More than a year before the Wall Street Journal broke the news that Michael Cohen paid adult actress Stormy Daniels $130,000 to keep her from speaking publicly about her affair with Trump before the election, Fox News had the scoop and buried it.
So the owner of FOX sat on a story and buried it because "Rupert wants Trump to Win."
Could you imagine what would happen if the owner of CNN had ever done or said this to protect Obama?
These companies have a fiduciary duty to do what's in the financial best interests of the stock holders. If I were a shareholder I'd be livid.
Big stories bring in big revenue, so for them to sit on a huge story like this means FOX News' first priority isn't even about making money, it is about making sure their candidates get elected.
The best thing ever to happen for FOX News were the Clintons. I have to wonder if Murdoch simply felt he'd have better ratings if Trump were elected...
- Doc
In the face of madness, rationality has no power - Xiao Wang, US historiographer, 2287 AD.
Every record...falsified, every book rewritten...every statue...has been renamed or torn down, every date...altered...the process is continuing...minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Ideology is always right.
Doctor CamNC4Me wrote:The best thing ever to happen for FOX News were the Clintons. I have to wonder if Murdoch simply felt he'd have better ratings if Trump were elected...
- Doc
Not sure how. Ratings are about the same or maybe lower than they've been. A segment of the population who needed their daily dose of Clinton/Obama conspiracy theory have probably moved on to Alex Jones. But the point is if they're going to bury stories their journalists uncover for political purposes then they need to stop pretending to be News, and they sure as hell need to stop mocking CNN and MSNBC telling everyone how they're "not real journalism."
We see examples like this over and over coming only from FOX. I remember back when Obama was pitching his health care act, a memo was released to FOX News hosts from executives instructing them to refer to the Affordable Care Act as "government run healthcare" on their shows. They know they're lying, but do it anyway because they're about indoctrination, not facts or news or "fair and balanced" or any of the BS they claim to be.
I disagree with many of the reviewers. I don't view this book as political. I read it hoping it might provide proof that Fox is intentional in its distortion, something that I've suspected but never been able to prove. I'm not really big on left or right wing politics but I am interested in whether the masses are getting accurate news or propaganda.
I read 'The Economist' for news rather than watch TV. I never considered intentional distortion of the news until I watched Jon Stewart showing various Fox broadcasters using the same exact descriptive language in the span of a day. Specifically, all the Fox anchors abandoned the term "Public Option" when discussing what eventually became Obamacare in favor of a new term, namely, "Government Run Healthcare." Again, all Fox anchors made this switch on a single day. Anybody who has watched Stewart's show knows that this happens a lot on Fox. Thinking that there's too much coincidence involved,the only explanation I could think of was that certain terms come down to the anchors right from the top.
Whether one is left or right in their political beliefs, it is disturbing if the language used by news broadcasters is manipulated by someone higher up at a network. This book provides footnoted proof that such shenanigans go on regularly at Fox. Worse, some anchors have raised money on the air for political rallies. Compare this with MSNBC firing Olberman because he donated money to political causes. For anyone who compares MSNBC with Fox, this is a huge difference.
The book provides footnoted documentation of what appears to be a very good case of Fox moving into propaganda rather than the news. Can you imagine some CBS executive in the 1970's telling Walter Cronkite which language to use? "Hey Walter, make sure you say 'government run health care' instead of 'public option' today." Ha Ha.
Some of the reviewers posting about this book sound angry, whether on the left or right. I don't see the need for anger or for love toward this book. It is not edited extremely well but the ideas are important, so I gave it 4 stars. If investigative journalism and accountability of news organizations becomes extinct, I will be scared for our future a lot more than whether Romney or Obama is elected.
I have highly educated friends who believe Fox is under attack by left wingers. They believe that Fox is fair and balanced. I can't stomach such certainty. Now I am armed with this book, which provides footnoted proof that there is serious manipulation and dishonesty in a major news organization.
We all need to fight and argue when we hear that there is dishonesty by a news organization. We need to help discredit intentional inaccuracy because if we don't, we'll some day be electing fascists. Especially in a country where more people have heard of Kim Kardashian than Joe Biden.
So Trump is functioning as the political arm of the business interests for Fox news. Scandal fatigue is making us numb.
I'm sure Mssrs. Cohen and Kelley will be speaking to the House Oversight Committee on this matter.
"The great problem of any civilization is how to rejuvenate itself without rebarbarization." - Will Durant "We've kept more promises than we've even made" - Donald Trump "Of what meaning is the world without mind? The question cannot exist." - Edwin Land
Doctor CamNC4Me wrote:The best thing ever to happen for FOX News were the Clintons. I have to wonder if Murdoch simply felt he'd have better ratings if Trump were elected...
- Doc
Electing Trump could help ensure the ATT-Time Warner merger was blocked, thereby benefitting the Murdoch Empire. We will probably learn of other shenanigans as further revelations become available.