News:

Welcome to week4paug.net 2.1 - same as it ever was! Most features have been restored, but please keep us posted on ANY issues you may be having HERE:  https://week4paug.net/index.php/topic,23937

Main Menu

Fox News: At it again

Started by VDB, April 19, 2012, 11:24:51 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

VDB

OK, I threatened to start this thread and now I can resist no longer. Partly this is for my own self-indulgence so don't mind me...

The relentless agenda-driven "journalism" being practiced at Fox News is just so flagrant and transparent at times that it would be laughable if not for the fact that, I'm sure, a large chunk of their audience is either not savvy or intellectually honest enough to look past the quick, digestible talking points and recognize the game that FN is up to.

Here's a current front-page story (I'll keep score as we go):

Republicans say new study belies Obama claim US has 2 percent of world oil

Headline: Obama is a liar, doesn't believe in domestic drilling (the usual beefs)

QuoteRepublican senators are accusing President Obama of pushing a "less-than-honest" claim about the scarcity of domestic oil, after a U.S. Geological Survey study showed the United States might actually hold a quarter of the world's untapped, undiscovered supply.

The president often uses a much different statistic in speeches.

He said Tuesday, as he has before, that "the problem is we use more than 20 percent of the world's oil and we only have 2 percent of the world's proven oil reserves."

GOP: Obama is a liar

QuoteBut a U.S. Geological Survey released Wednesday paints a seemingly different picture. The analysis showed the world outside of the U.S. holds 565 billion barrels of undiscovered conventional oil -- it was the first such study in 12 years. The study did not address U.S. resources, but a prior analysis by the Energy Information Administration pegged the country's supply at 198 billion barrels. That works out to 26 percent of the world supply.

OK, wait. The study was just released? So is Obama actually being accused of "ignoring" data that no one knew about yet? Oh, and note how we're drawing conclusions from two different studies by two different sources.

QuoteThe president and the USGS, though, are referring to different kinds of oil reserves.

What the president talks about is "proven oil reserves" -- or oil deposits that have been discovered and are considered viable.

In the other, much bigger, category are the "undiscovered, technically recoverable" reserves -- or all the other stuff geologists estimate is out in the world regardless of how accessible or economically viable it might be. That's what the USGS looked at.

Well holy shit! This is a rare FN slip up... the story actually argues against its own premise! D'oh! See, this is something smart people might have caught on to right from the top -- Obama says "proven" reserves and this supposedly damning study talks about "undiscovered" oil.

Final paragraph:

QuoteAccording to the Interior Department, foreign oil dependence has dropped every year under the Obama administration.

*facepalm*

The sole reason that stories like this get posted to FN is to push the narrative that Obama is doing everything possible to kill domestic oil production and further enslave us to the Middle East. And yet here's a statement, buried at the bottom of the story but without any attempt by FN to verify it and report it as fact as opposed to simply an administration (read: untrustworthy) contention, that puts that whole premise on its heels. When was the last time you heard FN acknowledge that domestic oil production has gone up, not down, under Obama?

It's really quite something. The story according to FN is never "criticisms of Obama blatantly political, unfounded" but simply "GOP criticizes Obama" with nary an attempt at verifying the legitimacy of those critiques. Contrary views, if presented at all, are stuffed way down in the story, after many people have stopped reading. And at any rate, they are usually just the administration offering its counterpoint, which the FN audience is going to be inclined to discard anyway.

Crazy.
Is this still Wombat?

runawayjimbo

I love your obsession with FN, VDB.

I fully understand your frustration with a "news" organization making no qualms about their obvious bias and exploitation, but I guess what I don't understand is why you think it makes a difference? The only people watching FN are the partisan ideologues who have already made their minds up and are just trying to reinforce their predetermined opinions (like dude at your gym). I mean, I've seen some pretty blatant misrepresentation and manipulation of facts on MSNBC too, but I don't expect them to turn South Carolina blue anytime soon.

I know we've touched on this before and to many FN seems "worse" and more unabashed in their partisanship. I guess I understand that perspective, but I just don't believe that they're changing a lot of minds because I doubt too many people are going to FN for objective and unbiased reporting.

Still, it will be fun to watch this thread develop.
:beers:
Quote from: DoW on October 26, 2013, 09:06:17 PM
I'm drunk but that was epuc

Quote from: mehead on June 22, 2016, 11:52:42 PM
The Line still sucks. Hard.

Quote from: Gumbo72203 on July 25, 2017, 08:21:56 PM
well boys, we fucked up by not being there.

