Let me spell it out again. There is no left-wing, liberal, or even Democratic Party version of FOX(R). The FOX(R)/MSNBC false equivalency is a corporate media, conservative, “fair and balanced”, talking point.
First, some not-so-long-ago-historical Perspective:
After other networks realized it was too close to call the 2000 election, they withdrew their projection for a Gore win. It was a Bushie who called the election for Bush on FOX(R), when nobody could have made that judgment.
For FOX(R) had a job to do. And it was not journalism.
While all the pre-Iraq War propaganda was flashing 24/7 on FOX(R), along with the flag-waving cheerleading for the Bush Administration, MSNBC fired Phil Donahue. Why? Not for lack of ratings...no, no. His ratings were the highest the network had. No, he was fired because he had too many guests on that spoke out against Bush’s Crusade. Never mind he was told to have more pro-war than anti-war people on. Did FOX(R) have war dissenters on? No. They accused, with open contempt, all liberals against the war of being unpatriotic, of course. They were silent about conservatives against the war like Ron Paul and a few other Libertarian types. Nothing to see there, folks.
For FOX(R) had a job to do. And it was not journalism.
Second, some perspective on who they are lately:
FOX(R) has had on its payroll numerous Bush Administration members and Republican politicians, who clearly have presidential ambitions. How many on the MSNBC payroll were Clinton or Obama Administration members? (No, not Pat Buchanan.) How many on the MSNBC payroll have been on presidential and presidential primary ballots? Not so many as FOX(R)? No, not so many at all.
For FOX(R) has a job to do. And it is not journalism.
Maybe you saw the exciting promotions. All around the country there were to be fabulous “FNC Tea Parties”, featuring Glenn Beck and all your favorite FOX(R) personalities. Everyone was urged to come see the FOX(R) personalities and Republican politicians at an event sponsored by FOX(R), Dick Armey’s political operation, and the salt of the Earth Billionaire Koch Brothers. Yup, a regular gathering of regular folk to advance the agenda of the corporate elite. FOX(R) calls this “grass roots”.
For FOX(R) has a job to do. And it is not journalism.
Remember when Glenn Beck told us Obama was “a racist with a deep seated hatred for white people”? Again, maybe if MSNBC gave a nightly program to Kanye West after he said Bush doesn't like black people, you might find some equivalency. West was chastised by most liberals, in and out of the media. I even joined them. Bush does not hate rich conservative black people. I wonder how many millions of dollars FOX(R) has given to Beck since his “observation”. He’s still working there isn’t he? Yes he is.
For FOX(R) has a job to do. And it is not journalism.
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34 comments:
Gorilla Banking...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Glnvx2QIrg&feature=relmfu
Hmmm... I found a couple of videos of Ron Paul on Fox News stating that he was against the war, including his comments about it when running for president:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5_ThKD2g4U
As for the rest of your diatribe, well, the black helicopters will be there shortly to "discuss" this with you. I have already informed the Koch Brothers about it...
Wease,
I thought I saw Union Thugs destroying our economy. We know they secretly have all the wealth and power over our government, right?
TP,
Yes, thank you. Was that the Ron Paul Show? Looks like a GOP presidential forum. Was he invited to give his anti-war views on the regular programs? Show me the FOX(R) people saying he had a valid point, or using the same words for him as they did for non-Republican war dissenters.
Gee, do you think we could possibly find any FOX(R) criticism of anti-war liberals? No equivalency.
Even though you missed, or ignored, my point, I appreciate your humor...I think... Or maybe I'm already on the list for Camp Cheney...Gulp.
Faux News needs occasional detractors to rile up their base and to appear to be fair and balanced, even if the ratio is 1000:1.
I love the "FOX(R)/MSNBC false equivalency" talking point. Every time that soundbite gets trotted out, I don't know whether to laugh or scream.
They're taking two different perspectives and pretending the "center" is somewhere in between them. I've seen rightwing ranters saying that Fox News and rightwing talk radio hosts are the necessary counterpoint against the "liberal media" and late night comedians (Leno, Letterman, etc.)
