Scarborough: People Shocked By Fox’s Political Agenda Ignore Democrats Used Media This Way for 30 Years
As NewsBusters reported Monday, Newsweek featured an in-depth look at Fox News and chairman Roger Ailes in its most recent installment.
When this subject came up on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" Tuesday, after the guests predictably carped and whined about FNC's conservative leanings, host Joe Scarborough observed, "People are shocked and stunned at the blurred lines when Roger Ailes and Fox does it, not so shocked and stunned when Democratic establishment figures have been doing it over the past three decades" (video follows with transcript and commentary):
JOHN HEILEMANN, NEW YORK MAGAZINE: Let us never forget that Roger Ailes, you know, was before he was a great television producer was a great political strategist, and was someone who was a hard bone deep partisan.
MIKA BRZEZINSKI, CO-HOST: Maybe just a little too good at both.
TINA BROWN, NEWSWEEK/DAILY BEAST: Wow, exactly right.
HEILEMANN: I mean, won the election for George Herbert Walker Bush in 1988. He's, you know, he’s played both sides of that street for a long time.
BROWN: And as was just said, a little too good at both.
JOE SCARBOROUGH: Just like, we got to say, just like a hell of a lot of people in the mainstream media over the past 30 years have played both sides of the street, but they’re always on the Democratic side. That's what makes it so unique. People are shocked and stunned at the blurred lines when Roger Ailes and Fox does it, not so shocked and stunned when Democratic establishment figures have been doing it over the past three decades.
MARK HALPERIN, TIME MAGAZINE: What sets Roger apart from most of the Democrats who play both sides of this is Roger has been awesome at both jobs.
BROWN: That’s exactly right. Awesome at both. That's why he’s such a fiend.
SCARBOROUGH: A fiend?
BROWN: Right.
SCARBOROUGH: Well.
BROWN: A fiend to be so good at it.
HALPERIN: Fiend means something totally different in England.
So the problem with Fox and Ailes isn't the politics but the number of eyeballs witnessing the politics.
I guess that means if FNC was a ratings failure like CNN and MSNBC, liberals in the media wouldn't be so appalled by it.
Which makes the hypocrisy far more abhorrent.
For years we've been told by left-leaning press members - as well as Obama administration officials! - that Fox isn't a real news outlet and instead acts as a Republican propaganda arm.
Responding to this meme, Scarborough noted that much of the media have been a Democratic propaganda arm for 30 years, and nobody on the set including the perilously liberal Brown, Brzezinski, and Heilemann debated the point.
Instead, they kvetched about how good a job Ailes does at it.
This tells us they're not in the slightest bit offended by news organizations acting as political marionettes as long as the puppet masters are either liberal or incompetent.
Gives you a lot of faith in this industry called journalism.
- Noel Sheppard's blog
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Comments
Three decades? I think it is
Submitted by optimist on Tue, 09/27/2011 - 7:12pm.
Three decades? I think it is a bit longer than that.
February 27, 1968...
Submitted by USMC8411 on Tue, 09/27/2011 - 9:53pm.
That is when Cronkite ended the Vietnam war and gave rise to "journalism" vice "reporting!"
The disturbing issue is that it took so long for a FOX-like network to rise up against unethical journalism.
Give me the facts. Period. I am capable of making my own mind up regarding those facts. I do not need to hear how the spin of the facts are editorialized to fit the MSM's agenda.
1964
Submitted by Phryj1 on Tue, 09/27/2011 - 10:11pm.
When CBS 'journalist' Daniel Schorr decided to tie Barry Goldwater's campaign and the conservative movement to fascism and the Nazi Party, something leftist wingnuts do to this day.
Progressives seem to be completely averse to facts and logic. Apparently, reality has a conservative bias.
Thank You MESSDNC...
Submitted by bigdaddy on Tue, 09/27/2011 - 7:23pm.
...for this brilliant expose. Here all this time I thought FNC was putting left and right positions on to debate the issues. Why can't they be more like the "Bobblehead" cable news networks and have positions on the left and the far left to agree on the issues.
They are and have been proven so MORE fair and balanced
Submitted by Tomorama on Tue, 09/27/2011 - 7:25pm.
