Romney concedes Fox News bias
By Steve Benen Wednesday Nov 21, 2007 6:30pmOnce in a while, a high-profile Republican will slip and accidentally concede what everyone already knows: the Fox News has a political agenda. Here’s a coffee-shop encounter in Iowa City yesterday with Mitt Romney:
A woman asked the former governor of Massachusetts: What can we do to stop the newspaper and television from attacking the president?
Romney replied: “It’s amazing isn’t it?
“Well, fortunately you can change the channels,” he said, “and there are channels like FOX that gives a different perspective, and you can also go on the Internet and talk radio.”
Wait, Fox News isn’t “fair and balanced”? It’s not the “we-report-you-decide” network? Shocking.
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Mittsey is grammatically challenged, again.
Rupert Murdoch always goes for the "but we employ Greta!" hail mary pass
No rest for the Crooks and Liars people...take a break, have some turkey (or some turkey substitute for the vegans) and enjoy...you all work so hard all year to bring us these stories. So I am giving thanks for you people here at C&L, as well as the everyday folk like me who stop by and try to add a little to the conversation.
Happy Holiday's Everyone!
Maybe if Bush pulled his head out of his ass....
Moroni is watching you, 24/7.
And you, and you, too.
A woman asked the former governor of Massachusetts: What can we do to stop the newspaper and television from attacking the president?
What shy SHOULD have asked was: What can we do to stop the president and the radical right-wing from harming our nation further.
It just amazes me how these extremist put the so called president of our country before the needs of the country.
A woman asked the former governor of Massachusetts: What can we do to stop the newspaper and television from attacking the president?
Romney replied: “It’s amazing isn’t it?
*****************************************
Yeah, Mitt...it's amazing, all right -- amazing that any true American could even remotely think of asking such a question. "Freedom of the press" as granted by the First Amendment of the Constitution includes the right to disagree with, criticize, and even verbally attack the President of the United States provided that the comments made are not libelous. "Attacking the President" never seemed to be that big of an issue for people when Clinton was in office -- but despite Dubya's numerous foul-ups, there are still a lot of people who for some reason have done a total about-face in the past six-odd years and equate any criticism or any failure to "respect the office" as being something akin to blasphemy. If the woman in question wants to live in a country where the leader can't be questioned or criticized -- she should move to Pakistan!
I find the original question to be the most disturbing aspect. There are still far too many people who think that questioning authority is inherently wrong. It's the unasked questions, and "attacks" which are never launched, which will doom us. Unquestioned authority ALWAYS results in misery.
dan @ 6:
he could have said have patience mine frauline when im elected we,ll get rid of the swines who even dare to question or slander your new leader , siegh mine bitch!
when will those damned liberals stop picking on george??? it's un-american and un-godly!!!
These female conservatives are something else. McCain's female supporters call Hillary a bitch, now Romney's female supporters want to censor the media.
"What can we do to stop the newspaper and television from attacking the president?"
Elect a competent president...
What can we do to stop the newspaper and television from attacking the president?
How about compelling to abandon his policy agenda, quit Iraq, apologise for lying his way through his career, restore the Constitution, end the corruption fiesta in Washington, acknowledge the seriousness of global warming, abandon the No Child Left Behind Act, adopt the S-CHIP expansion package, beg Valerie Wilson's forgiveness and develop some baseline competence in day-to-day government, then resign and donate his salary to Iraq vets and Katrina victims?
Then he might realise his dream after all - history will vindicate him.
Fox gives a different perspective, meaning not heavily slanted to the left.
No concession of bias in his statement at all.
The president got attacked by a newspaper and a television?
Oh wait, I have one:
You can start by not electing such a fucking jackass.
Dennis @ 14:
Dennis, you ignorant slut...
this is dumb. the implication was clearly that fox is fair and balanced and that other channels have a liberal bias.
Swashbuckler @ 12:
You mean someone like Bill Clinton? Hahahahaha. They will only refrain from "attacking" a competent Republican, which is an oxymoron, so fuggedaboudit.
