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