NationStates Jolt Archive

They're so ideologically driven that they can't figure out the difference between reality and parody. (http://thinkprogress.org/2007/04/27/fox-parody/) Now admittedly, this is during Fox & Friends, but what level of vitriol would be hurled at, oh Good Morning America or Today if they made this level of blunder?

On Tuesday, Fox News morning show “Fox & Friends” aired at least eight segments on a purported “news” story that was actually a parody article written by a publication similar to The Onion.

The backstory: Last week in the town of Lewiston, Maine, a group of Somalian Muslim middle school students were the subject of a cruel prank when their peers placed a ham steak next to them in order to personally offend the students. School officials filed a report because the students considered the act to be a hate/bias crime.

This actual story was then spoofed by a parody site called Associated Content, which made up quotes and details, such as the school’s intention to “create an anti-ham ‘response plan.’”

On Tuesday, Fox & Friends reported these parody quotes and details as actual news. Poking fun at the students, hosts asked whether ham was “a hate crime…or lunch?” and showed screen shots of ham sandwiches, starving Somalians, belching, animal noises, and mock “reenactments” of the incident. Ironically, the hosts assured viewers several times, “We’re not making this up!”
Now, lest you be one of those people who say "yes, but no one really takes that show seriously," read the rest of the piece.
Fox’s careless blunder made news in the town and “launched an immediate avalanche of angry phone calls and ugly e-mails to the school system.”

In the parody, the ham steak became a ham sandwich. Fake quotes were attributed to Superintendent Leon Levesque, Stephen Wessler of the Center for the Prevention of Hate Violence, and one of the Somali students targeted in the incident. […]

Following the Fox broadcast, Levesque’s office received dozens of angry phone calls and profanity-laced e-mails, made and sent by people all over the country, who charge the school district overreacted to what they believed from news reports to be a ham sandwich tossed at a Somali student. […]

“Fox has figured out, from the calls we’ve gotten, that they’ve made a big mistake,” Wessler said.

“This is a wake-up call that the level of hate and anger, among a small population, is vibrant,” he added.

Levesque said he was bothered not only that the parody took aim at a sensitive issue in Lewiston, but also that Fox and others reported the information as fact without checking. The national media, Levesque said, sees information posted online and “uses it as gospel.”

You want to know why thinking people discount anything Fox News reports? Because they apparently don't know the basics of investigating stories, at least when they confirm the biases of the management.

Edit: My mind is running in circles :P Anyway, very disturbing.

Never...never again will I change the channel to channel 26 ever again...

Here's why smart people ignore Fox News: smart people have functioning brains.

OOOHHHHH

my husband came out of his office the other day with that story. (i didnt think he ever watched foxnews.) it didnt make any sense to me but he insisted it was true.

Its a scary thought, that a major news service would take stuff out of the Onion. Very, very scary...Sad part is that it wasn't even the Onion. It was Onion-like.

Here's why smart people ignore Fox News

You're not ignoring it, so, uhm...

They're so ideologically driven that they can't figure out the difference between reality and parody. (http://thinkprogress.org/2007/04/27/fox-parody/) Now admittedly, this is during Fox & Friends, but what level of vitriol would be hurled at, oh Good Morning America or Today if they made this level of blunder?


Now, lest you be one of those people who say "yes, but no one really takes that show seriously," read the rest of the piece.


You want to know why thinking people discount anything Fox News reports? Because they apparently don't know the basics of investigating stories, at least when they confirm the biases of the management.

Lolz.

Here's why smart people ignore Fox News

You're not ignoring it, so, uhm...

Which means that everyone on this thread is not smart.


Damn it!

Here's why smart people ignore Fox News

You're not ignoring it, so, uhm...

I am in the sense that I consider it an unreliable source for news. If that's not good enough for you, well....

Good ol' Fox.

Personally, I don't think smart people should ingore anything. Rather smart people don't blandly accept things others say without knowing their facts.

You shouldn't assume any source is perfect. Every news service ****s up.

Fox just does it more than most...

Still, at least they got the Gore-Bush election results correct right? Right?

So once again Fox looks incredibly stupid. I'm sure NSers around the world are staring at their computer screens with their mouths agape. I mean Fox? Not checking its facts? Being biased and insulting? Who'd of thunk it?

Unfortunate though that with yet another example of foolishness there will still be people defending the so-called neutrality of FNC. Sad, really.

They're so ideologically driven that they can't figure out the difference between reality and parody. (http://thinkprogress.org/2007/04/27/fox-parody/) Now admittedly, this is during Fox & Friends, but what level of vitriol would be hurled at, oh Good Morning America or Today if they made this level of blunder?


Now, lest you be one of those people who say "yes, but no one really takes that show seriously," read the rest of the piece.


