White House attempt at censorship leads to increased ratings

An environment for anything from relaxed general discussion topics to intense debates. Just remember to show some respect and keep things on topic.
Post Reply
User avatar
Sterling
Administrator
Posts: 306
Joined: Mon Mar 30, 2009 2:37 am
Location: Roy's Palace
Contact:

White House attempt at censorship leads to increased ratings

Post by Sterling »

The results are in and after the White House whined about FOX News not being a legitimate news organisation and trying to cut off their access to interviews with officials, ratings for the cable news channel are up. Way to shoot yourself in the foot. Whether or not you think Fox is biased (MSNBC by the way is about five times worse in the opposite direction) or divisive, etc. is irrelevant, the fact that the White House seems to think it has the power to silence outlets it perceives to be disagreeing with them is worrying.

The White House’s extraordinary assault on the Fox News Channel will end in tears – and not for Rupert Murdoch, Fox’s owner. The Obama administration has embarked on a high-risk strategy of shooting the messenger, in effect blaming its plummeting poll ratings on alleged political bias at the number one 24-hour cable news network. As Anita Dunn, the Mao-quoting White House communications director put it in an interview with The New York Times:

“We’re going to treat them the way we would treat an opponent. As they are undertaking a war against Barack Obama and the White House, we don’t need to pretend that this is the way that legitimate news organizations behave.”

As Dunn’s statement illustrates, this is an overtly political campaign – and one that is doomed to failure, as it will ensure that even more Americans end up tuning in to Fox shows. The United States is a nation built around the principles of free speech, limited government, and free enterprise, and it is highly unusual for a US administration to launch an authoritarian vendetta against an individual news station. It smacks of mean-spiritedness as well as desperation, and is an approach that is already backfiring, with Fox’s ratings receiving an added boost from the huge publicity.

Fox News is succeeding in America precisely because it is not afraid to challenge the status quo, and to take on the power of big government. It is unique in broadcast media in going against the grain of the dominant liberal networks, NBC, CBS and ABC, by providing an alternative perspective in a nation where conservatives are still the largest ideological group according to Gallup. Television news in America has for decades been dominated by a left-of-centre oligopoly that has not reflected public opinion. That smug arrangement was shattered when Fox opened for business in the mid-1990s.

Fox News has succeeded spectacularly in racing ahead of its rivals in the cable news market, notably CNN and MSNBC. Its evening shows – such as the O’Reilly Factor, Glenn Beck and Hannity – pull in several million viewers compared to just hundreds of thousands on Fox’s competitors. Fox offers a highly opinionated, fast-paced and entertaining brand of political debate that includes all sides of the political aisle. The top hosts may be largely conservative (though not necessarily Republican), but the guests frequently are not, creating an adversarial and combative arena that until recently was a rarity in American news coverage.

Fox also benefits from an extraordinary level of professional management that sets the gold standard for cable news organizations. It is a remarkably well-run operation that also projects the American dream, with its proud emphasis on entrepreneurialism, patriotism, and a strong sense of national identity. Fox is unashamedly pro-American, a breath of fresh air in an age when US foreign policy is increasingly weak, muddled and confused.

The success of Fox News is not driven by any political agenda, as its Administration critics claim. It is simply doing its job as a news organization by questioning the positions and policies of the elected government and officials of the United States, whoever is in the White House. That is the proper role of the media in a free society, and any attempt by the government to muzzle Fox is a threat to the freedom of all American news outlets, including liberal juggernauts such as The New York Times, NBC and CNN.

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/nileg ... -fox-news/
What you call love was invented by guys like me, to sell nylons. You're born alone and you die alone and this world just drops a bunch of rules on top of you to make you forget those facts. But I never forget. I'm living like there's no tomorrow, because there isn't one.
User avatar
Ryudo
Posts: 764
Joined: Thu Apr 02, 2009 7:19 am
Contact:

Re: White House attempt at censorship leads to increased ratings

Post by Ryudo »

Meh just another nail in old media's coffin.
New media has been uprising so the quicker it dies the better so the new media can finally take over,anyone who truly wants up to date news unfiltered no longer follow using a box in the living room or news websites.
Jeff
Posts: 300
Joined: Thu Apr 02, 2009 1:54 pm
Location: Long Island, NY

Re: White House attempt at censorship leads to increased ratings

Post by Jeff »

Do you think they'd be attacking Glen Beck if he got bad ratings? Of course not. Liberals will tell you who they are afraid of. The ones they attack and try to destroy the most are the ones they fear the most, like for example a working mom/governor who is not a liberal in their image. Obama is mad that Fox News was able to expose Acorn and their Green Jobs Czar. Now their gone. The Acorn scandal was the last straw with Obama because that is his front organization with his Chicago crime family connections. One day that will be exposed and then HIS chickens have come home to roost.

