{"id":37529,"date":"2018-04-09T11:44:53","date_gmt":"2018-04-09T18:44:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=37529"},"modified":"2018-04-09T13:12:18","modified_gmt":"2018-04-09T20:12:18","slug":"in-defense-of-fox-news-trust-in-media-graphic-was-early-not-censored","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=37529","title":{"rendered":"In Defense of Fox News (?): Trust in Media Graphic Was Early, Not Censored"},"content":{"rendered":"

There is no question that Fox News is the most brazenly biased right-wing distorter of reality that has even been broadcast. It’s executives, hosts, and contributors are almost entirely devoted to disseminating conservative propaganda, much of it dictated by Donald Trump’s White House. Even worse, Trump’s positions are often dictated by Fox News.<\/p>\n

\"Fox
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That said, there has been a story circulating around the InterTubes that is just plain wrong. It asserts that Howard Kurtz, host of Fox’s MediaBuzz, was surprised by a graphic that showed Fox News as being the least trusted cable news network, and that he called for it to taken down in order to suppress that anti-Fox information. There is a lot wrong with that assertion.<\/p>\n

First of all, there was a graphic that appeared during Kurtz’s program that was out of place. Kurtz did ask that it be taken down. But that’s only because it was out of sequence. When that part of the discussion came up a couple of minutes later, he showed that graphic again at the proper time. There was no attempt to censor it. (See video below).<\/p>\n

Also, the argument that this graphic was taken down because it showed Fox News as trusted less than MSNBC and CNN is not accurate. The Monmouth University survey<\/a><\/strong> that was the basis for the graphic’s data did not compare the networks’ trustworthiness. It compared whether respondents trusted Trump or the media more. That’s actually worse from Trump’s perspective. Although that misreading is largely the fault of Fox News. The graphic needs to be read left to right, not top down. By highlighting the column instead of the rows Fox invited the misinterpretations. As News Corpse previously wrote about this poll<\/a><\/strong>:<\/p>\n

“Like other polls before it, Monmouth found that Americans trust the media more than they do Donald Trump. That\u2019s gotta sting the President who has been striving furiously to turn the nation against the press. The detail shows that 48 percent of Americans trust CNN more than Trump (35% trust Trump more). Forty-five percent trust MSNBC more than Trump (32% for Trump). Even 30 percent trust Fox News more than Trump (20% for Trump). Although the Fox numbers also show that a plurality of 37 percent trust both equally. This affirms that Trump\u2019s base is still immovably stuck in the low thirties.”<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The original story asserting that Fox News was embarrassed by an errant graphic and deep-sixed it appears to have been published by the Associated Press. They have since corrected<\/a><\/strong> their story. But it’s important that the record be correct in the progressive media so as to preserve our moral claim to being reality-based. There are more than enough legitimate examples of Fox News lying. And the findings in the poll are bad enough for Trump that they don’t need to be muddied up with misunderstandings.<\/p>\n

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How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
\nFox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.<\/a>
\nAvailable now at Amazon.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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.@FrankLuntz<\/a>: "It's [@POTUS<\/a>'s] own tweets that are causing so much of the trouble… He should be focused on the economy and on taxes." #MediaBuzz<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/hbjdU6G7gz<\/a><\/p>\n

— Fox News (@FoxNews) April 8, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n