But you know what? The reason Fox exists is because there became a market for an alternate media outlet in the mid-90s. And why, NPR, did this market arise? Because it was the mid 90s, and to use your terminology, there was increasingly almost no daylight between the National Press and the Clinton White House.
The most flagrant example came from the stalemate that led to the government shutdowns in 1995 and 1996. Of course during the Obama years, we heard journalists point out that, unlike Bill Clinton in the 90s, Obama was not to blame for any shutdown that occurred. Clearly Clinton was being as belligerent as the Republicans and Newt Gingrich! But not Obama. He was pure and innocent and righteous and holy - as always, per the National Press.
That was not the story in the mid-90s, however. Back then it was Ebeneezer Newt. It was How the Gingrich Stole Christmas. It was 110% the fault of the GOP, who gleefully shut down the government just so they could rejoice over all those poor kids not having any presents under the Holiday Tree. And that wasn't the White House press releases. That was the National Press.
Hence Fox. Back then I was in seminary, many of my friends were of the more moderate branch; the ones that were being pushed out by Dr. Mohler, Russ Moore, Greg Thornbury and the gang. We often hung about together, even if I tended to be a bit more traditional and conservative. One time I remember being at a KFC (that's Kentucky Fried Chicken to you), and talking about this strange development where it was becoming increasingly difficult to tell the difference between the White House press conferences and the nighttime news broadcasts.
Several of my friends were proud Democrats, but I remember them sitting there, with spork in hand, saying this was no good. They weren't fans of Clinton in the first place, fearing what long term ramifications that the obvious moral compromises he demanded might bring to our nation. As a result, they were far from happy to see the press and the administration walking down long beaches together, basking in the glow of each others' radiance.
None of this includes the media's wagon circling during the Lewinksy trial, the press's parroting of the liberal narrative regarding the 2000 election, the MSM's collusion with the Democrats for the 2004 October Surprise, the 2008 praise and worship service that was the coverage of Obama's campaign, and of course the eight year long love affair between the news media and the Obama White House. And it certainly doesn't include the multiple examples of erroneous reporting during the Trump administration*, every example of which painted Trump in a negative light, at least until being debunked.
The worst anyone can say is that Fox is as bad as the other outlets. Not as bad really, since FOX has commentators who admit to being biased, while the rest of the news media is ostensibly unbiased or, dare I say, 'fair and balanced.' Anyone who believes that is either a fool, a liar, or both.
*Last Sunday, 07/08/2018, CBS This Morning ran a segment on this, and admitted to the multiple errors during the Trump administration. It even admitted they all seemed to err on the side of negativity toward Trump. Of course the gist of it was less 'this is horrible' as much as 'this is helping Trump'. And no, CBS did not include itself in any of the multiple examples it mentioned. Nonetheless, at least it was something, and those who would deny this or the obvious bias behind it are, again, at best useful idiots.
The only shows I enjoy on NPR are Car Talk and Wait Wait don't tell me. I think Car Talk went off the air recently.
ReplyDeleteI used to follow NPR, but stopped some years ago.
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