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by Tim Rutten
Tuesday, Nov. 04, 2003 at 7:01 PM
LA Times article on bias at Fox News, and who's responsible.
Los Angeles Times
November 1, 2002
REGARDING MEDIA
Miles from 'fair and balanced'
By Tim Rutten
A veteran producer this week alleged that Fox News
executives issue a daily memorandum to staff on news
coverage to bend the network's reporting into
conformity with management's political views,
refocusing attention on the partisan bias of America's
most watched cable news operation.
The charges by Charlie Reina, 55, whose six-year tenure
at Fox ended April 9, first surfaced Wednesday in a
letter he posted on an influential Web site
(www.poynter.org/column)maintained by Jim Romenesko for
the Poynter Institute, an organization that promotes
journalistic education and ethics.
Concerns about Fox, which styles its news coverage as
"fair and balanced," begin with its owner, Australian-
born Rupert Murdoch. The corporate boards and family
investors who control most of the American news media
generally feel obliged to maintain a wall of separation
between news and editorial opinion. Murdoch, by
contrast, operates in the style of the traditional
Fleet Street proprietors, who dismiss such distinctions
as inconvenient fictions.
And as a deeply conservative man, he is willing to put
his money where his politics are: Murdoch, a
naturalized U.S. citizen, subsidizes publication of the
Weekly Standard, one of the country's most influential
right-wing journals. According to a forthcoming book by
the New Yorker's Ken Auletta, he loses as much as
million a year maintaining the New York Post as an
outlet of conservatism in Manhattan.
As Fox's founding president, he hired Roger Ailes, a
shrewd Republican political operative who earned a
well-founded reputation for bare-knuckle campaigning
while working for Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan. As
one of the architects of the elder George Bush's media
strategy in his campaign for president against
Democratic rival Michael Dukakis, Ailes helped devise
the notorious Willie Horton commercials. As he told
Time magazine in August 1988, "The only question is
whether we depict Willie Horton with a knife in his
hand or without it."
The late Lee Atwater, another Bush aide, described
Ailes as having "two speeds - attack and destroy."
Before joining Fox, where he serves now as chairman,
Ailes produced Rush Limbaugh's short-lived television
talk show.
According to Reina's letter, "Daily life at [Fox] is
all about management politics".Editorially, the FNC
newsroom is under the constant control and vigilance of
management. The pressure ranges from subtle to direct.
First, it's a news network run by one of the most high-
profile political operatives of recent times. Everyone
there understands that [Fox] is, to a large extent,
'Roger's Revenge' against what he considers a liberal,
pro-Democrat media establishment that has shunned him
for decades. For the staffers, many of whom are too
young to have come up through the ranks of objective
journalism, and all of whom are nonunion, with no
protections regarding what they can be made to do,
there is undue motivation to please the big boss."
Fox News spokesman Rob Zimmerman told The Times that
"these accusations are the rantings of a bitter,
disgruntled former employee. It's unfortunate that
Charlie's career ended the way it did, but we wish him
well." Asked whether Reina's quotations from the memos
were inaccurate or taken out of context, Zimmerman
said, "All we are saying is that these are false
accusations." The Times' request to speak with Ailes
was denied: "Roger is not addressing this and is not
available," Zimmerman said.
Reina, who told The Times he left Fox in a dispute over
salary and workload - not politics - hardly comes
across as a knee-jerk liberal. He is at pains, for
example, to say that he believes his former employer's
cable rivals - CNN and MSNBC - also air news reports
riven with bias on both ends of the political spectrum.
At Fox, he not only produced the network's weekly media
criticism show, "News- Watch," but also a series of
specials on Newt Gingrich and a talk show with
conservative religious commentator Cal Thomas.
Still, Reina, whose 30-year career includes stints at
the Associated Press, ABC News and CBS, said Fox's
ideological problems begin with Ailes.
