LA Times: Fox drops the ball in Haiti coverage

[babylonsister]

Good of someone to notice.

http://mediamatters.org/blog/201001150007

LA Times: Fox drops the ball in Haiti coverage


January 15, 2010 9:19 am ET by Media Matters staff

From a January 15 LA Times article by James Rainey:

Why dwell on one of our closest hemispheric neighbors in its hour of dire need, when -- like both Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck -- you can conduct prolonged, frothy promotional interviews with Fox's newest contributor, Sarah Palin?

Why focus on all that misery, if, like Hannity on Wednesday, you can engage conservative virago Michelle Malkin in a soaring conversation about the Obama administration's "culture of corruption."

Bill O'Reilly played his no-Haiti card too, managing a gripping discussion Wednesday with Bo Derek about the threat to the West's wild horses. Not to mention those whales being hunted by the Japanese in the Southern Ocean.

Cable operator MSNBC couldn't match CNN's boots-on-the-rubble immediacy either. NBC anchor Brian Williams, morning host Ann Curry and others were holed up at the Port-au-Prince airport Wednesday evening because of security concerns, before getting into the city Thursday to cover the story more directly.

But at least the cable affiliate did its best to tell the story from outside the epicenter. It dedicated more than two hours to the quake in its three major prime-time shows, compared with less than seven minutes presented by Fox's biggest stars Wednesday night, according to the liberal media watchdog, Media Matters.

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

1. Perhaps Fox is trying to get viewers who don't want to listen abuot Haiti 24/7

n/t

[babylonsister]

3. A disaster of epic proportions happens, and they can't be

bothered? You can apologize for them. I won't.

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

4. I'm not apologizing or condoning.

Just one theory to explain their bizarre behaviour.

[malaise]

7. +1

Shame on their inhumanity

[bullwinkle428]

13. i.e., their racist base! Makes perfect sense, in a twisted way.

[madrchsod]

2. i think james rainey has missed the point...

beck,hannity,and billo are political/entertainment programs not news programs. the average watcher of these hosts could care less about the suffering of the haitians.

there`s far better news channels for the intelligent caring americans to watch and listen to.

[Zen Democrat]

5. Fox has always LOVED Breaking News -- until Haiti. n/t

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

9. Sure, but only if they can do it on the cheap via a local affiliate's news helicopter.

Simple fact of the matter is that none of the US cable news outlets have anything comparable to CNN when it comes to covering international news. And even though CNN's godawful talking head programs are, well, godawful, their actual news collection organization is pretty damn good. The BBC it ain't, but it's certainly better than anything else in the US.

[gateley]

8. MSNBC isn't a 'news' channel -- it's "the place for politics". But after the

first day, they really extended coverage. Even the day of the quake, they spent considerable time on it.

But I agree, the majority of Fox viewers probably just aren't interested.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

17. Larry King's program is also traditionally political/entertainment oriented.

Yet this week the bulk of that program has featured King communicating with Cooper, Gupta and the other correspondents on the ground over there. It's not as though Fox News can't temporarily change the scheduled format of those shows, at least for a few days, to give viewers an idea about something going on the world that is more important than base political punditry or gooing over Sarah Palin or interviewing the guy from TMZ about Tiger Woods. But they've willfully chosen to ignore it, and only add to the ignorance of their audience.

[bluestateguy]

6. It's not a priority to their white, phony Christian, conservative audience

nt

[Catherine Vincent]

10. The Haitians have too much melanin for Fox News. nt

[Moostache]

11. As if MORE proof was needed...

Faux Noise and its collection of redneck, racist viewers and racist on-air personalities are merely showing their collective ass....again.

Human excrement, all of them and a pox on all their houses!

[Xenotime]

12. Fox only wants people to think about thier retirement funds

[SoCalDem]

14. Why? They know their audience. They are just catering to their audience

My guess is that they will have little or no coverage of MLK Day either.

[Scurrilous]

15. K & R

:thumbsup:

[Walk away]

16. I'm guessing FOXNews audience are only interested in white christian news.

Fundies hate black people. They want to steal their tax money.

[fascisthunter]

18. a Propaganda Sindicate for Political Right Wing Extremists

everything shown on that piece of shit network is politicized and driven by fucked up ideologues. So, I wouldn't expect anything from them.

[Zywiec]

19. I never understood why every channel needs to show the exact same thing

I guess it started when I was young and the president would be shown on every channel interrupting something I wanted to see. Is it really necessary?

How many different channels will the SOTU address be shown? Why?

:shrug:

[xultar]

20. Faux viewers don't give a shit about dark people.

[Jennicut]

21. At least the Haitian people won't have to put up with Geraldo.

[HopeHoops]

22. They couldn't find a missing pretty white girl. What ELSE would FOX cover?

:shrug: