{"id":7349,"date":"2012-06-18T19:26:47","date_gmt":"2012-06-19T02:26:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=7349"},"modified":"2012-06-18T19:26:47","modified_gmt":"2012-06-19T02:26:47","slug":"showing-their-true-colors-fox-news-embraces-incivility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=7349","title":{"rendered":"Showing Their True Colors: Fox News Embraces Incivility"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"PrayLast week the results of a study were released that measured the public’s perception of incivility<\/a> in the media. Not surprisingly, Fox News had the honor of being viewed as the most uncivil news network.<\/p>\n

This in itself is hardly news. What is immensely more interesting is that Fox News is actually proud of their exceptional rudeness. Today Fox News published an editorial<\/a> by the uber-rightist Media Research Center’s VP of Business and Culture, Dan Gainor. The article took exception to remarks by President Obama’s political adviser, David Axelrod, who came out in opposition to hecklers and other rude behavior intended to disrupt campaign speeches. Axelrod said…<\/p>\n

“I strongly condemn heckling along Mitt’s route. Shouting folks down is their tactic, not ours. Let voters hear both candidates and decide.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Axelrod was speaking to fellow Democrats and admonishing them to refrain from the sort of vulgarities that too often mar appearances by candidates from either side. He even went so far as to say that, even if Republicans employ these tactics, polite Democrats ought not to. So how was this plea for civility received by Gainor?<\/p>\n

He immediately mocked the left as “the party of Occupy Wall Street fanatics [and] gay glitter bombers,”<\/em> and assailed them for their “Alinsky-esque tactics.”<\/em> He embarked on a rant blaming Democrats for every instance of poor behavior, while dismissing any rudeness by Republicans, including the recent episode where a Daily Caller “reporter”<\/em> interrupted a presidential address.<\/p>\n

Then, inexplicably, Gainor went off on a tangent where he seemed to cease to understand what heckling is. Amongst those he accused of being hecklers were Occupy protesters who objected to police abuse, journalists who complained when they were prohibited from covering a public event, and audience members who expressed disapproval of a speaker’s comments.<\/p>\n

In conclusion, Gainor asserted that “Axelrod and the left are scared. They saw that Romney fought hard against opponents in the primary,”<\/em> and he promised that Republicans would fight back. He growled that “if Obama can’t cage his lefty animals, the GOP will respond in kind. You’d think Axelrod would like it.”<\/em><\/p>\n

That’s the right’s response to a top Obama adviser declaring that all of the childish heckling and rudeness, no matter what side, is inappropriate and should stop. Axelrod even used the word “condemn”<\/em> to describe his feeling on the matter. Yet Gainor comes away from that statement with the impression that Axelrod “likes”<\/em> public vulgarity.<\/p>\n

It is that sort of incoherent reasoning that makes it nearly impossible to deal with narrow-minded ideologues like Gainor. And it explains why most people surveyed view Fox News as the most uncivil network in the news business. What was unexpected was that Fox would publish an editorial essentially bragging about being more repulsive than any other kid on the block. OK, Fox…you win. Congratulations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week the results of a study were released that measured the public’s perception of incivility in the media. Not surprisingly, Fox News had the honor of being viewed as the most uncivil news network. This in itself is hardly news. What is immensely more interesting is that Fox News is actually proud of their […]<\/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":[1,16],"tags":[887,658,33,888],"class_list":["post-7349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-wankery","tag-dan-gainor","tag-david-axelrod","tag-fox-news","tag-media-research-center"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Ijg-1Ux","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4474,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=4474","url_meta":{"origin":7349,"position":0},"title":"Fox News’ George Soros Conspiracy Continues To Crumble","author":"Mark NC","date":"5\/19\/2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Last week Fox News published an article by Dan Gainor of the ultra-rightist Media Research Center that purported to reveal a web of connections between George Soros and the mainstream media. The article failed completely in its mission. As I wrote last week: \"On the Fox News web site today,\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":4427,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=4427","url_meta":{"origin":7349,"position":1},"title":"FOX News Invents Another George Soros Conspiracy","author":"Mark NC","date":"5\/11\/2011","format":false,"excerpt":"On the Fox News web site today, Dan Gainor, a VP at the ultra-conservative Media Research Center, wrote an op-ed that asked, \"Why Don't We Hear About Soros' Ties to Over 30 Major News Organizations?\" The answer, as it turns out, is because there aren't any such ties. In the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Media"","block_context":{"text":"Big Media","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=12"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6502,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=6502","url_meta":{"origin":7349,"position":2},"title":"Soros Envy: Why Does Fox News Hate Rich People?","author":"Mark NC","date":"2\/27\/2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Ordinarily Fox News is the strongest advocate on behalf of the Greedy One Percent (GOP). They fiercely defend the the privileged class that they have endearingly tagged \"job creators\" (although that is far from true). They relentlessly oppose efforts to reform the tax code into something more equitable. And even\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":9149,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=9149","url_meta":{"origin":7349,"position":3},"title":"MSNBC Hires David Axelrod – Fox Nation Comes Unglued","author":"Mark NC","date":"2\/21\/2013","format":false,"excerpt":"It simply never ceases to amaze how Fox News can clutch to such fantastical versions of reality and attempt to pass them off as reasonable analyses of current events. Witness this item wherein they grouse about MSNBC's hiring of a former Obama campaign aide: First of all, do they really\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":6128,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=6128","url_meta":{"origin":7349,"position":4},"title":"Seriously, Fox News? You’re Criticizing Mistakes On MSNBC?","author":"Mark NC","date":"1\/6\/2012","format":false,"excerpt":"In a stroke of utter dementia, Fox News has published an editorial taking Rachel Maddow of MSNBC to task for a gaffe during a live broadcast. The author of the column is Dan Gainor of the uber-rightist Media Research Center. Gainor distinguished himself recently by declaring that Arianna Huffington is\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":8187,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=8187","url_meta":{"origin":7349,"position":5},"title":"A Pictorial Presentation Of The Polling Schizophrenia At Fox News","author":"Mark NC","date":"10\/10\/2012","format":false,"excerpt":"It may seriously be time to have the folks at Fox committed to an institution for evaluation. They have become utterly unhinged, particularly with regard to election polling which is notoriously volatile. So without further ado, here's a graphic illustration of the depths of their dementia. First, Fox News loves\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Election"","block_context":{"text":"Election","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=152"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7349","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=7349"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7349\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7352,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7349\/revisions\/7352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}