18 posts tagged “fox news”

A very good one found on Snowy’s blog. So, Mr Beck, which is it?

For completeness, here is an analysis of the video, which attempts to give some context to Glenn Beck’s remarks. However, even the writer there feels Beck has fallen short, but for different reasons.

I will have mentioned that my father is a news junkie and goes to more news websites than most people I know. Including Fox News. You won’t get a more “fair and balanced” surfer when it comes to news.
   For the last wee while he has found it impossible to read the comments people have left on that site. If you click on ‘Comments’ on any story, you’ll just be taken back to the story. It doesn’t happen to all of them, only some.
   Yet obviously some people have been able to leave comments without any problems, which got me thinking: has the Murdoch Press blocked access to comments on its Fox News site to non-Americans? I mean, we always see messages on Hulu, YouTube and other places that prevent us from seeing TV programmes and clips.
   I know Dad has left the browser on Fox News’s site and walked away, and viruses have attempted to come in via fake ads. These are not the Murdoch Press’s fault, but it highlights how some ad networks in the US that send viruses out to people. (The Fox News page refreshes, as it has been programmed to, but eventually, it hits an ad that contains a virus, usually in the form of a fake “virus scan” message with a warning that one has been infected.)
   No online publisher who deals with US companies is immune from this (which is a terrible reflection of what passes as modern commerce these days), and we have had to alert our networks from time to time. (I should note the companies that send the viruses are not necessarily American, but they pretend to be.) The difference is we nip these attacks in the bud very early, and as far as we know, no machines have been affected. We swap out the entire ad network’s code until they tell us it has been remedied. Sadly, we have had these attacks fairly regularly via Fox News, so Dad now makes sure he leaves the browser on one of my sites (which is nice, since he has little interest in fashion publications).
   While I tell Dad that I think the Fox News site is one of the worst designed (it makes you wonder, since the same company’s Times website is rather pleasant), it really seems that the folks there don’t do much checking. No one seems to surf their own site to see if things work.
   If you head to an article referred by another one, there is no ready way to view the comments of everyday Americans. If you are a septagenarian like my Dad, you probably aren’t in to hacking. And I doubt the chairman of the company, four years my father’s senior, is in to hacking, either.
   A code, such as ?loomia_ow=t0:s0:a16:g2:r1:c0.095404:b26734424:z0, is appended to the end of the article URL, which essentially prevents anyone seeing the comments.

Above: A Fox News article, with URL at http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/07/26/palins-resigns-amid-unclear-future/?loomia_ow=t0:s0:a16:g2:r5:c0.078270:b26734424:z0.

   You can try it with this article, on Gov. Palin stepping down (it’s the most recent one with a huge amount of comments!). Then click the comments’ link. Here’s what you see:

Above: Exactly the same as before, so the site does not behave as expected. URL is now http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/07/26/palins-resigns-amid-unclear-future/?loomia_ow=t0:s0:a16:g2:r5:c0.078270:b26734424:z0comments.

   The remedy is to delete the extra code, so that the URL ends at the proper place, then click on the link:

Above: At last. But you need to be aware of how the URL coding is behaving to arrive here, which your average 73-year-old web surfer is not. URL is http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/07/26/palins-resigns-amid-unclear-future/comments/.

   So, it is accessible to non-Americans after all. But for anyone who doesn’t have a bit of experience with web design or publishing, this can prove difficult.
   I have checked this with an American proxy server, to find that the same behaviour occurs Stateside. For all those having difficulties with the Fox News site, and if you must browse the comments, then make sure the URL ends at the logical place, and delete the Loomia code.

PS.: Loomia turns out to be a real company, and Tweeted me today to say that they are investigating this issue. It has been around for a wee while, so I hope it’s fixed soon.

I can see why some people dislike Fox News. Like the TV broadcast, the website makes a song and a dance and takes a long time to get to the meat of the story:

I rather liked Craig Ferguson’s jokes at last year’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner. It was a shame that his fellow media colleagues didn’t know a good laugh when they heard it.
   I have found this with political humour in the United States. I have had political jokes fall well flat, and this is due to the politeness of Americans. Democrats don’t want to offend Republicans in the audience, and Republicans don’t want to offend Democrats in the audience. Net result: little laughter.
   The only times one can get a bit more extreme is in areas which are staunchly one way or another (e.g. then-Sen. Obama at the DNC and Gov. Palin at the RNC).
   He dissed The New York Times as much as Fox News, Vice-President Cheney as much as Sen. Clinton, Bill O’Reilly as much as Keith Olbermann, and he even had a go with the media in general. However, I loved his closing which was a great way to bring everyone together. Also notice that Mr Ferguson got a standing ovation.

The anti-Bush types were right about one thing at Gitmo: listening to endless Britney Spears is torture. From the Murdoch Press:

Finally, something that Republicans and Democrats can agree on appearing on Fox News.

