Fox News isn't a news organization..

[30ashopper]

On Monday, MSNBC's Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow were among several people who attended an off-the-record briefing with Pres. Obama at the White House. Sources tell us other attendees at the two-and-a-half hour chat included Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post, Maureen Dowd of the New York Times, Gwen Ifill of PBS and Gloria Borger of CNN. Perhaps not surprisingly, no one from Fox News was in the room.

This fact quickly turned into ammunition for the folks at FOX. Last night on "Special Report," Bret Baier revealed the information pointing out that opinion hosts from one channel were being invited to a briefing with the Commander-in-Chief, all the while Fox was declared not a news organization.

Maddow/Olbermann Invited to White House Chat with Obama, But Fox Isn't a News Organization? - mediabistro.com: TVNewser

While Maddow and Olberman get front row seats and face time in the White House.

When Obama's term started out, I was really hoping things would change, but really nothing has. In fact I'd argue it's become far worse - the divide continues to widen. What happened to all those promises of transparency? Now we have the White House selectively blacklisting one of the three major cable news networks. I'd be laughing if this wasn't so, incredibly, sad.

 

[TooFarTampa]

I have mixed feelings about this.

There are so many reasons why Fox's "fair and balanced" slogan does not hold up to scrutiny. Taken as a whole the network is absolutely, utterly right leaning and is very often unfair and biased. There are exceptions on the network but this overall attitude does come from the top (Roger Ailes, duh).

Unfortunately, Rupert Murdoch is making a fortune with this approach, and by doing so has quickened the transformation of the 24-hour news channel from something serious (remember? it was, way back in the day) to money-generating entertainment. I'm sure every bit of the Fox method has to do with ratings and psychological manipulation, and very little has to do with ideological purity. But this is what it is -- and MSNBC has absolutely followed suit by leaning way leftward in the past two years, because they figure this is the way to make money in this culture. Everyone on every network has to "brand" themselves, having some take or another.

It isn't fairness, it isn't intelligent, and very little of it is substantive journalism (with a few exceptions).

So Obama is right, though he is wrong to call out just Fox. It is a culture that has been mostly created by Fox, but has spread everywhere. Obama is wasting his time on this stuff and looks petty. It lends credibility to the "whiners" comment. I don't know who is advising him to engage but he should resist. He is "supposed" to be better than this.

 

[Bob]

fox news was the leader of the pack during gw's tenure, or have you forgotten?

 

[Kayak Fish]

Why should the president give Fox News access? Granted they're playing the conservative angle for the money, but this will only help them with that, so it's win win across the board.

The prez isn't obligated to do interviews with Fox anymore than he is your kids school newspaper. And just because they have a lot of viewers by cable news standards doesn't mean they deserve access. If that were the standard the President would be on American Idol doing interviews.

Anyway Fox is tickled to death by this despite pleas to the contrary. All this does is excite the bases of both sides and distract from the real issues our government is botching.

 

[30ashopper]

I have mixed feelings about this.

There are so many reasons why Fox's "fair and balanced" slogan does not hold up to scrutiny. Taken as a whole the network is absolutely, utterly right leaning and is very often unfair and biased. There are exceptions on the network but this overall attitude does come from the top (Roger Ailes, duh).

Unfortunately, Rupert Murdoch is making a fortune with this approach, and by doing so has quickened the transformation of the 24-hour news channel from something serious (remember? it was, way back in the day) to money-generating entertainment. I'm sure every bit of the Fox method has to do with ratings and psychologic manipulation, and very little has to do with ideological purity. But this is what it is -- and MSNBC has absolutely followed suit by leaning way leftward in the past two years, because they figure this is the way to make money in this culture. Everyone on every network has to "brand" themselves, having some take or another.

It isn't fairness, it isn't intelligent, and very little of it is substantive journalism (with a few exceptions).

So Obama is right, though he is wrong to call out just Fox. It is a culture that has been mostly created by Fox, but has spread everywhere. Obama is wasting his time on this stuff and looks petty. It lends credibility to the "whiners" comment. I don't know who is advising him to engage but he should resist. He is "supposed" to be better than this.

I would throw into the mix of those shows that serve as an exception - Special Report with Bret Baier, which has to be the most honest and up front analyst talk hour on cable. Sheppard Smith's news hour is also straight up.

On the flip side, O'Reilly falls on the side of entertainment, but that really doesn't differ much from what's playing on CNN or MSNBC. Jack Caffery on Cnn, Brown, Maddow, Olberman, etc..

Really, in the end, all news networks have followed suit - they mix opinion entertainment with news. Which begs the question, why is Obama playing the favorites game? (Actually, we probably all know why he plays it, we were just hoping he'd figure out some way to stay above it. No such luck.)

 

[30ashopper]

Why should the president give Fox News access? Granted they're playing the conservative angle for the money, but this will only help them with that, so it's win win across the board.

The prez isn't obligated to do interviews with Fox anymore than he is your kids school newspaper. And just because they have a lot of viewers by cable news standards doesn't mean they deserve access. If that were the standard the President would be on American Idol doing interviews.

Anyway Fox is tickled to death by this despite pleas to the contrary. All this does is excite the bases of both sides and distract from the real issues our government is botching.

Why should he give access to any news organization? Why doesn't he just blacklist the news media all together? You would prefer he pinpoint those in the media who agree with his views and stick with them? (I'm guessing the answer is.. "yes, that would be good first step.") IMHO, this is america, that doesn't fly.

 

[Alicia Leonard]

Why should he give access to any news organization? Why doesn't he just blacklist the news media all together? You would prefer he pinpoint those in the media who agree with his views and stick with them? (I'm guessing the answer is.. "yes, that would be good first step.") IMHO, this is america, that doesn't fly.

IMHO the media should not be agreeing or disagreeing, they should just be reporting. That's the true issue and in America, that shouldn't fly. Bush had NBC and Obama has FOX. Too bad the public doesn't have a true, only news source without opinion personalities that many don't understand are not actual journalist.

 

[Kayak Fish]

Why should he give access to any news organization? Why doesn't he just blacklist the news media all together? You would prefer he pinpoint those in the media who agree with his views and stick with them? (I'm guessing the answer is.. "yes, that would be good first step.") IMHO, this is america, that doesn't fly.

When you are organizing/promoting protests, calling the President a racist, etc. you should be prepared for a reaction.

Since you like guessing, how many fingers am I holding up?

 

[Daugette_Matt]

FOX news is a joke. Very little news. not fair and balanced, more like "fear and imbalance" A person could watch that network all day and learn absolutely nothing worth knowing.

 

[RayStar]

Fishfood ITA with the first sentence of your post here at 3:25 am.

The president does not need to give FoxNews the time of day. NBC's Savannah G. did a nice interview with the president and questioned him about FoxNews.