{"id":9037,"date":"2013-02-20T02:55:31","date_gmt":"2013-02-20T10:55:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=9037"},"modified":"2013-02-20T02:55:31","modified_gmt":"2013-02-20T10:55:31","slug":"fox-news-freak-outs-how-the-big-bully-of-cable-news-fizzles-under-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=9037","title":{"rendered":"Fox News Freak-Outs: How The Big Bully Of Cable News Fizzles Under Fire"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the cable news business there is one network that relentlessly boasts about its prominence and formidable presence above all others. Fox News is clearly taken with itself and is even promoted in their own ads as “The Most Powerful<\/strong> Name In News.”<\/em> That makes it all the more curious that Fox seems to shudder when confronted with opposing arguments.<\/p>\n

\"Fox
\nThis article was also published on Alternet<\/a>.<\/center>
\n<\/p>\n

Fox News is often the subject of well-deserved criticism due to their aversion to facts and a long record of strident bias. However, their first reaction to reasonable rebuttals is to go on the attack against their perceived enemies. It is behavior reminiscent of schoolyard bullies with marshmallow centers who struggle to mask their hurt feelings with forced bluster. What follows are seven examples of just how thin-skinned this allegedly powerful network really is, and how prone they are to whining when they get smacked down.<\/p>\n

At a press conference<\/strong> President Obama astutely noted that the penchant Fox News has for punishing Republicans who dare to work cooperatively with Democrats has the effect of discouraging Republicans from such cooperation. That rather modest observation sent Fox News into a tizzy<\/a>. Jumping immediately to the most absurd stretches of hyperbole, Steve Doocy of Fox & Friends fired up the outrage machine to accuse the President of attacking, not merely Fox News, but the First Amendment. Meanwhile the determinedly dishonest Fox Nation<\/a> web site declared the President’s remarks to be a threat. How Obama was infringing on freedom of the press or threatening anyone was never explained.<\/p>\n

In an interview Al Gore commented<\/strong> on Fox News and right-wing talk radio saying \u201cThe fact that we have 24\/7 propaganda masquerading as news, it does have an impact.\u201d<\/em> Rather than try to dispute the obvious truth of Gore\u2019s comment, Fox\u2019s Peter Johnson, Jr launched into a harangue<\/a> about Gore permitting a news enterprise based in the oil-producing nation of Qatar to buy his network, Current TV. Yes, that had nothing to do with Gore’s remarks, but it did serve Johnson’s purpose of blindly lashing out at Gore for daring to besmirch Fox.<\/p>\n

Author and military foreign policy expert Tom Ricks<\/strong> was invited on to discuss his new book, The Generals. Fox host Jon Scott thought he could get Ricks to join Fox’s crusade to blame<\/a> Obama for the tragedy in Benghazi, but Ricks wasn’t cooperating and told Scott that “I think that the emphasis on Benghazi has been extremely political, partly because Fox was operating as a wing of the Republican Party.”<\/em> That was apparently too much for Scott who abruptly ended the interview less than 90 seconds after it began. After taking criticism from other media for that self-serving censorship, Fox VP Michael Clemente doubled down and disparaged Ricks for not having “the strength of character to apologize.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Greta Van Susteren saw an opportunity<\/strong> to whimper about how mistreated Fox is<\/a> when she complained that the State Department had left them off the mailing list for a couple of news briefings. She called it “a coordinated effort”<\/em> to punish Fox by “denying Fox access to information.”<\/em> What she failed to disclose was that the State Department had previously explained that they had only notified news organizations that had reporters assigned to cover the department and that, having none, Fox didn\u2019t get on the list. But that explanation didn’t stop Van Susteren and others at Fox from assailing the administration for an imagined snubbing.<\/p>\n

In a debate over whether or not NBC<\/strong> had ever criticized President Obama on the use of drones, Bill O’Reilly falsely claimed<\/a> that the drone story never appeared on NBC. In fact, it was NBC who broke the story. The following night, after much ridicule for his egregious mistake, rather than apologize and set the record straight, O’Reilly lashed at the “loons”<\/em> who were engaging in “more deceit from the far left.”<\/em> As usual, any critical analysis of O’Reilly or Fox News is viewed as liberal Fox-bashing and is met with name-calling and vilification.<\/p>\n

