Update below (18:45 EDT | March 10).
It happens from time to time, believe me. You're going over your Web site and what do you see but a product or service advertised that, to be charitable, conflicts with your mission, or otherwise is just plain embarrassing. It's the nature of having third-party advertising arrangements, and usually you can get these things resolved with an e-mail or two to your Web ad provider.
So it struck us as humorous when anti-Fox News blog News Hounds -- slogan: We watch FOX so you don't have to. -- was caught with an ad for FoxBusiness.com. (h/t Tim Graham)
Oh, it gets better. On the right-hand sidebar, there's another Fox Biz ad and, wait for it, it comes above an "Advertise Liberally" logo:
Update (18:45 EDT | March 10): Ellen of NewsHounds wrote in with her two cents about our post. I relay, you decide:
As managing editor, you must surely know that the "FOX Business Channel" ads on our site are Google ads, not ads that were sold by us to FOX Business Network (that's the real name, not "FOX Business Channel," another fact I'd think you'd want to get straight). To fill you in, Google chooses ads for our site based on the content of the page. Since so much of our content is devoted to FOX, it's to be expected that such ads would be placed there. Unless an advertiser opts out or we specifically exclude an ad, it can run. Our philosophy is that if FOX doesn't mind rewarding us for all the hard work we do exposing them, it's their business.
Since you're so dedicated to fairness, you might want to ask them why they do so.
—Ken Shepherd is Managing Editor of NewsBusters
Editor at Large
Comments Policy
That's not the only place Fox Business is running ads...
March 7, 2008 - 14:28 ET by sarcasmoThey've also been buying time on Sirius for their top-rated Howard Stern Show. The expensive kind, too -- where Stern himself reads it. This despite the fact that Howard's not all that huge a Fox News fan. Howard certainly has mentioned Fox's bias in the past, even though the show isn't very political, and Fox still paid for the ads.
JMR
A corruption-story the TV media will-not cover.
Quivers is the real
March 7, 2008 - 14:31 ET by fitzfongQuivers is the real Fox-hater on that program. And, after all, a buck's a buck.
I wouldn't go as far as "hater"
March 7, 2008 - 14:36 ET by sarcasmoBut she's certainly not going to kiss the competition's asses. And like it or not, part of her job isn't just entertainment -- it's NEWS. 9/11 should have proved that once and for all, but I still have to keep saying it occasionally, because I very much appreciate the job Robin does.
JMR
A corruption-story the TV media will-not cover.
What, exactly, does she do
March 7, 2008 - 14:52 ET by fitzfongWhat, exactly, does she do besides playing a weak Ed McMahon to Stern's Johnny Carson? She busts Fred's b***s a bit, yammers on about the health of her bowels and cackles like her good friend Hillary. Fox News is her "competition"? Wouldn't that make CNN her "competition", as well? That certainly doesn't stop her from kissing CNN's a** with regularity (sorry, on to Robin's bowels again). Between her and that obese junkie Artie Lange, you never hear the end of the socialized medicine and global warming propaganda. She has a great radio voice and reads the news competently, but she's really just an annoying s*** starter who could easily be replaced. She's a passenger.
2 faces of Howard
March 7, 2008 - 15:01 ET by Tom PaineThe funny thing is that after 9/11 Howard was a George W supporter. Howard understood the value of why we were fighting in Iraq and would take idiots like Bill Maher to task for their comments. It was only after the Super Bowl Wardrobe Malfunction, and he had some fears about an FCC crackdown, that Howard turned liberal once again. He then started having guests like Tim Robbins, people he was goofing on 6 months earlier.
I especially enjoyed his
March 7, 2008 - 15:25 ET by fitzfongI especially enjoyed his interview with noted intellectual Jon Bon Jovi who actually suggested without irony that Al Gore would have handled 9/11 and its aftermath much better than did George Bush. I p****d myself laughing. By this time, Howard was so angry about the FCC crackdown that he agreed wholeheartedly with the blowdried front man. Don't get me wrong, I thought the FCC crackdown was stupid, pandering and obnoxious...but Howard lost the rag. I would imagine that this endless merger interference is bringing Howard back to our side politically.
It reminds me of when CNN
March 7, 2008 - 14:29 ET by fitzfongIt reminds me of when CNN and MSDNC were advertising on Fox News Channel...the primary difference being that the two also-rans needed the exposure.
I can't imagine this site
March 7, 2008 - 14:52 ET by RickTaLifeI can't imagine this site does all that well with anybody owning half a brain. It's actually pretty hard to spin fox news as being unfair. I actually get peeved at them for not being conservative enough sometimes...then I remember that they actually live up to the "Fair and Balanced" moniker, and everything calms down to normal again. :-)
And BTW, to the owners of that site: Please keep bitching about Fox news...the more you do it, the more your audience/ratings fall, while Fox's continues to ascend! :-)
Translation of "We watch FOX so you don't have to"
March 7, 2008 - 15:10 ET by szampTranslation of "We watch FOX so you don't have to".
We are going to watch, filter, censor, spin, re-interpret and present to you only the items that we feel you need to know about.
That sounds like a leftist government
Reminds me of the time...
March 7, 2008 - 16:25 ET by derbal...when I worked for a nationally recognized industrial adhesives company. Pepsi sent some managers over to our plant for a visit, you know, to see if they'd like to do business with us. My boss sent someone out to get food and drinks for a quick lunch. We all sat down to lunch, sandwiches, chips and...Dr. Pepper. We didn't get the contract, and my boss didn't get to come back to work. :) Hahaha.
»→ That's bad Derbal
March 7, 2008 - 16:29 ET by Cool ArrowThe old story in Business class was that Hewlitt-Packard tested prospective managerial talent by taking the prospect to lunch.
If the applicant salted his food before tasting it, he wasn't hired. (substitute "her" and "she" as needed)
♣ a seal