While I was watching "Outfoxed" I kept thinking about how truly biased this documentary was against Rupert Murdoch and his decisions as Chairman and CEO of News Corporation, Fox's parent company.
Although the evidence throughout the documentary is very strong and does seem to prove that Mr. Murdoch commanded all members of the Fox News staff to ensure that their reports have a strong "conservative" bias, we must not forget why this documentary was made. On the documentary's website you find a link to "Foxattacks," a website completely and totally dedicated to attacking Fox News.
The one question I continue to ask myself after watching the documentary is whether there is anything wrong with Fox News being biased especially now that its "conservative" bias is well known throughout the public. I do understand that there is evidence which proves that people who watch Fox News actually know less about politics (I do not have the exact statistic, but would love to see it), but is there every real true reporting without any bias? Are we willing to say that all, or any, other news station's do not have biases towards certain opinions?
I do believe in the ideal role of the media as one that simply reports the facts (Leighly's "reporters of objective fact"), but I think that this is just that, an ideal. Whenever we as human beings speak or write, or even express ourselves in any way, about anything we tend to, maybe even subconsciously, do so with a bias towards one side of the argument. I am not saying that Fox News does not have a stronger biased then most, if not all, news stations, I am simply saying that they are not the only network guilty of this, and simply because there is a documentary, that itself is biased, about this fact does not mean we should be any more critical of Fox then we are of other networks. Why have no other documentaries been made? (the answer might be because there isn't such strong evidence against any other network, but I think this may be an attack on Mr. Murdoch and not on television networks with bias strong biases)
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Fair enough. But is "bias" a binary category? Perhaps it would be more useful for us to think about degrees of, and kinds of, bias? If we do, is there a qualitative or quantitative difference in the biases of FOX vs. CNN, say?
I would like to argue that media has a responsibility NOT to be biased, as suggested by Tocqueville.
I would argue that bias is both qualitative and quantitative, as I said "the answer might be because there isn't such strong evidence against any other network," meaning that the evidence is so strong against Fox News and it is clear that Fox news' bias is stronger than all the rest and therefore there have been no other documentaries made against other networks such as CNN (which may also display a bias)
In addition, while I do agree with Steven that the media has a responsibility to not be biased, sometime we have to deal with a reality and not with the ideal. I believe that the vision we share with Tocqueville is the ideal, but the reality is that for the most part human beings have some sort of bias (sometimes a subconscious one) that they show in everything they do. The challenge is for the reporter and the person receiving the news to be able push away that bias (as we know that readers/viewers also have some sort of bias) and be as objective as humanly possible.
I hope that everyone strives for this goal, but the word ideal is a very appropriate one to use here and that's something we should keep in mind.
I think you give the film to much credit. It does not prove that Fox news is biased in its actual reporting. All it demonstrates is that Fox has conservative commentators and exercises discretion in selecting the content of its broadcasts. Showing a mass of conservative footage does not prove anything. You have to prove that they did not show liberal positions.
I agree with Steven that the media has a responsibility to NOT be biased. Whats worse is that Foxs slogan is "Fair and Balanced" so even though their bias may be know they still claim they are "Fair and Balanced"... Also I believe this is the Study that shows that people who watch Fox know less about politics.
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