Berrier writes: "Journalist Tom Ricks crystalized one of the major problems with Fox News, calling the network a 'wing of the Republican Party' on Fox's own airwaves."
Tom Ricks criticizes Fox on their airwaves. (photo: Fox News)
Analyst Calls Fox a Wing of the Republican Party, On the Air
28 November 12
ournalist Tom Ricks crystalized one of the major problems with Fox News, calling the network a "wing of the Republican Party" on Fox's own airwaves.
Ricks' statement echoes a comment made years earlier by then-White House communications director Anita Dunn. While Dunn was attacked for her statement at the time, Ricks' willingness to call Fox out while appearing on the network itself shows just how clearly Fox has established itself as the communications arm of the GOP.
In October 2009, Dunn appeared on CNN's media criticism show Reliable Sources and pointed out that "Fox News often operates almost as either the research arm or the communications arm of the Republican Party." Following her comments, Fox figures viciously attacked Dunn and the White House, using those statements to accuse President Obama of placing Fox on an "enemies list."
Three years later, Ricks, a columnist for Foreign Policy magazine, criticized Fox News' attempt to manufacture a scandal from the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, claiming the story was "hyped by this network especially" and accused Fox of "operating as a wing of the Republican Party" before being cut off by Fox anchor Jon Scott.
While Ricks is one of the few public figures to accuse Fox of partisan bias on its own network, he's not the first to echo Dunn's accurate description of the network. Following Dunn's appearance, Huffington Post managing editor Nico Pitney also appeared on Reliable Sources and said "the White House is taking on Fox News. And it's exactly the right thing to do. If the Republican National Committee had a television network, how would it be any different?" (accessed via Nexis)
In May, former New York Times executive editor Bill Keller called Fox the "cultural home of the Republican Party and a nonstop Obama roast," pointing out that "Fox pretends very hard to be something it is not, and in the process contributes to the corrosive cynicism that has polarized our public discourse."
New York Times media critic David Carr wrote that Fox temporarily put politics aside in order to accurately call the winner of the 2012 presidential election, but also noted that it "has been suggested, here and elsewhere, that Fox News effectively became part of the Republican propaganda apparatus during the presidential campaign by giving pundit slots to many of the Republican candidates and relentlessly advocating for Mitt Romney once he won the nomination."
New York magazine columnist Frank Rich, in an appearance on MSNBC's Rachel Maddow Show claimed that Fox News figures "have double employment" because "Fox really is an arm of the Romney campaign."
Fox's insistence that it does not operate as a wing of the GOP is not only contradicted by experts, but by its own habit of ceaselessly attacking the Obama and promoting right-wing causes and candidates, not to mention Fox News executive vice president Bill Shine's description of the network as the "voice of opposition on some issues" soon after Obama's inauguration.
See Also: Tom Ricks Denies He Apologized To Fox News
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Comments
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Well, if these folks see a blatant lie in print, that makes it true. And if they hear it on Fox News, it's right there in the Unholy Gospel -- from which, alas, a lot of half-wit preachers take their Sunday texts.
Not quite seeing why you're getting all the red numbers, maddave. I thought as much myself while reading the piece. Those who point out that the emperor has no clothes are usually silenced these days. Ricks was completely accurate in his comments about faux news bias, which, in today's world in the US, probably means we'll never hear of him again.
He probably will not be seen on Fox, but he certainly will everywhere else. He is a well respected journalist.
It was hyperbole, X Dane, with a strong dose of sarcasm included, meant to express my low opinion of how it is these days with our overly controlled media. Somebody has the temerity to speak truth? Off with his head! Guess I should be more careful about how I say things.
It was was no critique of yours and maddave's comments.....I agree, and I LOVE that Rich told them off right on the air. That was great....By the way I almost always agree with your comments Lolanne.
Right now I am very worried for the FCC may allow The scum, Murdoch to buy LA Times and Chicago Tribune, plus some TV stations. I have signed some petitions to the FCC.
We have one other paper in my area, an opinionated rag I am not interested in reading. If Murdoch get his filthy hands on LA Times, that's it. No paper worth reading. We are really being deprived in our so called free country. Without good newspapers we are a lot less free.
