Fox News

The Fox News Channel is a U.S. cable and satellite news channel. It is owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, and funded by the Christian Science Monitor a subsidiary of News Corporation, under major shareholder and chief executive officer Rupert Murdoch. As of January 2005, it is available to 85 million subscribers in the U.S. and to further viewers internationally, broadcasting primarily out of its New York City studios.

Controversies and allegations of bias

See also: Media bias, Propaganda model

Related Topics:
Media bias - Propaganda model

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Fox News asserts that it is more objective and factual than other American networks. Its self-promotion includes the phrases "Fair and Balanced" and "We Report, You Decide". However, numerous critics claim that the network has a conservative bias and tailors its news to support the Republican Party. Although most critics do not claim that all Fox News reporting is slanted, most allege that bias at Fox News is systemic, and implemented to target a largely right-wing audience. The channel is often regarded by international audiences as primarily being a propaganda vehicle for the Bush administration, as it not only promotes advocacy of such things as the US invasion of Iraq, but also attempts to explain and advocate the broader neoconservative worldview behind those actions.

Related Topics:
Fair and Balanced - Conservative bias - Republican Party - Right-wing

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Many media commentators and competitors have alleged that Fox News' reporting is characterized by right-wing editorials disguised as news, and frequently refer to Fox News as the "Faux News Network", the "Republican News Network", "GOP TV", "Fear and Bias", or "Unfair and Unbalanced". Critics of Fox News point to the following as evidence of bias:

Related Topics:
Faux - Republican - GOP

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Ownership and management

• Rupert Murdoch's ownership of several conservative outlets, including the New York Post and The Times. During the buildup to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, all 175 Murdoch-owned newspapers worldwide editorialized in favor of the war. http://media.guardian.co.uk/mediaguardian/story/0,7558,896864,00.html
• CEO Roger Ailes' past activities, including: Republican campaign work, involvement in the Willie Horton ad, his production of the Rush Limbaugh television show, and having served as either advisor or consultant to Republican Presidents Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.
• Use of the term "homicide bomber" instead of "suicide bomber" after White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer made the request. The only other major news organization to do so was fellow Murdoch-owned News Corporation subsidiary the New York Post.
• A ruling in a whistleblower lawsuit that WTVT had ordered fired reporters Jane Akre and Steve Wilson to distort the facts in a story about Bovine Growth Hormone. WTVT successfully appealed on First Amendment grounds. This case was against a local affiliate station, not Fox News. Appeal Decision (PDF)
• That John Prescott Ellis, a full cousin of George W. Bush, was one of four consultants assigned by the Voter News Service to Fox News on night of the 2000 Presidential election; thus he was part of the team that recommended Fox News be the last to retract its call of Florida for Gore and the first to call Florida for Bush, which Fox News did at 2:16 a.m http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2000/11/14/politics/main249357.shtml. Though all major networks called Florida for Bush by 2:20 a.m., Ellis has since admitted to informing both Jeb and George Bush several times by telephone of how projections were going on election night. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2000/11/14/politics/main249357.shtml
• Photocopied memos from Fox News executive John Moody instructing the network's on-air anchors and reporters on using positive language when discussing anti-abortion viewpoints, the Iraq war, and tax cuts; as well as requesting that the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal be put in context with the other violence in the area.
• In September 2005 Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal (nephew of the late Saudi King Fahd) purchased 5.46 percent of the Fox corporation http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=90439, raising concern that the Fox News may soften its anti-terror stance due to the views of the new shareholder.