Since I was a young lad in the 60's I would surmise that the media has been mostly left.
The "blurring of the lines" that these folks are whinin' about, I think is bulls&&& in regards to Fox in most cases.
Their "hard news" is pretty much ALL THE NEWS, they DO however pound home certain stories.
The difference HERE is, th other media outlets IGNORE much that is possibly anti-liberal or hurtful to liberals in general and they ALSO pound home certain stories.
Remember Fox actually reported on their own bosses issues in Europe, christ on PMSNBC you would never know of the jobs that GE sent overseas.
The opinion side of things, EVERY NETWORK other than Fox is left - PERIOD.
Fox is mostly right on the opnion side BUT nobody can convince me Greta (a moderate) and Shemp (a liberal) are Republicans.
Joe,
Submitted by BBallleaper on Tue, 09/27/2011 - 7:30pm.
For the 400th time, did you murder your assistant in Florida, yes or no? Why the hasty resignation. After all you were the GOP wunderkind!! She died so mysteriously Joe, and yet you've kept silent all these years! Please Joe, tell Mika you're innocent! She looks so worried sitting next to you!
a little too good
Submitted by kata on Tue, 09/27/2011 - 7:38pm.
they're just unhappy that Fox has ratings and they... well... Joe has the audience the size of Murmansk, Russia
Kata
Submitted by Noel Sheppard on Tue, 09/27/2011 - 7:40pm.
Kata,
Give peas a chance! Very nice. Brava! ns
lol Thanks Noel.
Submitted by kata on Tue, 09/27/2011 - 7:42pm.
oddly you can thank Mandrake for that ;)
kk,
Submitted by Dave. on Tue, 09/27/2011 - 7:48pm.
I thought mandrake was whirled peas.
LOL - All mixed up.
-Dave
Vote for the American in November
well rats
Submitted by kata on Tue, 09/27/2011 - 7:53pm.
I was busily trying to include the link to my explanation. Not easy to find since my signature is automagically tacked onto every single post making the search for "peas" a bit less ... productive. lol
Joe nailed it.
Submitted by motherbelt on Tue, 09/27/2011 - 7:42pm.
The revolving door between the liberal media and the Democrats in the White House is a perpetual motion machine!
Scarborough
Submitted by Curly on Tue, 09/27/2011 - 7:42pm.
Looked up "Joe Scarborough" - definition - incurable case of rectal cranial inversion.
Tina Brown's consistency is her horrific yellow journalism.
Submitted by drsamherman on Tue, 09/27/2011 - 7:44pm.
Queen Tina the Hack, of the Royal House of Expat Bridiot, has negative credibility and absolutely no room to talk about any other journalist having any form of bias. She is too much of a liar to ever admit she is in the bag for the DNC, too incompetent to realize others see her for what she is, and too dumb to do anything about it.
So, basically, these left-wing hacks are just jealous?
Submitted by Phryj1 on Tue, 09/27/2011 - 8:19pm.
And if not that, they're scared that it means there are more people receptive to conservative views than they'd like to think there are. After all, it would shatter their dearly held beliefs that conservatives are a far right fringe while liberals are the voice of the masses. I doubt they could handle that.
Actually, I'd be willing to bet that if you did polling based on views and beliefs and avoided labels like conservative, Republican, Tea Party, etc. you'd find that most Americans, even some self-avowed liberals and progressives, had conservative views (e.g. constitutionally-limited gov't authority and fiscally responsible spending).
Progressives seem to be completely averse to facts and logic. Apparently, reality has a conservative bias.
Moron 40 years ago I new the
Submitted by wouldubelieveit on Tue, 09/27/2011 - 8:18pm.
Moron 40 years ago I new the news was a bunch of crap. With Walters and Donldson, Jennigs and that other fool DAN Blabber. You were all that was out there you stupidO.
Moron 40 years ago I new the
Submitted by wouldubelieveit on Tue, 09/27/2011 - 8:20pm.
Moron 40 years ago I new the news was a bunch of crap. With Walters and Donldson, Jennigs and that other fool DAN Blabber. You were all that was out there you stupidO.
three headed hydra
Submitted by MidAmerica on Tue, 09/27/2011 - 8:42pm.
