Posted on 09/18/2004 10:35:55 AM PDT by Pikamax
This Time Bill O'Reilly Got It Right
F a stopped clock is right twice a day, why shouldn't Bill O'Reilly be right at least once in a blue moon? When Fox News's most self-infatuated star attacked CNN for keeping James Carville and Paul Begala as hosts on "Crossfire" after they had joined the Kerry campaign, he fingered yet another symptom of the decline and fall of the American news culture. "In the wake of the vicious attacks on Fox News for allegedly being `G.O.P. TV,' I expected the media to brutally dismember CNN and the new boys on John Kerry's bus," Mr. O'Reilly wrote in his syndicated column. "But instead it's been the silence of the lambs from the press. Can you say media bias?"
Yes, you can, though it must be said in the same breath that Mr. O'Reilly is only half-right. Fox News isn't "allegedly" G.O.P. TV — it is G.O.P. TV. The campiest recent example of its own bias came during the Republican convention when Mr. O'Reilly played host to two second-tier G.O.P. publicity hounds, Georgette Mosbacher and Monica Crowley, as they whined that a straight-ahead, unexceptional convention photo spread that they had voluntarily posed for in New York magazine wasn't flattering enough. Presenting no evidence whatsoever, the two women (one of whom, Ms. Crowley, doubles as a Fox "analyst") bantered darkly with Mr. O'Reilly about how this "dirty trick" to present unglamorous portraits of them and such luminaries as Henry Kissinger and Al D'Amato was a conspiracy of "radical" and "Upper West Side" Democrats. (We all know what Upper West Side means, ladies.) This was G.O.P. TV raised to not-ready-for-prime time self-parody, lacking only the studio audience to yuk it up.
But is the response to an ideological news network like Fox an ideological news network with a liberal slant of its own? CNN, the inventor of 24/7 news, once prided itself on being a straight shooter. Now it and Mr. Carville have argued that the line wasn't blurred here because the liberal "Crossfire" hosts are unpaid, loosey-goosey Kerry advisers and their show is an opinion-mongering screamfest, not a news program. One might also add that with its 4:30 time slot, "Crossfire" has of late been seen only by shut-ins and barflies. Yet as CNN continues its ratings free-fall, humbled by Fox and occasionally by MSNBC as well, "Crossfire" remains one of its few signature brands. No matter how long the overlap between Mr. Carville and Mr. Begala's TV and campaign roles, that brand and CNN itself are now as inextricably bound to the Democrats as Fox is to the Republicans. The network has succeeded in an impossible feat — ceding Mr. O'Reilly the moral high ground. The Bush campaign doesn't have to enlist Fox hosts for its staff since they're willing to whore for it without even being asked.
CNN is hemorrhaging in quality and viewers so fast — for reasons that have more to do with its lugubriousness and identity crisis than politics — that this dust-up may prove but a footnote to its travails. But its casual abandonment of even a fig leaf of impartiality ratifies a larger shift in the news landscape that reached its historical watershed at the Republican convention. That was when Fox News for the first time scored a ratings victory over every other network, the Big Three broadcast networks included.
Fox's feat has since been trivialized by most of its rivals as the inevitable triumph of a partisan channel speaking to its faithful. But there's something else at work here. It's not just that Fox is so good at pandering to its core constituency but that its competition is so weak at providing the hard-hitting, trustworthy news that might draw an alternative crowd. Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes aren't stupid. They have seized upon that news vacuum in the marketplace and filled it with fast-paced, news-like bloviation that can be more entertaining (and often no less informative) to watch than its rivals even if its bias gives you heartburn.
What much of the other news media have offered as an alternative has not been an alternative at all. At some point after 9/11, the news business jumped the shark and started relaying unchallenged administration propaganda — though with less zeal and showbiz pizazz than Fox. The notorious March 2003 presidential news conference at which not a single probing question was asked by the entire White House press corps heralded the broader Foxification to come. As Michael Massing, a frequent critic of this newspaper and others, put it on PBS's NewsHour, the failure of the American news media to apply proper skepticism to the administration's stated rationale for war in Iraq is "one of the most serious institutional failures of the press" since our slide into Vietnam. Mr. Massing attributes some of this to the fear of challenging a president then at the height of his popularity. Whatever the explanation — and there are many, depending on the news organization — the net effect was that the entire press came off as Fox Lite. The motive to parrot the administration line may not have been ideological, as it was at Fox, but since the misinformation was the same, news consumers can't be blamed for finding that a distinction without a difference.
The W.M.D. flimflam was hardly the last time that government propaganda supplanted journalism. Though the chagrined major newspapers have since worked hard to compensate for their prewar lapses, the electronic media that give most Americans their news have often lagged behind, especially cable. From Jessica Lynch to "Mission Accomplished" to, most recently, the bogus charges of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, there is a tendency to give administration-favored fiction credibility first, often cementing the spin into fact well before the tough questions are asked (if they're ever asked). It's a damning measure of the news media's failure to provide a persuasive dose of reality as an antidote to Washington fairy tales that so many Americans came to believe that the 9/11 hijackers were Iraqis, not Saudis. A Newsweek poll just two weeks ago shows that 42 percent of Americans (among them, 32 percent of Democrats) still believe that Saddam was "directly involved" in the 9/11 attacks.