I'm also very concerned about the FCC and Murdoch; have probably signed the same petitions you have. This is just one more area where the wealthy are controlling everything, and it may be the most insidious. Controlling what people read is controlling their minds.
I sympathize with you if the LA Times goes...have often read and appreciated something they've printed. And I know how it is to have no newspaper. Haven't lived where there was a decent one for many years (last 3 places I've lived, covering about 15 yrs). I rely on TV like MSNBC and online sources for news. Nothing at all available here. (I live in TX and refuse to pay for a subscription to any newspaper in this ugly, red state.)
Anyway, I gave a positive back, based on what I thought you were saying.
You , X Dane & Lolanne got it right. In viewing the video, did you-all see how quickly he was shuffled off the screen following his remark?
The ladies are with you Dave, we gave you thumbs UP. It was GREAT seeing the interviewer's face after Rich's remark. It is not too often they get told off...on air!
It also occurred to me, how brilliant the move was and how FOX helped this guy out by accusing him of "apologizing" backstage. The "apology" supposedly included the fact that he had been on a book tour. Until they brought it up, I didn't know he had a book out :-)
Maybe I should buy his book. Maybe that's what he wanted all along.
KUDOS! Brilliant move! Call out FOX and get book tour publicity too.
"This guy" is a VERY good journalist and I bet his book is very good too. He wrote one, maybe two about the Iraq war, I am not sure....I think his opinion is clear in the title..s.. FIASCO, and Greatest Story ever Sold.
To be open about the bias is legally and morally appropriate. To have the bias and deny it ??!! Well, it's legal,
but......
The Fox network was originally "conceived" as "GOPTV" in the Nixon era, but that name was far too obvious even for our poorly informed society.
So the Rulers of the Universe decided on "News" instead. Brilliant! It is still the RNC network by any name.
Can you point to an instance that Roger Ailes or Rupert Murdoch admitted to the world at large, "We are the right wing."
Simply because their business model depends upon keeping those brains out there impeccably washed !
They really don't care about those people who "get" that Fox is a right-wing propaganda machine, but they will fight to the financial (at least) death, anyone who makes any attempt to "awaken" their brainwashed zombie audience.
Before we get too "arrogant", let's just note the stats showing that Fox is "the most watched television show in America". I know - sorry about what that tells us about America - but there we have it.
So *WE* know that Fox is B.S., *FOX* knows that Fox is B.S., but this massive somnambulistic and brainwashed audience out there transfixed to Fox still thinks they are watching "fair and balanced *NEWS*".
Fox will fight anyone who threatens to burst that bubble. That's what's paying the rent ! That's why the 1% will protect both Fox and Rush & Clones to the very last dying breath.
The Republicans didn't gut the "Truth In Advertizing Laws", and the "Equal Time Law" (that would have kept both Fox and Rush completely off the air) for nothing.
Fox news attempted to enter the Canadian News Market, but were refused based upon Canadian law barring lying during the presentation of News programming.
because they love to call themselves Fair and balanced?????? So when Rich correctly called them an arm of the GOP, that tells the VERY few that may not know yet...that they are NOT balanced, NOR are they fair.
We don't approach the potential for accuracy until we step outside of the establishment media altogether.
I find that the FOX networks's bias and accuracy, particularly their editorial coverage, is generally worse than most of the other establishment networks, though I doubt that I can convince you of that in a paragraph. (I actually prefer the editorials of the National Review to FOX; I don't agree much, but they are more articulate about their worldview.) However, the other major networks deserve their share of criticism as well.
At least without content, that has got to be the most childish kind of arguing, but you are consistent. Go back to the playground. Recess isn't over yet.
What infuriates me is all the times republicans have the enormous nerve to say Bush kept us safe from terrorist attacks!! What the devil was 9-11?????. And they were warned..MANY times.
Remember George Tenet was saying at the 9-11 hearing, that for months before the attack they, CIA, was going around with their "hair on fire", while Bush was playing on his ranch ALL OF AUGUST.
He was getting the presidential daily briefs the whole month, including the PDB saying that Osama Bin Laden DETERMINED to strike INSIDE America????
