More enthusiasm than news in Fox's coverage of war

From: gts (gts_2000@yahoo.com)
Date: Fri Mar 28 2003 - 15:12:16 MST

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    "ANALYSIS: More enthusiasm than news in Fox's coverage of war"
    http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/local/3_22_03war_aaron.html

    I've been flipping between FOX and CNN from day one of the war. I find this
    reporter's observations to be true.

    I agree especially with her comment that FOX "appeals to a younger
    audience." I get that impression all the time, from the language and
    attitude of the reporters. Among other things, FOX reporters are more prone
    to use inflammatory language. It's highly sensationalized news reporting.
    Kinda' exciting, I would agree, but hardly unbiased!

    CNN is boring by comparison, but in my view news SHOULD be boring. FOX seems
    to think news is about entertainment rather than information. And this, no
    doubt, is the reason FOX's ratings have climbed. Most people, especially
    younger people, want to be entertained and excited whenever they turn on
    their televisions. I noticed that because FOX has so little to offer in
    terms of real war coverage from embedded reporters in the field, it tries
    instead to entertain its audience with actors in the FOX studio dressed in
    military uniforms. What's up with that?? The fake soldiers draw daggers and
    point rifles at imaginary enemies, to the sound of dramatic war music. How
    absurd! That's not news. That's blatant entertainment programming designed
    to keep FOX's hawkish right-wing audience from turning the channel back to
    CNN.

    FOX gives me an adrenaline rush, sometimes to the point where I can't stand
    it anymore. I might have liked it back in the 80's, when I was a
    20-something hard-line Reaganite who thought he had just "seen the light"...

    "Rah Rah Rah! Go Reagan! Go Bush! Go GOP! Down with the liberals! Down with
    our enemies! Down with the French and Germans and Russians! Down with the
    peace-niks! And, above all, DOWN WITH SADDAM HUSSEIN! OFF WITH HIS
    HEAD!!!"...

    That's the kind of zealotry that comes through between the lines from FOX. I
    guess I'm getting old and maybe a little jaded. FOX-style reporting annoys
    me.

    Only FOX news, with its hard-line right-wing audience, could get away with
    having a war correspondent like Oliver North. The FOX audience no doubt
    considers Oliver North a true patriot, and that he might be, but let's not
    forget that he's also a convicted felon. I'm surprised they haven't also
    hired G. Gordon Liddy of Watergate infamy. (Actually I'd bet dollars to
    doughnuts that they've tried to hire him! Last I heard, Liddy had his own
    radio show. He's already in the business of spewing anti-leftist hatred on
    the airwaves, just not for FOX.)

    And there should be no disagreement that FOX's other war correspondent
    Geraldo Rivera is a joke.

    When it comes to news, especially international news, I just want the facts
    conveyed to me in a non-emotional, intelligent, mature, matter-of-fact,
    unbiased manner. I want to see the big picture from a *global* point of
    view, not just from the pro-administration American point of view. I don't
    want pizzazz and excitement and heated emotions. I just want the facts. CNN
    isn't perfect, but in my view it meets the criteria above far better than
    does FOX. I can watch CNN all day long without getting my shorts in a wad.

    -gts



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