Next they'll be saying the Republican Party is so liberal that we need the KKK and rightwing militia groups to balance things out.
I wonder if the membership of the John Birch Society has increased since Obama took office. If one goes to Wikipedia and reads the first paragraph of their entry on the John Birch Society and then the first paragraph of the section called "Values", the description of the JBS' principles sounds a lot like a description of today's right wing ranters.
The Wikipedia entry finishes with "The JBS was a co-sponsor of the 2010 Conservative Political Action Conference, ending its decades-long exile from the mainstream conservative movement."
THIS is how far "news" outlets such as FOX(R) and NewsMax and radio programming (called programming for a reason!) such as Limbaugh, Hannity, etc. have shifted the political spectrum to the right... far enough that the John Birch Society has been able to enter the political mainstream. Heh!
Wease,
FOX(R) also loves to feature Liberals and Dems... in utterly dishonest, usually ambushed, and selectively edited, "scapegoat clips".
Tom,
I think the Republican Party already has the KKK and militias. Well, except for perhaps the militias that are even more extreme, like the Hutari, and others that see both R's and D's as enemies. Hey, wait... We sort of agree with them there...but...
Snave,
The radical Right has done its best to drag the moderate center into its neo-feudal totalitarianism. According to the 2008 election, the Real Center voted for Obama, Like they did for Gore in 2000.
Maybe they'll wake up in 2012.
Great post which needed to be said, Dave. Fox is the pure, slanted, propaganda arm of the corporatist wing of the Republican Party. To even insinuate that MSNBC is its mirror image on the left is laughable.
Fox lies. CONSTANTLY. Joseph Goebbels would be very proud of the job Murdoch and Ailes are doing to deceive the public.
Good points, all, Dave. It's like the alleged equivalency in political donations made by unions and corporations: mythical. Unions can spend only a fraction of 1 percent of what corporations spend. But the right loves to trumpet their false equivlancies and always have.
Jack,
Thanks. The icing on their cake of false equivalency is Roger Ailes' classic projection in calling NPR execs a "bunch of Nazis".
SW,
With the Right's logic, a mouse is equal to an elephant because they are both mammals. It's the same as their fallacious argument that liberals are as violent as conservatives. They are a cult. They must believe what they are told by their authoritarian leaders. Apparently Palin is slipping from her lofty perch somewhat. I would bet this must be the liberal media's fault because they hate her for her "religion", or some such nonsense. Just imagine the outrage if the "liberal media" featured Michael Moore's comments as much as hers. If only there were a liberal media, we'd get a lot more truth.
BTW, I’m still blocked from you site for some reason or another.
SW,
My messages bounced back.
Please email me at f__/reedom/rants/at/gmail/dot/com
Dave,
BTW: I have moved THE SATURDAY AFTERNOON POST over to wordpress.com. Its new address is http://jackjodell53.wordpress.com/. Thanks for your continued patronage, and I hope too see you there again real soon! :-)
Jack, and Dave, and all who have aged blogs: For less than 10.00 per year, you can register a domain name. Then when you move your blog, everyone who is linked to it is still linked to it. I don't know why more people don't do this.
For example: JackJodell.com could live at wordpress, blogspot, or unknown mega blogging site X, and as you move about the blogoshere, everyone still finds you.
I see your blog is back up again.
Dubya, glad to see your site restored, if not your political sanity. :) Regardless, it is good to have you back on line.
Myste, how does one go about registering that domain name, sir?
Dave,
Welcome back to the world of the living.
Mr. Paine,
I shall send you an email later today.
Mr. Myste, yes please do email, sir! Thanks!
Good job of smacking down the lie that MSNBC is the left-wing counterpart of Fox. I plan on writing a similar post as a guest post for a conservative blog. It's clear the people who think MSNBC is the liberal version of Fox watch little if any MSNBC. I was debating with a conservative blogger who tried to compare Rachel Maddow to Glenn Beck! She might as well have compared Milli Vanilli to The Beatles. When I shot her down, she admitted she had never watched Rachel's show.
