John McCain Campaign Takes a +3 Vorpal Blade to Dungeons & Dragons Players

[kestra]

I really wish someone would explain how it is Fox News gets labeled as witless mouthpieces for the Republican Party. They are without a doubt more conservative friendly than the other news outlets out there. But unlike them, their commentators don't pretend to be unbiased spectators without any agendas.

You've got to be joking!!
Their slogan for years was "fair and balanced" and "we report, you decide".
You had hosts like Sean Hannity uttering phrases at the beginning of Hannity and Colmes such as "....only 200 days before George W. Bush is re-elected".
You have douchebags like Bill O'Reilly suggesting before the Iraq invasion that the American people should either "shut up or fall in line".
These two are just a couple examples of false patriots waving the American flag. I can also include the harpy Michelle Malkin and Anne Coulter. And don't forget that neocons Karl Rove and William Christopher now earn paycheques at Fox.

Republicans have a serious serious image crisis on their hands, and so far McCain is doing little to change that image. Many far right wingers are going to miss the last 8 years as the good ol' days.

[Aristotle]

Originally posted by Dorain
My best guess is most of the vitriol comes from the fact that they generally crush their rival's audience numbers combined.
At least it isn't conservatism funded at the point of a gun the way liberalism is through NPR and PBS.

I'd say you are spot on. Fox News, like basically every media outlet right now, exists mostly to make money. That makes everything they do pretty damn suspect. Also, the whole concept of 24 hour news has been a huge loss for our society, as it encourages shock journalism, making huge deals out of nothing (to create content), and watering real news down to 30 second quick shots.

But Fox News at least does give a voice to both sides. That's something we didn't have for about 20 years previous.

Too bad Fox News still sucks - like all current news outlets.

[Aristotle]

Originally posted by kestra

You had hosts like Sean Hannity uttering phrases at the beginning of Hannity and Colmes such as "....only 200 days before George W. Bush is re-elected".
You have douchebags like Bill O'Reilly suggesting before the Iraq invasion that the American people should either "shut up or fall in line".

The douchery of these two guys aside, at least they admit openly to being commentators and not objective presenters of fact.

On CNN you had people claiming to be straight news reporters when in truth they were constantly offering commentary.

Put down the MoveOn.org pamphlet and learn the difference between specific individuals on a network and the network itself.

I imagine Jimmy Kimmel doesn't speak for the ABC News department.

Fox News sucks, but not for the reasons you think it does.

[leira]

Originally posted by Dorain
I really wish someone would explain how it is Fox News gets labeled as witless mouthpieces for the Republican Party.

From the horse's mouth, perhaps? Here's a video of Rupert Murdoch admitting to using his media empire to shape perceptions of the war by "being supportive of the Bush policy".

http://www.youtube.com/v/JF9HpuZm6-g&rel=0

Originally posted by Dorain
But unlike them, their commentators don't pretend to be unbiased spectators without any agendas.

Is the Fox News motto still "Fair and Balanced?" I think having a motto like that claims rather strongly that you are unbiased.

[leira]

Originally posted by Aristotle
Too bad Fox News still sucks - like all current news outlets.

This is true. The American media has been doing a massive disservice to your country for as long as I've been following it(this includes before Bush).

[kestra]

Is the Fox News motto still "Fair and Balanced?" I think having a motto like that claims rather strongly that you are unbiased.

Fox News and program hosts are clearly hawkish in their conversations and in their anti-liberal talking points.
Rupert Murdoch is the world's most powerful media mogul (NewsCorp). He must think the world and Americans are stupid enough to believe him when he says his empire hasn't really done anything to shape political agendas. News organizations, like his (as he says in Leira's YouTube post) can only shape the agenda "in a limited way".
NewsCorp beams their programming via satellite to 40 million subscribers worldwide. NewsCorp also has Fox movie and TV studios, cable networks, newspapers, several book publishers, and more.
You don't acquire all of this media worldwide and NOT want to control a message or promote an agenda.

[Dorain]

Originally posted by kestra
... don't forget that neocons Karl Rove and William Christopher now earn paycheques at Fox.

Surely you're not suggesting that Mr. Rove brings nothing to the table when it comes to discussing an election are you? Like him or wish him a slow painful death from terminal cancer, he definitely knows politics and brings some good insight to the innerworkings and strategys within campaigns that most would know nothing about. He and similar thinking individuals giving commentary are counterbalanced with the likes of Bob Beckel, Pat Caddell or Howard Wolfson. Does not Donna Brazile earn her paycheck from ABC?

I personally don't care too much for Coulter and Michelle Malkin is only the slightest bit more tolerable. But they are no more to the far right than Keith Olbermann, Dan Rather, Chris Matthews or Jim Lehrer is to the far left. So if Fox News(all by itself) leans more right than left, is it not offset by it's dozen or so Democrat Party media outlets posing as news channels out there in TV land? As far as being 'Fair & Balanced', if the other stations set the mean for political bias in reporting, then that slogan holds pretty damn true. They probably give more time to Democrats than our 'Big 3' networks give to Republicans, combined.

Originally posted by kestra He must think the world and Americans are stupid enough to believe him when he says his empire hasn't really done anything to shape political agendas. News organizations, like his (as he says in Leira's YouTube post) can only shape the agenda "in a limited way".

What, shape it in a way similar to what CBS did with the DUI story in '00? Or shaping public opinion with the forged documents of '04?

[kestra]

Surely you're not suggesting that Mr. Rove brings nothing to the table when it comes to discussing an election are you?

I'm saying he brings White House talking points to the discussion table. So does William Kristol. Nobody would question their understanding and adept manipulations in politics. If I were McCain, I'd bring him on board as well. Personally, I don't believe he has the American people's best interest at heart. He clearly has contempt for Congress, and the rule of law, demonstrating this by skipping the country when subpoenas were issued.
I would lean more towards the slow painful death option for him.

I personally don't care too much for Coulter and Michelle Malkin is only the slightest bit more tolerable. But they are no more to the far right than Keith Olbermann, Dan Rather, Chris Matthews or Jim Lehrer is to the far left.

I disagree completely. I'm willing to be wrong on this, but have any of the men you listed above made similar comments such as "We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity. We weren't punctilious about locating and punishing only Hitler and his top officers. We carpet-bombed German cities; we killed civilians. That's war. And this is war." --Ann Coulter

Ann Coulter and Michelle Malkin are a waste of human tissue. They are media whores, who prostitute themselves by making inflammatory statements to get noticed. A fine life they've made for themselves. Sure, you all have freedom of speech. That doesn't mean everything you spurt out is intelligent or newsworthy.

Michelle Malkin is Ann's protege. She defends the internment of Japanese Americans during WW2.
She saw Rachel Ray wearing a keffiyeh for Dunkin' Donuts, and saw an opening. Ridiculous. This is the type of far right wing fear mongering that the last 8 years have been all about.

[Aristotle]

Blah blah blah MoveOn.org blah blah blah MoveOn.org blah blah blah broken record blah blah blah MoveOn.org.