Frank W. Farkas – 5/26/06

This page was last updated on May 28, 2006.

Fox News has its own agenda; Frank W. Farkas; Beaver County Times; May 26, 2006.

I’m surprised there’s been only one response so far to Mr. McKenzie’s letter.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“How ironic and idiotic that Pete McKenzie should begin his recent letter boasting that he is not one to ‘listen to half of the story and actually believe it as the whole truth.’”

[RWC] Read Mr. McKenzie’s letter and you’ll see that’s not what he wrote.

Wow! It took Mr. Farkas only four words to get into name-calling. That’s always a sign of a cogent argument – not.

“He brandishes ‘all the major media outlets’ as somehow one-sided and only reporting ‘one side of an issue.’”

[RWC] Again, that’s not what Mr. McKenzie wrote.

“Then, he ends his Fox News brainwashed letter by urging readers to tune to Fox to get ‘both sides’ and ‘find out you like to make up your mind.’”

[RWC] Have you ever noticed that if you listen to news and/or opinion sources in addition to the mainstream media, you are labeled as brainwashed, a mind-numbed robot, et cetera?

“Clearly, his mind has been made up for years - and set in cement. Now, it’s so rock hard and fixed in concrete that it can’t absorb anything other than what it’s programmed to think.

“Fox News is part of a corporate media conglomerate started and run by Rupert Murdock [sic] to push a one-sided, right-wing agenda. It only hires those who think and talk what they consider the right way and it caters to viewers on the right who can only bear to hear what they want to hear from a right-wing point of view.

“It’s nothing less than the corporate media arm of the Republican Party.”

[RWC] If you’re going to bash someone, at least spell his name correctly. It’s “Murdoch,” not “Murdock.”

Mr. Farkas has a dilemma to explain. If Rupert Murdoch is running “the corporate media arm of the Republican Party,” why is he hosting a fundraiser for Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) in July and why did he say Ms. Clinton has “been effective on state issues and local issues here in a New York. She’s been an effective and good senator.”?

“Yes, I tune to Fox at times, but also to various other sources of information online, in print, and on the tube in order to get what is truly a ‘fair and balanced’ point of view that you can only get if you have the brain to handle more than what is comfy from your own little point of view.

“Let’s hope others out there have the courage and mental fortitude to seek the truth from all the diverse sources rather than closing their minds and making believe they are totally right.”

[RWC] I can’t speak for anyone else, but I didn’t interpret what Mr. McKenzie wrote to assert FNC is his only news source.

“Time is soon coming that this country wakes up and turns a bit left to straighten up.”

[RWC] Note Mr. Farkas didn’t address the real subject of Mr. McKenzie’s letter, the NSA terrorist surveillance program.

When was turning to the left ever good for a country? Look what it did for Cuba, Germany (the Nazis), Red China, Russia, et cetera.

Finally, I suspect Mr. Farkas is failing to distinguish between news and commentary. While I believe it’s true FNC leans a little to the right when it comes to commentary, I don’t believe that’s the case for its news presentation. Bias is expected from commentary and all media outlets provide some level of commentary. Guys like Chris Matthews, Bill O’Reilly, Andy Rooney, et cetera provide commentary; they are not news reporters. The problem with bias is in news reporting. When news reporters like Dan Rather get caught trying to smear a candidate with forged documents, yet continue to claim the story is true, that’s a bias problem. It appears we’re seeing a similar episode with Brian Ross at ABC. Mr. Ross reported House Majority Leader Dennis Hastert (R-IL) was under investigation by the Justice Department. Despite at least two public denials by the Justice Department, ABC continues to stick to its story citing unnamed sources. Since Mr. Farkas mentioned “corporate media arms,” consider this. ABC World News Tonight led with Mr. Ross’ story and guess who they asked to provide commentary. Why “newsman” George Stephanopoulos, of course, Bill Clinton’s senior policy advisor during his first term.

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