Part 2
I cannot believe you are still talking about 4 Americans when under GWB PLEASE use your calculator to add the total from 9-11 PLUS the total killed in the Afghan and Iraq wars. GET outraged over something real. Like war crimes.
There is no such thing as LEFT journalism, in the USA unless you really dig deep into the "Alternative" spectrum. How else would they attract all these advertisers across the board?
It starts at center-right like Obama and slides rightward from there.
Of course I'm talking in comparison with what is "normal" in other, more progressive and enlightened nations, including currently Conservative Canada where Fox is banned for lying constantly.
Look around a bit mate.
The good news?
Finally, a bit of "Fair and balanced" reporting on "FIX".
Absolutely true since these media networks are essentially businesses that necessarily reflect the perspective and interests of business. Not necessarily in the public interest. There is no solution that I can see involving the current structure of the industry.
As an aside, I advocate moving away from the term, "mainstream media," and perhaps replacing it with the term, "establishment media." The alternative press is starting to reach an audience in numbers that rival the networks, (above) which could make them deemed mainstream-- though unacknowledged as such. (Democracy Now is carried by over 1000 stations. It gives them potential listeners of a million or more on a good day.)
We are entering an era where the establishment media reflects the news of-- and constrains it to-- an increasingly selective sector of society. It is rather remarkable when so much happens that is unknown or distorted to so many. It is partly the reason for the polarization of the country.
Just becvause Bernard Goldberg says the mainstream media are biased to the left, that doesn't make it so--and in fact serius analyses of these networks' coverage suggests they are, if anything, timidly conservative--a nd not so timidly, when it comes to issues such as labor relations. Fox, on the other hand, often proudly ackowledges its right-wing bias, using the ALLEGED leftism of everybody else as an excuse.
BTW CNN is so far to the right to call it liberal left news is just another one of those Fox faux news lies you bobble heads are quoting !
It's one thing to announce your own bias but it is an an entirely different animal to justify your own biases by imputing equal or more egregious biases to your competition. FOX made it a general policy to label ANY deviation from FOX/Teabag/anti -intellectual orthodoxy ---no matter how valid--- as "Liberal Bias" and those of us with room temperature IQ's --- more here than one would think--- buy right into it.
Example: The FOX/GOP crowd yelled to high heaven over the racism of the relatively obscure "African Americans for Obama", yet not once did I see or hear one word from the right denouncing the virulent and active Arian Nation, KKK, American Nazi Party, etc. Explain THAT one away!
Otherwise how can you explain Christie jumping on the phone to call Murdoch immediately after his public display of cooperation with Obama? Why would he have to kiss Murdoch's ring and explain his "faux pas"? That picture alone was pretty telling!
We're not finished with FOX. It looks like the FCC will cave to allow more media into Murdock's empire.
Geez, Mr. Williams, what makes you think that the employees at Faux even *WENT* to college ? Pat Roberts "U", perhaps, but *college* ?
And since when does the field of journalism and that of blatant propaganda have that much in common, other than insofar as both attempt to influence public perception with *wildly* divergent end-game goals in mind ?
Good to hear from a REAL journalist here !
Thanks for you comment.
Rick Santorum would shriek SNOB! at your wonderful remark. Hopefully we will never hear from him again.
Tom Ricks said it clearly. He exposed FAUX’s right-wing bias.
That the major networks failed to report Ricks’ calling out of FAUX is regrettable.
Go to Democracy Now, Link TV, Bill Moyers, and yes, tune in to “We Do The Work” on KSVR(ksvr.org) 91.7 FM at 5:00 PM on Mondays (Tuesdays at 4:30 PM beginning January 8, 2013) to get information and comments not otherwise reported by the “free press”.
...except, of course, when you are reading – and supporting – RSN.
"well DUH!"
Fox: Unfair and Imbalanced.
Gosh, there ARE aliens among us!
I guess that conservative Canada has banned them for "being objective".
How are things on Alpha Centauri 111?
expectation that perhaps Kerry would then be the the Secretary of State candidate. Kerry's senate seat would be vacant, cause an election to fill Kerry's seat.Republi
(cons) would throw lots of money to attempt to pick up an extra senate seat. A good honorable woman, Susan Rice may get crushed in the deal. Republi(cons) are really bastards.
