This is Glenn Beck, American political commentator and right-wing propaganda extraordinaire, talking about the "war" of engagement between Fox News and the US government. Evidently, he's a bit more of an emotional man than Goebbels, but still an efficient distributor of Fox's lobbying agenda despite his softer touch. For those new to the debate, Fox is essentially an American news station owned by media mogul Rupert Murdoch, which serves to champion right-wing, free market philosophies and undermine every action the democratically-elected Democratic government makes.
The concerning thing this video shows is a dilution of the expected relationship between journalists and politicians, the media and the White House; a relationship that should be based on mutual respect and the pursuit of facts and truth. Instead, we see a media company applying little editorial control over its live output and in the process channelling the rants of a sociopath. I guess the only relaxing aspect of these emotional outbursts is that they occur around 2am in the morning, when most American's are in bed.
The raving lunacy of Beck and his Fox colleagues has long caught the attention of the international media. In the UK, Charlie Brooker recently produced a very amusing description of the news station as leaning more to the right "than a man whose just had his right-leg blown off". You can view more of his evaluation of American News in the adjacent clip, including some brilliant moments of Beck's 'socialist' paranoia toward the end.
The biased portrayal of Republican ideology on Fox has finally become so much of an irritant for Obama and the White House that they have refused to indulge in interviews about health care reform with the network. A move which seems only too sensible, when rational argument seems to be something that Fox simply cannot deal in at the moment.
The biased portrayal of Republican ideology on Fox has finally become so much of an irritant for Obama and the White House that they have refused to indulge in interviews about health care reform with the network. A move which seems only too sensible, when rational argument seems to be something that Fox simply cannot deal in at the moment.
Anita Dunn, communications director for the White House said, "The reality of it is that Fox News often operates almost as either the research arm or the communications arm of the Republican Party...what I think is fair to say about Fox, and the way we view it, is that it is more of a wing of the Republican Party."
This leads me to posit, does there ever come a point when news content contravenes ethical conventions so much that it needs to be reigned in? If ever there were a case, then surely Beck et Fox News provide the perfect example. News via television is still the most consumed format in the Western world, and with viewers tending to believe what they hear, does conjecture and biased opinion not pose serious damage to the reliability of journalism and mislead the public in the long-term?
America in many senses is lucky. Though it possesses partisan news stations, a variety of choice still exists for viewers to tune out. This choice is clearly diminished in other Western countries, such as Italy where pictured Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi actually owns the majority of national channels. Berlusconi's main company Mediaset comprises three national television channels, which together have approximately half the national viewing audience. It is not even a matter of argument whether this means he has an influence on voting patterns in Italian general elections.Greater regulation is necessary in both America and Europe on what the media churns out due to political bias, although the extent to which its pursuit is necessary clearly differs in each case. What is particular sad about the American case is that a country often renowned for its integrity is blemished by the mark of a few.
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