Swashbuckler @ 16:
Look, Swashbuckler, I'll concede Fox is biased, but in this statement Romney made, he's not conceding that. He's just telling this poor lady that Fox is one channel she can watch that doesn't bash Bush 24/7.
Surely there are a lot better examples out there of prominent righties admitting Fox bias than this one.
Dennis @ 19:
Look Dennis, you wrote "Fox gives a different perspective, meaning not heavily slanted to the left." That makes you an ignorant slut.
Dennis @ 19:
Who's "attacking" the "president?"
It's not like any major news outlet comes out and says, "Look at this colossal fuckup!" They don't even connect the dots to help Joe Six-pack see the horrible things that the Bush Crime Family is getting away with. It just so happens that Bushco is so malevolent that even a small bit of actual reporting can't help but make them look at least the tiniest bit anti-good.
pete @ 8:
You hit the nail right on the head. At Digby's web site, there is a fierce discussion centering upon a video of a man being pulled over in his SUV by a police car in Utah. The driver questioned why he was pulled over and refused to sign the traffic ticket, which he was given for speeding. Because the driver questioned why he was pulled over and did not sign the ticket, the policeman used a taser on the driver, sending 50,000 volts of electricity coursing through his body. The police officer then lied to another officer who arrived on the scene as to the reasons why he used a taser on the driver. Apparently the last thing the police wish to acknowledge is that the citizens of this country have a right to question authority.
Swashbuckler @ 12:
Or move to North Korea, you inbred slug of a redneck c*nt.
Romney really told her, "Ignorance equals strength, ma'am." And then, they chanted "B-B. B-B..."
It's a little troubling that this seems to be a continuance of the echo chamber. According to the post, no one at the scene questioned the irony of Romney's statement. It will have a short afterlife outside of the echo chamber, and then, it will die with a dying fall.
Ok, really troubling!
markie @ 23:
Ahh, you cons like to project...
Find a copy of America's Right Turn by Richard Viguerie in the library or a bookstore and check the index for Fox News. "Funding Father" Viguerie, along with his co-author, say explicitly that Fox News is partisan for conservatives. And they also say that there is no such thing as objective journalism, so everything that isn't biased for conservatives is by definition "liberally biased."
The implication of Romney's statement is that the bias is against La Bush from "newspaper and television" and that there are unbiased sources. Naturally the way one reads this is dependent upon how far one has bought in to the absurdities of the right or the left. The post is structured in such a way that the way it is read and processed by many minds as "for a distorted view try Fox" because the core constituency of this site is as bad as the Ditto Heads. The only difference really is the ear that gets screamed in.
FAux News was pulled out of Rupert Murdoch's ass, with Hannity, O'Reilly and other right-wing Faux pundits being the inflamed right-wing hemorrhoids that bleed lies and malignant Republican talking points into the eyes and ears of gullible watchers and listeners.
I wouldn't watch Faux News even if they ran a disclaimer stating (like a Surgeon General's warning) that watching Faux News can lead to severe brain damage, causing a form of mental illness in its viewers.
Swashbuckler @ 20:
Dennis should have added to "not heavily slanted to the left..." with, "center, or even moderate right."
As for channels that don't "bash Bush 24/7," I'd like to see Dennis identify one that uses 1% of the ammunition that Bush gives them. I've been watching the Conservatives whine about "Liberal media bias" since Spiro Agnew's Des Moines speech in 1970. In all this time, I haven't once seen one Conservative warn another that a certain course of action was masochistically begging to be humiliated. Instead, we have the media Limbaugh dancing--bending over backwards as far as they can in hopes ol' Rush won't find something to whine about in the inch their shoulders are off the floor.
Wait a doggone minute.
Fox always presents both sides of every question.
First they present the far right side.
