Monday, June 02, 2014

Fox's "Fair and Balanced" in One Graphic

I remember, long ago, one of the exercises we used to do back when I was in junior high. I really wish schools would still do this, but since they became so test-obsessed they can't allow for anything that might actually be useful in later life.

We were given several headlines and we had to pick whether they were slanted FOR, AGAINST, or NEUTRAL. I remember thinking it was ridiculously easy, but some of my classmates struggled. I have a strong feeling, unfortunately, that these guys grew up to be viewers of this crazy thing called Fox News.

Any idiot can see they are slanted to conservatives (except, of course, conservatives). Today is a perfect day to demonstrate this little exercise with Fox. Here's the scenario:

So Obama announced a modest proposal today. Cut carbon emissions by 30% by 2030. States will have tremendous flexibility to do this, which means it doesn't have to just come from using other power sources, but by making homes and buildings more efficient.

So, looking at the top news sites that carried this on their front page today, you can see how they carried the story:



BBC, CNN, Al-Jazeera, HuffPost, MSNBC, USAToday


Now let's look at the exact same story presented on Fox News' front page right now:



If you missed it, don't worry. You'll get another opportunity tomorrow. and the next day. and the next day. Pretty much, anytime Obama does anything, good or bad, you can expect FOX to run it as a negative. IN fact, if you can find just ONE positive story in Fox's entire history on Obama, I'll eat my shoe. (Heck, if you can find one negative on Bush, I'll count that as well.)


Fox's entire existence is based on promoting the conservative agenda. They can come up with any slogan or hire anybody (or nobody) that they want and they will still be shills who slant their stories.

I just wish some Americans were a little better at picking that up.

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