We’re not sure when Fox News used this graphic, but we saw it for the first time yesterday. We had heard Fox commentators referred to Texas Freedom Network President Kathy Miller — on the air — as a “troublemaker” back in March. Fox sent three news teams to Austin that month to cover the State Board of Education’s debate over proposed social studies curriculum standards.
Kathy and the two other people in the graphic — Steven Schafersman of Texas Citizens for Science and Steven Green, a law professor and director of the Center for Religion, Law and Democracy at Willamette University in Oregon — have been outspoken critics of the state board’s politicized revision of the curriculum standards.
Distorting what’s really happening in the Texas curriculum debate, Fox regularly features — and fawns over — spokespeople from far-right pressure groups that support the board’s shredding of standards that teachers and scholars spent nearly a year carefully crafting. The resulting standards are ridiculously bloated and heavily politicized. But Fox labels critics of the board as “troublemakers.”
Fox also bills its news as “fair and balanced.”
Really?
UPDATE: Yep, it’s a real Fox News graphic. It appeared in a piece that aired March 9.
Oh give me a break! Anyone who thinks that Faux News is fair and balanced is unfair and unbalanced mentally. Every now and then we tune into Faux to watch the comedy act that Glenn Beck does, complete with broken voice and crocodile tears. The guy is FUNNY, but is also an alcoholic. Billo, as he is called by MSNBC’s Kieth Oberman, is another jokester who doesn’t realize his need for bathroom spray. The OWNER of the Faux kingdom, Rupert Murdoch, has admitted that his channels and other outlets is not for delivery of the news but as a way to make money, period. Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation is a money making operation, nothing more and nothing less. Methinks that everyone should read Wikipedia’s article about Faux.
It should come as no surprise that they are as honest as the “Swift Boats for Honesty” that killed Kerry’s chances of becoming the occupant of the White House. They do not care about truth, as long as they attract viewers. They are so far to the Right that they are almost Left. If they wanted to be honest, they would call themselves the Republican Network or the Tea Party Net.
Any opportunity they get to lie, they take it. Do take a few moments to watch them and then delete the channel from your auto-select.
Glenn, I too love my country, but I’m not about to drink a pint of whiskey before going on the air to tell people that I love my country…or is it a fifth you down? Sober up, fella; there’s a whole world of truth out there that you are missing.
Having a “Textbook Troublemaker” at Willamette, this was brought to my attention too.
A comparison with The Guardian’s article may provide some insight into the difference in reporting quality; I shared this example with a family member that believes Fox’s slogan:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/16/texas-schools-rewrites-us-history
The Christian Post did a better job of covering the story than Fox.
http://www.christianpost.com/article/20100116/texas-board-delays-vote-defends-christian-influence-in-u-s-history/
Adam
You know what else Beverly. I cannot understand why Mike Wallace allows his son Chris to work for FOX. Maybe that is one of the reasons he has grappled so much with depression over the years. If my kid worked for FOX, I would be unable to live with it. Every parent hopes their kids will grow up to do something better than swim all day in a cess pool.
Well folks. I am off to bed. Because I have a job now, I will be unable to watch the Texas SBOE fireworks live tomorrow. But mark my word. You are about to have a totally surreal day. You will be amazed. Hidden agendas. High wire acts. Probably 100 more truly bizarre and still secret amendments to the social studies TEKS. Moreover, I believe the far right members of the Texas SBOE will come in with a Tea Party swagger and an attitude of:
I have the power.
I can do with it whatever I wish.
Whatever you think does not matter.
Just watch me go for the gold.
Betcha!!!!!
Last time, Fox’s Steve Doocy got his reporting from son Peter Doocy in Austin, who said it’s “kinda scary” if people are going to be teaching about things in history “in a way that’s favorable to their views.” See
http://curricublog.wordpress.com/2010/03/19/fox-tx-social-studies/ for the contrast between Fox and ABC.
Friday at Liberty University, Glenn Beck said
For the video, & link re: Cynthia Dunbar, see
http://curricublog.wordpress.com/2010/05/18/beckfinger/
Charles, I’m reminded of the saying, “You can lead a whore to a library but you can’t make her think.” I wasn’t privy to what Mike and his kid talked about but Chris is a big boy and can do anything he wants to do.
Speaking of Mike, I was in a restaurant in Galveston and he asked if I had a light. I lit his cigarette and I asked if I could join him. That was one of the most memorable dinners of my life. The food stunk, but the company couldn’t have been more congenial. In my eyes, he’s one heck of a gentleman…and very funny.
Ever since it went on the air in 1996, Fox News Channel has been a wholly owned subsidiary of the Republican National Committee. Rupert Murdoch was propped up as a Straw Man owner. The RNC fed Fox all of its “News and Commentary” from 1996 – 2000. From 2001 until 2009, Fox got their “News and Commentary” directly from President Cheney’s office as Roger Ailes was seen going to the White House on a daily basis.
The RNC again provides Fox with all of the daily content, even going so far as to allow Fox to invent the phony “Tea Party” movement.
News Hounds has been doing a great job covering Fox & Friends “Texas Textbook War.” In March, News Hounds Priscilla did a daily report on the daily dose of right wing cow chip coming from Fox & Friends. There was nothing balanced about it their coverage. Fox & Friends interviewed only those who supported the conservative changes – including right wing attorneys such as the one (Jonathan Saenz) who designated those in the above visual as “troublemakers.” Steve Doocy even validated Cynthia Dunbar’s points and she’s way out there. Priscilla did a piece on Doocy’s interview, yesterday, with Saenz as well as a piece today which was “report” from the Fox guy down in Texas. The stuff on Fox & Friends just underscores how Fox is a tool of the republican right which influences what is broadcast to a primarily republican right audience.
We deceive, you decide.
Though I had quite a few shipmates from Texas at my various duty stations, I have never been there myself. But the stories they would tell . . . while they may have been about crazy events or people, they never made the State of Texas come across as ‘stupid’ in the ways that news reports of the activities of the extreme religious- and political-right in Texas does.
As for the American Pravda, a.k.a. Faux Noise Corrupthenation, if they are truly ‘fair and balanced’ then Josef Stalin had to have been the greatest politician ever to belong to the Republican Party.
Actually, I meant to say, you can lead a whore to culture but you can’t make Glenn Beck think. He and the other media prostitutes for Faux will say and do anything that will make people think that they personally know the Gd of the Universe and have one:on:ones with him. How else could they possibly know what the Almighty wants us mere mortals to know.
Bill O’Reilly is next in line to be our next profit while Rupert rakes in the dough.
I was talking with a “tea party” person and asked him “what are you griping about taxes?” The answer floored me, “Because Obama and his Socialists have raised and raised and raised taxes.” I asked him to look at his pay stub and compare it to last year’s stub. DOWN, not up; if the Faux people won’t lie to you, you can count on the tea people to do so.
I’m really disgusted with the whole political scene…and it has barely started for this season.
Liberalism is a mental disorder!