Reports, polls and studies

• A report released in August 2001 by Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, titled "Fox: The Most Biased Name in News", (http://www.fair.org/reports/Fox.html) which:
• States that, despite his claims to the contrary, The O'Reilly Factor host Bill O'Reilly is conservative; and
• Compared guests on Fox's Special Report with Brit Hume with those on CNN's Wolf Blitzer Reports:
• A study by the Program on International Policy Attitudes, in the Winter 2003-2004 issue of Political Science Quarterly, reported that viewers of the Fox Network local affiliates or Fox News were more likely than viewers of other news networks to hold three views which the authors labeled as misperceptions:http://www.psqonline.org/cgi-bin/99_article.cgi?byear=2003&bmonth=winter&a=02free&format=view (PDF),
• 67% of FOX viewers believed that the "US has found clear evidence in Iraq that Saddam Hussein was working closely with the al Qaeda terrorist organization" (Compared with 56% for CBS, 49% for NBC, 48% for CNN, 45% for ABC, 16% for both NPR and PBS). However, the belief that "Iraq was directly involved in September 11" was held by 33% of CBS viewers and only 24% of FOX viewers.
• 33% of FOX viewers believed that the "US has found Iraqi weapons of mass destruction" "since the war ended". (Compared with 23% for CBS, 20% for both CNN and NBC, 19% for ABC and 11% for both NPR and PBS)
• 35% of FOX viewers believed that "the majority of people favour the US having gone to war" with Iraq. (Compared with 28% for CBS, 27% for ABC, 24% for CNN, 20% for NBC, 5% for both NPR and PBS)

:Fox viewers were unique in that those who paid greater attention to news were moderately more likely to have these misperceptions than those who paid less or no attention to news.

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• A study by the Project for Excellence in Journalism in 2005 found that, in covering the Iraq War in 2004, 73% of Fox News stories included editorial opinions, compared to 29% on MSNBC and 2% on CNN. The same report found Fox less likely than CNN to present multiple points of view. On the other hand, it found Fox more transparent about its sourceshttp://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A33008-2005Mar14?language=printer. Full report
• A December 2004 study, entitled "A Measure of Media Bias", by Tim Groseclose of UCLA and Jeff Milyo of the University of Missouri.http://www.polisci.ucla.edu/faculty/groseclose/Media.Bias.8.htm In this study, the researchers investigated congressional citations of think tanks and other policy groups. Based on the scores of members of congress assigned by Americans for Democratic Action (ADA), the researchers estimated the ADA scores of the think tanks and other policy groups that these members of congress cited. Based on journalists' citations of these think tanks and other policy groups, the researchers then estimated the ADA scores of 20 major American news outlets.

:The researchers omitted editorials, book reviews, and letters to the editor, and focused on the news stories of the outlets. The researchers ignored instances of legislators or journalists citing actions taken by policy groups (focusing instead on citations regarding the perceived views of the policy group), citations that were performed for the sole purpose of rebutting the policy groups' views, or when an ideological label was assigned to the policy group. The purpose of this was to focus on instances where "the legislator or journalist cited the think tank as if it were a disinterested expert on the topic at hand."

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:Based on this methodology, the researchers estimated Fox News' Special Report with Brit Hume to have an ADA score of 39.7. This places Special Report to the right of the average American voter, who the researchers estimated to have an ADA score of 50.1. (Higher ADA scores indicate a liberal slant, lower scores a conservative slant.)

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:Out of the twenty news outlets investigated, Special Report was the fifth closest to the center, following PBS's Newshour with Jim Lehrer, CNN's NewsNight with Aaron Brown, and ABC's Good Morning America. (The Drudge Report came in fourth, but the researchers believed this to be an anomaly.) This study lends support to allegations that American media as a whole has a liberal bias, since, aside from Special Report, only one other news outlet had an estimated ADA score less than 50.1 (the Washington Times, with a score of 35.4). The study also lends support to allegations that American media has bias towards the center, since only one outlet, the Wall Street Journal, with a score of 85.1, had a score that was less than the average Republican member of Congress or greater than the average Democratic member of Congress.

Related Topics:
PBS - CNN - ABC - Drudge Report - Washington Times - Wall Street Journal

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Criticisms of on-air conservative personalities

A number of Fox News Channel' anchors, hosts and personalities are self-professed right-wing conservatives, and several others are considered such by the channel's critics.