You want to know why thinking people discount anything Fox News reports? Because they apparently don't know the basics of investigating stories, at least when they confirm the biases of the management.

gee that reminds me of a similar incident. a site that reviews T.V. shows put up a parody news site that Torri Spelling was going to guess star as a prominent figure on a series created by Aarron Spelling (She was going to play 'God'.) it was a really funny news blurb, and totally fake. but lo and behold, several news outlets mention that Torri Spelling was going to make a guest appearence on one of her daddy's shows as a prominent Religious figure.

not Entertainment News, but on one of CNN affliates.

so everyone does that from time to time.

Finally Fox has learned what many of us have known for quite some time. If it's on the internet, it has to be true.

gee that reminds me of a similar incident. a site that reviews T.V. shows put up a parody news site that Torri Spelling was going to guess star as a prominent figure on a series created by Aarron Spelling (She was going to play 'God'.) it was a really funny news blurb, and totally fake. but lo and behold, several news outlets mention that Torri Spelling was going to make a guest appearence on one of her daddy's shows as a prominent Religious figure.

not Entertainment News, but on one of CNN affliates.

so everyone does that from time to time.

Yes, but that wasn't one that was mocking someone's culture.

I am in the sense that I consider it an unreliable source for news. If that's not good enough for you, well....

Sure, heap more attention on a medium you'd like less people to watch. It isn't like they thrive on it and derive their advertising revenues from it, or anything.

Finally Fox has learned what many of us have known for quite some time. If it's on the internet, it has to be true.

Yep. Internet is rapidly replacing the Bible there...
Scary.

Never...never again will I change the channel to channel 26 ever again...

not even for a good laugh :p

Yes, but that wasn't one that was mocking someone's culture.

so getting rumors/parody and news mixed up only counts if it's mocking someone's culture? got it. ;)

Yes, every News station, on occasion, messes up and reports something untrue or at least unverified. However, Fox News [sic] is the opposite. On occasion, they get it right. (Quite possibly also from messing up. I haven't quite decided if they intentionally lie or if they're just plain stupid.)

so getting rumors/parody and news mixed up only counts if it's mocking someone's culture? got it. ;)

If it demeans and taunts Christian and Jewish kids it's a hate crime, but if it demeans and taunts Muslims and kids of other faiths, it's Supporting the Troops? Got it.

Yes, every News station, on occasion, messes up and reports something untrue or at least unverified. However, Fox News [sic] is the opposite. On occasion, they get it right. (Quite possibly also from messing up. I haven't quite decided if they intentionally lie or if they're just plain stupid.)

No one can so continuously get their facts wrong by accident. They must do this on purpose. The only other explanation is that they just don't care, but Fox is a corporation after all, wants to make money, so I doubt the latter possibility is the correct one. Murdoch and his people simply want sensationalism, to kiss Bush's ass and to insult everyone who doesn't agree with them.

Sure, heap more attention on a medium you'd like less people to watch. It isn't like they thrive on it and derive their advertising revenues from it, or anything.

Riiiiight. My discussing their faults as a news gathering organization on a forum like this one is going to help drive their ratings up. Gotcha.

Riiiiight. My discussing their faults as a news gathering organization on a forum like this one is going to help drive their ratings up. Gotcha.

what was that quote from Howard Stern's Private Parts...

Researcher: The average radio listener listens for eighteen minutes. The average Howard Stern fan listens for - are you ready for this? - an hour and twenty minutes.
Pig Vomit: How can that be?
Researcher: Answer most commonly given? "I want to see what he'll say next."
Pig Vomit: Okay, fine. But what about the people who hate Stern?
Researcher: Good point. The average Stern hater listens for two and a half hours a day.
Pig Vomit: But... if they hate him, why do they listen?
Researcher: Most common answer? "I want to see what he'll say next."

what was that quote from Howard Stern's Private Parts...

Yeah but I don't actually watch Fox News. My satellite provider wanted to charge me extra to get that channel--I laughed really hard at that. I do pay attention to websites that do media criticism, though, so I get the good stuff without actually having to watch their train wreck of a news network.

Yeah but I don't actually watch Fox News. My satellite provider wanted to charge me extra to get that channel--I laughed really hard at that. I do pay attention to websites that do media criticism, though, so I get the good stuff without actually having to watch their train wreck of a news network.

however, you are talking about it, and in reality, bad publicity is still publicity. ;)

Riiiiight. My discussing their faults as a news gathering organization on a forum like this one is going to help drive their ratings up. Gotcha.

PR. You know what kind thereof there isn't.

Why couldn't they have picked something with much worse consequences, like that one article in The Onion about Bush legalizing vigilantism.

I ignored Fox News 'til now, thanks for dumbing the world down.

