I really liked Sean Hannity's "Behind The Bias" for it's one sided view of media bias because it identified and highlighted several issues I feel are affecting our current media culture. He even did a section on my personal favorite thing that is wrong with our politics, the narrative, and used imagery that helps the conservative side (Patriotism) while decrying one of the narratives that hurt conservatives in the segment.
One of the most interesting pieces, and one I'm glad he did was the Dan Rather story on "60 Minutes 2" that showcased fake documents depicting then President George W. Bush as someone that shirked most duty in the National Guard during Vietnam. I have been unable to locate video of the segment I'm referencing, and for that I apologize. The "60 Minutes 2" piece showed a wartime President who had never been to war because he joined the National Guard, and didn't even really do that. Sean's story did not say that this was important because John Kerry was from the party that has a narrative of being seen as weak militarily, and was being what is now called "swift boated" by Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. The allegations were controversial at best, but were gaining traction. It was possibly the only story that could stop the smearing of John Kerry's war record so he could play it up as a positive in the last months of the election.
Well, almost all of what Sean Hannity put on his show about this was easily verified by me and all that really matters is the story "60 Minutes 2" ran was based on fake documents. Yes Sean Hannity, the "Mainstream Media" was out to get President Bush. 4 were immediately fired and Dan Rather would later sue CBS over his ouster. Yes, CBS News had experienced a major malfunction, but people paid what amounts to the ultimate price, besides having George W. Bush as President for another 4 years. They lost their jobs, and would ultimately be branded in all that they did. Dan Rather still appears on the Sunday shows, and goes out into the world to do some front line reporting, but at 80-something, he's done.
FOX News personalities won that one. They used it to trumpet the bias of the "Mainstream Media"; a shadowy organization of all news sources that don't espouse their viewpoint.
Fast forward 5 years. A guy named James O'Keefe brings a tape to the Conservative news scene. The tape is a splicing of Mr. O'Keefe wearing a pimp outfit and a girl dressed as a prostitute with workers from ACORN telling them how to traffic children and get away with it. ACORN was an organization seen as left wing for it's attempt to get poor and underprivileged inner city people to vote, where they are likely to be Democrats; FOX News personalities had recently implicated them in some kind of voter fraud, including an attempted registration of Mickey Mouse, that was largely regarded as overblown. The first mainstream news to report on it was FOX & Friends after it was reported on biggovernment.com. The finder of all liberal bias himself, Sean Hannity, even interviewed Mr. O'Keefe without his pimp gear and told him how he brought down this shadowy organization that had attempted to get a voter card for Mickey Mouse. The story got picked up by this same "Mainstream Media", and even Jon Stewart made a statement he later had to recant.
Then the cards came tumbling down. First the Brooklyn DA where the first video was taken refused to prosecute ACORN. Then Jerry Brown, the California Attorney General, did the same after looking at the unedited tapes.
Apparently Mr. O'Keefe edited the videos and inserted footage of himself in a pimp costume and did not actually play the part of a pimp, and no one at FOX News checked before pronouncing him the greatest investigative journalist since Woodward and the other guy. Numerous people featured him on FOX News.
The following summer Andrew Breitbart, the proprietor of the aforementioned biggovernment.com got another video on FOX News. This time it was of black USDA worker Shirley Sherrod speaking at an NAACP meeting. The video showed her talking about how she had refused to help a white man who was going to lose his farm, although it was in her power to do so. This was especially powerful because the NAACP had just passed a highly controversial resolution calling on the Tea Party (which FOX News had tied itself to) to renounce "continued tolerance for bigotry and bigoted statements." This was the biggest "I know you are but what am I?" in history.
Turns out the video was a hoax as well. Shirley was forced to resign even though in the full video she went on to tell the story of how she realized how wrong she was and helped this man keep his farm. The farmer in question was Roger Spooner, who was even interviewed and stood up for Miss Sherrod.
Andrew Breitbart still appears on FOX News. James O'Keefe still appears on FOX News with his latest videos. As a matter of fact he was recently on FOX News Sunday as a "Power Player of the Week" in which the ACORN scandal was not mentioned in any negative light. He even repeats the lie that he was dressed as a pimp.
I honestly have no idea how anyone watching a news source can take it seriously with standards like this. The only lens I have to make this understandable is when Bill O'Reilly was interviewed by Bill Maher and asked about a false report that was carried by numerous FOX News personalities about President Obama spending $200 million a day on a trip to India he said of Sean Hannity "He's an opinion guy". Not "He apologized for being wrong." Not "He was wrong." What is more sad is that I've heard intelligent people I know who watch FOX News repeat this claim. I'm not going to get into the theory that opinions should flow from facts and not the other way around, but I will say that the claim fits a narrative about President Obama as being a big spender.
Now what about the burgeoning narrative that FOX News does not have the journalistic integrity of it's competitors? Well, that's up for you to decide.
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