Then they present the CrazyChristianFundamentalistEvangelicalWhackoNeoConZionist extreme, ridiculous right of Pat Robertson, Newt Gingrich, and Joe Lieberman.
I think the topic of this post is misguided by wishful thinking. The proponents of Fox News have always skirted the issue of their bias by stating that they are a "superior" news service for "allowing for" a "different perspective" -- ostensibly NOT to the exclusion of fair coverage of their obvious opposition.
Honestly, I think the concept of varying perspectives is good for journalism. But the issue with Fox has never been offering "differing perspectives" -- it has always been that the network does not want to give equal validity to the left-leaning point of view. They will have people like Alan Colmes but they are merely corporate left wingers employed as set-ups for upstaging by the likes of their heavy-hitters like Sean Hannity.
In no way do I see this as an admission from Mitt Romney that Fox News is a political organization so biased that controversial issues are not defined by who committed the worst deed regardless of party. At all costs, the Democrat most always look weaker or worse than the conservative in some way, and he is not stating this at all. But it is a mild start.
This is stupid.
Romney is predicating his argument on that the other networks are biased, and so Fox news is "different" in the way that it is fair and balanced.
You guys, on the other hand, have slapped "Romney concedes Fox News bias" title as if he concedes anything. Well he is not. You just see it as though he is because you presuppose that the other networks are fair and balanced, which leads to "different" being equal to biased Fox News. And then use the whole thing as proof that FN is biased.
Your argument is a logical fallacy and it's bull-crap.
Cheers.
“What can we do to stop the newspaper and television from attacking the president?”
Look this woman asked a serious question, and deserves a serious answer.
Suspend the constitution, Round up all reporters, convene a special court to review all the articles published since 2000. Those who have been shown to question any facet of George Bush should be taken out and shot. Those reporters that are questionable should be tortured till they tell their true feelings about the administration, then shot.
Next all bloggers should be rounded up, anyone who has ever said anything negative about the decisions made about the war in Iraq or Terror should be shot. All Political cartoonist except for Glenn McCoy should be shot, All computers should be confiscated, and only those who have displayed a loyal history should be licensed to have monitored connections to a government run "New Freedom Internet" after swearing to support the supreme leader. Neighborhood watch groups and a peoples court should be set up in all towns and all citizens will be made available for questioning and have their records searched to find those who are not loyal. Harsh punishment should be for any who should hesitate swearing their fealty to the state. Those who falter should be enrolled in a work study program and given time to change their attitude or die trying,
All property should then be confiscated by the ruling party, and redistributed to those that are deemed deserving. All Fox News employees will receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and then shot. (An example should be made) then given an honored burial place near the tomb of Ayn Rand.
Only then will Freedom and Liberty bloom!!
Did Romney say, "...channels [plural] like Fox"? Hmm. Which are the channels like Fox?
Dennis @ 14:
Only an intellectually handicapped reich-winger could possible believe faux is not "heavily slanted to the reich". Thanks for proving that to everyone, princess.
Georgi @ 33:
Looks like your pathetic attempt at a retort is is a logical fallacy and it’s bull-crap, because no one said the other networks are fair and balanced. Oops.. Nice try, sport-O.
Cheers
Dennis @ 19:
On the contrary, faux licks herr dubyah's boots 24/7. Reich-wingers like Mutt knows this and that's why he's pimping the reich-wing propagandists at Faux.
Dr. Matt @ 37:
Well, I just wanted to point out that you guys are just as blind as the right wingers you so despise. There was no concession whatsoever in what Romney said. It's all in your head dude. Oh, and your rhetoric is just like the right-wingers. Denis made a good point and you responded by calling him "princess" and trying to assert that he believes faux is not “heavily slanted to the reich”, when in fact he did not say that.
My argument on the other hand you did not attack on merit you just ridicule it with "Oops.. Nice try, sport-O.". Oh, and the "pathetic" part. Calling names, huh, Bill O'Reily tactic if I ever saw one :D
It's good to see that not everyone around here is as bad as you are...
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