VDB

Quote from: runawayjimbo on April 19, 2012, 11:46:10 PM
I fully understand your frustration with a "news" organization making no qualms about their obvious bias and exploitation, but I guess what I don't understand is why you think it makes a difference?

I don't know; it might not, for the reasons you suggest. But that still doesn't mean I think they ought not to get called out on it. For the record, I acknowledge (and anyone who's not blind should too) that MSNBC caters hardcore to the liberal viewer with no bones made about it. And there are times (e.g. liberal opinion personalities anchoring their election desk) when I think it's wholly inappropriate.

But with slogans like "fair and balanced" and "we report, you decide", FN is deliberately trying to portray themselves as (and instill in their audience a sense of) being fair-minded, fully informed and objective. This way, the audience doesn't have to question what's being fed to them or consider that it might be simply the reflection of a particular viewpoint. It's quite clever, but really quite insidious. So, I don't know if FN is actively changing minds, but they may well be preventing minds from coming around.

Now, a conservative might argue that the rest of the "liberal mainstream media" operates in the same manner, and thank god FN is out there simply as an antidote. Well, I like to think I'm both independent and astute enough to pick up on media bias wherever and from whomever, and I think FN is by far the worst offender. I mean, not even close.
Is this still Wombat?

runawayjimbo

"Lean Forward", implying any position other than progressive is backwards?

On a personal level, Lawrence O'Donnell is far more enraging to me than anybody on FN (with the exception Greta Van Cunteren, Palin, & Dick Morris).
Quote from: DoW on October 26, 2013, 09:06:17 PM
I'm drunk but that was epuc

Quote from: mehead on June 22, 2016, 11:52:42 PM
The Line still sucks. Hard.

Quote from: Gumbo72203 on July 25, 2017, 08:21:56 PM
well boys, we fucked up by not being there.

Superfreakie

Meanwhile, CNN, in an attempt to appease both poles and not seem partisan, refuses to question either side's rhetoric.  :tte: 
Que te vaya bien, que te vaya bien, Te quiero más que las palabras pueden decir.

Bobafett

it actually would be not, nor.
The events in our lives happen in a sequence in time, but in their significance to ourselves they find their own order; the continuous thread of revelation.

VDB

Quote from: runawayjimbo on April 20, 2012, 12:14:28 AM
"Lean Forward", implying any position other than progressive is backwards?

I'd not thought of it that way, I always interpreted it as "Which way do we lean? We lean forward = making progress = progressive = we're liberal, get it?" That and their "One Nation, In Progress" slogan along with the general content of the network seem to be pretty straightforward defenses of liberalism. I think that contrasts pretty starkly with what's happening at FN, where there's no honest embrace of their conservatism but instead an effort to portray themselves as being wholly pure, fair and unbiased. So remember, I'm not accusing FN of being the only media outlet to show an ideological bent, just saying the way they do it is really disingenuous and insidious.

Quote from: Superfreakie on April 20, 2012, 12:19:17 AM
Meanwhile, CNN, in an attempt to appease both poles and not seem partisan, refuses to question either side's rhetoric.  :tte: 

Absolutely right.
Is this still Wombat?

runawayjimbo

Quote from: V00D00BR3W on April 20, 2012, 09:30:49 AM
Quote from: runawayjimbo on April 20, 2012, 12:14:28 AM
"Lean Forward", implying any position other than progressive is backwards?

I'd not thought of it that way, I always interpreted it as "Which way do we lean? We lean forward = making progress = progressive = we're liberal, get it?" That and their "One Nation, In Progress" slogan along with the general content of the network seem to be pretty straightforward defenses of liberalism. I think that contrasts pretty starkly with what's happening at FN, where there's no honest embrace of their conservatism but instead an effort to portray themselves as being wholly pure, fair and unbiased. So remember, I'm not accusing FN of being the only media outlet to show an ideological bent, just saying the way they do it is really disingenuous and insidious.

I hear you, but that's how you interpreted it. I'm not saying you're wrong and, to be clear, I am in no way defending FN (hear that, sunrise! :wink:). I'm just trying to point out that to someone looking at it from a different perspective, it can be just as insidious. And honestly, I think the whole "fair and balanced" nonsense should be taken as more of a wink-and-a-nudge than an attempt to honestly portray themselves as the defenders of all things conservative.

I kinda look at cable news as the WWF right before they changed to the WWE: everyone recognizes it's all bullshit, so let's just embrace it as entertainment rather than trying to pretend it's something it's not.
Quote from: DoW on October 26, 2013, 09:06:17 PM
I'm drunk but that was epuc

Quote from: mehead on June 22, 2016, 11:52:42 PM
The Line still sucks. Hard.