....and the news in that is??? Just kidding.
They are trying hard. Let's hope they won't succeed.
I heard something interesting this morning.
In CASE Kerry becomes sec. of state or defense...Gover nor Deval Patrick could take his seat, O R... appoint Robert Kennedy's grandson, congressman Joseph?? Kennedy.
How about them apples? another generation Kennedy.... in uncle Ted's seat. That might make the republicans explode.....I'd love to see that.
I'll contribute to the cause,
Paybacks are always fun, ain't they?
rightwing "swiftboated" candidate Kerry as a liar and traitor?"Too thin, rooster,too thin!"
On the other side of the coin, Obama is promoting Rice primarily because she is a black woman, not a strong candidate for State.
Rice would get "crushed in the deal," which is
a waste of political capital- a single Senator can put the nomination on hold for good. The Repubs have decided this is the only fight they can win, and are digging in. The right
wing claim that Obama "left four dead behind" is so absurd! How bout Bush Cheney leaving 4,000 dead, 40,000 maimed and 400,000 refugees behind in Iraq? Anything to say about that crime against humanity?
And we do not want to forget the 400,000 Iraqi's who were killed in the war.
I'm afraid your numbers on the Iraqi victims are woefully low. The number of Iraqi death are more like a million and about 2 millions fled the country while about 2 million is displaced INSIDE the country, they fled their homes, when the Sunnis and Shiites were killing each other
....and how about the enormous number of people horribly maimed in the many car bombings and other disasters....so many of them are children.
When we DID mention the Iraqi victims,.. and we did that rarely.... the numbers were always much lower that what was true. It was always about OUR losses.
The number of seriously injured was under told too, particularly in the beginning, when the military was trying to make people believe, that this war was going to be a piece of cake.
Yes those bastards have an awful lot on their conscience. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to bother them one bit, When Cheney appeared the last few years he was still calling for more war and destruction. What an ugly hateful old man.
These were the little gut punches softening up the masses to accept this notion that all of mainstream news was inherently liberal.This well planned propaganda ploy worked.In comes Fox with all their "fair and balanced" blathering and the masses rejoice. Of course the Puppet Masters of right wing America knew all along Fox was nothing more than their mouthpiece.A perfect fit to secure votes from angry and struggling White America.
Republican Party as we knew it decades ago has vanished. Fox News is eliminated from my ATT U-Verse Guide so it never appears.
Because for whatever reason, the Republicans have chosen her to attack Obama. According to
Senate rules, one Republican with committee privileges can put her on the shelf, and thus humiliate Obama or force some other concession.
it has nothing to do with qualifications.
One thing the rightwingers are "right" about:
a U.S. government that doesn't do anything stupid is best. At least Obama will probably not start another war. Maybe a secretary of state who stayed home would be an improvement!
Look how completely we've bungled the Middle East, Iraq, Syria, Palestine/Israe l, on and on and on. Worst of all is the nuclear catastrophe
we've created in Pakistan!
WOW...that was quite a mouthful...We certainly bungled Iraq, but Syria and Palestine/Israe l??... Israel have NO intention to work on a two state solution.
They simply keep stealing more and more of the Palestinian land, by building settlements.
We had no hand in Syria, and we are trying to help refugees, we don't REALLY know who the "good guys" are, if there are any?
Also how have we created a nuclear catastrophe in Pakistan?? I am not being sarcastic, I do not know, and I would like to know. Many of you commenting here know a lot more than I do, although I try to inform myself, so please tell me.
So who were they attracting with the Cadaver Mystique?" Ann Coulter looks like she just escaped the undertaker, and has been cloned to produce younger facsimiles, rising in her image. Have been amazed at the dead-eyed, coffin-haired duplication, the time or two I was imprisoned in a room with a TV hung near the ceiling, and FOX News in progress.
"---Talking in a Blinkered Blunderland----!"
Words by request, music you probably already know.
I despise all FOX is responsible for in keeping this nation stupid and divisive- but I don't see any major network willing to call them out. It seems like all the prostitutes of mainstream media are too afraid to reveal the malfeasance of their corporate pimps for fear of losing their lucrative meal tickets.
