Fox Continues Unbiased Coverage
Here’s their current postage stamp:
When you click on it, the story doesn’t actually focus on the politics; instead, you get this:
In both cases, their focus is based upon picking and choosing a few people out of the crowd, not the entire event–which, frankly was about as non-political as you could get, with as many references against the far left as there were against the far right. In their clips of raging cable news hosts, Olbermann appeared perhaps as often as Beck. Stewart and Colbert raged against fear-mongering and hate, not against Republicans and conservatives. That it attracted and pleased a mostly liberal crowd speaks more to the nature of the crowd than the crowd speaks to the nature of the event. In other words, Fox got it backwards–not that they care or were even paying attention.
Frankly, if you saw it as a get-out-the-vote rally, it would have been greatly disappointing. There was no urging to go to the polls that I remember (I think one guest said so as they left the stage near the end, but nothing planned), no overt calls to defeat the Tea Party–instead there was disapproval hurled at all politicians, exactly the sentiment that is working to the disadvantage of Democrats and liberals in the election so far. I cannot see this by any stretch of the imagination as being a pro-left rally, despite the makeup of the crowd. It was a pro-entertainment rally, perhaps, and a pro-reason rally, for certain. But pro-left? Not really.
Indeed, when Fox covered Beck’s event, they made a big deal about how non-political it was (despite Palin being there, urging people to be engaged and “knowing never to retreat”), not to mention covering the “strong turnout,” a point they studiously ignored (instead focusing on the negatives of a large crowd) in today’s rally (estimates put it at 2-3 times larger than Beck’s) in favor of calling the crowd “insane.” So much for unbiased (not that it was really in question).
That said, I could not pass up the chance to note my admiration for Stewart and Colbert to make such a great Trek reference, from Corbomite in bottled water to Uhura’s command tunic bearing a science insignia in the same episode, #10. Stewart then wondered if they got it right or if they would be picked apart in Trekkie chat rooms–but no, they got it spot on. Here’s even an image of Uhura from that episode:
A few minutes later, they even brought out R2D2. And later still, Colbert made a LOTR reference. Showing our geeky roots, are we?
What’s sad, with every blog post about the Fox, with every your thought and emotion directed towards it, you strengthen it.
What you want to achieve, Luis?
Then go straight to it, don’t waste your time on the opposition. Get laser focus, turn off TV, filter the pages you read and concentrate solely on what you want to achieve.
Then you have a chance to get it.
So please, write down, concisely, what it is that you want.
Seriously
Your avid reader from Poland
Leszek Cyfer
I partially agree with Leszek : )
Not the part about strengthening the FOX operation, but that it’s a colossal waste of time.
As I’ve said before, I was happiest when I was in living in pre-internet Tokyo.
The only news I got from the US was the news magazines we had to make “A lessons” from, plus whatever was in the break room.
I wonder if America getting more screwed up is good or bad for Japan. I guess it’s bad for your current employer and Americans overseas in general, alas. Hey, it just hit me that Feingold is from that state. Oh man.
Wisconsin looks to remove Feingold to put in a rich guy who wants to repeal the health care reform.
At some point I guess we have to just accept our fate, like the Jews did in the 30s.
We The People are just too stupid to have nice things like a functioning public sector that other countries have.
Perhaps we are too big or too rural. Look at that map:
http://www.electoral-vote.com/
If Alaska goes blue maybe the 5 pacific states could secede. We’d do fine on our own I think as a left-libertarian nation.
Well, first of all, I don’t waste any time watching them on TV. Couldn’t, even if I wanted to, which I don’t: I live in Tokyo. Even when I’m back in the U.S., I can’t leave them on for more than a few minutes, nor do I try. But I keep an eye on the media, and at times like this check on their web site for a direct source. Part of it is just for fun, catching them in their BS (I know, shooting fish in a barrel, but still).
Part of it, however, is adding my voice to the chorus of calling them on their BS. Something which can have value. As an example in miniature, six years ago I was getting spammed a whole lot by a variety of sites. I spent a little time researching and found that a company called “Burnham Internet Sales” was behind them all. So I took the time to write a post exposing them as the spammers. Just venting at the time. But within a few days, my post had displaced them as the top Google hit for “Burnham Internet Sales”–so anyone researching their company saw my post first. Looking back, six years later, they have reclaimed the top two spots–but my post is still up there, in spots #4-6, dogging them continuously. In the end, I actually seemed to counteract the Google effect they were trying to achieve by parasitically attacking my site. A tiny victory, but satisfying.
Now, I have no illusions that my little tirades about Fox are having anywhere near the same effect. But I do believe in the general principle, that speaking out about BS where you see it, even if one voice in a very large crowd, does have an effect. And it is satisfying still to call BS on BSer’s when you see it. I can only ask you to trust me when I say that it does not distract me from my goals in life–it’s just an amusing side hobby.
Troy:
As nice as a Pacific Union may be, I haven’t totally given up on the old one yet. But the atmosphere Fox has greatly contributed to does stand the best chance of obliterating what we have known as the United States of America. If they finish the job, then count me in.
yeah I know it’s not really a waste of time. While your contribution to combat the slide may be infinitesimal in the scheme of things, it’s hard to just stand by as the lies take over.
Something really only crystalized for me just last week or so, the whole thing about the conservative side being nothing but an agglomeration of lies.
We already know that the Tea Party is largely a front group of corporate interests manipulating a gullible and clueless public to put their people back into control of the levers of government.
One thing I saw today was this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTSQozWP-rM
which was produced by http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Citizens_Against_Government_Waste
which should not surprise anyone is a corporate propaganda front of a corporate lobbying firm.
By pushing our dumbshit conservative friends’ buttons, the corporations can destroy their enemies — honest regulators, appointed pro-consumer judges in the courts, even science in the academy itself (they’ve already succeeded in destroying the field of economics by co-opting it, see The Corruption of Economics)
The dude that looks like is going to take out Feingold is somebody who married into a packaging tycoon family and got into the business to make his money, running a subsidiary with his brother-in-law, a family scion. Feingold has a basically a perfect center-left record — Rhodes Scholar, voted against the Iraq War and PATRIOT Act, voted against the original health care reform because he was holding out for the public option. That he would be taken out by Wisconsinites and replaced by a pro-industry global warming-denier retard will be a horrible blow to this country.
The problem with the civil war idea is that we really can’t run away from Fox and their lies. Even in on the left coast the races are very tight.