Free Republic

The famed comedian D.J. Hughley has stated that whenever he accidentally rests his television dial on the Fox News station it will automatically start tilting to the right. That's funny, but it also illustrates the dogma and mantra that comes from this station that claims to be "fair and balanced". That claim is indeed untrue. In fact, there has never been a cable channel so devoted to one area of political debate. Fox News is not extremely committed to the right wing dogma of the political debate it is pro ultra conservative awash with neo conservative views which are...

Commentary On Monday I was doing my usual channel-surfing and I was fortunate enough to come across a very special event. George Bush was awarding a posthumous Medal of Honor to the family of U.S. Army Private First Class Ross Andrew McGinnis. The 19 year-old McGinnis was on patrol in northeastern Baghdad. McGinnis was behind a .50 caliber machine gun which sat atop a Humvee carrying four of his fellow soldiers inside. An insurgent hurled a fragment grenade at the vehicle. The explosive device fell through the gun port and landed among McGinnis' fellow soldiers who prepared themselves for the...

Like most sane people with a life, I hate reality TV shows. Why should I care about wannabe loser nobody's and what eight of them do together in a house or on an island or in an Australian desert? But, based on my viewing of the first two episodes of "Anchorwoman" on FOX, last night, I think this show is an exception. Anchorwoman is Lauren Jones, a completely ditzy excessively-siliconed, peroxided former model and WWE wrestler who wants to become a local news anchor. They'd never hire this idiot, but since FOX owns the small-town Texas TV station and wanted...

Does it puzzle you when you hear that FOX News loved Michael Moore's "Sicko" or Angelina Jolie/Brad Pitt's "A Mighty Heart," which whitewashed Islamic terrorists? If FOX News is so "fair and balanced," why do they gush over movies that far-leftists gush over? Three words: Roger Friedman, liberal. Whenever I hear the phrase "Fair and Balanced," I think of Roger Friedman, FOXNews.com's celebrity gossip writer and self-appointed movie critic. He turns his gossip column into movie reviews when there's an inane liberal propaganda film he wants to tout. Fox News Channel When Michael Moore bragged about FOX News endorsing his...

That's bad news for journalism and bad news for the country. Bad news for journalism because it further undermines the credibility of an already-distrusted media. When one newspaper openly shows its bias, all other newspapers are suspected of having their own bias.

Fox News ought to buy a copy of Monday's Democrat debate on CNN to play over and over during the general election campaign. For now, the Democratic candidates need to appeal only to their nut-base. So on Monday night, the candidates casually spouted liberal conspiracy theories that would frighten normal Americans, but are guaranteed to warm the hearts of losers blogging from their mother's basements.

What do you get when you drop the former Miss New York, also known as "America's sexiest bikini model," into a struggling TV newscast in the unrated market of Tyler, Texas? You get Fox's next reality series – "Anchorwoman." Lauren Jones, whose career credits also include serving as a "World Wrestling Diva," a soap star and one of Bob Barker's beauties on "The Price Is Right," is playing a new role right now – anchorwoman on KYTX-TV, a local CBS affiliate in Tyler. But it's not a real job or a permanent journalism position. It's part of a Fox Entertainment...

In his Washington Post column today, E.J. Dionne argues that Democratic presidential candidates have no obligation to go on Fox News. He notes correctly that first John Edwards and then Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton declined to appear on a debate cosponsored by Fox News and the Congressional Black Caucus. Leading Democratic candidates did appear on such a debate in the 2004 cycle, in which the lead questioners were Fox's Brit Hume and a black journalist selected by the CBC. My recollection is that both asked thoughtful and fair questions that gave candidates an opportunity to present their views.

The three top Democratic presidential candidates -- Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama and former Sen. John Edwards -- have declined to participate in an autumn presidential debate for the frailest of reasons: because one co-sponsor is TV's conservative-leaning Fox News. (The other sponsor is the Congressional Black Caucus Institute.) It's true that politicians and journalists often don't get along. Heck, we've had some famous pols snub Tribune editorial board meetings because they didn't like something we wrote. Fine, it's a free country. But let's be clear here. Clinton, Obama and Edwards weren't going to be debating Fox News...

