Well, it’s official. FOX News is neither fair, nor balanced according to a new 617-page report from the Project for Excellence in Journalism, and if you’re interested, here’s a link to its mission statement.

The study noted that “In covering the Iraq war last year, 73 percent of the stories on Fox News included the opinions of the anchors and journalists reporting them. By contrast, 29 percent of the war reports on MSNBC and 2 percent of those on CNN included the journalists’ own views.”

Perhaps most amusing is that the self-proclaimed “no-spin King,” Bill O’Reilly, spins more than anyone. Period. According to the report, “nearly every story — 97 percent — contained opinion on Fox’s “O’Reilly Factor”; 24 percent on MSNBC’s “Hardball with Chris Matthews”; and 0.9 percent on CNN’s “Larry King Live.”

I was most surprised by the CNN statistics. After watching Wolf Blitzer and Judy Woodruff toss softball questions at Republican guests time and again, I just can’t watch the network anymore.

4 Responses to “FOX Neither Fair, Nor Balanced”

Anything written on PBS?

A bunch of stuff actually. “The NewsHour on PBS, by some measures, exceeded even the three commercial nightly newscasts in its reporting, despite its heavy reliance on the interview format. It also stands out for its orientation to hard news.”

Another odd statistic is that the network news broadcasts feature more in-depth reporting than the cable news channels. They say this is due to the correspondent features, which probe into their stories and feature transparent sourcing. The cable news channels, despite having much more time to go deeper into any story they like, are more “echo chambers” for the wire.

In that case, maybe we should give a few bucks to keep our local stations going. Bill Moyers used to be my favorite, he was such a gentleman and really did do a “Fair and Balanced” report.

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FOX Neither Fair, Nor …

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