Warning against isolation of Fox News, Beck compares FNC to National Enquirer
October 20, 2009 12:17 pm ET
From the October 20 edition of Premiere Radio Networks' The Glenn Beck Program:
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The Enquirer is the gold standard for cutting edge journalism.
Great stories.. Elvis' Ghost Serenades My Cows (real story)
When the White House said that FOX News was a legitimate news organization, how many people said, "My God, I had never thought of that!" To the contrary, millions of people (I suppose), like me, said to themselves, "What's the big deal? We've known that for years." The White House was simply stating an obvious and well-known fact.
Listening to FOX News complain now would be very similar to, and just as ludicrous as, National Enquirer complaining that it wasn't being taken seriously as a news organization. But, just like FOX News, I am sure that people who read National Enquirer think they're getting the truth. It's a joke...like FOX News.
CORRECTION: When the White House said that FOX News was NOT a legitimate news organization...
It just gives the wingnut echo chamber something to scream about for a couple days--until they can find someone else to smear.
http://mediamatters.org/research/200806060010
Guilty: Coulter's latest book filled with falsehoods
Fox News Channel
http://mediamatters.org/research/200901040002
On Page 15, Coulter writes, "Fox News has never been caught promoting a fraud -- unlike CBS (Bush National Guard story), ABC (tobacco industry report), NBC (exploding GM trucks), CNN (Tailwind), and MSNBC (Keith Olbermann)." In fact, as Media Matters has documented, on several occasions since 2004, Fox News has issued a retraction and apology for airing a news report that repeated false information, one of which led Fox News' Vice President for News John Moody to reportedly warn staff in January 2007 that "seeing an item on a website does not mean it is right. Nor does it mean it is ready for air on FNC."
On the April 24, 2007, edition of Fox & Friends, co-hosts Steve Doocy and Brian Kilmeade repeated as fact an online parody news report of a school prank that included fabricated quotes attributed to the superintendent. Doocy issued an on-air retraction and apology during the May 16, 2007, edition of Fox & Friends First, but the superintendent brought suit against the Fox News Channel, Doocy, and Kilmeade. In a June 3, 2008, decision dismissing the lawsuit, U.S. District Court Judge D. Brock Hornby wrote:
The facts in this case -- a morning cable news show derisively reporting events and statements obtained unwittingly from an online parody -- should provide grist for journalism classes teaching research and professionalism standards in the Internet age. But First Amendment principles developed long before the Internet still provide protection to the gullible news program hosts against this public official's claims for defamation and false light invasion of privacy. Poetic justice would subject the defendants to the same ridicule that they accorded the plaintiff. But in real life, the aggrieved school superintendent must be satisfied with their later retraction and a professional reputation sullied less than theirs.
The lawsuit was filed by Leon Levesque, a school superintendent in Lewiston, Maine. According to The Associated Press, "[t]he case was an outgrowth of an April 2007 prank in which a middle school student tossed a slab of leftover Easter ham onto a table surrounded by Somali Muslim youngsters, knowing the Muslims would be offended." Freelance writer Nicholas Plagman later published a fabricated news report about the incident at Associated Content in which he attributed numerous made-up quotes to Levesque, including one in which Levesque was alleged to have said: "These children have got to learn that ham is not a toy." On the April 24, 2007, edition of Fox & Friends, Doocy and Kilmeade reported on Plagman's story as though it were fact and repeated several of the made-up quotes attributed to Levesque. In discussing the parody report, Doocy repeatedly asserted: "We are not making this up." Indeed, when Kilmeade asserted: "You know, I hope we're not being duped," Doocy replied, "We're not being duped. I've looked it up on a couple of different websites up there."
Doocy has also retracted his false assertion on the January 19, 2007, Fox & Friends, that Barack Obama "spent the first decade of his life, raised by his Muslim father -- as a Muslim and was educated in a madrassa." According to the washingtonpost.com blog The Sleuth, Moody subsequently "issued this missive to staff in his daily editorial note on Jan. 23 [2007]: 'For the record: seeing an item on a website does not mean it is right. Nor does it mean it is ready for air on FNC.' " Moody also criticized the hosts of Fox & Friends in a January 29, 2007, New York Times article, saying, "The hosts violated one of our general rules, which is know what you are talking about. ... They reported information from a publication whose accuracy we didn't know."
Further, on October 1, 2004, Fox News issued a retraction and an apology for a news story written by chief political correspondent Carl Cameron that falsely attributed quotes to Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) in an attempt to ridicule him over a purported manicure.
That's all I'm posting for now. Just look at the archives to find your answers.
http://mediamatters.org/
It's official. Nothing Beck says from the point forward is relevant.
"Im a concerned parent who enjoys guns, hate communist and looking foward to the impeachment of President Obama"
So yeah, Glenn, the NE is JUST LIKE FOXNEWS.
I think that's the point you're missing, Glenn.
Pounding on someone with an unsubstantiated item for a year does not make it true!
Simply put, while Democrats/liberals are (generally) fairly represented on the non-news shows, they are very rarely allowed to finish a complete sentence. This is because the hosts (Hannity, O'Reilly, Beck et al) routinely interrupt their Democrat/liberal guests (but not their Republican/conservative counterparts). I'm not talking about the occasional interruption that occurs in your typical political conversation. I'm talking about pervasive interruptions that make it impossible for the Democrats/liberals to put even just one point on the table.
There have been some rare exceptions to this. The most recent one that comes to mind was Joan Walsh, who was on O'Reilly a few months back after the murder of Dr. Tiller. Walsh is such an intelligent and assertive speaker that she was able to minimize O'Reilly's attempts to cut her off. But that happens only rarely and most people don't have the skill set needed to pull it off.
Anyway, that's my pet peeve about Fox -- they claim "fair and balanced" and they do (generally) have fair representation on the talk shows ... but are able to squash that representation with constant interruptions.
Why do we even care what Glenn Beck thinks? Since when do rodeo clowns have any significant insight into political maters?