Fox & Friends Weekend hasn't lost Kiran Chetry -- it's gained Ainsley Earhardt. The recent FNC hire began her tenure on this weeend's shows, and by all appearances has made a smooth landing. Sandwiched between the "Kelly Brothers," Kelly Wright and Greg Kelly, one of the first stories the trio discussed this morning was the results of the presidential straw poll at this weekend's CPAC conference in Washington. Kelly Wright described Mitt Romney's straw poll win as a surprise "because of his Mormon background," then added that "he isn't running to be chief theologian, he's running to be chief...

As TVNewser first reported yesterday, Fox News sent a letter to John Ferriter, agent of weekend anchor Kiran Chetry, blasting the pair's contract demands and severing relations with his client. Fox and Chetry were in the middle of contract renegotiations. Fox News legal VP Dianne Brandi writes: You have treated Fox News with such arrogant disregard that we do not desire to do any further business with you. You refused to enter into good faith negotiations despite your client's statements that she wanted to remain at Fox News and was happy with the renumeration we had offered. You and your...

His news feeds and air-conditioned studio were hundreds of miles away in New York. But Fox News Channel anchor Shepard Smith looked at ease perched on a platform before the pool at the Don Cesar Beach Resort and Spa in St. Pete Beach on Tuesday, stealing glances at a nearby BlackBerry and laptop computer while leading the 3 p.m. newscast, Studio B. “There was a time when covering news from a remote location was hard,” said Smith, dabbing a tissue at tiny trickles of sweat on his face. “Today, I’m not any more or less connected here, because of technology,...

by Mark Finkelstein October 1, 2006 - 09:39 Being a regular Fox News Watch viewer, there was nothing surprising, tuning into this evening's discussion of the Clinton-Chris Wallace dust-up, in hearing lefty panelist Neal Gabler take his employer and colleagues to task. Among his moves, Gabler: - Claimed "this network's reputation [presumably as right-leaning] precedes it." - Asserted that Chris Wallace "did not frame the question properly. He asked why didn't you do more? Which is like asking 'will you stop beating your wife?'" - Defended Wallace only at the expense of other Fox colleagues: "He is not a Hannity,...

The Fox News Channel shakes up its anchor roster a little today, with former WABC/ Ch. 7 correspondent E.D. Hill moving from "Fox & Friends" to the network's "Fox Live" anchor team. Former CBS News anchor Gretchen Carlson will take Hill's place as a co-host of the freewheeling morning show. "Gretchen's warm personality and dynamic energy are a perfect fit for 'Fox & Friends,'" Bill Shine, senior vice president of programming, said in a statement. Also starting today on FNC is "Live Desk With Martha MacCallum" at 1 p.m., replacing "Dayside," and a full hour of news with Jane Skinner...

In a combative interview on "Fox News Sunday," former President Clinton defended his handling of the threat posed by Osama bin Laden, saying he tried to have bin Laden killed and was attacked for his efforts by the same people who now criticize him for not doing enough. "That's the difference in me and some, including all of the right-wingers who are attacking me now," Clinton said in the interview. "They ridiculed me for trying. They had eight months to try, they did not try." Clinton accused host Chris Wallace of a "conservative hit job" and asked: "I want to...

by Mark Finkelstein August 14, 2006 - 12:11 Last week, I documented here the way CNN leaned over backwards for balance in a story. In the wake of the Seattle Jewish Center shooting, it equated the fear of Jewish-Americans of similar incidents . . . with the fear of Hezbollah supporters of being unfairly targeted! Although it wasn't nearly so egregious, Fox News Channel's Anita Vogel [seen her in a file photo] just engaged in some over-reaching in the name of a balance herself. She narrated an otherwise solid segment on 'fauxtography' and other ways in which the media and...

by Mark Finkelstein Is Neal Gabler jealous of Helen Thomas' status as a leading Bush media antagonist? You might think so, judging by the barbs Gabler aimed Thomas' way on this evening's Fox News Watch. In discussing Thomas' pointed exchange with President Bush during this past week's press conference, Gabler, whose sole regular media job would seem to be his weekly appearance on Fox News Watch, did claim that Thomas' question as to the president's motivation in invading Iraq was a good one. But Gabler prefaced that comment by gratuitously observing: "Helen has asked dumb questions in her time." Later,...

