Salocin

Kerry's Metrosexual Manicure???

Oh happy day. After liberally and crassly gloating over Dan Rather's embarassment at his use of documents which later proved to be false, Fox News have managed to publish an article on their website (which has since been removed, but was archived here [masstort.org]) that used a bunch of made-up quotes to allege that Kerry had gloated over his performance during the first election debate. Predictably, mediamatters.org is foaming at the mouth over the issue, and other news outlets [nytimes.com] are making hay while the sun shines.

Some funny excerpts, this one from the New York Times article referenced above :

Fox News quickly retracted the article, saying in an editor's note on its Web site that the article "was written in jest and should not have been posted or broadcast.'' It said, "We regret the error, which occurred because of fatigue and bad judgment, not malice."

Of course Fox News (that great impartial defender of the political process) couldn't possibly have meant any malice, and this in no way illustrates the prejudice that exists within that organization, or its lack of respect for someone who may potentially be the next President of the United States. They use their vast influence over the American people's thoughts and beliefs in a perfectly fair and balanced manner.

While I'm on the subject, have you seen some of Fox's advertising? There's this great picture that they have where it says "Real Journalism" at the top, a great 3D logo of Fox News in the middle, and "Fair and Balanced" at the bottom. I remember seeing it while I was in the US, but the only copy I've been able to find on the internet was this one, which has been defaced, and therefore doesn't really serve my purpose, since I wanted to do the defacing. Adopting the "where there's smoke there's fire" approach that was so successful in the decision-making on whether or not to go to war in Iraq, one might argue that if there are people willing to write such articles for their own pleasure and in their own time, perhaps their personal opinions are a little too strong for them to claim to be part of a "fair and balanced" news organization?

What really frightens me are the people who claim that Fox News is the only fair and balanced news source. I've met them, they exist.

Posted by nlvp at October 5, 2004 09:41 PM