Comments on: Fox News vs. The White House: it’s on

By: Mr Denmore

Mr Denmore — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 04:16:05 +0000

Tony Walker has a good piece in the AFR today about this story, noting that Murdoch is seen as importing ‘UK-Australian’ politically slanted news coverage to puritannically straight-laced, obsessively fact-checking American style journalism (the Americans lumping in Australia’s fairly middle of the round journalism with the UK tabloid tradition of just making stuff up).

Anyway, the conventional view among the media pundits in the US is that the White House has over-reacted on this and given Fox an ever bigger soapbox from which to damn Obama and his “liberal” friends to hell. But Walker also makes the point that Murdoch will be worried about the impact on his business in the US should the White House extend its cold shoulder to News Corporation generally.

It’s not just Fox that has gone beyond any semblance of objectivity in political coverage. Anyone who reads the Wall Street Journal regularly will tell you that its traditional moderate conservative line has morphed toward wing-nuttery since Murdoch took over. Witness a column on the WSJ today from none other than Russ Limbaugh.

The devolution of the American right is scarey to behold. There has always been a wildly irrational and paranoid element in the right there, but this faction now is taking over the mainstream.

By: EnergyPedant

EnergyPedant — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 22:53:40 +0000

I thought the White House line was the Fox News isn’t actually a news channel and therefore won’t be treated like one.

Its hard to figure out whether its supposed to be entertainment or comedy. But I seem to assume that most shows on TV are meant as satire.

By: jeebus

jeebus — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 11:05:40 +0000

Anger over the shameless bias of Fox News has been bubbling away for a long time. The size of this grassroots backlash is imperceptible to a media that is used to counting placards in the street, but you can see it every day on popular websites like Digg and Reddit. They represent Obama’s youngish, educated, base, and played a large part in building the viral popularity that got him elected to the presidency.

The Whitehouse has made a strategically sensible move by taking an aggressive stance against Fox News. While Mr Murdoch might relish the increase in ratings that accompanies a media battle, the US Republicans have allowed themselves to be defined by the Democrats, which is a political death sentence.

By: Greg Angelo

Greg Angelo — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 09:39:22 +0000

Occasionally I look at the Fox News Channel on Foxtel for a few seconds at at a time.

A few seconds is enough of totally biased right-wing propaganda and shallow opinion pieces masquerading as news stories that make the tabloid newspapers look responsible by comparison. Allthis is delivered with loud headbanging music obviously designed to appeal to its redneck audience.

This in conjunction with the Newsmax daily newsletter (Google it) gives a glimpse into the underbelly American society and its conservative reactionary elements.

I am pleased that the Obama administration has finally decided to react to Fox News. Hopefully this might restore some balance, but these reactionary media channels obviously have a significant market appeal, and it is this apparent appeal which is the most frightening of all.