Fox News Channel (FNC) has hired former CBS News correspondent Marvin Kalb as a Fox News analyst. FNC host Bill O'Reilly was a student of Kalb's at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School, where he earned a masters degree in public policy. Kalb is now a Senior Fellow at Harvard University's Shorenstein Washington Program. In addition to his regular appearances on FNC, Kalb showed up as the moderator of an ACLU "Town Hall Meeting on NSA Surveillance" on February 20, where he ventured the paranoid "suspicion" that the NSA spying program against al Qaeda is really going after "political opponents"...

Major Garret just did a terrible piece on the Barrett report on Britt Hume's show. He did not even mention the 120 pages that were redacted,edited from the report.

[...] for five weeks this summer, producer Grace Cutler, cameraman John Templeton, myself and others crisscrossed the country to see how folks were faring. [...] In the days to come we would go to places where most TV crews choose not to tread — To find out what real Iraqis are thinking. Like along Main Street in the Karada district of Baghdad. Lined with appliance stores on both sides, it looks like an open air Circuit City. [...] The Iraqi Stock Exchange was an even bigger eye opener. On the day we were there the single trading room was packed...

Finally, a major media personality has the guts to express what many in the US have long felt: Left Coast cities such as San Francisco are anti-American to the core. Bill O'Reilly, speaking of the Irrelevant City's hostility toward military recruiters, said on Tuesday's Radio Factor (transcript from the Political Teen): O’REILLY: You know, if I’m the president of the United States, I walk right into Union Square, I set up my little presidential podium, and I say, “Listen, citizens of San Francisco, if you vote against military recruiting, you’re not going to get another nickel in federal funds. Fine....

Has anyone noticed how Fox News Channel has oscillated wildly out of control this summer with their Fox News Alerts? It seems that the alerts are being used for everything from legitimate breaking news events (shuttle landing safely) to events that no one in their right mind would classify as breaking news (President Bush signs the Energy Bill--what a shocker that is!). Not only that, but they are now being used over and over again during a two-hour period to announce the same news event and it seems like every prime time show is started with a Fox News Alert...

Fox News Channel has signed Gen. Wesley Clark as a military and foreign affairs analyst, Bill Shine, senior vice president of programming, said yesterday. Clark, briefly a candidate in the 2004 Democratic primary before throwing his support behind Sen. John Kerry, said, "I am excited by this opportunity to ... offer my perspective to the important issues facing the United States and the global community." Clark spent more than 30 years in the U.S. Army where he rose to the rank of four-star general and NATO Supreme Allied Commander from 1997 to 2000. Clark holds a master's degree in philosophy,...

LITTLE ROCK (AP) -- Retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark will do military and foreign affairs analysis for FOX News Channel, the cable news company announced Wednesday. Clark, of Little Rock, has 34 years of military service and rose to the rank of four-star general. He was supreme allied commander of NATO from 1997-2000. He made an unsuccessful bid last year for the Democratic nomination for president. Clark graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point and has a master's degree in philosophy, politics and economics from Oxford University. He also is author of "Waging Modern War: Bosnia,...

The in-your-face right-wing partisanship that marks Fox News Channel's news broadcasts is having two dangerous effects. The first is that the popularity of the approach -- Fox is clobbering its direct competition (CNN, CNBC, MSNBC, etc.) -- leads other cable broadcasters to mimic it, which in turn debases the quality of the news available to that segment of the TV audience. The second, far more dangerous, effect is that it threatens to destroy public confidence in all news. The latter, I admit, is more fear than prediction, but let me tell you what produces that fear. Fox News Channel --...

