Ralph Ranalli at Beat the Press has an excellent analysis of the Church of Scientology’s hiring of three journalists to review the St. Petersburg Times’ critical reporting on the church.
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Stephen Thomas
Well, Dan, here’s something I can agree with. Those Scientology SOBs are mean cusses.
My best friend from high school fell into the sect. They used him up and spit him out some years later. Took all his property and savings, and employed him virtually as a slave laborer.
The Fox News thing is a little more complex than just “partisan.” Sure, some of the shows on Fox are wildly partisan. Beck and Hannity come to mind. I don’t think either attempt to disguise their partisanship.
What’s wrong with that? Their shows are enormously successful because the viewers want to watch them.
Minus Beck and Hannity, Fox really is “fair and balanced.”
What seems to anger you, and other liberals and progressives, is that a major news network exists that dares to present conservative viewpoints. And, you are doubly angered, it seems, because Fox has won the ratings war. Big time, too. No contest.
I like the straight news shows on Fox. Rarely watch Beck and Hannity. Partisans on the left and right are predictable. You know what their arguments are going to be before they make them. So, there’s no point in watching Beck and Hannity more than once a fortnight. Five to ten minutes of either show will do, because it’s all repetition after all.
Your viewpoints are equally predictable and programmatic. Don’t need to read them very often because I already know what they are. The progressive schtick hasn’t changed a bit in 50 years… probably longer, but that’s about all I can remember.
Are conservative viewpoints so toxic that they should not even be presented on TV? Certainly, liberal and progressive viewpoints are all over TV. MSNBC and NBC come to mind.
Fox won the ratings war because Americans are, on balance, more conservative than liberal. For the same reason, Air America failed and conservative talk radio succeeded.
Back when there were only three major TV networks, the liberal viewpoint dominated. ABC, CBS and NBC all presented the New York City mainstream liberal viewpoint. Competition from cable and the web changed all that. I can understand that that is distasteful to you, but I don’t think (barring government censorship) that that will change.
Nancy Mades
WWTCD? (What Would Tom Cruise Do?)
Maxwell Creamers
“Minus Beck and Hannity, Fox really is “fair and balanced.” ”
Frankly the fact your post is filled with thinly veiled hatred for liberals just goes to show what you claim about fox is utter bullshit. Frankly I hate on a lot of republicans, but its only people like you who feel that watching one TV channel is enough to make wildly inaccurate assumptions about the world around them. As a liberal i try to get my news from a variety of sources including republican, thus my view points are not skewed in favor for what ever big corporation i get my news from, feels like i should know about.