News has always been biased. Newspapers, when they were the major source of news, used to inflame the public into all kinds of emotional reactions. But they were local or regional at most.
However the rise of the Big Three television networks news divisions in the 1950's created a national audience built on the premise that these outlets were non-partison and objective. This was accomplished by the fact that all three essentially had the same viewpoint. The audience merely had the task of choosing which highly paid anchor they prefered to read the news to them.
Now the internet and FOX NEWS have forever splintered the audience and created diversity in the information market place.
Just as it used to be.
I used to say...
Submitted by sherlock1 on Tue, 09/27/2011 - 8:58pm.
I used to say that since the rise of the alternate media, the MSM found it too risky to lie, so they shifted to selectively avoiding huge hunks of the truth.
Now that Obama's prospects are in the shitter, they are falling back to their last-ditch defense: outright lying. This will not end well for them, but it will be hugely entertaining to watch them, and help them, commit marketplace suicide.
I love the look on Mika's
Submitted by Dave81 on Tue, 09/27/2011 - 9:14pm.
I love the look on Mika's face anytime Joe exposes the liberal bias in the MSM. She looks both annoyed and concerned that she's going to get caught in the cross fire when the MSNBC SWAT team silences Joe.
Lol - I call it her "sucking
Submitted by amyshulk on Wed, 09/28/2011 - 1:34am.
Lol - I call it her "sucking a lemon" face. If I have MJ on and I see her try to stare Joe down or make this face, I just know it's gonna be good!!!
Ronald Reagan
I'm concerned that Fox’s 'Fair and Balanced" Political Agenda
Submitted by Rush Fan on Tue, 09/27/2011 - 10:05pm.
may be moving away from center right. If you read Howard Kurtz's article regarding Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes, you come away with the impression that Ailes' planned "course correction" may add more Leftist like Shepard Smith and Juan Williams to the Fox News stable in order to be more "fair and balanced." Here is the portion of Kurtz's article that caught my attention:
The Leftist Puffington Post's take on Roger Ailes course correction is titled Roger Ailes: Fox News Is On A 'Course Correction' Away From Far Right.
I don't recall Fox News taking a "hard right" after Obama's election. Shepard Smith is as Lefty as ever, and Fox News recently gave Lefty bloviator Juan Williams a lucrative contract. By the way, if you missed it, here is the VIDEO of Shepard Smith and Juan Williams discussing the recent Wisconsin union protests. As expected of Leftist, Smith and Williams agree with Leftist like Rachel Maddow and Ed Schultz that the Wisconsin issue was not about a fiscal crisis in Wisconsin, but rather just about busting unions.
Shepard Smith is one of the key providers of supposedly hard news on Fox News, and has two hours a day to spout his Leftist propaganda. The Left's viewpoint is represented more than sufficiently in every other media organization in this country? Do we really want Fox News hiring more Leftist and "edging back toward the mainstream?"
By the way, Lefty Howard Kurtz's article states that the Tea Party popularity is fading. Boy, is he and the Left in for a surprise in 2012.
Very good RF
Submitted by Boudin on Tue, 09/27/2011 - 10:10pm.
I have heard this before. To be honest, I have a very hard time watching any media including FOX these days. Even Hannity drives me nuts when he cant get a grip on the obvious. So I just simply turn to the net for my news. Least now I can provide my own sound track.
With the beat-down Murdock is taking by other media and the Obama Admin, I figured it was only a matter of time before he/FOX started parroting the msm.
Boudin.....Perhaps it will soon be time to create a new
Submitted by Rush Fan on Wed, 09/28/2011 - 1:19am.
television network that caters to Conservatives and Libertarians. Let's call it the CLCN (Conservative, Libertarian Cable News) network. A cable television network that truly represents the Right.
It would be a network where Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, John Stossel, Mark Levin, Dennis Prager, Mark Steyn, Neal Boortz, Shelby Steele, Thomas Sowell and many others of that persuasion would have a home. NewsBusters would, of course, be represented. In addition to Brent Bozell, I can see Noel Sheppard and other Newsbusters representatives as hosts of their own program. So would Andrew Breitbart and his team from Big Government and Big Hollywood. Let's not forget the folks from the Heritage Foundation and the Cato Institute.
