Last updated on August 10th, 2014 at 05:07 pm
Today on MSNBC Morning Joe, host Joe Scarborough defended Fox News, and retreated back into the liberal media bias argument while discussing the David Axelrod’s statement that Fox News isn’t a really news station. Scarborough said, “Fox News is no more biased in its own way, than the other networks are biased in their own way.”
Here is the video:
Scarborough said that you don’t win the fight with the media. Then he went on to talk about bias, “If you want to talk about bias, shall we? Shall we look at bias at every other network in America? Except it is a different type of bias. It is a left wing bias. You and I both know as being in these organizations, Fox News is no more biased in its own way, than the other networks are biased in their own way, if you just look at the makeup of the people that work for every television network.”
Scarborough pulled out the classic liberal media bias argument. I thought that he would be more creative than that. The media is biased, but it is not liberal or conservative. It is biased towards making money. When corporate ownership started making their networks and news divisions profit centers, serious news coverage went out the window. Instead we get afternoons of coverage of hoaxes like balloon boy.
If the networks are biased, it is because Fox News has demonstrated that there is a ton of money to be made by catering to a specific audience. MSNBC has become very profitable by catering to the left. The left/right media bias is more often driven by profit not ideology, so Scarborough’s tired old fairly tale doesn’t hold water in the modern corporate media environment.
Scarborough also ignored the bigger issue here. The question is not about FNC’s bias, that’s a given. What is different about Fox News is their engagement in political activity. Last week, Glenn Beck offered to hold a fundraiser for Michele Bachmann. FNC promoted both the tea parties, and the 9/12 protest. These aren’t activities that news networks should be engaged in. No other news network has moved into the political realm.
The US television media ignores stories that won’t bring ratings. Sensationalism has replaced information. Most of the hours of programming on the cable news networks consist of political opinion, not news coverage. Scarborough’s argument is antiquated because the goal for cable news has changed. The name of the game is ratings and profit, not news and information.
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Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
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