It goes without saying that Fox News is a seething cauldron of sensationalistic propaganda. There have been innumerable examples of bias so egregious it would be more accurate to call it fiction. Still, the degree of separation from reality, or the Fox Fake Factor (3F) is not uniform across the Fox schedule. It can be segmented into three general categories that I define as…<\/p>\n
Defenders of Fox News argue that the network functions like a newspaper with clearly delineated sections containing straight news or editorial opinion. This includes Fox News CEO Roger Ailes, who went so far as to say that<\/a>…<\/p>\n “\u2026it’s a mistake to look at Fox News Channel’s primetime opinion shows and say they represent the channel’s journalism.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n In support of Ailes’ admission that his primetime lineup should not be mistaken for journalism, Fox’s Sr. VP Michael Clemente drew distinct boundaries<\/a> in order to identify the channel’s actual “news”<\/i> content. He said that it is just the hours of 9am to 4pm, and 6pm to 8pm, that air straight news. Of course that would include such thoroughly opinionated programs as Fox & Friends, Your World With Neil Cavuto, and Glenn Beck. It would also include Megyn Kelly.<\/p>\n For the past week or so, Kelly has been rabidly attached to a bogus two year old story<\/a> about members of the New Black Panther Party who have been accused of voter intimidation. She has hosted numerous interviews with W. Christian Adams, a notoriously partisan activist who claims that Obama’s Department of Justice has adopted a policy of not pursuing cases involving white victims. Never mind the fact that it was the Bush Justice Department that degraded the case against the NBPP and concluded that the evidence did not merit criminal prosecution. Kelly would not let up and continued, day after day, to present the story with an overt expression of shock and judgmental disgust.<\/p>\n Kelly’s demeanor was hardly what one could call objective. In yesterday’s program she nearly bit the head off<\/a> of Fox News Democrat, Kirsten Powers, who soldiered on despite Kelly’s insulting declarations that Powers didn’t know what she was talking about. And in a bid for total domination, Kelly even threatened to cut Powers’ mic.<\/p>\n This is not an isolated incident for Kelly. A few weeks ago she displayed the same sort of wild-eyed obsession<\/a> over speculation of whether Pennsylvania senate candidate Joe Sestak had received improper incentives from the White House to drop out of the race. Sestak didn’t drop out, and there was never any evidence of wrongdoing on his part or that of the White House. But that didn’t stop Kelly from pushing the story incessantly. On one occasion she devoted fully 75% of her two hour program to just the Sestak matter, never once reporting on the gulf oil spill, Afghanistan or the economy.<\/p>\n Add to these the following journalistic indiscretions that seem to characterize Kelly’s absence of standards.<\/p>\n The behavior of Kelly in these examples is squarely in alignment with the mission of Fox News. However, it is directly contrary to what they claim. It is the antithesis of fairness or balance. And it puts Kelly in the running to surpass Glenn Beck on the scale of reportorial incompetence and deceit.<\/p>\n I know that’s a harsh assessment, but look at the facts. Beck is a purveyor of paranoid conspiracies. People expect him to be a hyperbolic nutcase. Kelly is on from 1:00pm to 3:00pm ET, smack in the middle of the news day. She is supposed to be, according to Ailes and others, a straight news reporter. Yet while Beck (who is also in the news daypart) can be placed into only one of the 3F categories above, Kelly may qualify for all three.<\/p>\n Sure, she’s not as bombastic as Beck, but Beck doesn’t have a law degree or the implied credibility that comes with it. And she’s not as inclined to present herself as a cult or spiritual leader, but she does impose her views on an audience that has been made gullible by fear and repetition. Her imputed authority, and the force of her argumentativeness, has the potential to sway people from realistic appraisals of current events. And she has the added benefit of not appearing to be as obviously disturbed as Beck, which helps her to advance her opinions.<\/p>\n The manner in which Kelly presents her reporting is every bit as phony as Beck’s hallucinatory drivel. But the only people who will believe Beck are those who are already inclined to accept delusion as truth. Kelly, on the other hand, manages to come off as a serious newscaster whose reports contain some semblance of substance. And that’s what makes Kelly worse, or potentially more dangerous, than Beck. While Beck casts himself as a rodeo clown, Kelly is portrayed as a wise and sober analyst.