservative.
Fox has never claimed to be a "conservative network". That's a tag that the Liberals put on it, and they NEVER get anything right.
It's actually Canada that has become so socialist.
Now Greta and Geraldo is a longer story; but nonetheless - despite Geraldo's insufferable and idiotic case of 'Michael-Molester Blindness' - I am glad that both he and Greta make their home at Fox News. . .
The liberals have started referring to Murdoch's network as "Faux News." That's rather clever. Of course, the most brilliant and effective such one-liner ever crafted was our very own "Sore Loserman." Such sloganeering can actually have quite significant effects.
oops! 'Candadiens' - reads better as Canadians. . .(Candadiens are extra-terrestrial - though more than few now live in Canada)
Ping
"It wouldn't be "Fair and Balanced" if it was ALL conservative.
Fox has never claimed to be a "conservative network". That's a tag that the Liberals put on it, and they NEVER get anything right."
According to a poll (sorry, no links) I remeber, FOX News split 80/20 contributing to Dems/Pubs in 2004 presidential election, while MSM was a 96/4 split. They are still heavily Dems, but appparently believe in presenting both sides.
Not agreeing with everything O'R says means slamming him?
"Oddly, those who would take him off the air for speaking his mind are both left and right."
Uh, just because I think he's a mental lightweight, and no conservative by any stretch, doesn't mean I "would take him off the air", and I doubt anyone else who dislikes him on the Right would suggest doing so either.
Qwinn
I wish I had saved some of the posts I've seen here to share with you.
When you say "would take him off the air", are you talking about hoping he gets canned cause he sucks? Or are you talking about having the government -force- him off the air, the way the Canadian government did?
I have a very hard time believing that conservatives would support the latter. I suspect you're conflating an expression of desire for the former with the latter, which is obviously unfair on an entire slew of different levels.
Qwinn
One cannot rave about Fox News without mentioning Brit Hume. Simply the best they have on a number of fronts. Fair, smart, funny, honest and no-nonsense. If not for the enormous news competition he has; locals at 6pm and all the networks hitting him at 6:30pm, his numbers would dwarf B.O..
Bottom line is Fox News is DOMINATING the ratings. Pure and simple. The Nelson ratings show every single Fox News primetime show besting in the ratings than any other show on CNN, MSNBC or CNBC.
I have always said the deep down the majority of Americans are conservative in nature. FNC is not a "Conservative" network but it does give them the best platform, the most honest platform to speak from.
The viewing public are the ones that decide which network has the best ratings. Personaly O'Rielly is a bit "Pompus" for my liking but I still watch.
Funny you never read or hear WHY Fox News has DOMINATED the ratings. Do the liberals think that Karl Rove has secretly installed chips in Cable and Sat boxes to block CNN and others for FNC? The way they are acting since the elction, I expect to see an article posted here on Freep sayhing exactly that.
Agreed. Brit Hume is the best thing Fox News has going for it. Oh, if they would only replace the touchy-feely "Fox and Friends" in the morning with a real news show like Hume's.......
There are some here that are perfectly happy to throw the baby out with the bath water.
There are subjects I don't agree with O'Reilly on ("global warming"), but I'm glad he's on our side. The fact that the left hates him makes him OK in my book.
My personal ratings...
O'Reilly = 3 (Disrespectful towards Swiftees)
Sean Hannity = 7 (Buy my book!)
Rita Cosby = 8 (If I can ever get over her strange voice I tend to like her)
Geraldo Rivera = 2 (You can take the liberal scumwad out of the sewer...)
Greta Van Susteren = 5 (She's gets obsessed with things that should be better left to the local news)
Col. Oliver North = 10+ (Col North has a perpetual invitation to my home, and I will watch him over anyone else on any news network, including FOX.)
Why can't Murdoch figure a way to simulcast on the public channels? I can't afford cable.
For whatever reason Fox has decided not to go with the tratitional network news route.
I like Bill.
I just think he seems to WANT to take up weak points or postions sometimes JUST so he can 'mix it up' and not appear 'too conservative'.
Like one show he'll make some random argument that conflicts with his usualy mentality. Not all that often, but enough to annoy people.
Bill O'R is fine by me - I agree with him 3/4 or more of the time (often much more) so by my scorecard, that makes him aok (though a shameless self promoter)!
Your rating is right on the money.
