How to understand Fox News: It is not a conservative channel. It is a Republican channel

[BurtWorm]

This is so obvious many people miss it. It therefore bears being said out loud over and over and over again.

Fox News is the GOP's propaganda organ thinly disguised as a make-believe news channel. There is nothing like it for the Democratic Party or for any other party in the US. It is all Republican, all the time.

Say it loud.



http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2010/10/27/bernstein_fox_news






By Jonathan Bernstein

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How to understand Fox News
Salon

This originally appeared at Jonathan Bernstein's blog

Responding to a debate between Michael Tomasky and Ross Douthat over whether liberals should appear on Fox News, Andrew Sullivan makes an important point:
Just as important, it seems to me is if Fox could give, say, Ron Paul his own show, and actually allow an internal conservative debate about issues, such as the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, or foreign policy, or the social issues, such as abortion, or even have a supporter of gay equality who isn't an easily dismissed leftist stereotype on prime time - like a Jon Rauch or a Ted Olson? Why not give Frum a show to counter the party line with smart conservative policy proposals and discussions? What's needed on Fox - and what you'll never see - is solid conservative attacks on and critiques of other conservatives, on matters of principle or policy. That's the difference between an opinion channel and a propaganda channel.

The point is that it's a real mistake to call Fox a conservative channel. It's not. It's a partisan channel.

Now, precisely how to think about Fox News and the Republican Party is a bit trickier.

To begin with, bluntly, Fox is part of the Republican Party. American political parties are made up of both formal organizations (such as the RNC) and informal networks. Fox News Channel, then, is properly understood as part of the expanded Republican Party, just like Hill staff of GOP Members of Congress, or pollsters who only work for Republicans, or activists who volunteer for Republican campaigns, or think tanks that generate legislation for Republicans to support. So, in the first place, Fox is simply part of the communications arm of the party.

The tricky part is that FNC isn't only a component of the Republican Party. It's also a business, so it may have profit motivations beyond its partisan goals (both on the organizational and individual level, of course). It's also, in format, a cable news network, and there are a variety of norms that come with that -- norms that may be important to both individual correspondents and producers on the one hand, and consumers on the other. Fox may be part of the communications arm of the Republican Party, but it's not the same part as the RNC's Web page, or ads for GOP candidates.

...

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. For at least the last couple of years

I have referred to FOX as simply the propaganda arm of the Republican Party. It isn't a legitimate news outlet any more than Pravda ever was.

[spinbaby]

I prefer to call it White Trash Pravda.

Most accurate description I've found yet.

[Winterblues]

2. Duhhh

I have a problem with people that do not recognize this simple Fact....There is nothing "fair" nor is there any "balance" on that opinion network.

[Initech]

3. It isn't even a real news network - it's 24/7 GOP/corporaticracy propaganda.

Their motto shouldn't be "We Report, You Decide", it should be "You Will Think What We Tell You To Think - Or Else!!!!"

[blondeatlast]

4. Exactly--and I know some halfway reasonable conservatives who don't watch it for that very reason. n