It's the same thing with NPR and how members of the right refer to it as a far left, radical organization. Conservative pundits would love to diminish NPR's influence and the Lollipop Guild (aka the suckers who take the right-wing media's word as gospel) swallow that nonsense and regurgitate it without even thinking.
Speaking of Sarah Palin, you are right. I have heard conservatives say liberals hate Sarah because of her religion, because she's a woman, a strong conservative, and she's pretty! They have to hold on to these nonsensical reasons because without them they'd have to face some hard truths about Sarah. The latest lie is that the Presidency is beneath Sarah and she'd have more power being the "next Oprah". Pure BS.
Well that did it for me. I am now convinced. Rachel Maddow is a smart and objective journalist and Glen Beck is a biased mad man.
MSNBC has no left wing bias and Fox is a branch of the John Birch Society.
Thanks for clearing things up for me!
Thanks all. It's good to be back. I'm pretty sure mine was in the number of blogs that were taken down by mistake last Friday.
No "conspiracy"...yet.
Jack,
I’ll be seeing you soon.
John,
Thanks so much.
Malcolm,
From media bias to extremist violence, the Right must propagate their myth of equivalency. We know they need to hide behind dishonesty in order to deceive folks into voting against their interests.
TP,
You're welcome. Now you got it.
I remember a while back when you accepted my challenge to compare falsehoods between Beck/Limbaugh and Olbermann/Maddow. I clearly provided far more cases of falsehoods from the Right. I even saved them.
Didn't we also compare incidents of violence? Again, no equivalency.
Here's the latest:
"MADERA, Calif. — The FBI has arrested a 37-year-old school bus driver suspected of vandalizing a central California mosque and firebombing a Planned Parenthood clinic last year, authorities said.
Donny Eugene Mower, of Madera, was to be arraigned Thursday on two federal arson charges in the Sept. 2 attack on the Madera Planned Parenthood, local and federal officials said.
The clinic was damaged and had to remain shut for two days after someone threw an explosive device through a window."
Welcome back. I hope, like you said, that this was just a mistake or glitch, and not the beginning of Operation Delete Subversive Blogs.
Excellent Dave!
West was telling the truth when he said that George W. Bush doesn't like black people.
You're Back!
Welcome back, Dave :)
It's good to see you back Dave! You can't keep a good man down.
Whew! You're back! WELCOME!!!
Excellent post. Of course, the righties who spend all day watching that propaganda will never acknowledge the correctness of your post, but they also believe W actually won the 2000 election and that Barack Obama was born in Kenya. They are a confused bunch.
Dave,
Thanks. As we know Republi-Con "Con-servativism" is all about perpetuating a false belief system, just like any other cult.
Love the Calvin and Hobbes cartoon at your site!
True story: I was just at the dentist a few hours ago having a two and half hour root canal. The dentist asked the dental assistant: "Do you watch Fox News?" I could not speak. My mouth was held open with this black wedge, but the assistant's answer would have accomplished the same task. The dental assistant said: "That's where I get all my news. You can't trust the main stream media to tell you the truth."
The only place she could have heard that, of course, was Fox.
I just posted this comment somewhere else, but then I remembered this article.
John,
The horror. My dentist is a great guy and asks me how the blog is going.
Your experience reminds me why Scientology was very big on recruiting dentists. There seem to be ripe pickings of gullible, true believer types in the profession; and the have some money to be fleeced. That said, that Cult has no small hold on Hollywood as well. But at least most actors are not followers of the Con-servatism Cult.
Which goes to prove that the typical dental assistant is more in touch with reality than is the average Hollyweird actor... :)
In deference to Sun Tzu though, it is still a good idea to hear what the "enemy" (politically speaking, of course!) is doing, so listening to MS-NBC, CBS, NBC, ABC, etc is still not a bad idea.
Mr. Paine,
I almost swalled my tongue, the tooth and all four canals when I heard that.
I sometimes watch Fox also, but only for the entertain value.
TP,
And here I thought the pro-status quo,(except for their famous cheerleading for Bush's invasion of Iraq), tea party-covering, Palin-obsessed, corporate-owned media were the politcal adversaries of progressives.
Isn't it good to know FOX(R) is nothing like that bunch?
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