I’ve been having a think about the hatchet-job that Gov. Palin is getting, surprisingly, from the Murdoch Press, specifically its Fox News Channel arm. Considering that she was championed by this network after her selection by the party (over Sen. McCain’s own choice of Sen. Joe Lieberman, who even my Democratic friends felt would have been a better choice to win moderate voters), the about-face shows a level of deceit either now, or before, by the media company.
   While there may have been some gentlemen’s agreement over concealing this information till after the election, I don’t think I have seen the Murdoch Press go after a political figure in quite this fashion since Hard Copy did its exposés on Sen. Ted Kennedy in the 1980s.
   To be fair, even Newsweek, on the left, has kept mum about matters till now, and I imagine other media outlets have done the same in order to maintain their access to the candidates.
   We are hearing some things about the Democrats and we now know that Sen. Obama isn’t above swearing, but overall the post-mortem, even in the conservative press, has been relatively muted about the winning side.
   But not against Gov. Sarah Palin.
   It also shows a disloyalty within the Republican Party that is not becoming of it, if it wishes to be seen as a party that was unjustly cheated out of the election this week.
   In 2000, Democrats could point to the recount process in Florida and the alliance between the state’s Attorney-General Katherine Harris and the Republican Party as having taken the presidency from Al Gore.
   This time, the divide that has occurred might leave Republicans thinking that the disunity in the party cost them the election, and they were beaten by Democrats who hid their divisions better. They may fairly and rightly point to the media as being complicit in giving Sen. Obama a free ride, just as Conservatives in Britain could in 1997, but the reality may be that there was something rotten within the GOP.
   I can’t believe campaign aides and workers coming out and breaching a level of trust by revealing such details as Gov. Palin coming to greet them in a towel, and having this make the news pages.
   Even the supposed hatred by Sen. Clinton’s campaigners for Sen. Obama stayed relatively under the radar, either by a cooperative liberal media or by a sense of loyalty to the Democratic Party.
   We’re hearing news of the Governor’s tantrums and that the $150,000 shopping spree may have been more expensive than first thought.
   This is a personal attack on her that shows party workers who can’t maintain any sense of dignity and trust.
   Importantly, you do not see someone of the standing and decency of Sen. John McCain rubbish his running-mate.
   If this division has been inspired by higher-ups in the Republican Party, then Americans might be fortunate that this version of the GOP did not get into power on November 4.
   One may argue that it is our right to know, and maybe it is. But the pace of this so-called knowledge being disseminated points to a party that is acting out sour grapes and playing the blame game a little too soon, and I find it troubling.
   Every party says it will regroup after a loss. It is fair to note that the loss that the Republicans suffered was in fact very small, given how they were outspent by the Democrats to such a degree. At this stage, I do not think there will be much re-evaluation of where it will lead, because I am not sure if the Party itself realizes where it wishes to head. It may need to rebrand much later, but for now, it hasn’t been able to protect its own from this onslaught—and may well have caused it.

The Fox News folks have now joined in the Sarah Palin-bashing, which is a surprise. Some cynics who smell a rat say that the Murdoch-owned network is merely ensuring that Gov. Palin does not have a chance at another run because she alienated too many moderate Republicans. But having Republicans as friends, I know that many supported the Governor because they shared her value system, and some even said they only voted for Sen. McCain because Gov. Palin was on the ticket.
   The GOP might well be a divided party and we have seen these divisions before, with George Bush (the 41st president) who appealed too much to the moderates, and with the primaries this time around that saw former Govs. Huckabee and Romney only managing to get partial support from the party.
   Before some say that the Murdoch Press has covered this up till after the election, there does seem to have been some agreement internally to not reveal a lot of the behind-the-scenes stuff till the day after on both sides. Even Newsweek is now revealing a lot and I am told its video has then-Sen. Obama swearing.
   Whatever the case, I’m not sure if it’s wise for the Murdoch Press, if it is a GOP instrument as its critics say (its boss has always denied this) to be doing something that might divide the party.
   Or, was K. R. M. always right and that it’s being ‘fair and balanced’?
   I am always concerned when one politician is vilified to this extent. I have seen it in other countries, against people on the left and on the right. It’s dangerous stuff, and contributes to revisionism.
   I might not agree with the Governor on some of her positions, her lack of humility, or even her campaigning technique, but if some things sound too much like a tall tale, then they probably are. I don’t think we have seen the last of Gov. Palin; we might indeed see, and I know there is a lot of Bush fatigue out there, John Ellis Bush or even George Prescott Bush make runs somewhere down the line.
   Democrats might hope not—or they might hope so, if this will help ensure them a victory.
   Less likely things have happened. Remember, Marvin Bush once said of his eldest brother, ‘George is the family clown,’ and that he was unlikely to run for office.
   You just never know.