Quote from: Gumbo72203 on July 25, 2017, 08:21:56 PM
well boys, we fucked up by not being there.

sophist

::obligatory Bill Hicks quote::

Can we talk about the Dead?  I'd love to talk about the fucking Grateful Dead, for once, can we please discuss the Grateful FUCKING Dead!?!?!?!

mbw

Quote from: runawayjimbo on April 20, 2012, 09:45:35 AM
I kinda look at cable news as the WWF right before they changed to the WWE: everyone recognizes it's all bullshit, so let's just embrace it as entertainment rather than trying to pretend it's something it's not.

i think you are really far off here.  i think the majority of fox news viewers take it all very literally and seriously.
i know plenty of them, and i have never heard one of them say they know its bullshit and just want to be entertained.

sophist

Quote from: mirthbeatenworker on April 20, 2012, 10:01:08 AM
Quote from: runawayjimbo on April 20, 2012, 09:45:35 AM
I kinda look at cable news as the WWF right before they changed to the WWE: everyone recognizes it's all bullshit, so let's just embrace it as entertainment rather than trying to pretend it's something it's not.

i think you are really far off here.  i think the majority of fox news viewers take it all very literally and seriously.
i know plenty of them, and i have never heard one of them say they know its bullshit and just want to be entertained.
Yep, that's spot on. 

Can we talk about the Dead?  I'd love to talk about the fucking Grateful Dead, for once, can we please discuss the Grateful FUCKING Dead!?!?!?!

VDB

Bill Hicks wants me to kill myself.  :cry:
Is this still Wombat?

DoW

Quote from: mirthbeatenworker on April 20, 2012, 10:01:08 AM
Quote from: runawayjimbo on April 20, 2012, 09:45:35 AM
I kinda look at cable news as the WWF right before they changed to the WWE: everyone recognizes it's all bullshit, so let's just embrace it as entertainment rather than trying to pretend it's something it's not.

i think you are really far off here.  i think the majority of fox news viewers take it all very literally and seriously.
i know plenty of them, and i have never heard one of them say they know its bullshit and just want to be entertained.
Do you find any news objective anymore?
It's bad when you can't even read about sports anymore without feeling a hidden agenda.
Most of you know my political views, and I don't ever recall watching Fox News.
I would agree that people do take it literally, just like people take the liberal blogs and whatnot literally too.
I do look forward to some future entertainment in this thread though.
Music is meant to be heard
***Support Bands That Allow Taping/Trading***

http://archive.org/search.php?query=taper%3A%22Brian%20V.%22&sort=-publicdate

runawayjimbo

Quote from: mirthbeatenworker on April 20, 2012, 10:01:08 AM
Quote from: runawayjimbo on April 20, 2012, 09:45:35 AM
I kinda look at cable news as the WWF right before they changed to the WWE: everyone recognizes it's all bullshit, so let's just embrace it as entertainment rather than trying to pretend it's something it's not.

i think you are really far off here.  i think the majority of fox news viewers take it all very literally and seriously.
i know plenty of them, and i have never heard one of them say they know its bullshit and just want to be entertained.

Sorry, I should have said most sane people recognize it's bullshit, and I would not put most people who watch FN on the reg in that category. Most people have a difficult time recognizing/admitting their own need to seek out information that confirms their biases.
Quote from: DoW on October 26, 2013, 09:06:17 PM
I'm drunk but that was epuc

Quote from: mehead on June 22, 2016, 11:52:42 PM
The Line still sucks. Hard.

Quote from: Gumbo72203 on July 25, 2017, 08:21:56 PM
well boys, we fucked up by not being there.

rowjimmy

Quote from: runawayjimbo on April 20, 2012, 10:12:51 AM
Quote from: mirthbeatenworker on April 20, 2012, 10:01:08 AM
Quote from: runawayjimbo on April 20, 2012, 09:45:35 AM
I kinda look at cable news as the WWF right before they changed to the WWE: everyone recognizes it's all bullshit, so let's just embrace it as entertainment rather than trying to pretend it's something it's not.

i think you are really far off here.  i think the majority of fox news viewers take it all very literally and seriously.
i know plenty of them, and i have never heard one of them say they know its bullshit and just want to be entertained.

Sorry, I should have said most sane people recognize it's bullshit, and I would not put most people who watch FN on the reg in that category. Most people have a difficult time recognizing/admitting their own need to seek out information that confirms their biases.

You just called my brother-in-law insane.

I've done that before.