After watching the documentary OutFoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism, I realized that the most disturbing part about Fox News' journalism is not the open right wing bias, but the degree to which managers enforce the bias by regulating the news coverage, and the degree to which viewers support it.
The memos circulated by Fox indicate the clear right-wing views of the management, and their influencing the tone of the coverage, especially with regards to the campaign, further serves to prove the station's right-wing bias. The memos telling reporters to focus on certain things and not on others is especially troubling, as it inhibits any ability to change Fox's coverage. Not only is the news department's ability to decide what it does or does not cover limited in comparison to the management's power, but individual reporters have very little ability to report according to their conscience, as shown in the case of the reporter who was berated for not making Reagan's sparsely attended birthday party look more festive.
The failure of people like Bill O'Reilly to separate news and opinion is especially troubling. While all news should be considered for biases, omissions, distortions and other flaws, and even opinion should not be digested uncritically, the failure to distinguish between both may lead people to accept the Fox reporters' potentially unfounded opinions as truth. It also shows their lack of regard for journalistic professionalism in forgetting that they are not supposed to let their opinions influence their reporting. This video is one such example, as Banderas clearly gives sympathetic coverage to Snyder and his lawyer, while viciously berating Shirley Phelps. While I personally find Westboro Baptist Church's protesting tone and choice of venue abhorrent, Banderas should instead have asked Phelps to justify her beliefs and tactics, and explain her remarks on Snyder's son. The show served no other purpose than an attack on WBC, and is in no way a piece of journalism. Jeremy Glick receiving similar treatment from O'Reilly shows
Fox News' power is also especially disturbing, given the extremely biased nature of the coverage. While the Florida election had too many problems to conclude that Bush being prematurely declared the winner ultimately precipitated him becoming the winner, Fox News announcing his victory prematurely was journalisticaly iresponsible. The degree of trust viewers have in Fox is troubling, especially given its lack of critical reporting on the Bush Administration. The people who view it and believe in the overly simplistic "liberal media" myth may refuse to believe any other news source, thus preventing them from hearing any alternate angles on the news that might discredit Fox News. Unfortunately, as long as they can do so, not only will Fox News continue to be able to do reporting, but its style of journalism will be legitimized in the eyes of the public and the eyes of other media organizations who seek to attain Fox's success.
Fox News is one of the more troubling players in the current mediascape. Its biased and corporate-driven coverage cannot be changed without changing its owners' views on reporting, it is difficult to convince its viewers to accept that it is not delivering the kind of journalism they need, and its reporting and success doing so set a potentially troubling example for others to follow, as well as degrading journalism's image. The only way journalists can counter this is by producing news reports more quickly, accurately, fairly and comprehensively than Fox does in the hopes that people will abandon Fox for their superior alternative. While Fox News' management drives the news, its viewers are able to decide what type of journalism to support, and for their sakes and those of all media viewers, they should turn away from Fox's partisan and unprofessional reporting.
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