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• Managing editor and host Brit Hume is a contributor to the conservative American Spectator and Weekly Standard.
• Daytime anchor David Asman previously worked at The Wall Street Journal editorial page and the Manhattan Institute, a conservative thinktank.
• Weekend Live host Tony Snow is a conservative columnist, radio host, and former chief speechwriter for the first Bush administration. He also hosts his own show, The Tony Snow Show, on Fox News Radio.
• Primetime co-host Sean Hannity (paired with Alan Colmes on-air) is one of Fox News' openly partisan anchors, the voice of the political right on Hannity and Colmes; Hannity is also prominent in conservative talk radio, second only to Rush Limbaugh in terms of listeners, and went on tour for George W. Bush before the 2004 election.
• One of the most well-known personalities is the popular Bill O'Reilly, who hosts the O'Reilly Factor; O'Reilly often faces criticism from the left over a perceived pro-(Iraq)war, right-wing slant in his opinion program. O'Reilly himself maintains that he is politically independent (chiefly due to libertarian positions on social issues like homosexuality and marijuana legislation). Some people accuse O'Reilly for frequently using incendiary, emotive, or nationalist "rhetoric" toward those who hold disagreeing positions, such as accusing Senator Dick Durbin of "slamming America" and "condemning his own country" over Durbin's criticism of the conditions at the United States' Guantanamo Bay facility in Cuba. Some leftists despise O'Reilly philosophically, because he labels himself "a traditionalist". Others despise him personally, because his program (Radio and TV) are confrontational. O'Reilly himself juxtaposes that his show is not so much "news", but a news analysis program.http://www.Foxnews.com/story/0,2933,159877,00.html
• John Gibson's afternoon block of news coverage, "The Big Story", is frequently cited as an example of what some people see Fox News as deliberately blurring the lines between objective reporting and opinion/editorial programming. Gibson gained notoriety immediately after the 2000 presidential election controversy for his advocating the burning of all ballots involved in the election dispute once George W. Bush was sworn into office: "Is this a case where knowing the facts actually would be worse than not knowing? I mean, should we burn those ballots, preserve them in amber, or shred them? George Bush is going to be president. And who needs to know that he's not a legitimate president?" http://www.yaaams.org/medianews.shtml
• Business anchor Neil Cavuto, who is also Fox News' vice president of business news and a current member of the network's executive committee, has been described as a "Bush apologist" by critics http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0613-23.htm after conducting an allegedly deferential interview with President George W. Bush http://www.Foxnews.com/story/0,2933,158960,00.html wherein Cavuto told Bush that domestic lack of support for the partial privatization of Social Security was due to Americans being "distracted" by Michael Jackson's child molestation trial. Cavuto has been a syndicated columnist on both Townhall.com http://www.townhall.com/columnists/neilcavuto/archive.shtml and NewsMax.com http://www.newsmax.com/pundits/Cavuto.shtml.

Criticisms of on-air liberal personalities

Alan Colmes is touted by Fox as "a hard-hitting liberal" (http://www.Foxnews.com/story/0,2933,1536,00.html), but is dismissed by many on the left as being a political moderate too weak to provide an effective balance for self-professed "arch-conservative" Sean Hannity. As executive producer of Hannity and Colmes, Sean Hannity is also Colmes' de facto boss (http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=1158). Liberal viewers have long found Colmes' quiet, deferential style infuriating, particularly in contrast to the outspoken Hannity; and Colmes himself has sometimes taken more right-leaning positions, such as supporting Rudolph Guiliani for mayor of New York City and defending Mississippi Senator Trent Lott after the latter made racially suspect remarks at the 100th birthday party for the late Sen. Strom Thurmond. It hasn't helped Colmes with his liberal critics either that he has also defended Fox's "fair and balanced" slogan as accurate, or that he has been praised by prominent conservatives such as Newt Gingrich and was once chosen as the favorite liberal by posters on a Free Republic forum. Liberal commentator Al Franken lambasted Colmes in his popular book Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them, accusing him of refusing to ask tough questions during debates and neglecting to challenge alleged erroneous claims made by Hannity or his guests (Franken even jokingly suggested that Colmes is a whipping boy who's forced to do odd jobs around the Fox News studios).

Related Topics:
Alan Colmes - Moderate - Hannity and Colmes - Rudolph Guiliani - Trent Lott - Strom Thurmond - Newt Gingrich - Al Franken - Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them

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The similar term is described as Fox News liberal. The term is used among Democrats and liberals in the U.S. to refer to those commentators and politicians who hold themselves out as liberals and/or Democrats, yet do one or more of the following:

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• They often agree with their conservative and/or Republican opposite numbers on TV talk shows or in legislative bodies on various issues and positions.
• They show no hesitation to distance themselves from and criticize their fellow Democrats and liberals, especially to predominantly conservative audiences;
• They present weak arguments in favor of liberal/Democratic positions, and refuse to debate or easily succumb to conservative/Republican arguments.
• They base arguments on dubious claims made by conservatives and Republicans, thereby suggesting that those are valid liberal/Democratic positions.