I'm loving Ricks for having the cahoones to display what too few have these days, a spine, but as long as those who claim their existence as "Not Fox," don't trade a meal for integrity, I haven't any faith in anyone playing journalist on TV.
It seems to me that there was a news article just the other day about how the White House and FCC are possibly in the process as we speak to give Rupert Murdoch the right to acquire even MORE of America's so called '''''Free''''' Press--( I believe the LA Times and the Chicago Tribune?)--- and make them a part of his already vast, imposing, pervasive and highly questionable 'actual-news-an d-free-press' Media Empire.
Now why would a White House supposedly 'taking on Fox News' also agree and even effort to change rules so that the owner of Fox News could acquire even MORE ways to shovel his 'stuff' into the minds of Americans..?
Things just do not add up...
Or if it quacks like a duck...
???
Bill O'Reilly is a cocky shameless guy who brings people on to try to abuse and insult them if they are not Republican leaning. It is a disgrace how he talks over people and point his fingers in their face.
On election night they, including Karl Rove were publicly exposed as they went into a rant of denial over the results.
However Americans are wiser now and the election results show they are not taken in but the propoganda.
The American system does allow for the extremists and lunatics who continue to get attention on the public platform, strive and make money: Howard Stern, Donald Trump and political deadbeats like John McCain!
The first step is admitting you have a problem, the alternative is bottoming out and winding up in the gutter. Conservatives need to choose.
Fox news has usurped the public air waves and is an affront to the First Amendment.
The lies and hatred that they spew has without question worked well. It is truly amazing just how many Americans have bought into at least part of this carefully orchestrated hate machine. While it is true that the majority of followers are like and sometimes the same ones(tea party, bible thumpers, etc.), it has had an enormous effect on our culture and not for the better.
They will continue until we have had enough and stand up to them with a real belief system that reflects real American ideals. Something that for some unexplained reason, the Democrats have been unwilling or incapable of doing. Real family values and the ability to prosper are the basis for our whole unique system of government. The proof lies in the transfer of wealth the began in earnest in 1952, from those who do the work and those who steal the value. It is still fixable but not forever.
You stopped short of saying what I've been saying for a while now; We need an overhaul of the First Amendment, at least at the mega-media level and enforced through the FCC. Provable lies and propaganda should cost a station or a network their license to transmit.
"The American system does allow for the extremists and lunatics who continue to get attention on the public platform, strive and make money: Howard Stern, Donald Trump and political deadbeats like John McCain!"
MoveOn has started a petition interface, and one of the first and best petitions is to Macy's Department Store demanding they drop the Donald Trump brand because of how his repugnant lemonsucking lips spewed incessant birth certificate demands from Obama during the big circus campaign. Brilliant petition and it has Macy's scrambling to justify their own brand.
Whereas I guess Howard Stern might be smart enough to have fully reflected on what a monumental whore he has been is his infantile rage to overcome gangly jewish dorkdom (just a guess) that he has publicly relegated himself to the ultimate admission of selfpimped vaccuousness; he installed his $100,000,000 ass on a talent show judges panel. ( I guess his marriage is a bore...go figure)
But John McCain? He should be forced to marry, breed, and cohabitate with Sarah Palin, and forfeit his beer money.
The American system doesn't just 'allow' for these types, it courts them with boundless rewards because only hate sells in a system dependent on enemies and war.
Revise the 1st Ammendment because of broadcast abuses? The offenses occur on all the networks.....AL L of them.
Anti-trust laws would be the way to stop the media moguls who have thought control and election control in mind.
Remember Glenn Beck and Judge Napoliatano who had their own one hour shows on FOX ?
Both of them aired a two-hour special revealing the offenses and conspiracies of the Federal Reserve Bank, it's history, and it's current subterfuge.
WITHIN ONE WEEK.....BOTH SHOWS WERE CANCELLED !! There are higher and more powerful forces controlling the media than the public figures about whom we read. Very dangerous, very dangerous.
The way to fight the oppressive effort is to educate the children in balanced principles of activity between government and individual rights.
Good thoughts, however....than ks
"Either you're with us, or you' re with the terrorists." Remember that little bit of homespun wisdom?
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