Journalism is unethical at Fox News- opinion from Las Vegas Sun
“Until they become conscious they will never rebel..."
George Orwell. So, when will Republicans wake up?
Las Vegas Sun editorial echo: h
In Trump’s attempt to turn Americans against each other, Fox News is one of the tools he relies on the most.
This goes beyond journalistic standards, or even becoming an American version of Pravda to help Trump spread propaganda.
As we’ve stated before, Fox News represents a threat to American democracy by helping Trump whip up his loyalists on the extreme right, gin up hatred and shake people’s confidence in our system of government. Vladimir Putin could hardly ask for more than what Fox News is doing.
The organization also provides Trump with a group of de facto advisers like Sean Hannity and Fox Business Network host Lou Dobbs, with whom Trump routinely consults.
And then there’s Rupert Murdoch. It’s been reported that Trump and the Fox executive chairman talk weekly, and at times daily, which is deeply disturbing considering that Murdoch’s recent track record includes fanning nationalist fervor to help spur the Brexit vote in his British newspaper, The Sun. Murdoch has long worked to erase the line between truth and propaganda in his news publications, where he’s also exhibited a disdain for journalistic ethics and standards.
The sum of all of these parts is that Fox News is doing much more than advocating a certain ideology or editorial position — it’s intentionally lying and trying to manipulate reality. It’s one thing to honestly express an opinion and try to argue the merits of it based on facts and real-world observations. It’s another to unleash a tsunami of lies, paranoia and baseless accusations, to foment violence against others and to foster race baiting and destruction of civic norms.
But so it goes. Trump and the channel have become so intertwined that Hannity and Fox News personality Jeanine Pirro (Ugh!- Trump in drag! Queen Trump!) were emboldened enough to appear onstage with Trump at a campaign rally this fall, where Hannity attacked “fake news” media and touted the president’s campaign slogan.
“The one thing that has made and defined your (failed) presidency more than anything else: promises made, promises kept,” Hannity said.
Fox News tut-tutted, issuing a statement saying it did not condone “any talent participating in campaign events.” But guess what? Hannity and Pirro (Ugh! Trump in drag. Queen Trump redux) haven’t gone anywhere.
The rebuke was less than a hand slap. It was so weak that even Fox News staffers expressed disgust at how the organization had wiped its feet on journalistic ethics.
For Americans who’ve quite understandably had enough, options include using a diverse variety of sources for news. Meanwhile, why would any responsible advertiser want to be associated with the hate-mongering that takes up so much of the network’s bandwidth?
Supporting Trump is one thing. But Fox News is going beyond simply being a cheerleader, and that’s troubling.
George Orwell. So, when will Republicans wake up?
ttps://lasvegassun.com/news/2018/nov/30/fox-news-sacrifices-journalistic-ethics-to-protect/
The extent to which Fox News has become an arm of the Trump administration grows clearer all the time.
(In other words, FoxNews is Trumpzi speak!)
The extent to which Fox News has become an arm of the Trump administration grows clearer all the time.
This week’s signal came when The Daily Beast revealed emails showing that former Environmental Protection Agency Director Scott Pruitt’s team picked topics for a Fox News interview with Pruitt, was fed all of the questions that he would face and OK’d part of the script.
So much for claims of independence and objectivity by the news channel. Although it’s common for TV news producers to discuss interview topics with subjects and even ask them some pre-interview questions, allowing subjects to call the shots is journalistic malpractice. That’s especially the case when the subject is someone as sleazy as Pruitt, who was up to his eyeballs in ethics scandals when he resigned just 18 months into his job.
And yet its says a lot about the news channel — none of it good — that the Pruitt emails aren’t surprising.
Fox News long ago forfeited any pretense that it was holding Donald Trump accountable. Rather, in promoting conspiracy theories, giving Trump a megaphone for his constant lies and helping him vilify immigrants and other groups, the news channel has become an active partner in the president’s tribal politics and assault on the truth.
So much for claims of independence and objectivity by the news channel. Although it’s common for TV news producers to discuss interview topics with subjects and even ask them some pre-interview questions, allowing subjects to call the shots is journalistic malpractice. That’s especially the case when the subject is someone as sleazy as Pruitt, who was up to his eyeballs in ethics scandals when he resigned just 18 months into his job.
And yet its says a lot about the news channel — none of it good — that the Pruitt emails aren’t surprising.
Fox News long ago forfeited any pretense that it was holding Donald Trump accountable. Rather, in promoting conspiracy theories, giving Trump a megaphone for his constant lies and helping him vilify immigrants and other groups, the news channel has become an active partner in the president’s tribal politics and assault on the truth.
In Trump’s attempt to turn Americans against each other, Fox News is one of the tools he relies on the most.
This goes beyond journalistic standards, or even becoming an American version of Pravda to help Trump spread propaganda.
As we’ve stated before, Fox News represents a threat to American democracy by helping Trump whip up his loyalists on the extreme right, gin up hatred and shake people’s confidence in our system of government. Vladimir Putin could hardly ask for more than what Fox News is doing.
The organization also provides Trump with a group of de facto advisers like Sean Hannity and Fox Business Network host Lou Dobbs, with whom Trump routinely consults.
And then there’s Rupert Murdoch. It’s been reported that Trump and the Fox executive chairman talk weekly, and at times daily, which is deeply disturbing considering that Murdoch’s recent track record includes fanning nationalist fervor to help spur the Brexit vote in his British newspaper, The Sun. Murdoch has long worked to erase the line between truth and propaganda in his news publications, where he’s also exhibited a disdain for journalistic ethics and standards.
The sum of all of these parts is that Fox News is doing much more than advocating a certain ideology or editorial position — it’s intentionally lying and trying to manipulate reality. It’s one thing to honestly express an opinion and try to argue the merits of it based on facts and real-world observations. It’s another to unleash a tsunami of lies, paranoia and baseless accusations, to foment violence against others and to foster race baiting and destruction of civic norms.
But so it goes. Trump and the channel have become so intertwined that Hannity and Fox News personality Jeanine Pirro (Ugh!- Trump in drag! Queen Trump!) were emboldened enough to appear onstage with Trump at a campaign rally this fall, where Hannity attacked “fake news” media and touted the president’s campaign slogan.
“The one thing that has made and defined your (failed) presidency more than anything else: promises made, promises kept,” Hannity said.
The rebuke was less than a hand slap. It was so weak that even Fox News staffers expressed disgust at how the organization had wiped its feet on journalistic ethics.
For Americans who’ve quite understandably had enough, options include using a diverse variety of sources for news. Meanwhile, why would any responsible advertiser want to be associated with the hate-mongering that takes up so much of the network’s bandwidth?
Supporting Trump is one thing. But Fox News is going beyond simply being a cheerleader, and that’s troubling.
Labels: Donald Trump, George Orwell, Jeanine Pirro, Las Vegas Sun, Pravda, Sean Hannity
posted by Juliana L'Heureux | 11:28 AM
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