<p>“Fox News” and “balanced” in the same sentence?</p>
<p>Those who criticize foxnews rarely watch it. If you watched it regularly, you would realize they are better are presenting different perspectives than anyone else. That’s why they are balanced.</p>
<p>I watch them regularly. And “different” isn’t the same thing as “balanced.” If a news outlet reports that the sun rises in the west, that’s certainly different, but is it balanced? No, it’s just wrong.</p>
<p>Fox News are mostly not news programs, it is mostly consist of editorials and opinion programs. I agree they represent the conservative take on the events but it goes way beyond the news. MSNBC is the same way on the other side. If you like Fox and hate MSNBC or vice versa, that sort of tell where exactly you are coming from. Nothing wrong with that but let’s not say Fox or MSNBC is better at doing news than other outlets.</p>
<p>razor, I used to watch Fox all the time. I still do once in a while because I have a family member that is regularly on there. To suggest that they are balanced is laughable at best. Same as MSNBC- not balanced.</p>
<p>Balanced remains entirely in the eye of the beholder. </p>
<p>Take the example of higher education. Despite a country that is hopelessly divided in percentages that inch toward 50 percent, there is no balance whatsoever in terms of faculty. To a lesser extent, it the same in K-12. Schools that offer a balance are often viewed as being extremist if they happen to include a conservative message. </p>
<p>The media is overwhelmingly tilting to the left. The only question is to the degree of the tilt from the “balanced” middle point. And on the other side of the spectrum, the tilting to the right appears to be unbalanced because, when it comes to media, the center of gravity is simply way off. </p>
<p>At least, we should give credit where it is due. The conservatist media does NOT pretend to represent a mainstream view, as the other “side” almost always does. </p>
<p>Fwiw, today’s events in Dallas offer a remarkable test for the decency of the media. Anyone watching Anderson Cooper’s dejected reaction to John King’s interview can draw his or her own conclusions.</p>
<p>“NPR as a “government-shill” ? Does anyone believe this? What government? NPR has been around since 1970, the Johnson administration.”</p>
<p>Damn did Nixon’s resignation eliminate his years in office? I’m pretty sure LBJ was sipping whiskey on his porch by 1970.</p>
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<p>Not really. When I watch foxnews I regularly see liberals expressing their views and being responded to by conservatives. When I watch MSNBC, I rarely see any conservatives unless they are presented as clowns and I regularly hear the kind of name calling that neither children nor adults should hear. MSNBC isn’t political opinion, it is hate speech which we could do without in civil discourse. The main stream media is already so liberally biased, MSNBC has to be extreme to the power of ten to set themselves apart from other networks. Foxnews only has to be a little bit different to stand out. Where foxnews really stands out is having many very smart beautiful women on TV.</p>
<p>The media is out of control, unbalanced , and does not have to account for its mistakes or misreporting. How many hemodialysis machines were noted in Osama bin Laden’s compound? Wasn’t he suppose to be a dialysis patient? Reporting at its finest!
What about the dirty bombs and/or radiologic bombs that the terrorists were just waiting to use on us in the early 2000’s ?
Of course the media was more concerned with the 18 month coverage of the all important OJ case or Gary Condits supposed murder of an intern, or President Clinton’s affair with Monica all while our airport security and national security were at risk and the killers were planning their terror plots! Well done media. Never helpful, never pro-active. Now why should they be ? Doesn’t sell to be this way…does it? All in the name of ratings. Shame on the media. Really shame on them and shame on us for listening to these bumbling morons .</p>
<p>What I don’t like about the mainstream media is that they fail to cover some heavy topics because they don’t support their agendas.
Most of my extended family watches the alphabet networks to get their news , but not one of them has heard a single word about the Kermit Gosnell trial.
And that is only one of many topics that are unpleasant , but the public has a right to know.
I can’t say that any network is truly balanced, not even the one I favor but like a previous poster said , we tend to gravitate to the sources that reflect our own views</p>
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I’ve watched fox news, and I wouldn’t call it balanced. not to mention that they are even more offensive to… a certain minority in this country (I’ld rather not mention specifics for fear of this thread closing)… than other news sources. the minority is horribly misrepresented.</p>
<p>I like BBC. American media is not to be trusted.</p>
<p>The NYT is, on the whole, pretty good. However, I find that is has a definite liberal bias in certain areas. As such, I also try and read The Economist. I use BBC for fact checking and sometimes for reports but online-media wise, I basically skim Jezebel and the NYT website and on rare occasion, huffingtonpost Canada. If I want news on a particular topic, I can search GoogleNews.</p>
<p>That being said, I can’t stand CNN, MSNBC or Fox. I find American media pretty ridiculous - you barely know what’s going on in the rest of the world. That’s why the Economist is so good.</p>
<p>Television news is of far lower quality than print or website news in general (and that is not that much of a complement of the latter). You can spend hours watching television news repeat itself over and over (with occasional new tidbits of information that are often just incorrect rumors) to learn far less information than you could get from a few minutes of reading.</p>
<p>When you read, you can also look at various news outlets if you want to get multiple viewpoints on a potentially controversial subject (as opposed to heavily editorialized “news” from some television news stations).</p>