From The Gathering Storm
There’s an interesting web site called News Hound which, according to their tagline, watches Fox so you don’t have to’. Their self-imposed task is to monitor Fox and Fox news for its pro-Right and anti-Left stance.
A recent guest blog by someone called Priscilla rants about a news segment on Fox that supposedly shows their pro-Israel, pro-war and anti-Muslim stance. It concerns a discussion moderated by Fox’s Kasich on the Middle East crisis with retired General Wesley Clark, Edina Lukovic from the Muslim Public Affairs Council and Joe Cirincione from the Center for American Progress.
Ms Priscilla dissects the discussion to show how ‘unfair and unbalanced’ Fox news really is. But all she does is repeat the same tired old leftist mantra about the need for endless negotiations with those who will not negotiate, how innocent victims are suffering in Lebanon, and that the Bush administration has not ‘engaged’ with Iran and other terrorist organizations – read the PLO - that confronts us. Some excerpts and my comments.
“Clark stated that Israel’s focus needs to be on Hezbollah, but the problem with the air campaign is finding targets. That is made difficult for Israel because they have limited intelligence on the ground.”
Excuse me. Israel has very good intelligence on the ground.
Kasich then asked Ms. Lukovic why there was a “lack of strong Muslim condemnation of Hezbollah.” She responded that as an American citizen she couldn’t speak for Muslim countries; but that both the EU and Muslim countries are calling for intervention because there are “too many civilian casualties.”
Israel is hitting where the Hezbollah are hiding – in private homes - thus putting Lebanese civilians at risk.
Joe Cirincione then said that Iran could be moderated by President Bush but, because of his disengagement with Iran, he has lost control and should send Dr. Rice to Iran to establish a dialogue.
That’s a lie. The Bush administration has gone to great lengths through the UN and the EU to engage Iran but Iran refuses to budge. Who’s spinning now Ms Pricilla? Again, the appeaser and apologist strategy of endless talks that go nowhere rather than confront the problem and solve it.
But Fox’s Kasich said it better.
Of course, Kasich didn’t want to hear that and immediately said “how can you get the Road Map back when Iran says that Israel has no right to exist.” Ms. Lukovic responded that she agreed with Cirincione that the “US needs to become more fully engaged" at which point, Kasich interrupted her and said “listen, we worked with the EU to engage Iran and it’s going nowhere.” Lukovic then said that diplomacy is a “long hard path” to which Kasich responded that “until the militias recognize Israel’s right to exist and the rest of the Arab world says this guy’s gotta go, nothing will change.”
Ms. Pricilla complained that Fox’s Kasich caught the guest in the lie.
Kasich interrupted Ms. Lukovic’s response about “voices on the other side that we need to listen to regarding this illegal occupation…” by saying “I gottcha, there isn’t an illegal occupation and they’re trying to destroy Israel.”
And – “Once again, Fox shows that “fair and balanced” is skewed to only those who support Israel – no other viewpoints need apply. Kasich’s distain for Ms. Lekovic was apparent in the unprofessional way in which he interrupted her.
No, Ms Pricilla, that’s Fox’s approach to the news. Cut them off at the spin and political monologue and answer the damn question. The reason why the leftists do not like Fox is because unlike the other news channels, they can not come on the air and be allowed to preach their ideology unchallenged. People like Larry King just sit there nodding approvingly as their guests are allowed to pontificate and spin the news to their liking.
Fox may not be perfect but at least they try and get to the root of the news and put guests on the spot. They don’t throw ‘softballs’ at guests as some other news shows do. Hear that Hardball Chris Mathews?
2 comments:
Fascinating. Thanks for letting us know about this site (and Priscilla), I had never heard of it. And such a great post on this as well! "Watching Fox so you don't have to"?!?! Huh. I wonder if they'd take guest articles on the bias on NPR, if they're really so interested in bias in the news....
I've been to that site quite a few times to banter with the leftist crowd there. Unfortunately any attempt at intelligent discussion is met with contempt in the form of insults.
Just goes to show the site is really just a leftwing circle jerk where they pat themselves on the backs for discussing Fox's supposed anti-left slant, while really just attempting to further their own extreme left agenda.
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