Posted on 10/25/2006 4:54:40 AM PDT by Mike Bates
We've said repeatedly that Fox News performs a public service. The channel was created to appeal to conservatives, who lacked a media voice on the national stage, and they responded. But some of the things being said about Fox News on its 10th anniversary are just silly. It is not a right-wing channel, as left-wingers always charge, and it does not promptly correct its errors. In fact, some of them are never corrected.
An October 2 Washington Post story by Howard Kurtz mistakenly referred to the channel's "high-profile conservative hosts," including Bill O'Reilly, who actually takes liberal positions on issues like the death penalty and global warming. He is also squishy on the subject of homosexuality. O'Reilly is conservative on some issues, liberal on others. He gets high ratings because he puts on a provocative and entertaining show and features guests of interest to his mostly conservative audience.
Kurtz went on to claim that that Fox "may have moderated its journalistic approach a bit in recent years" by hiring people like Chris Wallace from ABC, Bill Hemmer from CNN, and "Harvard analyst Marvin Kalb." That assumes, of course, that it has been conservative from the start. Kurtz doesn't prove his case. Rather than being conservative, Fox was different. And that made it appealing to the viewing audience.
As for Chris Wallace, a recent hire, he does a good job of interviewing guests from both sides, even though he was viciously and unfairly attacked for his grilling of Bill Clinton's handling of 9/11. Hemmer seems to have no views at all, and simply functions as a good anchor. Host Greta Van Susteren, who came from CNN, was never known as a conservative and was in fact considered very close to the Clinton Administration.
(Excerpt) Read more at aim.org ...
O'Reilly is slimy, and he ambushes his guests. High profile guests expect to be treated with some respect, they weren't and haven't returned to his show. He often has "second tier" guests to banter with. This situation leads to a "scratching of the surface" when it comes to issues.
Not only that, but why do all of the networks cram four guests into a half hour program? That isn't enough time to discuss the issues of the day. Are our attention spans so short today, that we can only listen to one topic for seven minutes?
notice how they associate the Lira(?) to the republicans?
and why in the hell even include the lira(?) in an American article
O'R needs to be better prepared.
I believe that's from a British news source.
"I believe that's from a British news source."
what is $1.2bn in Lira?
My favorite satire of Fox News:
http://wuzzadem.typepad.com/wuz/2005/07/fox_news_anchor.html
Actually I respected him for pursuing the subject even after it became quite clear where it was going. He wasn't forced into admitting he was unaware of that. He is completely capable of taking the conversation in any direction he wants and could easily changed the subject and moved on to something else - most interviewers would have done precisely that. Instead he owned up to it and said words to the effect of "Okay, I didn't know that".
I guess you missed his multiple interviews with President Bush. Anyway, I'd be interested to know what TV interviewer you feel treats his high profile guests with more respect that O'Reilly, with the exception of Larry King when he has a liberal (which is almost always) big shot on his show.
Brit Hume shows more respect to guests. He is more professional. He gets closer to the core issues and gets a more in-depth response.
I think they have a great line-up of talented personalities. Chris Wallace and Brit Hume are on the top of my list from any network.
I know O'R is not for everyone - but they have a range of talent to suit whatever you like, IMHO.
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