The network I have in mind would exclude Lefties. So Lefties like Alan Colmes (who was on O'Reilly tonight), Juan Williams, Shepard Smith, Chris Wallace, Bob Beckel, Geraldo Rivera etc. would be excluded from lying, obfuscating and bloviating, The exclusion would include RINOs like McCain and Graham, who Rush Limbaugh has described as part of the Washington establishment who are always appearing on the Leftist media because "they want to be loved and adored by the media, they want fawning treatment,."
As I have stated many times, Fair and Balanced is overrated. We don't need someone representing the Left to put forth the Left's viewpoint. For example, Rush Limbaugh knows and describes the Left's agenda on any day better than the Left does. I would much rather listen to Rush Limbaugh describe the Left's motives than Alan Colmes.
Wouldn't it be a relief to be able to turn on a program, and not see Alan Colmes or Bob Beckel staring back at you on the screen? Wouldn't it be fantastic to have Rush Limbaugh simultaneously on CLCN television as well as radio? Wouldn't it be awesome not to have a host ask a Republican congresswoman and presidential candidate if she was a flake? ,
Although I am currently a dedicated Fox News watcher, I am confident that a CLCN-type network would eventually hold its own with Fox News (especially if Fox News moves more toward the Center), and certainly surpass the Lefty networks CNN and MSNBC.
You have placed steel on target Rush Fan...
Submitted by USMC8411 on Wed, 09/28/2011 - 1:45am.
THE MAN! (Unless you are a woman!)
Love the idea as it is long overdue. Elitist republicans have suddenly taken offense to that term. So they need to go and the TEA Party will make it happen!
I see Rush every day he is on the air, via the dittocam! I also watch Bashir, Matthews, and Sharpton (sometimes) to get the spin and to witness exactly whom the WH fears from day to day!
You are right Rush Fan... As Rush preaches... the only good democrat/liberal/progressive is a DEFEATED democrat/liberal/progressive! Like Dash-hole!
To be fair though, Colmes does not describe the motives of the left. If he did that, the left would cease to exist! Colmes is a leftist propagandist! He actually blames the voters for handing Reagan a landslide election while saying that Cain's straw poll victory is a vote against the white cracker leaders....
Terra Dittos....
Why did FOX air the homosexual soldier question? Stupid and backfired. For the "soldier" to assume that republicans would overturn DADT, neglects to mention that Slick Willey proposed and signed it into law....
USMC8411.....I must have been very tired when I wrote my
Submitted by Rush Fan on Wed, 09/28/2011 - 8:29pm.
post. You are absolutely on the mark when you write that Leftist like Colmes do not describe on air the true motives and aspirations of the Left. Otherwise, as you indicated "the left would cease to exist!"
So when the Lefties like Colmes are provided a forum to state their side, they must cover up their true intentions by lying through their teeth../p> For that reason alone, my description of a network without Lefties to spout their lies holds true.
By the way, I'm not only a Rush Fan, but a Rush Man. :-)
IMO it would be better to
Submitted by amyshulk on Wed, 09/28/2011 - 1:39am.
IMO it would be better to have those you've cited be on, up against the ones you don't want on, telling them to their face that they are wrong, and why.
It's the veneer of credibility that the left is given that is the problem - besides, with no counterpoint, it would be like watching Hannity 24/7, yuck!
Ronald Reagan
amyshulk.....See my post above. It's one thing to have an
Submitted by Rush Fan on Wed, 09/28/2011 - 8:39pm.
honest discussion between two honest adversaries. But as both I and USMC8411 have noted, Leftist lie. When a Leftist tells you that Barack Obama has created millions of jobs, or that Barack Obama is concerned about our unsustainable debt, or that our current problems are the fault of George W. Bush, not Barack Obama. or ......well you get my point. How can you have a meaningful discussion with liars?
If they would go as hard
Submitted by amyshulk on Thu, 09/29/2011 - 2:03am.
If they would go as hard against them as they could, it would work IMO. But I think they leave that up to us at home, yelling at our TV's, just dribbling out key info every once in a while.
If I wanted to make people think they figured things out on their own, that's how I'd do it.