"Roger is such a high-profile and partisan political
operative that everyone in the newsroom knows what his
political feelings are and acts accordingly. I'd never
worked in a newsroom like that," he said in an
interview. "Never. At ABC, for example, I never knew
what management or my bosses' political views were,
much less felt pressure from them to make things come
out a certain way. I'm talking about news bias, and I
never experienced it there. At CBS or the AP, if a word
got in that suggested bias - liberal or conservative -
it was taken out.
"At Fox it was all about viewpoint. I'm not talking
about the nighttime personalities. I'm talking about
the news report. Fox executives will say their network
only appears conservative because it is fair, when
everyone else is liberal and biased. That's bull. Fox
doesn't 'seem' conservative and Republican. It is
conservative and Republican."
In his letter, Reina wrote that "the roots of [Fox's]
day-to-day on-air bias are actual and direct. They come
in the form of an executive memo" written by John
Moody, the network's vice president for news, and
"distributed electronically each morning, addressing
what stories will be covered and, often, suggesting how
they should be covered. To the newsroom personnel
responsible for the channel's daytime programming, The
Memo is the bible. If, on any given day, you notice
that the Fox anchors seem to be trying to drive a
particular point home, you can bet The Memo is behind
it. The Memo was born with the Bush administration,
early in 2001, and, intentionally or not, has ensured
that the administration's point of view consistently
comes across on [Fox]".
"For instance, from the March 20th memo: 'There is
something utterly incomprehensible about [U.N.
Secretary-General] Kofi Annan's remarks in which he
allows that his thoughts are 'with the Iraqi people.'
One could ask where those thoughts were during the 23
years Saddam Hussein was brutalizing those same Iraqis.
Food for thought.' Can there be any doubt that the memo
was offering not only 'food for thought,' but a
direction for the FNC writers and anchors to go?
Especially after describing the U.N. Secretary
General's remarks as 'utterly incomprehensible'?".
"One day this past spring, just after the U.S. invaded
Iraq, The Memo warned us that anti-war protesters would
be 'whining' about U.S. bombs killing Iraqi civilians
and suggested they could tell that to the families of
American soldiers dying there. Editing copy that
morning, I was not surprised when an eager young
producer killed a correspondent's report on the day's
fighting - simply because it included a brief shot of
children in an Iraqi hospital".
"These are not isolated incidents at Fox News Channel,
where virtually no one of authority in the newsroom
makes a move unmeasured against management's politics,
actual or perceived. At the Fair and Balanced network,
everyone knows management's point of view, and, in case
they're not sure how to get it on air, The Memo is
there to remind them."
Av Westin, a longtime ABC news executive who is now
executive director of the National Television Academy,
examined Reina's letter and said: "Nothing about this
surprises me. The uniform smirks and body language that
are apparent in Fox's reports throughout the day
reflect an operation that is quite tightly controlled.
The fact that young and inexperienced producers
acquiesce to that control by pulling stories is further
evidence that nonjournalistic forces are at work in
that newsroom.
"Roger runs the place with an iron hand and he was put
in place there by Murdoch, who selected him for his
politics. In that sense, what's happened at Fox is a
carry-over from all Murdoch's print publications, where
the publisher's politics and editorial preference is
reflected in the news hole to an extent that isn't true
anywhere else in American journalism."
Reina is out of television news these days, supporting
himself in New York with a small woodworking business.
Looking back on his time with Fox, his greatest concern
is for its young staff. "Many of them wanted to be on
television but not necessarily in news. They haven't
had the benefit of traditional journalistic training,
so they're easily molded.
"Time after time I watched what management's politics
did to the young anchors. As they near the time to get
their own show, the hair gets blonder and the bias gets
clearer."
Copyright 2003 Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/features/lifestyle/la-et-rutten1nov01181420,1,7939167.story
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by ex-leftist activist
Tuesday, Nov. 04, 2003 at 8:23 PM
What is interesting about FOX and other right-leaning news sources is their immense appeal among the working class. Yes, those very same working class folks the left claims to represent are increasingly moving right, especially when you go outside of the East and West coasts. The only place where the left retains a foothold is in the academy, it certainly is not present in the workplace. As long as this remains this case, the left will remain politically moribund and impotent. IMHO, this impotency is what fuels the extremism prevalent at indydmedia and among the communist/anarchist left. They realize that the subtance of their ideas holds no weight with their supposed constituencies.
