Yesterday Fox News aired a brazenly biased video that could have passed for a Republican attack ad against President Obama. It confirmed the widespread, well deserved, reputation of Fox as the PR arm of the Republican Party.
The video was quickly and harshly criticized by pundits and television critics from across the political spectrum. Even Fox recognized the highly inappropriate nature of the video in their own response. First they removed it from their web sites. Then they edited it to remove all traces of the Fox & Friends connection to it and reposted it online. But even the revised version was deemed too far over the line and they later deleted that as well.
The news of this partisan escapade was reported by numerous media outlets including:
- Atlanta Journal Constitution
- Newsday
- McClatchy Washington Bureau
- CBS News
- Washington Post
- Daily Beast
- Seattle Times
- Hollywood Reporter
- Huffington Post
- National Journal
- Baltimore Sun
One notoriously absent news bureau that failed to report on the matter was Fox News. In fact, there was no mention of the story from any Rupert Murdoch news division except for a reprint of an Associated Press story buried in the Wall Street Journal online.
Most notable, Fox & Friends had nothing to say about their embarrassing participation in this blatant political activism. Their program this morning completely ignored the matter, even though they had all gushed with effusive praise for the video yesterday when they ran it.
Fox’s response to the controversy was a tepid statement saying only that the matter had been “addressed” with the producers. There was no detail as to whether that meant there would be any disciplinary action. Contrast that with the response to inappropriate behavior a few weeks ago by NBC personnel who misleadingly edited an audio transcript of George Zimmerman. They were promptly terminated and public notice of such was given.
There can be no mistake that this was not the work of a rogue associate producer. The video required many hours of work on company time. It would have to have been approved by multiple people on its way to broadcast. The abundance of stock video and music in the piece required that someone with authority approve the expenditure. So the excuse that no senior level executive was aware of it simply does not ring true.
The fact that Fox is so embarrassed that they can’t even publish an honest account of what happened is evidence that they knew they were wrong and that they will go to great lengths to cover it up. It illustrates ever more conclusively that Fox News is not a credible news enterprise and should not be treated as one by their viewers or their peers.
Thinking Americans have known for years that Fox was nothing more than a propaganda arm for the GOP. Look who they hired as ‘pundits:’ Santorum, Gingrich, Palin, Coulter, Huckabee, and gave shows to the always biased smarmy Hannity and barely pretending to be fair O’Reilly. What more proof does one need? There is nothing remotely news-based at Fox: it is all about the GOP aim to bring down Democrats and take over the country for the dominion ists and corporations. More cash to big church preachers and CEOS. More oil money to the top. Women are relegated to the bedroom and the nursery. The poor are sent to the streets to beg, or sent off to yet another mindless war abroad. Educartion will be handed over to for-profit charter schools, and the GOP will have their hand in that too…no more edication for the masses…only for the rich, and they will only be taught what the Huckabees and Gingriches want them to learn. The end of America is well underway.
Fox ought to get its White House press pool credentials yanked for this stunt.
Actually, it only takes a couple hours to put together a good video with modern tools – once you have the basic information. The longer part comes in deciding what to air, what facts to include, how to include them and making sure things are spelled correctly.
Clip music is easily available without charge and if you’ve got their tools at your hand, stock video clips are easily found and included. It can take days of manhours to collect this stuff, but the assembly itself is fairly quick.
I wish I had their tools and libraries at hand, it would make countering them much easier.
Permission? Who needs permission? Since when have campaigns (or news orgs) gotten permission?
Indeed, a lot is possible with new tools, which means that individuals are now empowered to do respectable work on their dining room tables. However, large enterprises still use conventional resources and are extremely careful about securing rights and honoring intellectual property. They do not generally use public domain materials because they do not want to accidentally infringe someone’s copyright. They would be made an example of in a big-money lawsuit.
Take a look at the video. This was not an amateur mashup. Fox News producers put everything into it.
Just when you think they can sink no lower, they do! They will sink even lower than this before the campaign is over. Romney only goes on Fox, therefore Obama should refuse to go anywhere near these assholes this campaign season. They are not an unbiased news organization.
Sadly, there really is NO unbiased news organization anymore. He could go on MSNBC for a favorable interview – they certainly are left biased if that’s what you’re looking for.