Interesting Take on Fox News

[TBoneTX 45,568]

Interesting. Comments? (If you choose to be dismissive, please put some thought behind it.)

FOX NEWS STANDS ALONE?

by JOSEPH FARAH

Roger Ailes, for whom I have great admiration, wrote a touching letter to his colleagues at his Fox News Channel following the revelation the FBI had seized the phone records of his employees in a fishing expedition over leaks by the federal government.

This followed, of course, the disclosure the Justice Department had done the same with employees of the Associated Press, the largest news-gathering organization in the world.

While I agree wholeheartedly with Ailes that these actions by the federal government represent an attack on the First Amendment and express my solidarity with the AP and Fox News, I need to take issue with him on the closing line of his memo.

Ailes wrote: “As Fox News employees, we sometimes are forced to stand alone, but even then when we know we are reporting what is true and what is right, we stand proud and fearless.”

While it’s true that Fox News is often criticized and demonized by many in the press, it’s also true that Fox News acts like it is the only alternative medium in the U.S. It is far from it. It’s also true that Fox also has some of the same institutional problems that plague the euphemistically called “mainstream media” – problems of bias, political correctness and sacred cows.

Fox News has successfully marketed itself as the “fair and balanced” network, but that is hardly the highest calling of the free press.

The free press is a completely American concept, birthed in the colonies only some 250 years ago. Our founders had the wisdom to place checks and balances on government, and they had the insight to realize that it would require an informed and moral citizenry to maintain the system of self-government they created.

The free press was seen by those geniuses as a vital institution because it would serve as a watchdog on government and other powerful institutions. And that’s how the free press in America has failed.

It’s not about “fair and balanced.” It’s about seeking the truth.

The Internet lowered the cost of entry into the news game, and with it came other alternative media – like WND.com, the very first independent news-gathering organization to be formed specifically for the Internet.

We have been fearless seekers of the truth ever since – for more than 17 years. So I think I have more than a little knowledge in this area.

The WND team is a collection of journalistic refugees from the “mainstream media,” which abandoned their watchdog role and their mission to expose corruption, fraud, waste and abuse in government.

Some believe Fox News is the only place to go for news because it does offer alternative points of view.

But there are some places Fox News won’t go. There are some stories Fox won’t cover. There are some things you just can’t say on Fox News – things that need to be said and reported.

While it’s true Fox provides a forum for conservative voices, it is still heavily stacked against them. Think about it. There’s Sean Hannity and Mike Huckabee and Neil Cavuto. But on the other side of the spectrum there’s Greta Van Susteren, Geraldo Rivera, Sheppard Smith, Bill O’Reilly, Chris Wallace, Juan Williams, Lis Wiehl, Kirsten Powers, Jehmu Greene, Mara Liason, Judith Miller, Bob Beckel, Alan Colmes, Arthel Neville, Megyn Kelly, Greg Gutfeld and dozens more who are not – some of whom represent strong liberal points of view.

That’s fine.

I’m all for offering a broad spectrum of opinion. We do it at WND, too. But covering the news should be about the pursuit of truth.

Fox News most often falls short of this goal in its coverage of issues involving Islam. And that is, I believe, directly attributable to its ownership, which includes a large and powerful Rupert Murdoch ally – one that keeps him in power – Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, a billionaire Saudi businessman, a senior member of the Saudi monarchy, the nephew of Saudi dictator King Abdullah and the first cousin of Saudi Interior Minister Prince Mohammed bin Nayef. He is also the largest stakeholder in Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. outside the Murdoch family.

Again, I say all this not to tell you Fox News is worthless, but because America needs to know it.

There currently is no place Americans can get on TV unbiased news fearlessly delivered without concern over sacred cows. No, not even on Fox News.

Is Fox News better than ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN and the others? Yes.

But can you rely on it for all your news? No.

Is Fox News vilified by the establishment press out of jealousy over ratings and because it provides a handful of conservative voices with a platform? Yes.

But is it all America needs to get the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth? No.

The truth is the American government has never been at war with the free press like it is today. And that is because the American government, under liberals, is moving closer to unconstitutional authoritarianism than perhaps ever before in its history.

Fox News is a victim of this, but so is the entirely government-friendly, establishment-supporting AP.

And so are anti-establishment news agencies like WND. For instance, it was my role as founder and editor of WND and our aggressive pursuit of the truth about this administration that got me targeted for an audit by the Internal Revenue Service for political reasons – a fact that has not been reported on Fox News or any other significant news agency in the country, despite the fact that we have a unique audience of some 8 million.

If America’s news agencies try to fight government attacks like this by only decrying their own victimhood, then these attacks will continue – not only throughout this administration but into the future.

In other words, if we don’t hang together, we will hang separately.

Meanwhile, it is imperative that Americans use all their skills of discernment in searching out truth in the media. I believe that search begins at WND.

Even though I have my quarrels with AP and Fox, I stand firmly behind them in seeking justice and exposing the vicious, unwarranted and unprecedented attacks against them – and any other news agency – by the would-be tyrants in Washington.

---

http://www.wnd.com/2013/05/fox-news-stands-alone/

Joseph Farah is founder, editor and CEO of WND and a nationally syndicated columnist with Creators News Service. He is the author or co-author of 13 books, including his latest, "The Tea Party Manifesto," and his classic, "Taking America Back," now in its third edition and 14th printing. Farah is the former editor of the legendary Sacramento Union and other major-market dailies.