I expected better of Triangle Television, considering I probably watch more of it than any other channel in New Zealand. Even as late as 10.30 p.m. its site stated that the PBS News Hour would air, but you try watching that in Wellington. All that was on was Euronews, then Aljazeera, then the Triangle TV news. Where is our American news, a programme that is on nearly daily?
   The site was changed around 11 p.m. to delete mention of News Hour. The Auckland Triangle service listed 11.30 p.m. as the air time, but Wellington just showed Aljazeera.
   There was no notification on the site on why the coverage was changed.
   Its two-week listing indicates that News Hour was indeed scheduled to air from 10 p.m., so I didn’t imagine this.
   I watched every day of the DNC coverage and the day I wanted to watch the RNC begin, there’s nothing. Not even a regular News Hour. I realize that Gustav is interrupting proceedings, but there surely must be some programme? Unless PBS decided that there would be no News Hour today, which left Triangle without regular programming.
   I like to think that the absence of the PBS broadcast was hurricane-related.
   Or, the channel decided that New Zealand was full of woolly, wimpy, pacifist, Bush-hating, left-leaning hippies, socialists, Bolsheviks, Communists and liberals, and there would be no point airing the RNC to one or two ACT Party voters drinking chardonnay.
   But some of us—even leftist political candidates like me—want balanced coverage, thank you.
   I had to go online to a Murdoch Press site to watch the First Lady speak in St Paul. I took no pleasure in making a few bob for K. R. M., but at least he lets me see the news videos in New Zealand at a decent screen size. Thirteen minutes of Laura Bush and four governors versus hours and hours and hours of DNC coverage on free-to-air TV.
   Maybe American readers can let me know if there was any broadcast from the RNC in St Paul tonight before I conclude that some form of liberal media bias is to blame for the programme being pulled.
   Even for the Democratic supporters, I would have watched a news report about the anti-war protesters in St Paul.

Fox News Channel farewells a former colleague. These are some of the people who knew him best, talking about Snow’s honour, decency, strength in his faith, generosity of spirit, and the love of his family. Brett Baer got teary in recalling Tony Snow’s caring, when Baer’s son faced open-heart surgery. Former president George Bush and former first lady Barbara Bush also offered their tributes in this clip.

   The John Walter Weyland quotation that Brett Baer read is, ‘The True Gentleman is the man whose conduct proceeds from good will and an acute sense of propriety, and whose self-control is equal to all emergencies; who does not make the poor man conscious of his poverty, the obscure man of his obscurity, or any man of his inferiority or deformity; who is himself humbled if necessity compels him to humble another; who does not flatter wealth, cringe before power, or boast of his own possessions or achievements; who speaks with frankness but always with sincerity and sympathy; whose deed follows his word; who thinks of the rights and feelings of others, rather than his own; and who appears well in any company, a man with whom honor is sacred and virtue safe.’
   He is right: this describes Tony Snow.
   Fifty-three is too young. My own mother passed around the same age from cancer, so I know full well the effect this will have on his widow and children. My thoughts and prayers go to the Snow family.

I didn’t even hear about this bad news till I read it on Zak’s blog, then hunted for a piece on the wires. Journalism has lost one of its classiest, most decent practitioners. Whether you agreed with his politics or not, Tony Snow had decency.

Washington, DC, July 12 Former White House spokesman, journalist and broadcaster Tony Snow succumbed to colon cancer today, aged 53.
   Snow had passed away at 2 a.m. at Georgetown University Hospital.
   While known to news watchers in the US for his work on Fox News properties, Snow came to international notice when he replaced Scott McClellan as White House spokesman in May 2006.
   Unfortunately, Snow, who had already fought cancer in 2005, served only 17 months in the role. In March 2007, he was admitted for surgery to have a cancerous growth removed from his abdominal area.
   He resigned in September 2007, joining CNN as a commentator.
   Robert Anthony Snow was born in Berea, Ky., on June 1, 1955. He graduated from Davidson College in North Carolina in 1977 with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy. While studying economics and philosophy at the University of Chicago, he wrote for The Greensboro Record and The Virginian–Pilot.
   He rose to editorial positions The Newport News, The Detroit News and The Washington Times.
   In 1991, Snow joined President George Bush’s team as a speechwriter and media assistant. During the Clinton administration, he returned to journalism, writing columns for The Detroit News and USA Today.
   He is survived by his wife of 21 years, Jill, and their children Kendall, Robbie, and Kristi.

White House statement from the President
‘Laura and I are deeply saddened by the death of our dear friend, Tony Snow. Our thoughts and prayers are with his wife, Jill, and their children, Kendall, Robbie, and Kristi. The Snow family has lost a beloved husband and father. And America has lost a devoted public servant and a man of character.
   ‘Tony was one of our nation’s finest writers and commentators. He earned a loyal following with incisive radio and television broadcasts. He was a gifted speechwriter who served in my father’s administration. And I was thrilled when he agreed to return to the White House to serve as my Press Secretary. It was a joy to watch Tony at the podium each day. He brought wit, grace, and a great love of country to his work. His colleagues will cherish memories of his energetic personality and relentless good humour.
   ‘All of us here at the White House will miss Tony, as will the millions of Americans he inspired with his brave struggle against cancer. One of the things that sustained Tony Snow was his faith—and Laura and I join people across our country in praying that this good man has now found comfort in the arms of his Creator.’