And funny how they don't try to disallow MSNBC as well from these interviews when they said that they don't want to be on any network with a political leaning. I guess as long as the news network's political leaning is in your favor then theirs no problem. MSNBC is like state run media.
Image

Banned for life from Shenmue Dojo for being too awesome for the server to handle
beedle
Posts: 42
Joined: Wed Jun 03, 2009 4:54 pm

Re: White House attempt at censorship leads to increased ratings

Post by beedle »

God, when will people learn? In Politics, if you draw attention to something it will gain popularity. I would have thought they would have learnt by now.
Jeff
Posts: 300
Joined: Thu Apr 02, 2009 1:54 pm
Location: Long Island, NY

Re: White House attempt at censorship leads to increased ratings

Post by Jeff »

Now Sesame Street is taking swipes at Fox News while indoctrinating children. Well at least Fox News doesn't need donations to keep going. :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYTWNk8m51w
Image

Banned for life from Shenmue Dojo for being too awesome for the server to handle
User avatar
Sterling
Administrator
Posts: 306
Joined: Mon Mar 30, 2009 2:37 am
Location: Roy's Palace
Contact:

Re: White House attempt at censorship leads to increased ratings

Post by Sterling »

From Newsreal:

]While every other news channel at the top of the hour led with the mass murders committed by Army psychiatrist Major Malik Nadal Hasan, Keith Olbermann led Countdown with a hysterical rant about the health care demonstration at the Capitol, implying it was treasonous, seditious activity by the Republican Party, a call to violence, racist, and reminiscent of Apartheid South Africa.

Keith Olbermann could connect the dots between one offensive sign at the anti-socialized medicine rally at the Capitol today, racism, and the Republican leadership; but the fact that Hasan had been in some hot water with the Army for an internet post where he said that suicide bombers were comparable to soldiers who sacrificially throw themselves on a grenade to protect their comrades in arms did not strike him as a salient point.

While MSNBC hosts Chris Matthews, Olbermann and Maddow all mentioned that Hasan was distraught over an imminent deployment to Iraq, and sometimes mentioned he was against the war, none emphasized that he was a Muslim who made statements that the Muslims should “stand up” against American forces in the Middle East.

NBC News Terrorism Analyst Roger Cressey pointed out to Matthews that the “pasty white kid” who is the al Qaeda American spokesman called for just such actions, but that was the last of that kind of talk for the night on the network.

Matthews kept going on sympathetically about PTSD, and the “horrendous things” that Hasan must had heard as an Army psychiatrist. But in a fairly long career as an Army shrink, Hasan had never been deployed overseas.

But that fits the liberal media template. Military service can drive you nuts.

I’m guessing no one on this network will EVER point out that it may be a measure of political correctness that this guy was still on active duty at all, with these danger signs. Was someone afraid to be accused of cashiering an “outspoken Muslim,” because of “profiling?”

Former FBI profiler Cliff van Zandt did mention to Olbermann that Hasan may have had a “secondary” religious motive. Of course, in van Zandt’s experience, serial or mass murderers who claim a religious motive are usually covering for something else, in many cases a psychosexual fantasy.

But this is no “God told me to purge those women” run of the mill psycho; and a not insignificant portion of his co-religionists have gone on suicide missions with religion as a PRIMARY motive.

And a half hour into Maddow’s show, the word Muslim has not come up, though his degree from Virginia Tech, scene of another mass shooting has been come up in an ironic context few times—and Mark Benjamin of Salon emphasized “secondary PTSD” as the most likely motive, with no basis for that theory, followed by Christopher Smith of Rolling Stone saying that the military is negligent in treating PTSD, and relating lots of stories about disturbed veterans.

Once again folks, HASAN HAS NEVER BEEN DEPLOYED OVERSEAS.

But back to Countdown. Remember the format. Olbermann led with his hysterical rant about the supposed rebellion at the Capitol today, but that made it the 5th story in his top 5. Next, was Cliff van Sant and an attempt at profiling Hasan.

That made Fort Hood Keith Olbermann’s NUMBER 4 STORY OF THE DAY!

Number 1? The earth shattering revelation that conservatives from Dick Army to Sarah Palin have contradictory opinions over the meaning of the Congressional race in New York 23, edging out Rush Limbaugh making the Worst Person in the World list for a joke about “anal poisoning.”

No, I’m not kidding.

Yeah, it’s FOX that’s not a real news organization.

http://newsrealblog.com/2009/11/05/to-m ... h-olberma/
What you call love was invented by guys like me, to sell nylons. You're born alone and you die alone and this world just drops a bunch of rules on top of you to make you forget those facts. But I never forget. I'm living like there's no tomorrow, because there isn't one.
Jeff
Posts: 300
Joined: Thu Apr 02, 2009 1:54 pm
Location: Long Island, NY

Re: White House attempt at censorship leads to increased ratings

Post by Jeff »

Thank you! I've been saying this all weekend!
Image

Banned for life from Shenmue Dojo for being too awesome for the server to handle
Post Reply