<\/p>\n In the larger picture, Kelly is merely following the Fox format which also has so-called “news”<\/i> casters like Neil Cavuto, Jon Scott, Bill Hemmer, and Bret Baier engaging in observably biased broadcasts. It’s a deliberate and articulated strategy by Ailes, Murdoch, et al. It’s the Fox Way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It goes without saying that Fox News is a seething cauldron of sensationalistic propaganda. There have been innumerable examples of bias so egregious it would be more accurate to call it fiction. Still, the degree of separation from reality, or the Fox Fake Factor (3F) is not uniform across the Fox schedule. It can be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1,684,16],"tags":[33,44,783,429,143],"class_list":["post-2146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-media-bias","category-wankery","tag-fox-news","tag-glenn-beck","tag-kirsten-powers","tag-megyn-kelly","tag-roger-ailes"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Ijg-yC","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":31420,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=31420","url_meta":{"origin":2146,"position":0},"title":"Morning Joe, Fox News, And The Curse Of Dumb Glenn Beck Comparisons","author":"Mark NC","date":"4\/19\/2016","format":false,"excerpt":"There is nothing more embarrassing than a public figure so desperate for attention that he uncorks painfully shallow op-eds that only demonstrate why he gets so little attention. That's the situation that MSNBC's Morning Joe Scarborough finds himself in now after he penned a column for the Washington Post with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"Morning Joe Scarborough","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/scarborough-foxnews.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/scarborough-foxnews.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/scarborough-foxnews.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5458,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=5458","url_meta":{"origin":2146,"position":1},"title":"The Sorry Truth About Roger Ailes And Fox News","author":"Mark NC","date":"9\/29\/2011","format":false,"excerpt":"A few days ago Howard Kurtz of Newsweek published an article profiling Roger Ailes, the CEO of Fox News. It was revealing of both Kurtz and Ailes. The first sign that Kurtz was either unconscious or delusional was when he offered this description of Ailes' allegedly changing moods: \"[A]s President\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10328,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=10328","url_meta":{"origin":2146,"position":2},"title":"Megyn Kelly Nabs Sean Hannity’s Timeslot On Fox News – Per Drudge","author":"Mark NC","date":"8\/8\/2013","format":false,"excerpt":"As reported here last month, Fox News daytime anchor Megyn Kelly is set to move to primetime when she returns from maternity leave in September. At the time of the announcement there was no indication of which current primetime host would be ousted. Today, Matt drudge is reporting that Kelly\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4217,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=4217","url_meta":{"origin":2146,"position":3},"title":"10 Reasons Why Fox News After Glenn Beck Will Still Suck","author":"Mark NC","date":"4\/13\/2011","format":false,"excerpt":"\"If I were lying I'd be off the air.\" \u00a0\u00a0~ Glenn Beck, Jan 4, 2010. \"I'm going to be leaving this program later this year.\" \u00a0\u00a0~ Glenn Beck, Apr 6, 2011. This article was originally published on Alternet.There has already been a barrage of media analysis and discussion of Glenn\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4191,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=4191","url_meta":{"origin":2146,"position":4},"title":"Glenn Beck Fundamentally Transforms Into A Fox News Has-Been","author":"Mark NC","date":"4\/6\/2011","format":false,"excerpt":"It's been a long time coming. The indisputably most bizarre festival of conspiratorial dementia ever to be broadcast is nearing its end. That's right - The Glenn Beck Acute Paranoia Revue will \"transition off of\" Fox News later this year. The press release: FOX NEWS AND MERCURY RADIO ARTS ANNOUNCE\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10044,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=10044","url_meta":{"origin":2146,"position":5},"title":"Fox News Rewards Megyn Kelly’s Bootlicking Conservative Bias With A Promotion To Primetime","author":"Mark NC","date":"7\/2\/2013","format":false,"excerpt":"This just in: \"Megyn Kelly will move to FOX News Channel\u2019s (FNC) primetime lineup upon her return from maternity leave, announced Roger Ailes, Chairman and CEO, FOX News.\" This was just a matter of time as Fox News has pretty obviously been grooming Kelly for a prominent role at the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2146"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2146\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10387,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2146\/revisions\/10387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n