It's not that Sam Kimery objects to the views expressed on Fox News. The creator of the "Fox Blocker" contends the channel is not news at all. Kimery figures he's sold about 100 of the little silver bits of metal that screw into the back of most televisions, allowing people to filter Fox News from their sets, since its August debut. The Tulsa, Okla., resident also has received thousands of e-mails, both angry and complimentary as well as a few death threats. "Apparently the making of terroristic threats against those who don't share your views is a high art form...

Author: Hollywood's Castro Collaborators Revealed What do Jesse Jackson, Danny Glover, Chevy Chase, Norman Mailer and Naomi Campbell have in common? They're all charter members of the Fidel Castro fan club. Appearing on the Fox News Channel's "O'Reilly Factor" Tuesday night, author Humberto Fontova detailed the Castro-loving proclivities of America's literati-glitterati class, as described in his new book, "Fidel: Hollywood's Favorite Tyrant." Fontova laid the groundwork for why the "Hollywood pinheads," as O'Reilly called them, think Castro is so great: because Castro is "the cool anti-American." And, as we all know, Hollywood is a firm protectorate of the 'blame America...

UPCOMING PROGRAM: April 7, 8 p.m., The National Press Club "A Conversation with FOX News Chairman Roger Ailes" Free tickets are available by contacting Matt Lindsay at (202) 994-1423 or mlindsay@gwu.edu.

Liberal colleges and universities are canceling scheduled lecture appearances by outspoken University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill in the wake of his rerun comparison of victims of the 9-11-01 attacks on the World Trade Center to “Little Eichmans”—a reference to the notorious Nazi war criminal. Meanwhile, professors offering up even more incendiary rhetoric operate relatively unmolested on their home campuses. Dr. Hatem Bazian [pictured], who wondered aloud why we don’t have an intifada in the United States, would certainly merit this distinction. He teaches at the University of California at Berkeley. Earlier last year, he asked a San Francisco audience,...

NEW YORK (CBS.MW) -- After lobbing a few warning shots over the years, News Corp. all but declared war on CNBC last week. Wall Street analysts heard top executives of News Corp., which owns Fox News, effectively say a Fox business news cable-television channel is a go. Although News Corp. has divulged few details about the venture, it's expected to debut this summer. News Corp. hopes that CNBC's vulnerability is underscored by its deteriorating ratings, coming at a time when Fox News is scoring resounding victories over foes CNN (TWX) and MSNBC. According to CNBC, a unit of General Electric...

...[T]he TV networks... say they have revamped the way they collect and analyze polling data, using more sophisticated equipment and better communications. To tone down their competitive instincts in "calling" states for either candidate, some are blocking their news desks from watching rivals' shows. All the networks are also striving to get their respective "decision desks" -- the units that make the calls -- to work more closely with the producers and reporters.... CBS News said the computers VNS used weren't sophisticated enough to compare voting data with historical information and were incapable of raising red flags where they were...

THERE IS A RHYTHMIC thrumming deep in my skull, timed to the metronome voice of a newscaster I can't identify, and broken periodically by the chime of the Fox News Alert bell. The host -- John Something, I think -- is on again about what is clearly Fox News Channel's favourite story: the suspect documents CBS aired a few weeks ago, and their potential links to John Kerry's campaign. It's not Watergate, of course, but 18 hours of Fox News immersion tends to skew one's sense of perspective. Dan Rather's on-air apology has begun to sound as laughably inadequate as...

From lib site:Discussing the hotly contested U.S. Senate race in South Dakota between Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD) and Republican challenger John Thune, FOX News Channel host Bill O'Reilly declared that he has "no respect for" Daschle and said: "It doesn't matter what he [Daschle] does. He's going to lose." But a September 20-22 poll for the race shows Daschle leading Thune by five points (with a 3.5-point margin of error). Though this poll came out after O'Reilly's remarks on the September 23 broadcast of The Radio Factor, O'Reilly was basing his prediction not on two previous polls that...

