CNN, Fox, and MSNBC

[Tim Elston]

From a thread under threat of a hijack:

Dolfan mentioned CNN. I mentioned Fox News. Gary said:

The difference between those two? FoxNews is unabashedly, admittedly conservative, while attempting to allow opposing views to present counterpoint. CNN claims to be neutral.

I did a fair amount of flipping between Fox News, MSNBC, and CNN during the election campaign. It was clear to me that CNN did the best job of presenting opposing viewpoints. Fox News was an absolute joke as the "fair and balanced" channel. MSNBC was an absolute joke for all its drooling over Obama. CNN does, in fact, lean left, but I give them credit for giving the best effort to push themselves toward the center. They really do try, and I appreciate it. Fox News really does not try and that's why they barely qualify as a journalistic channel, along with MSNBC.

[Pastor Gary]

From a thread under threat of a hijack:

Dolfan mentioned CNN. I mentioned Fox News. Gary said:

The difference between those two? FoxNews is unabashedly, admittedly conservative, while attempting to allow opposing views to present counterpoint. CNN claims to be neutral.

I did a fair amount of flipping between Fox News, MSNBC, and CNN during the election campaign. It was clear to me that CNN did the best job of presenting opposing viewpoints. Fox News was an absolute joke as the "fair and balanced" channel. MSNBC was an absolute joke for all its drooling over Obama. CNN does, in fact, lean left, but I give them credit for giving the best effort to push themselves toward the center. They really do try, and I appreciate it. Fox News really does not try and that's why they barely qualify as a journalistic channel, along with MSNBC.

"Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, a strong supporter and prominent surrogate of the Hillary Clinton campaign, appeared on Fox News' morning show "Fox & Friends" today and praised the network for its "objective" and "balanced" coverage.

"I think during this entire primary coverage, starting in Iowa and up to the present, Fox has done the fairest job, has remained the most objective of all the cable networks," Rendell told host Steve Doocy. "You actually have done a very balanced job of reporting the news, and some of the other stations are just caught up with Senator Obama, who is a great guy, but Senator Obama can do no wrong, and Senator Clinton can do no right."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/03/31/clinton-surrogate-ed-rend_n_94280.html

"Clinton campaign chairman Terry McAuliffe fluffs Fox News so hard they've made him into the new network promo ..."
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x123162

"Tonight, the Politico’s John Harris asked Clinton for her thoughts on the situation during an interview that aired on Washington, D.C.’s local ABC affiliate WJLA:

Clinton said that her staff had sent her “some independent study” “which seemed to suggest that” “in terms of the fairness of the coverage,” Fox News Channel has treated her campaign more fairly than MSNBC."
http://scaredmonkeys.com/2008/02/11/did-hell-just-freeze-over-hillary-clinton-praised-fox-news/

[Tim Elston]

"Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, a strong supporter and prominent surrogate of the Hillary Clinton campaign, appeared on Fox News' morning show "Fox & Friends" today and praised the network for its "objective" and "balanced" coverage.

Based on what I saw, that's A-B-S-O-L-U-T-E C-R-O-C-K. What a J-O-K-E. Every time I flipped to Fox they were falling all over themselves to criticize Obama and drool over Palin. I got the feeling that Greta and Sean must have been on commission to whip up the Party faithful. G-A-G, G-A-G, G-A-G! Ed Rendell, whoever he is, was not telling the truth, for whatever reason politicians lie.

[MacUser]

I agree Fox is the only Neutral News Group that doesn't carry the liberal or conservative template. They report independently. The others follow the DNC talking points and templates.

[Tim Elston]

I agree Fox is the only Neutral News Group that doesn't carry the liberal or conservative template. They report independently.

BIG FAT LIE.

[Pastor Gary]

"Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, a strong supporter and prominent surrogate of the Hillary Clinton campaign, appeared on Fox News' morning show "Fox & Friends" today and praised the network for its "objective" and "balanced" coverage.

Based on what I saw, that's A-B-S-O-L-U-T-E C-R-O-C-K. What a J-O-K-E. Every time I flipped to Fox they were falling all over themselves to criticize Obama and drool over Palin. I got the feeling that Greta and Sean must have been on commission to whip up the Party faithful. G-A-G, G-A-G, G-A-G! Ed Rendell, whoever he is, was not telling the truth, for whatever reason politicians lie.

Make that Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, Terry McAuliffe, and future Secretary of State, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton... all wrong, because Tim says so?

[MacUser]

BIG FAT LIE.

No sir. As much as I believe in Jesus Christ being the Son of God... I am relaying to you my honest heartfelt belief and personal experience.

[Tim Elston]

Make that Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, Terry McAuliffe, and future Secretary of State, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton... all wrong, because Tim says so?

Gary, I know what I saw. And I'm not stupid enough to take post-campaign nice-nice over what my own eyes saw.

[Tim Elston]

BIG FAT LIE.

No sir. As much as I believe in Jesus Christ being the Son of God... I am relaying to you my honest heartfelt belief and personal experience.

Go ahead a believe a lie, then. It's a lie nonetheless. A big, fat lie.

[MacUser]

Go ahead a believe a lie, then. It's a lie nonetheless. A big, fat lie.

My discernment is apparently a wee bit different that yours my friend.
God Bless

[EagerBeaver]

Go ahead a believe a lie, then. It's a lie nonetheless. A big, fat lie.

My discernment is apparently a wee bit different that yours my friend.
God Bless

It IS a lie...and I have the same discernment you do MacUser.

Fox is Faux News (Republican talking point central) and CNN is Communist Nazi Network (Dem/liberal talking point central). That's been known for years. There is no fair and balanced about it.

[Pastor Gary]

Make that Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, Terry McAuliffe, and future Secretary of State, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton... all wrong, because Tim says so?

Gary, I know what I saw. And I'm not stupid enough to take post-campaign nice-nice over what my own eyes saw.

We all see things through the filter of our life experience and personal bias -- I do, and you do, too.

As I said earlier: Fox is CLEARLY a Conservative voice, by design, but on every NEWS (not commentary) show they attempt to at least expose the viewers to the opposing argument... I have watched Al Sharpton, David Axelrod, Mort Kondracke, Alan Colmes, Susan Estrich, Ed Koch, Laura Schwartz, Juan Williams, Tammy Bruce, Kirsten Powers, Bob Beckel and Pat Caddell -- liberals all -- regularly give voice to their views on Fox. Can you cite an equal list of Conservatives on MSNBC or CNN to give them the same sense of balance?

CNN did, to their credit, have Glenn Beck (one of the most entertaining conservatives on radio and TV, IMHO) for a while, but he just left CNN to go to Fox. He said “I was such an island over at Headline News, I had to bring my own audience...” In other words, CNNs singular token conservative?

[Tim Elston]

As I said earlier: Fox is CLEARLY a Conservative voice, by design

That's more like it. Fair and balanced it is not.

but on every NEWS (not commentary) show they attempt to at least expose the viewers to the opposing argument...

I don't quite take your point. News segments don't typically have opposing arguments. That's what happens in the news analysis segments. Are you making a distinction between news segments and news analysis segments, and then again between news analysis segments and commentary segments?

I have watched Al Sharpton, David Axelrod, Mort Kondracke, Alan Colmes, Susan Estrich, Ed Koch, Laura Schwartz, Juan Williams, Tammy Bruce, Kirsten Powers, Bob Beckel and Pat Caddell -- liberals all -- regularly give voice to their views on Fox. Can you cite an equal list of Conservatives on MSNBC or CNN to give them the same sense of balance?

Well, let's see: Tucker Carlson, Bill Kristol, William Bennet, The Hispanic Guy (not Rick Sanchez, but the conservative analyst), Every Beautiful Blonde Spokewoman the RNC Could Conceivably Muster (I think that was her name), Amy Holmes (what a cutie! but not as cute as Erica "Turn Me On" Hill), Lou Dobbs (masquerading as an independent), Rich Lowry, Ron Paul, Nancy Grace. There are more whose names I don't recall.

But what strikes me the most is that on CNN the main anchors, like Anderson Cooper, Wolf Blitzer, and Campbell Brown, while on the left, make concerted efforts not to let their liberal guests get by too easily. That isn't the case all the time, but I have heard Campbell defend Palin and Cooper hold Democrats' feet to the fire. I have seen Blizter fire away at Michael Moore.

By contrast, on Fox I consistently see Hannity and Van "Cistern" refuse to take the truth for an answer without spinning it wildly to the right. I mean, those guys are on a mission. And it isn't a journalistic one. It is a highly partisan, highly partial propaganda effort. Yes, CNN anchors are biased. But they are much, much better at approaching the center. Fox anchors don't give the impression that the center is even on their list of concerns. Hannity and Van "Spinmistress" are as decidedly partisan on the right as Olbermann is on the left. They don't contribute to anything fair and balanced, and they ought to be ashamed to call themselves journalists.

CNN did, to their credit, have Glenn Beck (one of the most entertaining conservatives on radio and TV, IMHO) for a while, but he just left CNN to go to Fox. He said “I was such an island over at Headline News, I had to bring my own audience...” In other words, CNNs singular token conservative?