Writing in The Los Angeles Times, Ben Wasserstein dissected the Swift boat controversy as a case in point of how the process works in the right-wing press. After The Washington Post reported on Aug. 19 that the military records of one of John Kerry's principal Swift boat accusers, Larry Thurlow, "contradicted Thurlow's version of events and confirmed Kerry's," the scoop was either ignored entirely or distorted beyond recognition by The New York Post, The Wall Street Journal editorial page and every Fox News talking head except one (John Kasich). From there, it was off to the races. Once Fox sets the agenda, and its allies in the administration, talk radio and the Internet ride herd, its rivals want to get in on the act, if only out of ratings envy and sheer inertia. Though the best-selling "Unfit for Command" was the work of a longtime Kerry antagonist and a writer best known for his anti-Semitic and anti-Catholic comments on a right-wing Web forum, its facts were challenged on TV at a far slower pace than the books of Seymour Hersh and Kitty Kelley, whose reporting was targeted in advance by administration talking points handed out before the books could even be read.
In this environment, even a beloved right-wing anecdote of flyweight content, like Teresa Heinz Kerry's "shove it!," can overwhelm all other headlines in the 24/7 news ethosphere. Afghanistan, tumbling into chaos, has all but fallen off the TV map. So to some extent has Iraq. How many Americans know just how much of the country has been ceded to the insurgents? Perhaps only Armageddon there or in North Korea can change the subject from George W. Bush's National Guard career, a story that has been known since The Boston Globe first reported it in May 2000, and whose embarrassing outline would remain the same even if "60 Minutes" had never done its piece.
Any sideshow that can turn the press itself into the subject, whether it's about typewriter fonts or "Crossfire" hosts doing double duty on the Kerry campaign, serves an administration that would like to distract attention from its defeats in the current war, from Abu Ghraib to Fallujah to Tora Bora. When the press isn't creating its own embarrassments, the administration will step in to intimidate and undermine journalists who don't regurgitate its approved narrative. That impulse was most nakedly revealed when a principal architect of the administration's Iraq policy, Paul Wolfowitz, blamed bad news from the occupation on the cowardice of reporters too "afraid to travel" beyond Baghdad to gather all the festive developments. (Mr. Wolfowitz later apologized, but only after he had been repeatedly chastised for slurring the some 30 reporters who had been killed covering his war.)
Between the White House and Fox's smears of the mainstream press and the mainstream press's own scandals and failings of will, the toll on the entire news media's position in our culture has been enormous. A Pew Research Center survey published in June found that the credibility of all news sources is low, in some cases falling precipitously since the start of the Bush administration: major newspapers, the broadcast networks, the cable news networks and PBS alike.
The news about the news could well get worse. One media critic, Tom Rosenstiel, believes we're seeing the end of network news altogether as its audience slips more and more into the Depends demographic and its corporate masters cut back its air time and budgets. His theory will be tested soon enough when the first of the Big Three anchors, Tom Brokaw, retires at NBC after the election. Mr. Brokaw's successor is Brian Williams, now most famous for the ridicule rightly heaped on him by Jon Stewart for his inability to articulate a single question for Al Sharpton during a live interview at the Democratic convention. The future of ABC News could also soon be in play, depending on who succeeds Michael Eisner at Disney — and under what fiscal imperatives from its board.
Should network news ride into the sunset, bargain-budgeted 24/7 cable will inherit the news franchise in our TV culture. That would be the final victory for Fox News. The only hope for a successful alternative is not to fight Fox's fire with imitation Fox fire in the form of another partisan network but to reinvent the wheel with a network that prizes news over endless left/right crossfire. Against the backdrop of what looks to be an indefinite war, there might even be a market for it. In the meantime, Carville and Begala, in keeping with the self-immolating tradition of the Kerry campaign, have handed the Bush campaign and its Fox auxiliary one hell of a gift.
POT-->KETTLE-->BLACK
I love how the liberals howl when one network gives conservatives a fair shake. After they controlled media for 40 years.
Only the top of the second paragrapah for Frank Rich to flaunt his notorious behavioral disorder. That's enough. Thanks.
Click.
I read half way down before I realized that I was reading a hatchet job from Frank Rich. He's as catty as Dowd. In fact has anybody seen Rich and Dowd together at the same time?
How can they bitch about Fox being GOPTV, in the same article they push the DNC talking points. The proponderance of evidence is clearly on the SBVT side, but the DNC/MSM act as though the SBVT has thoroughly been disproven and haven't even bother to insist that Kerry release his records like Bush.
I don't watch O'Reilly any more since his head got to big to fit on my tv screen.
They sure do hate it when they are getting their a**'s kicked!
Oh yes, clearly, the press has been too friendly to Bush, that's why they're having problems.
Talk about bias. Talk about "whoring" ... he has his head up the rectal cavity of the DNC and their talking points that I am surprised that he can see anything but brown.
