Recommends: Fox News Roundup

If you live in the U.S. of A., there is a very good chance that at some point you've been in a conversation with someone who recommended a Fox News program. In this conversation, you probably wanted to say something about "ultra-conservative bias" or "completely garbage news programs" or something similar, but you lacked a nice, clean, politely worded explanation to back up your feelings. Well, now this is a thing that exists, thanks to A Former Conservative:

No, that isn’t why I have a problem with it and its not why the majority of liberals have a problem with it. If it were merely conservatives and Republicans offering their opinions, I would not have a problem with the Fox News channel at all.

I have a problem with them often using racially charged language when talking about the President.

I have a problem with their hosts using sexist language towards female guests on their programs.

I have a problem with them trying to manufacture controversies and outrage over innocuous things.

I have a problem with them making inaccurate and sometimes downright false statements.

I have a problem with the fact that sometimes this opinion creeps into their straight news programs despite the fact that they repeatedly assert that they are “fair and balanced.”

I have a problem with them taking extremely minor things the President does and blowing them up into examples of what a terrible job he is doing.

I highly recommend the whole thing. It's exceedingly well-written and it has links!

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Recommends threads are Open Threads where I highly encourage promotion and self-promotion and cross-linking. What have you read or written this week? Please share!

7 comments:

Yamikuronue said...

I finally got the courage to start talking about myself online this week >.> so far the responses have been fairly positive, despite an incident with a stalker earlier this week finding my youtube account.

Amarie said...

Oh my GOODNESS. Someone else can't stand Fox News!!!!!! >.<

BLESS YOU, ANA! BLESS YOU ALL THE WAY TO LEMON-BAR-HEAVEN!!! :D

*ahem* Well...I admit that I haven't really written anything interesting this week. My occasional blog neglect leaves up more free time for studying and work, but...sometimes I wish I could balance more, yes? : /

However, I've been reading a really, really, really good book called "Roman Blood" by Steven Saylor. It's a novel that takes place in Ancient Rome and it's essentially a crime drama. The main concept that I like-and was surprised that it included-was how it gave a deep, deep respect and consideration to the plight of women in these ancient times. What's more is that the protagonist, Gordianus, is made as plausibly moral as possible. He lives in a world of slavery, casual rape, sexism, conspiracy, lack of police, etc. What I love about what Saylor has done with Gordianus is that he created a character that, for all intents and purposes, isn't surprised when he sees all the immoral going-ons of Rome. Gordianus himself is a slave master, actually. And he speaks in open (seditious) criticism of Dictator Sulla on a number of ocassions. I'm not going to give any more details, but...it's amazing.

Cupcakedoll said...

I had Fox News inflicted upon me for two hours last week, in the waiting room of the car-fixer place. It thinks the US will have riots like in Greece and the modern world will end. I think that's what it thinks anyway. Very apocalyptic vibe going on. There was also a panel about the latest celebrity death (Whitney maybe?) and the newspeople talked about how a man had led her into drugs, and "women are more easily addicted" and "women are often led into the drug lifestyle by men." It seemed a bit weird, asserting that without citing a source.

But while waiting I wrote solidly and had one of those lovely moments when you get to the important scene, the sentence that has to either work or not work and it works and you just sit back and bask in the glow of success.

I also read Cinder by Marissa Meyer (no relation to any other Meyers we know.) It's a YA paranormal romance, Cinderella with robot girls and a sprinkling of affectionate nods to Sailor Moon. YMMV, but I enjoyed it a lot and am now halfway through some fanart.

Currently trying to read a book about the crusades and their apocalyptic vision, a library check-out inspired by my pondering the apocalyptic visions of modern times. The history is fascinating but it's rolling off my brain like water off a duck, no matter how hard I try to concentrate! Aaarg! Why does my memory for obscure trivia only work when it's roleplaying games or anime, not for real information that might actually be useful in a class someday?

Rikalous said...

That last paragraph may have identified a corollary to Mark Twain's Whitewashing-the-Fence theorem. The brain will remember only that information that it is not obliged to know?

Mary Kaye said...

I gave up on Fox when someone showed me a graphic from one of their articles: a bar graph meant to show that military recruitment was not declining in the mid-2000's. The height of the bars was not even vaguely proportional to the numbers printed below them. The visual impact of the graphic affirmed their story; the printed numbers showed it to be false. (I believe that the printed numbers were correct.)

What the hell good is a news source that just makes things up? And what does it say about their viewership if they think we won't notice basic stuff like this?

Silver Adept said...

A nice package of reasons why not to like or listen to Fox News, with citations. It's a nice piece of writing.

My own output, aside from linkspam of other people's cool stuff, has been a little bit of getting after Amarie for basically saying "Spoilers" on the first of her entries about discussion questions from a book she read, and then there was talking about how crappy the situation libraries are in regarding e-books, and wondering why they aren&apos;t advocating more forcefully for their own interests. (It's the latest in using the LJ Idol writing prompts to engage in my own creative writing exercises, which are of variable quality, I suspect.)

Then asking people to ask questions of me. Palate cleanser, I guess.

icecoldblank said...

Can I try a "Recommends"?

This week I wrote a response to an article on cnbc.com about "How to Date a Wall Street Man"

Hopefully the linky works, I'm not so good at that html stuff lol

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