Republicans, conservatives dominated Iraq election coverage on FOX

[truthpusher]

http://mediamatters.org/items/200502010002

Republicans, conservatives dominated Iraq election coverage on FOX

After the polls closed in Iraq on January 30, coverage of the Iraqi elections on CNN, MSNBC, and FOX News all featured military, intelligence, and foreign affairs analysts as well as correspondents in Iraq and Washington and at polling sites in the United States. But FOX News allotted disproportionate time for Republican politicians and conservative pundits to declare that the elections were a "vindication" for President Bush's Iraq policy. While CNN featured six current Republican officials and conservative pundits and five Democrats and progressives and MSNBC featured seven Republicans and conservatives and six Democrats and progressives, FOX News featured 17 Republicans and conservatives and seven Democrats and progressives.

Media Matters for America monitored coverage of the Iraqi elections on FOX News, CNN, and MSNBC from when the polls closed in Iraq at 9 a.m. ET to 4 p.m. ET on January 30. The survey found that in addition to each channel's fleet of regular correspondents and analysts, FOX News' coverage included appearances by five current Republican officials and 12 conservative political pundits, but just one current Democrat official and six progressive pundits. By contrast, CNN featured three current Republican officials and two current Democratic officials; and three conservative pundits and three progressive pundits. MSNBC featured one current Republican official and one Democratic elected official; and six conservative pundits and five progressives.

complete story:

http://mediamatters.org/items/200502010002

[Azathoth]

1. Fair and balanced all the way... n/t

[PROGRESSIVE1]

2. Same with CNN and MSGOP!

:argh:

[merwin]

7. MSNBC is nowhere near FOX

[alcuno]

9. CNN had reporters on the streets. FAUX had them hiding out in the Green

Zone, or in the case of Geraldo, cowering behind US military personnel. CNN has BIG problems, but at least they seem to try to do reporting. I kept wondering how the one FAUX guy in Mosul could be reporting from inside the polling center. Oh, I know.

[MikeG]

3. The market will decide this. People will seek the truth elsewhere.

I'm not worried.

[w4rma]

6. Oligopolies don't work that way. (nt)

[Skittles]

4. um HELLO, FOX is RNC PROPAGANDA

what else would we expect?

[sally343434]

5. Reporters are already parroting the meme

This morning on NPR, their "reporter" was interviewing a congressman and asked, "The fact that there even was an election in Iraq vindicates George Bush's foreign policy, doesn't it?"

[ruggerson]

8. Seventeen To Seven Sounds Fair and Balanced To Me

What Brock fails to mention is that any liberal on Fox has to first pass the weak, ugly nerd test.

This is how they pick who gets on the air:

Conservatives: Attractive, strong, argumentative, confident.

Liberals: Weak, physically weird looking, whiny and non combative.

[piece sine]

19. just wish it wasn't Brock doing the expose....

he's about as reliable as a weathervane.

[truthpusher]

21. he seems to be detailed enough? n/t

[Elwood P Dowd]

10. I saw Richard Gardner on the Dem list

Do any of you remember his 1974 article in "Foreign Affairs"? The man wanted to eliminate the US Constitution. Unless he's changed, I wouldn't claim him.

[Flammable Materials]

11. FOX = VOA DOMESTIC SERVICE n/t

[burrowowl]

12. At least my NPR still

Has CounterSpin, good program.

[joefree1]

13. Rupert Murdoch, the new "Citizen Kane"

MURDOCH THE APOLOGIST FOR DICTATORSHIPS: Time Magazine reported that while Murdoch is supposedly "a devout anti-Soviet and anti-communist" he "became bewitched by China in the early '90s." In an effort to persuade Chinese dictators that he would never challenge their behavior, Murdoch "threw the BBC off Star TV" (his satellite network operating in China) after BBC aired reports about Chinese human rights violations. Murdoch argued the BBC "was gratuitously attacking the regime, playing film of the massacre in Tiananmen Square over and over again." In 1998 Chinese President Jiang Zemin praised Murdoch for the "objective" way in which his papers and television covered China.

http://www.americanprogress.org/site/pp.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF&b=122948

[pdurod1]

14. As Brit Hume rolled his eyes Sunday (Fox Rndtable): History repeats itself

from a earlier post:
"United States officials were surprised and heartened today at the size of turnout in South Vietnam's presidential election despite a Vietcong terrorist campaign to disrupt the voting. According to reports from Saigon, 83 percent of the 5.85 million registered voters cast their ballots yesterday. Many of them risked reprisals threatened by the Vietcong. A successful election has long been seen as the keystone in President Johnson's policy of encouraging the growth of constitutional processes in South Vietnam."

- Peter Grose, in a page 2 New York Times article titled, 'U.S. Encouraged by Vietnam Vote,' September 4, 1967.

[daleo]

15. The government script reading of the media has been hard to take.

I have barely seen any critical journalism (I mean critical in the best sense of the word) about this so called election. Had Stalin done this in the 1950's our media would have fallen out of its collective chairs laughing at the notion of a fair election in an occupied country, with no international monitoring and no access by international media. It is simply amazing how low the media has sunk.

And they do it so willingly, and with such apparent good humor. At least in the 1950's Soviet Union one suspects the newscasters gave subtle hints that they knew how phony it all was.

[SoCalDem]

16. and in other news... The sun came up this morning...n/t

:)

[nadinbrzezinski]

17. And jackson's trial started

now that IS REAL NEWS.

::rolls eyes::

[Kolesar]

18. US Generals ought to be counted as Republicans in that count

The US officer corps is definitely a conservative culture.

[aikido15]

20. Already sent my action alert from MMFA to...

the guilty parties... :)