Sure the Fox Network could be associated with the Republicans. That is because for years, the media has been so biased for the Democrat way of thinking that when a new channel comes along and trys to move to the center (and even if we concede that it is a little slanted to the right ...) then to wacko lefties - Fox looks like a big-time partner to the VRWC. But where do you begin to refute Frank Rich. How much time do we have? (And why bother trying - because when they are off their meds, they can't be reasoned with anyway!)
Mike
Bill O'Reilly is a professional con man who smirks and smiles all the way to the bank, probably without a single sincere thought about politics. I'd rather play checkers with my dog than watch his foolishness on t.v.
In a day when docu-fiction is the rule and the Dirty Rat Michael Mooron is the standard bearer for the Stone-age press then we will play by their rules. Dan Rather is guilty until he can prove himself innocent and in this case it is very likely true. If Kitty Kelly can drudge up sludge with no proof from 30 years ago then we have more than enough proof to consider Dan Rather-guilty. This was the co-ordinated attack from the DNC to damage our President for the Yaaaawn Kerry campaign.
Forging military documents is a criminal offense although someone as powerful as Rather won’t be convicted like one of us would. This was a powerful man using the power of the Mainstream media and the clout of 60 Minutes to topple a government. 60 Minutes was the foundation of investigative TV and has 30 years of distinguished journalism behind it. Unfortunately we got a glimpse into how honest that journalism is. This was the rule rather than the exception as we got a glimpse of their sources, especially the anonymous variety. This time his hatred and desparation made him go off the abyss and into the complete fabrication of evidence. How could he not notice the Kinko’s Fax return line??? Nice that they whited that out before they put it on their Webpage which added 15 mins to Howlin & Co exposure!
If Dino-Dan thinks that W should answer questions from false evidence then Dan needs to answer questions about why he used forged evidence. His charges have absolutely no substance but these charges are valid. So Dan, why did you put these forged documents and signatures of a dead Military Officer on your news program??
This is what happens when 95% of the Stone-age press worships at the feet of moral relitivists like bull clinton. The art of “spin”, or lies as it was called pre-clinton becomes varying degrees of lying. GW has the truth on his side just as the Swifties do. Yaaaawn Tax & Kerry and DNCBS only have lies on their side and must hide from the issues. In comes this mudslinging story and the high risk phony documents that are scrutinized by the Inter-news. The evidence gets blown away in a matter of minutes and the fraud is exposed to the entire world. It’s a new day and the Fathers of Freedom would be proud.
Dano-saur Rather-guilty can resign and DNCBS can apologize to the country for their criminal activity but it won’t matter. The Stone-age press has exposed itself for the Rat spokesman that it is and will never be believed again. They can pretend to be more balanced but whenever they use their well worn phrases, “sources inside the .....” ears will hear “false documents” and a huge mountain of salt will be added. For Dan, he needs to take his own advice and, “answer the charges!” In the Michael Mooron, Kitty Katty world, your found guilty unless you can prove yourself innocent!
Pray for W and The Truth
The NY Times and concepts of journalistic or any other type of integrity are at opposite ends of an ever expanding universe.
The NY Times has been pimping for the Democrats for over 50 years. What a joke.
Frank Rich works for a newspaper that has not endorsed a Republican for president since Eisenhower - and only because he was so popular. So everything coming out Frank Rich and others is nothing but crap.
I don't see what's wrong with Bill o'Rielly!?
When I am off my meds, I am GANDOR!! Feel my Sword of truth!! !!....
Sorry.......
So..he "trys" to play up his " can-YOU-guess-if-I-am-REALLY- an-egotist-taking-my-part-lightly" act.
Better get off before this turns into a " HATE BILL" type thread.( YOU should have seen ANOTHER thread!! doesn't ANYONE like him??!!)
As a kid...I am always "leery" of people who TELL ME that THEY are " trying to look out for me " if you know what I mean. It's like watching KERRY try to SKATE BOARD!!.....dude.
Tom
But GREAT POST!! Thanks for the info!
" G.O.P. TV"
I agree, this is insain bias. But I dissagree about GOP TV. Fox news actually lets conservatives have a voice, and doesn't spew veiled contempt on republicans. That's such an amazing difference than what America is used to that they're being erroneously called "GOP TV".
One thing Mr. Rich fails to mention is giving credit to the network who has the better message and reports on the party telling it....Dims just do not understand why people who go to a voting booth or turn on a TV station that if it is not in their favor something is WRONG?
I think the left has failed the middle to upper middle class and thats what America basically is......campaigning to radicals, the poor and minorities constantly is not what one needs in its voter base.....The Dims need more people in the know and I am not sure that is possible...Once you know you vote and view REPUBBIE!
One paragraph would have been both time saving and more funtional.
Something like ... The N.Y. Times thinks O'Reilly will be leaving Fox [oh how I wish] and taking Rathers job at C B/S very soon.
And where is John Kerry's apology for slandering our fighting men and women?
God bless our troops wherever they may be.
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