Brad Wardell's views about technology, politics, religion, world affairs, and all sorts of politically incorrect topics.
An analysis of the FNC evening line up
Published on September 5, 2003 By Draginol In Politics
A lot of people claim Fox is a tool of the Republican party. But one has to wonder where that comes from. Being a regular FNC viewer, I decided to take a look at the line up and disect its "conservativeness".

In a nutshell, FNC is simply a mirror of the other major news organizations. Instead of liberals picking and reading the news, it's conservatives. But unlike the other news organizations, FNC seems more inclined to present both points of view. Take a look and judge for yourself or as they say, we report, you decide.  For each show, I rated it on a scale from 1 to 10. 1 would be extremely liberal like say Gerhaldo's previous show on CNBC (who ironically is now on Fox, that conservative!). And 10 being extremely conservative like say Rush Limbaugh.

Time Show Comments Rating
6pm Special Report with Brit Hume Brit Hume is fairly conservative himself. The Fox News panel is quite conservative with editors of The Weekly Standard. But on the other hand, it's no more conservative than the CNN's "Capital Gang" is liberal. 7
7pm Fox Report with Shepard Smith Shepard delivers news with an attitude. While he's probably somewhat conservative, this show is popular because it covers a lot of stuff in an interesting way with Smith not being afraid to make fun of obvious dumb stuff. 6
8pm O'Reilly Factor O'Reilly really is an independent. Of course, liberals consider him conservative because to someone far left, anyone who deviates from their mold is a conservative. O'Reilly is pro-gay rights. Pro-Gun control. And slams nonsense at every turn. Sure, he's obnoxious but he's not a mouth piece for the Republicans by a long shot. 5
9pm Hannity & Colmes This show is pretty evenly balanced. In fact, I would argue it is mildly liberal only because Colmes comes across as so reasonable and Hannity comes across as such a blatant tool of the right. 5
10pm On the Record with Greta Van Susteren Greta Van Susteren is definitely not a conservative. But she's not a raging liberal either. She, like O'Reilly is an independent. She's against tort reform and was a vocal opponent of the Clinton impeachment. 5

So what's the verdict? I'd say Fox leans a little to the right but it's not a hive of right-wing propaganda as some hysterical members on the left think. Al Franken's book, while humorous at times, really bespeaks the cluelessness of Franken than in showing his targets as "liars".

What I think you're really seeing is the left getting a taste of its own medicine.  ABC News, CBS News, NBC News, MSNBC, and especially CNN have always given a somewhat leftwing point of view. Not anything extreme like some of the right wingers claim but easily if not more so left of center than FNC is right wing.

Even as someone who takes a pro-choice position on abortion, I couldn't help but cringe when I'd see CNN put "Anti-Choice" as a caption for a pro-life demonstrator.  Moreover, when CNN's "Capital Gang" has one true conservative, one ghastly pseudo-conservative who always seems to be against anything Republicans are doing, with the rest reliable Democrats in their views, it's hard to see how the left can complain about Brit Hume's panel.

CNN's anti-war coverage was breathtakingly absurd. And continues to paint things in Iraq far worse than they really are. You'd think they'd show some objectiveness after the admission that they purposely distributed Saddam's propaganda to retain access in Iraq.

And while some argue whether O'Reilly is conservative or not, there's no doubt about Chris Mathews and Hard Ball being left of center. I don't have a problem with Hard Ball, I like the show, I only don't like it when people try to pretend that something's "objective" when it's clearly not.

But wait, what about talk radio? I'll trade you talk radio for the New York Times.  Of course, liberals don't see any bias in the New York Times. Liberal opinions tend to come out as being merely the "voice of reason". The Wall Street Journal is certainly not going to counter the New York Times in terms of shaping editorial opinion across the country in all media.

The point being, Fox News isn't exactly middle of the road but unlike most "objective" news organizations, its modestly conservative anchors and commentators do seem to try to give both sides a shot which is a lot more than can be said of its competitors. It should, therefore, be no surprise why FNC is so much more popular than its competitors.

Comments
on Sep 06, 2003
Good point. All of the media have agendas IMO. I don't think that any of the news networks are tools for any political party. I think in reality they simply have their own point of view that is the collection of opinions of those who happen to work there and journalists tend to be left of center. It's not a conspiracy or anything.

That's why Al Franken's idiotic book's charges that FNC is somehow a Republican tool while everyone else is just pursuing their own agenda is so absurd.
on Sep 06, 2003
What bothers me about the news (and it's definitely not only a US problem, France is the same) is how similar they are ... Consider for instance the story about voting machines (see http://arstechnica.com/archive/news/1062806117.html for a nice summary of the recent stuff). Why is this ignored by the media ?
on Sep 08, 2003
Yet another funny example (about racism attacks in the California recall):
http://www.agonist.org/archives/007983.html#007983
(by the way, I have found the Agonist to be a fairly balanced way to get news).
on Sep 09, 2003
If only the inhabitants of slashdot had as much sense as you, Brad...
on Sep 24, 2003
I think Al Franken is the one who is an A**hole and a pawn for the Democratic Party. How dare he call Brit Hume one.
on Nov 21, 2003
What happened to the proposed "children living in the streets, homeless Americans"? program. cancelled by Big Brother? Why are you blocking out the demonstrations in Britain with this nonsense about Michael Jackson - who cares about his sex life, anyway?! You're all under control of the Repubs - even the big mouth idiots who spout all kinds of absurdities, like O'Reilly. He's completely off the wall and out of line, a real jerk.