}

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Calling out Fox as liars



CNN’s Rick Sanchez, in an unusually honest and direct statement for a mainstream news outlet, says what we all know to be true: Fox Noise are liars.

Sanchez refers specifically to a newspaper ad Fox placed that claimed CNN didn’t cover the recent teabaggers (snicker) protest in Washington, DC when, in fact, CNN did. Sanchez shows clips to prove the point, and also attacks Fox for not knowing the difference between covering the news and promoting it.

It’s arguable that were it not for Fox’s constant promotion of the event, the rally in DC may not have had enough people to hold all the racist signs. Fox promoted the event relentlessly and had a vested interest in making it seem like it was important and bigger than it really was. That’s why they were later obsessed with dramatically inflating the number of people attending: If there had been anywhere near as many people as Fox claimed, it might have approached being a real story.

I don’t get why CNN and other mainstream news outlets continue to report on the astroturf protests as if they’re real, but at least this time Fox was called out for being liars. I just wish the mainstream news media were honest about that all the time.

2 comments:

liminalD said...

It's sad, but some people out there only tune into Fox's garbage, so they're not even going to realise they're being lied to so blatantly :/

Arthur Schenck said...

liminalD: Fortunately, I don't think it rates very well in New Zealand, although I wouldn't be so uneasy about it if Sky had balance from MSNBC. But you're right about Fox viewers.

Louise: Aw, thanks for thinking of me!