O'Reilly supposed to have O'Neill on ... thus far 1st segment with Dickie Morris, 2nd segment with DNC spinmeister.

OTTAWA - The Canadian Association of Broadcasters has told the CRTC that Fox News should not be granted a spot on the eligible satellite list for digital distribution in Canada - and that consideration on adding it and the NFL Network should be delayed anyway. While not directly saying in black and white that it opposes the addition of Fox News, the broadcast group told the Commission in a letter last week that reneging on an earlier deal Fox signed with CanWest Global Communications to launch a category two digital Canadian version of the channel, should be questioned. "The CAB...

July 25, 2004 -- Liberals sure don't like losing their longtime monopoly on delivering the news. That's the message behind a recent rash of desperate reactions — from Al Franken's book and radio show to Robert Greenwald's new film screed "Outfoxed" — over the success of our sister company, Fox News Channel. For years, liberals skewed coverage to the left, virtually unchecked, through outlets like The New York Times, CNN, PBS and NBC. Then, in 1996, Fox came on the scene, offering "fair and balanced" reports — news that unabashedly permitted conservative as well as liberal viewpoints. And whaddya know?...

During presidential election years, conservative politicians have often attacked the media for their liberal bias. But during this year's campaign, liberals are fighting back with what they see as a powerful issue -- the alleged conservative slant of the Fox News Channel, a unit of the media conglomerate News Corp. The assault on Fox News started on July 8, with a report from media watchdog group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting claiming that in the six months through Dec. 19, 2003, 57% of guests on Fox News's popular evening news show, "Special Report with Brit Hume" were conservatives. The next...

ATLANTA - Fox News Channel is threatening to take a sign company to court if it does not post a cheeky billboard tweaking archrival CNN. Fox claims the owners of the billboard, across the street from CNN's Atlanta offices, refuse to post a message trumpeting Fox's successes in the ratings war between the cable networks. Fox lawyer Dianne Brandi said in a letter that Atlanta company Camfaux may have buckled to pressure from CNN not to put up the message. "Should you choose not to put up the billboard immediately, we will consider all options available to us, including, of...

<p>WASHINGTON, Feb. 2 (UPI) -- A member of the board of the National Press Foundation has resigned her position because of plans to present Fox News' Brit Hume with an award.</p> <p>Hume, the managing editor of Fox News and its chief Washington correspondent, was selected to receive the NPF's Taishoff Award as Broadcaster of the Year during a Feb. 19 awards dinner.</p>

The lovely and talented Page Hopkins of Fox News Channel just completed an interview with representatives of the Gephardt, Kerry and Dean campaigns in Iowa. She asked Dean's campaign manager, Joe Trippi, whether it wasn't hurting Dean for his wife, Judith Steinberg Dean, not to be campaigning for him. Answered Trippi: "She has a very important job as a doctor, and we wouldn't take her away from that." Responded Hopkins, in a spontaneous way, "come on! If my husband ran for president, I'd be out of FNC so fast and out there campaigning for him!" To which an angry Trippi...

FOX News Radio To Expand Next MondayStarting Monday (12/1) at 12:01am, FOX News Radio Service will begin providing subscribers one-minute hourly news updates on a 24-hour basis. FOX News Radio VP Bob Finnerty said, “With the success of the FOX News brand on radio and the overwhelming demand for our product on a 24-hour basis leading into the political year, this further establishes us in the radio news industry.” FOX News Radio Service can be heard in more than 150 markets, including 16 of the Top 25 markets.

Premier New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman attacked the Fox News Channel on Thursday, comparing the top-rated cable news network to the pro-terrorist Al Jazeera broadcasting company. Using a recent speech by Vice President Dick Cheney to argue that the Bush administration is too narrow-minded in its handling of postwar Iraq, Friedman complained, "Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein issue messages from their caves through Al Jazeera, and Mr. Cheney issues messages from his bunker through Fox." "Out of fairness, my newspaper feels obligated [to cover the Cheney speech]," the top Times columnist wrote. "But I wish we would have...