Yeah but I don't actually watch Fox News. My satellite provider wanted to charge me extra to get that channel--I laughed really hard at that. I do pay attention to websites that do media criticism, though, so I get the good stuff without actually having to watch their train wreck of a news network.

That reminds me of... some website, I think, that I visited. And their tagline says "We watch Fox so you don't have to" and post the good (as in funny, not good as in journalism) clips from it.

Here's why smart people ignore Fox News: smart people have functioning brains.

Here's the kicker. How many of those smart people live in the United States? As opposed to stupid people? Depressingly few I suspect.

Here's the kicker. How many of those smart people live in the United States? As opposed to stupid people? Depressingly few I suspect.

Cue this movie:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYmTEmUYj_8

Which I am almost certain is not real or deliberately shows only the dumbest people interviewed.
I hope so at least...

No one can so continuously get their facts wrong by accident. They must do this on purpose. The only other explanation is that they just don't care, but Fox is a corporation after all, wants to make money, so I doubt the latter possibility is the correct one. Murdoch and his people simply want sensationalism, to kiss Bush's ass and to insult everyone who doesn't agree with them.

Indeed. The profit motive is what's operating Fox News. But, of course, that's what's operating every other US news outlet, so it's nothing new. Neither is yellow journalism, which is what Fox really is, and that's nothing new, either.

What really gets my goat is when there exists collusion between the government and news outlets in the formation and 'selling' of policy. That's what makes Fox so different from the rest of US news outlets. There's no way of telling whether what you're getting is a White House Press Office release and what's real news.

I saw this event, sadly...in my gym the exercise bikes and treadmills and whatnot all face the T.V. with the news channel, and 90% of the time that news channel is Fox News. It pisses me off because I'm not allowed to change it...though if it were up to me that T.V. would just be off.

I actually prefer FOX. Fox lies about 95% of the time and the rare chunk of truth is easy to spot. The other news channels only lie about 60% of the time. It's trickier.

Cue this movie:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYmTEmUYj_8

Which I am almost certain is not real or deliberately shows only the dumbest people interviewed.
I hope so at least...

No that's pretty fair.

The guy who says "Ought to make a big fucking glass crater out of the Middle East" is probably in the majority.

Smart people ignore threads about Fox News!

Smart people ignore threads about Fox News!

You obviously don't consider yourself smart then.

OOOHHHHH

my husband came out of his office the other day with that story. (i didnt think he ever watched foxnews.) it didnt make any sense to me but he insisted it was true.

busted. ;)

You obviously don't consider yourself smart then.

Ooh! That smarts!

I watched Fox and Friends once, it was like a news service for the reality and attention impaired. I swear they took their formula straight from sesame street, with short bits and pieces interupted by animated clips utilising graphics and noise to hold the veiwer's attention. Very pre-grade school.

What got me is the highlight of the whole show was the presenters removing everything red from the set while ranting how it was offensively representitive of Christmas. The alledged excuse was that some airport had gotten into a disagreement with a rabbi over the display of seaonal religious ordaments. Apparently it was supposed to be a very witty and sophisticated mockery, perhaps for regular viewers it was one or both of the earlier two, for me it only qualified as the latter.

Never...never again will I change the channel to channel 26 ever again...

It is channel 604 here (the 600's are made up of documentary and news), though I only watch channel 606 of the news ones (BBC news). Though I cannot call it fox 'news' with a straight face.

Fox "news" is less of a news station and more of a Republican Propaganda Network. As long as you realise this - and try not to take it too seriously, then you can watch it with relative safety.

A few pointers:

1. Which news network first reported that Bush had "won" the 2000 Florida election, despite the vote counting being far from complete at the time they first "broke" the news? The fact that Roger Ailes of Fox is bestest buddies with Jeb Bush is a complete coincidence (not).

2. Which network conspicuously failed to report the anti-war demonstrations in New York, London, Washington DC and Paris?

3. Which news network started off the idea that the French are somehow "enemies" of America, just because they don't support the war in Iraq?

4. Which news network consistently takes the line "If you don't support out troops or if you disagree with anything the Bush Administration does, you must be unpatriotic?"

5. Which news network reported (and widely derided) the hippie-style anti-globalisation protests in Seattle, but conspicuously failed to report on the violent and not-exactly-bloodless anti-globalisation demonstrations which occured at the same time in Cochabamba, Bolivia?

Fox News is the right answer to all these questions. That should give you some idea of where their agenda lies.

I fuckin' love it how one guy says, "You know I hope we're not being duped (sp?)"
Then the other says, "We're not being duped! I've looked it up on a couple of different websites up there, from local papers"...... You idiot. How stupid he must feel right now.

Anyone know if Fox has had any response to this?