Fox takes extreme measures to perpetuate blatant pretense that its journos are unbiased

[BurtWorm]

http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/fnc/fox_news_assistant_fired_for_red_carpet_disclosure_84468.asp?c=rss


Fox News Assistant Fired For Red Carpet Disclosure

TVNewser Exclusive: A 24-year-old Fox News Channel production assistant was fired this morning for something she said during the red carpet arrivals at the Time 100 Gala last night.

Insiders tell us the assistant, identified as Jennifer Locke, was on assignment with a camera crew to cover the entertainment angle of the event. When Sen. John McCain walked by, the assistant said, "I voted for you in the primary, you're going to win."

McCain was overheard saying to her, "You're not supposed to reveal that." Locke apparently continued to explain that she is the daughter of a Vietnam veteran.

Insiders who were at the event were surprised and shocked to hear the disclosure, which was recorded on videotape. A Fox News insider called it "journalistically unacceptable." An FNC spokesperson would not comment on the personnel matter but did confirm Locke is no longer with the company, where she'd worked for a couple of years.

[FarrenH]

1. Its wrongheaded to push the meme

that Fox reporters are biased. All reporters are biased. And once you go down that road you end up with a situation where every part of the political spectrum can demonstrate that every reporter they don't like is biased by examining their off-the-record statements, associates, donations and online activities.

What's problematic about Fox is not the personal bias of their reporters but the bias of their reporting and programming. There's nothing wrong with advocacy journalism (publications like the UK's Mail and Guardian and its South African offspring, for instance, openly engage in it). But there is something wrong with

1) Practising advocacy journalism while refusing to acknowledge it.

2) Flat out lying in the course of you advocacy (this is after all the news channel that fought a court action to establish that they are not legally compelled to tell the truth).

Focusing on the bias of the reporters is just a distraction and will lead to a dialog that bears no fruit.

[BurtWorm]

2. No shit?

:popcorn:

[Marr]

3. I agree with you. The political biases of reporters are almost meaningless.

It's the political biases of the owners-- the people actually determining what will and will not be reported-- that matters most. Candy Crowley may suck up to the GOP while she's reporting on Obama's flag pin, but the real problem is that they're talking about flag pins instead of war profiteering, or the undermining of Constitutional rights, or torture, or the real economic picture, etc.

[lifesbeautifulmagic]

4. i don't want this to turn into a personal vendetta against the girl, although

i do wonder why a twenty-something would be for more war, no middle class, no family wage jobs, a fascist supreme court, no control over your own body, blah blah blah.


But what I am wondering about is where she came from. I have seen a number of young pretty girls on the cable news shows spewing right wing garbage, and they don't look like the typical make-up covered skeletons that faux/repubs usually get. So does faux have a pipeline somewhere, maybe Falwell's university? Are they holding job fairs there? Are these girls anti-choice zealots? It's like they come pre-programmed from somewhere.