Fox News Remains the Singular Beacon of Fair & Balanced Journalism

...in hell.

What can you even say about this one?

The "Fair & Balanced" news reporter covering the Kerry campaign made up a parody article covering the debate the likes of which you'd see in an AOL chain mail assuming you had the stupidest "buddies" on Earth.

Then FOX NEWS posted it to the website.

Rallying supporters in Tampa Friday, Kerry played up his performance in Thursday night's debate, in which many observers agreed the Massachusetts senator outperformed the president.

"Didn't my nails and cuticles look great? What a good debate!" Kerry said Friday.

With the foreign-policy debate in the history books, Kerry hopes to keep the pressure on and the sense of traction going.

Aides say he will step up attacks on the president in the next few days, and pivot somewhat to the domestic agenda, with a focus on women and abortion rights.

"It's about the Supreme Court. Women should like me! I do manicures," Kerry said.

Kerry still trails in actual horse-race polls, but aides say his performance was strong enough to rally his base and further appeal to voters ready for a change.

"I'm metrosexual -- he's a cowboy," the Democratic candidate said of himself and his opponent.

A "metrosexual" is defined as an urbane male with a strong aesthetic sense who spends a great deal of time and money on his appearance and lifestyle.

As captured by several bloggers including talking points.

The FOX retraction and "apology" is somewhere on this page at the moment about half way down under the unassuming little title "Editors Note:"

Earlier Friday, FOXNews.com posted an item purporting to contain quotations from Kerry. The item was based on a reporter�s partial script that had been written in jest and should not have been posted or broadcast. We regret the error, which occurred because of fatigue and bad judgment, not malice.

Wow, that was a partial script? So they do write 'em ahead with just a HINT of bias and flair for spin don't they? Like fabricating quotes to make a Presidential Candidate seem INSANE? :shk:

The retraction only came after questions were asked, and heads exploded and the name of the offending "prankster" came out from efforts of media watcher TPM talking to FNC spokesman Paul Shur. The following sincere apology was mustered up (via phone):

"Carl [Cameron] made a mistake which he regrets. And he has been reprimanded for his lapse in judgment. It was a poor attempt at humor."

Serious media bias watchers in the Republican Party are expected to call for the firing and accountability of Carl Cameron and apologies from every executive in the industry for what they'll surely percieve as just more evidence of the blatant liberal bias...

Wait, what the hell am I talking about?

its not really a big deal, compared to some of the other crap they pull. further sapping their credability, this only reaffirms my beliefe that FOX is indeed the worst news orginazation in the history of the world.

Agreed, but 24 is the best TV show I have ever seen.

[edit on 10/2/2004 by Rain King]

I have do admit, that is pretty damn funny. There is no way that could be called an editorial though. I mean, if you applied for a job, and gave that as one of your articles, they'd probably laugh in your face...not only because of the joke, but also because there is no way cameroon can be considered a professional editorial writer anymore.

hey, yeah, let's keep bashing the most popular news organization on TV just because it leans more right then the other channels! you want to judge an entire 24-hour channel by one guy go ahead. or if you'd like to provide a couple of examples of true unethical journalism....then i'm still waiting.

I like Campaign Carl Cameron. He has done an exemplary job reporting on the campaign. How did this get on the site? Was it the result of a reporter doing a little satire, which accidentally found its way into the article? Did he put in there purposely?

Whatever the case was Carl has been reprimanded for a stupid attempt at humor.

(October 01, 2004 -- 04:48 PM EDT // link // print)

Okay some more details on that bogus Kerry story that ran this morning on the Fox News website. As we noted earlier, this morning the front page of the Fox website
ran a story with a series of phony Kerry quotes (see post below). After questions were asked the offending material was quickly pulled from the site, without explanation.

So what happened?

Late this afternoon I spoke to Fox spokesman Paul Schur who told me the following ...

�Carl [Cameron] made a stupid mistake which he regrets. And he has been reprimanded for his lapse in judgment. It was a poor attempt at humor.�

So the Fox reporter covering the Kerry campaign puts together this Kerry-bashing parody right out of the RNC playbook with phony quotes intended to peg him as girlish fool and somehow it found its way on the Fox website as a news item.

Imagine that.

More to follow ...

-- Josh Marshall

www.talkingpointsmemo.com...

I think this says all that needs to be said.

Earlier Friday, FOXNews.com posted an item purporting to contain quotations from Kerry. The item was based on a reporter�s partial script that had been written in jest and should not have been posted or broadcast. We regret the error, which occurred because of fatigue and bad judgment, not malice.
www.foxnews.com...

Everyone does this kind of thing to blow off steam. Reporters have plenty of material they can satirize and I sincerely doubt Fox News did this purposely.

Regardless of what errors are made, no other news agency to my knowledge, in my memory, has ever strived harder toward the ideal of unbiased reporting.

Actually, I'm listening to O'Reilly, right now, give a scathing analysis of Bush's performance last night.