Fox’s Juan Williams<\/strong> is one of the network’s alleged lefties. When he made a disturbingly racist comment about his fear of flying with Muslim passengers, he was let go by his other employer NPR. The reaction from Fox News was swift and utterly repulsive. Fox’s CEO Roger Ailes lashed out<\/a> in defense of his pet liberal saying of NPR that “They are, of course, Nazis. They have a kind of Nazi attitude. They are the left wing of Nazism.”<\/em> Most people would regard that as something of an overreaction, but for Fox it is consistent with their characteristic vengefulness when they consider themselves under siege.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the most frequent target<\/strong> of Fox’s vitriol is the watchdog group, Media Matters for America. By defining its mission as a monitor of conservative bias in the news, Media Matters has earned the undying enmity of Fox News<\/a>. In the course of their persistent barrage of slander aimed at Media Matters, Fox has called the founder, David Brock, (without substantiation) a dangerous, self-loathing, mentally ill, drug user. Fox was so frightened by Media Matters that, in the week prior to publication of their book The Fox Effect<\/a>, Fox News broadcast no fewer than a dozen derogatory pieces in a preemptive strike with segments on their most popular programs, including The O\u2019Reilly Factor, Hannity, Fox & Friends, etc. It was the sort of blanket coverage they usually reserved for a natural disaster, a declaration of war, or a lewd TwitPic of a politician. Fox’s anti-Media Matters campaign even included solicitations on the air (more than 30 times) by Fox anchors beseeching their viewers to file complaints with the IRS challenging Media Matters\u2019 tax-exempt, non-profit status.<\/p>\n

These are just a few of the more notable instances when Fox has engaged in pronounced public wailing after taking flack from a critic. But it’s an almost daily occurrence for Fox to slap back at a politician, pundit, or even a celebrity, who utters something that Fox regards as unflattering. Just ask Bill Maher or Nas or Sean Penn. For a network that touts its powerfulness, Fox News behaves with the sort of tender sensitivity that is generally associated with sniveling weakness. They wildly lash out at critics and stubbornly refuse to acknowledge mistakes or accept responsibility when errors are pointed out. It is, to say the least, undignified, unprofessional, and immature, but it is the Fox way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the cable news business there is one network that relentlessly boasts about its prominence and formidable presence above all others. Fox News is clearly taken with itself and is even promoted in their own ads as “The Most Powerful Name In News.” That makes it all the more curious that Fox seems to shudder […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_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":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[72,922,183,26,33,608,577,509,960,143],"class_list":["post-9037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-al-gore","tag-alternet","tag-barack-obama","tag-bill-oreilly","tag-fox-news","tag-greta-van-susteren","tag-juan-williams","tag-media-matters","tag-peter-johnson","tag-roger-ailes"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Ijg-2lL","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10090,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=10090","url_meta":{"origin":9037,"position":0},"title":"Self-Inflicted Truth: Fox Nation Bashes Fox News As ‘Ridiculously Fact-Free’","author":"Mark NC","date":"7\/9\/2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Just how determined is Fox Nation, the lie-riddled Fox News community web site, in its mission to slander anything and everything connected to liberal politics and media? Apparently they are so determined that they don't care if they publish devastatingly negative representations of their pals down the hall at Fox\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":9037,"position":1},"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":[]},{"id":4586,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=4586","url_meta":{"origin":9037,"position":2},"title":"News Corpse Part Of Soros-Funded Echo Chamber?","author":"Mark NC","date":"6\/6\/2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The ultra-rightist Media Research Center has just completed its four part series purporting to reveal the truth about the George Soros domination of the media. The series was authored by the MRC's Boone Pickens Fellow, Dan Gainor. The first three parts of Gainor's project were laughably muddled dissertations on an\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":3409,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=3409","url_meta":{"origin":9037,"position":3},"title":"Study Confirms That Fox News Makes You Stupid","author":"Mark NC","date":"12\/13\/2010","format":false,"excerpt":"[Thanks to AlterNet for reprinting this article] Yet another study has been released that proves that watching Fox News is detrimental to your intelligence. World Public Opinion, a project managed by the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland, conducted a survey of American voters that shows\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":4501,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=4501","url_meta":{"origin":9037,"position":4},"title":"Understatement Of The Year: Sarah Palin Is An Idiot","author":"Mark NC","date":"5\/23\/2011","format":false,"excerpt":"In an article published in New York Magazine, Roger Ailes, CEO of Fox News is reported to have told colleagues that he thinks Sarah Palin is an idiot and unhelpful to the conservative movement. Really? Gosh, we never knew. But to be fair, there was a lot more of interest\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":5502,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=5502","url_meta":{"origin":9037,"position":5},"title":"The Foxification Of CNN: New Management Pushes The Network Into Crazy Territory","author":"Mark NC","date":"10\/14\/2011","format":false,"excerpt":"This article also appears on Alternet.org.In the fiercely competitive world of cable news, the players have been jockeying for position as they battle for viewers and advertisers. Fox News, MSNBC, and CNN, each with their own models of programming, seek to gain scale and influence. Fox News, we know, has\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\/9037","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=9037"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9037\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9141,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9037\/revisions\/9141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}