<p>October 2, 2003 -- FOX officials say they are thinking about spinning off two new channels from Fox News Channel - one for business and another for entertainment news.</p> <p>Fox Entertainment president Peter Chernin told analysts this week that discussions were underway about creating two new channels from the highly successful FNC, according to reports.</p>

Web posted Friday, September 26, 2003 Neuharth Panel Asks: 'Is Media Fair?' BY RANDY DOCKENDORF P&D Regional Editor VERMILLION -- Are the media fair and accurate? Well, fairness, like beauty, becomes pretty subjective, a panel of the nation's top journalists said Thursday night at the University of South Dakota. The event, titled "Is the Free Press A Fair Press?," concluded a two-day celebration of the $5 million renovation of the Al Neuharth Media Center on the USD campus. Neuharth was on hand for the event, which was broadcast live on South Dakota Public Television. Neuharth, a 1950 USD graduate, founded...

Bum start for CNN's 'Zahn' and 'Cooper'Best hopes for stemming slide against Fox News By Kevin Downey     CNN's hopes of reclaiming No. 1 from Fox News Channel were dealt a major setback this week with the disappointing premieres of “Anderson Cooper 360” and “Paula Zahn Now.”      The audience for “Cooper” on Monday was down 47 percent in the 7 p.m. time slot occupied last year by “Crossfire,” to 319,000 people, while “Zahn's” audience of 508,000 people was down 45 percent in the 8 p.m. time slot briefly occupied by the canceled “Connie Chung.” All figures are based...

NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - Fox News Channel was the only cable news service in August to grow in viewership from a year ago, gaining 20% in primetime and 29% across the entire day, according to Nielsen Media Research. By comparison, CNN fell by 9% in primetime and total day, while MSNBC lost 21% in primetime and 11% for the day. Headline News and CNBC also suffered losses greater than 20% compared with August 2002. It marked the 28th consecutive month that Fox led the news channel pack. For the month, Fox averaged 1.3 million viewers in primetime, compared with...

<p>August 29, 2003 -- THE rise of an ardent, pas sionate, angry and en gaged left is the most im portant political story of 2003.</p> <p>The hottest book of the new publishing season is Al Franken's "Lies (and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them)." Joe Conason of the New York Observer has a fast-selling tome called "Big Lies." At the end of September comes "The Lies of George Bush" by David Corn of the Nation magazine, which will likely hit the bestseller list as well.</p>

Nearly two years after Greta Van Susteren defected from CNN to archrival Fox News, she has plenty to say about her former employer -- and not much good. "What happened to CNN is a disgrace," Van Susteren said in an interview to promote her new book, "My Turn at the Bully Pulpit." The problems at CNN, she said, started when parent company Time Warner merged with AOL and laid off employees. But she also criticized recent moves by Jim Walton, named president of Atlanta-based CNN early this year. Van Susteren thinks Walton made a mistake by downsizing boisterous debate show...

Fox Loses Bid to Stop Sale of Franken BookFri August 22, 2003 06:31 PM ETBy Gail Appleson NEW YORK (Reuters) - A federal judge on Friday slammed Fox News' trademark infringement lawsuit against Al Franken and his publisher Penguin Group and refused to stop the sale of the liberal satirist's new book that pokes fun at the network and host Bill O'Reilly. Fox charged that Franken had violated its trademarked phrase "fair and balanced" by including it on the cover of his book entitled "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them." Fox is owned by News Corp. and Penguin...

Five months after CNN canceled Connie Chung's 8 p.m. show, the network still is fiddling with the replacement -- and losing viewership. Chung's show often was criticized for its tabloid feel, and last winter newly named CNN President Jim Walton shelved it in favor of a hard-news show featuring one of the network's best-known anchors, Paula Zahn. Zahn has anchored the 8 p.m. hour most of the time since, although CNN officially will launch and rebadge the program Sept. 8, spokeswoman Christa Robinson said. Initial ratings suggest more than a catchy name may be needed. Viewers seem to have preferred...