The term is similar to Democrat In Name Only (DINO). It is based on the belief, held by many on the left, that the Fox News Channel has a conservative/Republican bias, and that many of the Fox News commentators who claim to be liberal are straw men hired to ineffectively present liberal viewpoints.

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Susan Estrich, Dick Morris, Juan Williams, Ed Koch, Pat Caddell as well as former Senator Zell Miller are also noted as examples of Fox commentators noted primarily for their links to past Democratic campaigns, have also been called Fox news liberals for exhibiting similar tendencies and appearing to care more that the conservatives like them and that they continue to appear on television than defending liberalism and the Democratic Party. In Miller's case the label is almost certainly a misnomer since Miller for his entire career as a public official always presented himself a moderate or conservative Democrat. Our of the pre-mentioned names, Estrich is the only one actually presented by Fox as a "liberal" or "democrat". The rest are simply "political commentators".

Related Topics:
Susan Estrich - Dick Morris - Juan Williams - Ed Koch - Pat Caddell - Zell Miller

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Other criticisms

• ', a documentary film on Fox News by Robert Greenwald, makes allegations of bias in Fox News by interviewing a number of former employees who discuss the company's practices. For example, Frank O'Donnell, a former employee identified as "Fox News producer", says: "We were stunned, because up until that point, we were allowed to do legitimate news. Suddenly, we were ordered from the top to carry Republican, right-wing propaganda", after being told what to say about Ronald Reagan. O'Donnell actually worked for Washington, D.C. Fox affiliate WTTG, which while a local affiliate, is not the Fox News Channel cable network. Fox News has always stressed that affiliates are separate entities from Fox News Channel, and Fox News has no editorial oversight of any Fox affiliate. The network made an official response and a review of selected employees featured in the film and their employment (or non-employment) with Fox News.
• A news article in October 2004 by Carl Cameron, chief political correspondent of Fox News, containing three fabricated quotes attributed to Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry. The quotes included: "Women should like me! I do manicures", "Didn't my nails and cuticles look great?" and "I'm metrosexual a cowboy". Fox News retracted the story and apologized, citing a "jest" that became published through "fatigue and bad judgement, not malice."
• An opinion piece on the Hutton Inquiry decision, in which John Gibson said the BBC had "a frothing-at-the-mouth anti-Americanism that was obsessive, irrational and dishonest" and that the BBC reporter, Andrew Gilligan, "insisted on air that the Iraqi Army was heroically repulsing an incompetent American Military" http://www.Foxnews.com/story/0,2933,109821,00.html. In reviewing viewer complaints, Ofcom (the United Kingdom's statutory broadcasting regulator) ruled that Fox News had breached the program code in three areas: "respect for truth", "opportunity to take part", and "personal view programmes opinions expressed must not rest upon false evidence". Fox News admitted that Gilligan had not actually said the words that John Gibson appeared to attribute to him; OfCom rejected the claim that it was intended to be a paraphrase. (see Ofcom complaint, response and ruling).

In June 2004, CEO Roger Ailes responded to some criticism with rebuttal in an online column for the Wall Street Journal (http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110005157), claiming that Fox's critics intentionally confuse opinion shows such as The O'Reilly Factor with regular news coverage. Ailes claimed that Fox News has broken stories which turned out harmful to Republicans and the Republican Party, stating "Fox News is the network that broke George W. Bush's DUI four days before the election" as an example. The story on Bush's drunk driving record was broken by then-Fox affiliate WPXT in Portland, Maine.

Related Topics:
Wall Street Journal - The O'Reilly Factor - George W. Bush - DUI - WPXT - Portland, Maine

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More recently, in a Wall Street Journal Europe op-ed published on May 20, 2005, London bureau chief Scott Norvell wrote: "Even we at Fox News manage to get some lefties on the air occasionally, and often let them finish their sentences before we club them to death and feed the scraps to Karl Rove and Bill O'Reilly". http://slate.msn.com/id/2119864/#ContinueArticle, http://www.newshounds.us/2005/05/31/Fox_news_confesses_that_its_in_bed_with_karl_rove.php

Related Topics:
May 20 - 2005 - Karl Rove

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