Ronald Reagan
GBTV
Submitted by Radical1979 on Tue, 09/27/2011 - 10:15pm.
I guess this explains Beck leaving Fox and starting his own news organization with no outside investors. He didn't want to be told he to lean a certain way. Thankfully not all men want to "lean forward".
GBTV
Submitted by Kingfish17 on Tue, 09/27/2011 - 11:02pm.
Radical,
Are you going to subscribe to GBTV? Just curiosity on my part, nothing more.
"You can’t go take a trip to Las Vegas...on the taxpayer’s dime." Barack Obama
If not....
Submitted by USMC8411 on Wed, 09/28/2011 - 1:39am.
Could that be considered as bending over backwards?
Reply Button
Submitted by Kingfish17 on Wed, 09/28/2011 - 9:54am.
Wrong reply?
"You can’t go take a trip to Las Vegas...on the taxpayer’s dime." Barack Obama
Joe is a retard EOM.
Submitted by LAM SON 719 on Tue, 09/27/2011 - 11:38pm.
Joe is a retard EOM.
Any day ...
Submitted by Fredy on Wed, 09/28/2011 - 1:04am.
... that they can find anything other than the complete economic failure of the socialist policies, of Obama and the Democrats, to talk about is a good day!
Joe also has a scandal to explain....
Submitted by jmigyanka@msn.com on Wed, 09/28/2011 - 7:16am.
...the mysterious death of his political assistant (Lori Klausutis) in his Florida office - just prior to his resignation! Go figure! A cover-up worth resurfacing. This will take him off the air for sure. For all the suspicious facts, try these for openers:
1. http://archive.democrats.com/preview.cfm?term=Joe%20Scarborough
2. http://www.americanpolitics.com/20010808Klausutis.html
3. http://flyingsnail.com/Dahbud/firejoescarborough.html
HALPERIN: Fiend means
Submitted by Jack Bauer on Wed, 09/28/2011 - 8:11am.
HALPERIN: Fiend means something totally different in England.
No. It means exactly the same thing.
All of the above Mr Obama? --- How about ALL OF THE BELOW, instead.
Fox news is fine, relax
Submitted by Tomorama on Wed, 09/28/2011 - 9:11am.
As a child of the Crossfire generation on CNN that got me hooked on politics I would be bored to death of a network that only had one side of the story all day long - 7 days a week...................
The ratings would be non-existent as well (look at MessNBC).
Christ, if you want to smack down your foes, ENGAGE them and SCHOOL THEM in front of a massive audience.
IF that is your cup of tea watching a onesided news network ,are you not as guilty as the ones we bash here on a daily basis?
I take great joy in watching Charles K belittle some leftist talking point ditto head, him instead agreeing with every panelist would be zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Bob Novak
Submitted by Kingfish17 on Wed, 09/28/2011 - 9:57am.
Crossfire came on in the late afternoon where I lived. I use to love to watch Novak saying things that never got air time on any other channel. Funny how CNN was more balanced back in the day with just that one show.
"You can’t go take a trip to Las Vegas...on the taxpayer’s dime." Barack Obama
The late great Mr Novak
Submitted by Tomorama on Wed, 09/28/2011 - 11:48am.
He looked like Simon bar sinister from the old underdog show, but I respected the hell out of him.
Carville and Bregalia and Novak and Bucchanon, great TV back then.
They've been doing it longer
Submitted by Semus on Wed, 09/28/2011 - 10:42am.
They've been doing it longer that 3 decades.
Wodrow Wilson's People Taught Nazis To Use Media.
Submitted by Avitar on Wed, 09/28/2011 - 11:51pm.
Thirty years ago the fight within the media was all about Regional Democrats fighting with each other. There was no ethical or political Conflict between the Northeastern media and the new CNN out of Carter Country, Atlanta. The Southerners had just gotten tired of being made figures of ridicule by slack jawed examples of the Ivey League Twit like Chris Dodd and Ted Kennedy.
The media managers were aware of the effect of moving some news decisions 800 miles away to CNN in Atlanta something they were unable to correct until Time bought CNN and moved the decision making back to NYC.
Now technology changes are tearing apart their little empire but the empire is a hundred years old not thirty.