Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/

["Shea Tisdale" <shea AT sheatisdale.com>]

Jeremy Portzer wrote
> Sent: Thursday, October 07, 2004 3:18 PM
> To: Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/
> Subject: [internetworkers] Editorial vs. News as it applies to Fox News
> 
> Okay, so here's something that gets me.
> 
> Fox News has an editorial department and a news department, just like
> major newspapers do.  Fox News's editorial department clearly is
> right-leaning; there's no way to deny that.
> 
> But Fox News also has a news side -- which is what the "Fair and
> Balanced" slogan describes. The news is supposed to present both sides,
> be impartial, whatever.
> 
> Every time I see someone criticizing the "Fair and Balanced" slogan,
> it's referring to an *editorial* program, not the news.
> 
> Now, I realize that the editorial department is not in a totally
> separate world from the news department, and that there could be
> influences.  However, generally the news reporters and editors have very
> high standards for bias, and I think this is no different at Fox News as
> at many other major news organizations.  For example, The New York Times
> has a notoriously left-leaning editorial page, but is usually considered
> "fair and balanced" as it were on front-age *news* coverage.  Correct?

I have no problem with "editorializing" when done in the proper manner.  But
Fox continually crosses the line.  Many tv stations have room for editorial
comment, but it is clearly labeled as such and done by people other than
their broadcast journalists.  This is also how newspapers handle the
difference.  Reporters don't write editorials or deliver them.  In the case
of Fox News this is not so.  

And in the case of Fox News, they are hiring people who are obviously
partisan and presenting them as fair and balanced.  Further, these people
are so biased that they can't even maintain an ethical sense of fairness.
In the case of Cameron, he is not only partisan, but so much so that he made
up quotes to further his agenda.

I guess we should just start calling it Fakes News.