[edit on 04/10/1 by GradyPhilpott]

well haha worst news organization ever :chuckle: i havent seen them report on any forged documents yet like teh GReat news channels do.

forged documents, honest mistake...

dispalying a "Fox News Alert" every half hour for new micheal jackson updates is downright stupidity!

i supose their politcal commentary is up to par, with bushs warped sense of reality. im sorry i can not take them seriously, they wreak of bias in every asspect of reporting.

Fox News is ridiculous. Anyone who can't see that is beyond logic, and trying to tell them otherwise will land you in a maze of insanity.

Every news channel had a poll after the debates asking who won.

ONLY ONE did not.
ONLY ONE.
Fox News Channel.
ONLY ONE.



Had Bush won the debate, they would have been the first ones with the poll, but they're man lost, and they didn't need to be reminded by an OVERWHELMING majority of Americans.

Kerry has evened it out now, and I hope he finishes Bush off in the next debates, and sends that goofy, one-line repeating, liar back to Crawford, Texas, for America and the WORLD's sake.

[edit on 1-10-2004 by cstyle226]

Originally posted by sturod84
honest mistake...

Man, I thought FOXNews viewers were naive.

Here's another example:

Everytime I see them do "Sounds from the Trail"...it's a video of Bush. I've seen over 20 different sounds from the trail, and it's never Kerry.

"Fair and Balanced"....in what world?

Originally posted by astroblade
hey, yeah, let's keep bashing the most popular news organization on TV just because it leans more right then the other channels! you want to judge an entire 24-hour channel by one guy go ahead. or if you'd like to provide a couple of examples of true unethical journalism....then i'm still waiting.

You're not understanding here.

We're not bashing them because they're right wingers. (Not that they don't deserve it, but, hey...)

We're bashing them, because they took something not true, and posted it on their website, making it seem like it was true.

Well, looks like FOX and CBS have evened the score then. What's next? are we going to start getting our info from Weekly World News?

And, this just in...Nader names VP candidate: BATBOY!

"Man, I thought FOXNews viewers were naive"



are u telling me they put those documents on the air with full knowledge that they were forged?

[edit on 1-10-2004 by sturod84]

I didn't say that. But what I'm saying is that the issue should be dropped from both sides now, because CBS and FOX have both done it. It's over.

Who ever said that was probally some kind of crack- head or meth- freak. Fox along with CNN have to be the most biased media giants out there. They are so far right it will make your head spin like in the Exorcist. LOL Thats why we're happy there are alternatives.

Honestly, the only way that FOX could have "evened the score", would be if they stanchly backed the quotes in the face of serious opposition.

Originally posted by sturod84
its not really a big deal, compared to some of the other crap they pull. further sapping their credability, this only reaffirms my beliefe that FOX is indeed the worst news orginazation in the history of the world.

True...I try to get my news from a myriad of independent sources but Fox has got to be the worst News outlet in the history of media. The only people I see defend them are usually uneducated or passive on what they learn from the news.

My parents are huge Fox watchers and as much as I hate to say it they are as thick as bricks when it comes to geopolitics and domestic issues. They truly have no grasp of any facts. They don't even talk politics with me anymore because they get frustrated all the time when I prove them wrong...as if Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity are fellows who are hard to prove wrong 80% of the time.

Fox doesn't represent intelligent Conservatives, and there are many out there, they represent the mindless morons who have wasted any IQ levels they may have by living a life so uneducated as to make anyone scream.

I don't even feel like a snob saying it, its just a fact....fair and balanced.

So...what does everyone think about CNN Headline News? They aren't biased....or are they?

Originally posted by Jamuhn
So...what does everyone think about CNN Headline News? They aren't biased....or are they?

I think there is a Liberal leaning on CNN, MSNBC, etc. but they aren't even close to be as obvious as Fox is towards the Conservatives and Bush.

Example:

Fox News never used the term 'Homicide Bomber' until Bush started using it. Bush said it and almost immediately most of the 'reporters' on Fox began using it constantly. You don't even have to be an expert on Chomsky to see that bit of subversive persuasion.

I go with independent news sites and also scan many sources to get a number of angles on it. I also try to avoid news from TV. Print media is far more abundant and the Internet allows one to get sources from outside the U.S. like Le Monde Diplomatique and others. Its important to get an outside perspective.

Anyone who relies on TV based U.S. media is getting only half the picture but Fox is just plain ridiculous...or at least painfully obvious.

[edit on 093131p://555 by Weller]

Originally posted by Weller

I think there is a Liberal leaning on CNN, MSNBC, etc. but they aren't even close to be as obvious as Fox is towards the Conservatives and Bush.
[edit on 093131p://555 by Weller]

I think MSN is pretty fair, Joe Scarborough for example could hardly be called a liberal. They seem, to me at least, to TRY to show both sides. I am not saying they are the only truth, hell ALL of them are bias, but they seem to be the most fair of the bunch