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by Grimm
Tuesday, Nov. 04, 2003 at 9:01 PM
> Yes, those very same working class folks the left claims to represent are increasingly moving right And the moon is made of green cheese.
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by ex-leftist activist
Tuesday, Nov. 04, 2003 at 9:56 PM
I am used to people like you repsonding to the truth with funny statements. But keep putting your head in the sand, that seems to be what the left does best.
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by Grimm
Tuesday, Nov. 04, 2003 at 10:52 PM
you are funny. Just where did you get this shift over to the right?
Fox news or Rush?
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by nonanarchist
Tuesday, Nov. 04, 2003 at 11:26 PM
I'm guessing he just started to think.
Try it, you'll like it!
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by Grimm
Wednesday, Nov. 05, 2003 at 12:36 AM
when I need an idiot's opinion I'll ask you for yours.
or Bush Admirer's.
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by oregon trail
Wednesday, Nov. 05, 2003 at 12:39 AM
Or dingo if he's still around. There's an idiot for you.
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by nonanarchist
Wednesday, Nov. 05, 2003 at 12:41 AM
Wow, you got me with that one, Grimmy. Cut me to the core!
Thanks for proving my theory that NOT A SINGLE Leftist or anarchist has a sense of humor.
Sheesh, it must be boring to hang out with you people.
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by Grimm
Wednesday, Nov. 05, 2003 at 12:43 AM
He was waxing the floor with you idiots. That's why he was targeted.
I've gone through his threads and he slaughtered you morons.
Each and every time.
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by gladflystone
Wednesday, Nov. 05, 2003 at 12:46 AM
dingo was nothing. If you believe he defeated any of us, you're as looney as he is.
dingo is alive at this very moment because of the good graces of people like me. Keep that in mind.
Stick around. We can do the same for you.
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by Smarmster
Wednesday, Nov. 05, 2003 at 12:48 AM
That would make my day. Got some party favors just for you.
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by nonanarchist
Wednesday, Nov. 05, 2003 at 12:49 AM
Dingo was brilliant. That's why he posted personal information on the Internet.
Face it, Grimmy: Dingo was a pompous stuffed shirt who confused vocabulary with intelligence.
That you think he won his debates says something about you.
And it's not complimentary.
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by portlandarea
Wednesday, Nov. 05, 2003 at 12:51 AM
Bring it on? What is that macho crap all about?
It never works that way. Time in on my side.
Don't call us, we'll call you.
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by the Riddler
Wednesday, Nov. 05, 2003 at 12:56 AM
You need to call the fat lady. She's on in five...
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by Right.
Wednesday, Nov. 05, 2003 at 1:02 AM
You pinheads are nothing but threats and bad wind.
You have no idea.
That could change quickly. I'll just wait and watch.
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by Jim Morrison
Wednesday, Nov. 05, 2003 at 1:05 AM
I'm a changling, see me change........
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by ex-leftist
Wednesday, Nov. 05, 2003 at 4:01 PM
"Just where did you get this shift over to the right? Fox news or Rush?"
I actually don't watch much t.v. When I do, I prefer the BBC World Service. Once in a while I watch French and Italian news broadcasts. I also check out a lot of foreign newspapers on the web.
I've never liked Rush. He's a simple minded idelogue. His form of "analysis" is actually quite similar to what passes as analysis at this website. His lame comments regarding "Femi-Nazis" come to mind...
What I was writing about was how I've observed (in research and in my personal life) a shift to the right by many working class voters. I first noticed it with the "Reagan Democrats" back in 1980 and its been happening ever since. Fox et al. have only accelerated the process.
As far as my personal political orientation, I used to be a lefty but today am more of a liberal with some libertarian inclinations. Like most of the regular (leftist) posters here at indymedia, I do not consider liberals as leftists given our pro-market orientation.
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