[GandD 5,966]

Si man, si

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Thanks Tbone. The media will normally stand behind their own when they see their rights being assaulted, which is what is happening. Somehow the people at WMD and CNN "get it" when they see FOX being discriminated against and understand that they could be next.

It is about time they understand that this President has no regard for our rights and attacks the 1st and 4th amendment as stongly as he attacks the 2nd Amendment. Who is surprised?

This is nothing less than an attempt to silence opposition, the IRS mess is an attempt to "de-fund" the opposition and the attacks on the 2nd Amendment are an attempt to dis-arm the opposition. Obama, is in effect, at war with freedom and attempting to eliminate the opposition's ability to resist.

"Then, they came for me..."

Interesting. Comments? (If you choose to be dismissive, please put some thought behind it.)

[decocker 7,198]

There currently is no place Americans can get on TV unbiased news fearlessly delivered without concern over sacred cows. No, not even on Fox News.

while this sentence seems to have been written by a self proclaimed intellectual, possibly in a drunken stupor, there really isn't anything on television worth watching specifically for news. i'll give you that much. but fox being the best choice? fox delivering anything unbiased outside of bull sacred cow excrement? that's just too rich.

[chaine1 116]

Interesting. Comments? (If you choose to be dismissive, please put some thought behind it.)

Seriously? I'm dismissive towards anyone who presents an extreme view:

WND is the brainchild of Joseph Farah, a self-described “radical” and longtime antigovernment propagandist and apologist for the Confederacy who believes “cultural Marxists” are plotting “to transform our political system, to change the way we think, to attack our values, to demean our faith in God, to reduce that shining city on the hill to the status of a drab public-housing project.”

http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2012/fall/world-nuts-daily#.UaTSyMokzm8

Fox News most often falls short of this goal in its coverage of issues involving Islam. And that is, I believe, directly attributable to its ownership, which includes a large and powerful Rupert Murdoch ally – one that keeps him in power – Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, a billionaire Saudi businessman, a senior member of the Saudi monarchy, the nephew of Saudi dictator King Abdullah and the first cousin of Saudi Interior Minister Prince Mohammed bin Nayef. He is also the largest stakeholder in Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. outside the Murdoch family.

Interesting point of view from a guy with an Arabic last name (Farah). Wonder if his far right readers know he's Arab....

Ick.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Interesting. Comments? (If you choose to be dismissive, please put some thought behind it.)

Joseph Farah - the same guy that still believes that Obama was born in Kenya. The same guy that presented smoking gun after smoking gun of Obama's overseas birth via his paranoid delusional webite The World Nut Daily. You really want someone put thought behind the mumblings of an imbecile? Now that's funny!

[TBoneTX 45,568]

Interesting point of view from a guy with an Arabic last name (Farah). Wonder if his far right readers know he's Arab....

Ick.

He's Christian and also a former left-wing radical.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

He's Christian and also a former left-wing radical.

Former left wing radical? Was this when he worked with Rush on "See I told you so" back in the 90's? Or when - right around that time - he turned the Sacramento Union into an unabashedly conservative paper?

And Christian my #######. He is the offspring of Syrian and Lebanese parents. That makes him a Mooslim just as much as being the son of a Kenyan makes one a Mooslim - a position Farah has always stood firm on. If it applies to Obama, it must also apply to Farah.

Edited May 28, 2013 by Mr. Big Dog

[duraaraa 203]

Ugh. This is why I stick to the Pyongyang Times for my news. It may not be perfect, but at least it's more honest than what you get in the U.S.

[chaine1 116]

He's Christian and also a former left-wing radical.

Sounds like a guy who doesn't know the meaning of the word 'balance.' Flies from one extreme to another. Makes him even less credible in my opinion. Makes him unstable and nutty.

I know plenty of right wing radicals who would be dismissive of him just because he's Arabic. Christian or not.

[chaine1 116]

Ugh. This is why I stick to the Pyongyang Times for my news. It may not be perfect, but at least it's more honest than what you get in the U.S.

Really?? I haven't read it, but I have a hard time imagining anything state-owned from North Korea is 'honest.'

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Really?? I haven't read it, but I have a hard time imagining anything state-owned from North Korea is 'honest.'

You will definitely find a more honest approach to news and more fact based reporting in the Pyongyang Times than you ever would in Farah's publication. Even Dear Leader 3rd wouldn't stoop as low to spread his propaganda as Joseph Farah does to spread his.

Edited May 28, 2013 by Mr. Big Dog

[chaine1 116]

You will definitely find a more honest approach to news and more fact based reporting in the Pyongyang Times than you ever would in Farah's publication. Even Dear Leader 3rd wouldn't stoop as low to spread his propaganda as Joseph Farah does to spread his.

haha, I'm sure it's more honest that the WND website...but that's a pretty low standard. Not having read the Pyongyang Times, but knowing it's a state-run newspaper, I would still take it with a grain of salt, just like I would with ANY state-run newspaper...

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

I would still take it with a grain of salt, just like I would with ANY state-run newspaper...

Like the NYT?

[chaine1 116]

Like the NYT?

I think one always needs to consider the source, even down to the journalists.

However, please explain how NYT is government run? That was not something I was aware of. I thought it was owned by the New York Times Company?