Catching up on an item from a couple of weeks ago, on Monday November 14, MSNBC's Countdown host Keith Olbermann posted on his Bloggermann Web site a blog entry that, while actually praising one show from Fox News Channel, also charged that FNC generally is a "network devoted to reinforcing prejudices and stereotypes."
The topic of Olbermann's posting was "Ten television shows worth watching." FNC's Fox News Watch made number seven on Olbermann's list, in spite of Olbermann's well-known low opinion of the rest of FNC's lineup. Olbermann also mocked FNC's motto by quipping that Fox News Watch was created by Roger Ailes "to fulfill some legal requirement that his network actually be at least .0005% 'fair and balanced.'"
The complete transcript of Olbermann's November 14 blog posting can be found at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6210240/ while the transcript for the section regarding FNC appears below:
7. Fox News Watch, FNC - That's right, I put a show from Fox News on my list. This is apparently the program Roger Ailes created to fulfill some legal requirement that his network actually be at least .0005% "fair and balanced." A weekly roundtable on media coverage in which the conservatives (Jim Pinkerton and the woefully-hair dyed Cal Thomas) often burst out in liberalism, and the liberals (Neal Gabler and Jane Hall) often finger-wag conservatively. How host Eric Burns can maintain such a program of actual value on a network devoted to reinforcing prejudices and stereotypes, is testament to his integrity as a journalist. Skip the last segment - the viewer e-mails are apparently all from mental patients.
