Re: [MLUG - DISCUSSION] Fox News vs. NPR (was "MoveOn.org")

[Stephen Montgomery-Smith <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

Mike Miller wrote:
> 
> Another thing for the pro-Fox News group to consider:
> 
> When comparing Fox News to NPR, do you really think you're dealing with
> comparable quality in terms of writing and reporting?  You should think
> about this.  Fox News has half the intelligence of NPR.
> 
> Interesting question:  Why does it seem that the intellectual elite of our
> country (and the *world*, I would say)) is Liberal and not Conservative?
> Is it because they are smart enough to know better?  Is it because of some
> kind of self-perpetuating bias in academe?  I think it's a little of both.
> 
> I'm the kind of person who will listen patiently to both NPR and Fox News.
> I probably seem like a "libby" to the far Right and like a moderate to the
> far Left.  I can live with that.  People who listen only to Fox News and
> can't stand NPR are just not getting a full picture of what's really
> happening and what people are thinking and feeling about the major issues.
> 
> Mike


I used to listen to NPR all the time, until about the time of the Iraq war.  At 
about that time, I started to watch Fox News, and I became extremely 
disillusioned with NPR.  It was definitely the case that NPR had a far more 
intellectual air about them than did Fox News, but I began to very much doubt 
the impartiality of NPR.  In some ways this was made more clear to me because 
one of my best friends is from the middle east, and he told me that the NPR 
reporting was just plain biased, and like me he has switched to Fox News.  I 
feel that both Fox News and the other networks are all biased, but with Fox News 
they make it a little more obvious, and networks such as CNN try to pretend that 
they are not.

Now I do not get the cable networks any more, and I get my news from the web 
sites.  I am sometimes seeing how Fox News and the other channels (ABC News, 
CNN, MSNBC) sometimes report certain stories and sometimes don't.  For example 
on the Fox News website I read a story about a Texan member of the House of 
Representitives who switched from being a Democrat to a Republican, and another 
story about Dean falsely accusing Kerry about his voting record with respect to 
flood relief.  I didn't find these stories on the other web sites (but it may be 
that they appeared on them for a short time so I missed them).  The one story of 
this nature I did see figured prominantly on all of them was that Dean was 
considered to have done a bad job running the nuclear plants while he was 
governor of Vermont.

In the middle of the Iraq War, all the news channels except Fox News were saying 
how badly the war was going, and how all the US war plans had failed badly. 
When, a few days later the statues of Saddam fell, these news channels lost a 
lot of credibility, certainly with me, but I think also with a large number of 
other people.  At the time, all the channels were showing surveys of how people 
thought about Bush - it seemed to me to be more relevant to show surveys of what 
people thought about the media.  But either these surveys had not been carried 
out, or the media were too embarressed to show the results.

For news about the middle east, the person on the radio who consistently holds 
opinions that agree with that of my friend is that of Janet Parshals, who comes 
on the Bott Christian Radio Network at 4-5pm every weekday.  She is perhaps the 
most opinionated person I have ever heard, and I find myself agreeing with most 
everything she says.  While she is definitely right wing, she also has a 
Christian compassion that I find lacking, for example, in the right wing Eagle 
radio channel (is that 92.3?).  (Further examples - I also find that lack of 
compassion in O'Reilly, whereas I do find that compassion in Hannity.)

These days I have completely stopped listening to NPR.  I feel that they have 
this intellectual air about them which is phony.  I was raised in a very liberal 
household, and as a college professor I feel a peer pressure to stay liberal, 
but these days I find myself liking Bush more and more.

I cannot say that I am a total fan of Fox News - frankly I found their reporting 
on such things as the Laci Peterson affair to be sleasy.  I do wish that there 
was a right wing channel that had more of the intellectual air that the other 
news channels have.  But unfortunately right now the liberals have control over 
most of the news media, and as such I really only have one choice.

Sorry for rambling - usually I stay silent on these issues, because it just 
leads to more arguing, but today I let rip with my opinions.

Best, Stephen

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