I think shameless promotion is all part of the business since a show has to be entertaining to stay around. I had mixed feelings about O'Reilly until I was given his book for Christmas. I am interested (now) to see the one he wrote for kids.
There's nothing idiotic about Geraldo regarding the Jackson thing. He is a good marketer. All the fish are swimming in one direction (Jacko is guilty), so in order to get attention he swims the other way (Jacko is innocent). He then makes himself part of the story by announcing his moustache challenge.
It isn't idiotic (it might be silly). It's just how Geraldo makes himself part of the story and promotes himself. I bet he thinks Jacko is guilty, but he is going with the smart money - not guilty, the facts be damned.
I think self promotion is part of the business, but I don't care for the 'shameless' part.
Bill O'R hawking his pay-per-view website, t-shirts, doormats, etc. at alarming frequencies. Sean Hannity can't go 6 minutes without shilling for his latest book or tonight's H&C ("Newt Gingrich will stop by, Michelle Malkin will be there, and Ann Coulter breaks from her busy schedule to visit" - by the way, that's the typical H&C and probnably applies to 25% of the episodes!).
It's the shameless part that turns me off. Mike Medved has a new book and he doesn't obsess over it. Neither does Tammy Bruce or Dennis Prager. Mike Savage gives away a copy of his latest book 2x an hour, it seems, but that's far from some other shameless shilling I have seen.
It makes these fellas easy to make fun of. And I do like to make fun of them! :-)
(Denny Crane: There are two places to find the truth. First God and then Fox News.")
"Watch this thread. The fact that he refuses to take a party line for republicans, even though his views are solidly conservative with a libertarian flavor, he will get slammed by people here."
O'Reilly can have his show. Just because some of us loathe the guy and refuse to watch him doesn't mean we want him censored. That's how the lefties operate.
I don't think it is "solidly conservative" to tell his millions of viewers that the federal assault weapons ban outlawed "machine guns". Ignorance is not pretty no matter who displays it.
It the writer a Freeper? He should be if he isn't.
You need to keep in mind that the article is from a Canadian perspective. To us, the whole Fox network is like a breath of fresh air. :-)
It's a big crack in the liberal's armor up here.
We can stream them, but that means staying close to a computer, and of course we can't do that all the time. :-(
Regarding your list, I agree with the ones I've listened to. Sean Hannity, Geraldo Rivera , and Greta Van Susteren.
Good point. I don't know. I'll write him, and see.
I have a rating system also:
Lauren Green: 10
Rebecca Gomez: 10
Heather Nauert: 10
Paige Hopkins: 10
need I say more?
. . .pretty cynical. . .calling him idiotic almost a compliment by comparison (!)
I disagree, however as I think Geraldo really does think Jackson incapable of charges. . .he sees no more than a kid - a strange kid - in a grown-up body; a Peter Pan, and like Peter. . .some enemies who want to take advantage. < P>OTOH; I see a strange duck. . .who talks the talk. . .and walks the walk. . .to mix my metaphors; so to speak.
Geraldo also defended Clinton. . .thought Paula Jones was lying and all the rest. . .
I think Geraldo's believes his friends are no more 'guilty' of bad judgment; than he has ever been.
Real 'gonzo' journalism; at it's best or worst.
"I believe totalitarian ideas have taken root in the minds of pseudo-intellectuals." - George Orwell.
Great line, gotta remember it.
True line, eh?
And Zell Miller.
Yes.
"A top-notch fellow"? You've got to be kidding me. Lieberman is a whore. Any credibility he had was lost forever during the 2000 campaign. He went from being a fairly centrist, decent person to being a shrieking liberal harpy all so he could attempt for a VP slot.
Yep, I remember that as he alienated some very good Republican friends (Bill Bennett) as he reversed several of his long held personal beliefs. Whether it was Hollywood's influence, Social Security or vouchers, Joe did a 180 to the dismay of a lot of his supporters. While I'm happy to see he is somewhat back on track, I'll always remember how easily he jumped it.
Nah, I think its just marketing.
Same reason I felt Peggy Noonan didn't like the Prez's speech: A Peggy Noonan who likes it (along with the rest of the columnists on her side of the aisle) isn't a story. But, if she doesn't like it, all of a sudden. Peggy Noonan is the story. Gets her buzz and publicity.
Not cynical. Street smart, I'd say.
And they're too stupid to try to emulate his business model.
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