He may be a good guy, but I've never seen his show and know next to nothing about him. The only time I've ever heard him speak, and the first time I ever heard of his name, was on a Bill Moyers documentary. I can't remember what he said, specifically, but I remember it making me think he must be some kind of KKK or skinhead type. All I remember is how far beyond the pale of human decency it went.

[Pastor Gary]

He may be a good guy, but I've never seen his show and know next to nothing about him. The only time I've ever heard him speak, and the first time I ever heard of his name, was on a Bill Moyers documentary. I can't remember what he said, specifically, but I remember it making me think he must be some kind of KKK or skinhead type. All I remember is how far beyond the pale of human decency it went.

Are you referring to this?
"GLENN BECK:"I'm thinking about killing Michael Moore and I'm wondering if I could kill him myself, or if I would need to hire somebody to do it. No, I think I could. I think he could be looking me in the eye, you know, and I could just be choking the life out of him. Is this wrong?""

If so, you need to listen to a bunch of Beck. He makes outrageously sarcastic, sometimes sardonic, statements with a straight face that regular listeners understand to be totally sick humor. His callers even refer to him as, "Glenn, you sick, twisted, freak..."

Here's another quote from Beck to give you a non Moyer-ized, non-sound-bite example:

"And I want to share a list that I wrote yesterday of -- you know, I talk to you on this program and I bring you the problems, but I want to bring you solutions today. I want to bring you something that you can actually do, something that will make a difference, but I want to frame it -- I want to frame it with this story.

It happened to me at Wendy's Saturday night. We are on the bus and we stop to get fuel and I said, I'm going to go in, I'm treating. Everybody wants a Frosty. I'm going to go get Frosties. And one of the security guys, said, No, you're not. I said, Yeah, I am. I mean, it's a truck stop. How much trouble am I going to get in in a truck stop? Everybody here you can trust. You're not going in. I went in, but I had to bring the swat team with me and so I'm just, I just want to Frosty, please, the guy standing next to me, who, by the way, I may point out, had food in his hair, is a truck driver and he turned around. He looked at me and the recognition was immediate and he said, "You racist bigot!" And I just said -- I wanted to say, "I think you have me mistaken for someone else," but I knew he knew who I was and he just hated me for who I was.

"You conservatives that have destroyed this country!" And the hatred was so deep, it was breath-taking. Luckily the swat team was there and I just separated myself from him and he just shouted through other people and there were children in the restaurant and he blamed me for everything, I believe including the Holocaust, and the hatred was palpable. The guy screamed at the restaurant, "you better not let me see you in the parking lot because I've got a truck and I'll run your ass over!" Wow. Is this who we've become? Is this who we've become?

I could stand in line with Michael Moore and I wouldn't say that to him. I would say some things to Michael Moore, but it wouldn't be that. Is this who we've become? I believe there is a caldron of hatred on both sides, but the left is quite frightening. The extreme right is frightening, as well. I don't care if you're a Republican, Democrat, or independent. I don't care who you voted for. We cannot become that person. No matter how passionate -- it took everything in me, it took everything in me not to say anything to him. I mean, I was just is a -- I was feeling the rage inside of me and, quite honestly, I prayed it away. "New, from God, it's prayaway." Bing! Because I was enraged... we've got to disconnect from that and we have to try -- and that's why I said to you the day after Obama was elected, please, let's treat the man the way we wanted the left to treat George Bush and, that is, with a healthy dose of skepticism but let's talk about his policies. Let's not just hate him. He hasn't done anything yet. Even if he does do it, I disagree with his policies, I may disagree with some of his principles. I don't know yet. Let's see what he does and let's not hate."

[one love]

Tim the problem with your post is you are talking about (Sean Hannity, Ingram, Oreily etc.) these are SHOWS not just regular news.

If I was to look at CNN's shows they are all against the republican party! If you look at Fox's news coverage they were the most balanced there was. Of Course Hannity is republican that is what his show is about, yet even then he has colmes who is SO liberal so there is a balance.

The question is does the news portion push for one or the other? CNN and MSNBC were drooling over Obama! Every time you turned there they were praising him, that did not happen with Fox coverage they talked good about Obama many times (IN the news coverage, not someones show)

So yes they are the most balance and Obama won the election yet FOX still blows everyone's numbers out of the park.......they are the most watched channel by FAR and has been said to be the most fair coverage.

BTW are you really going to say that Palins coverage was fair and balanced on CNN? Come on they trashed her to help Obama period!