The percentages in the pie chart above add up to 193%. Photo by Twitter user Kevinthepang
Recently Fox News has taken a lot of flak for a few mixups involving footage shown while covering various stories. Jon Stewart first exposed how Sean Hannity used 9/12 Tea Party protest footage to make the Michelle Bachmann protest appear larger. Hannity later apologized and called the mixup an accident. Then Fox News ran footage of a Sarah Palin campaign event from 2008 to make her book signing crowd appear even larger than it actually was. Finally in discussing Palin's book "Going Rogue" one Fox News program mistakenly displayed the cover of "Going Rouge" which is a spoof book making fun of Palin. Once more the network apologized for the incident.
In order to address the footage and graphic mixups today Fox News sent a memo to all employees declaring a new "zero tolerance" policy for any such mixups in the future. The memo threatens disciplinary action for any future "accidents" including warning letters, suspensions, or even termination.
While the errors may seem minor they actually have a large effect on the credibility of the news organizations. The Palin book cover incident was actually anti-conservative but the two "accidents" involving crowd footage helped to support the conservative cause by making each protest seem larger than it really was. It will therefore be interesting to see if Fox News disciplines their staff for the graphic which was used in a report above. Think Progress picked up on the graphic after it was posted on twitter. The pie chart shows Sarah Palin with 70% support, Mike Huckabee with 63%, and Mitt Romney with 60%. The obvious issue is the pie chart adding up to a total of 193% which is not exactly how pie charts work. More importantly though in the video clip below the Fox News personality neglects to mention that the poll in question was only surveyed Republicans and not the population at-large. Finally the anchor also neglects to mention that the numbers represent favorability ratings and the respondents were not forced to pick one candidate or another. These kind of slight misrepresentations are what are making many question whether the network is truly "fair and balanced."
Comments
Gigi says:
"More mountains out of mole hills! (While ACORN is defended for advocating human trafficing of underage girls for prostitution)
There is no sense of balance or reason.... "
Gigi, stay with the subject...we aren't talking about ACORN...we aren't talking about underage...we aren't talking about prostitution...we are talking about accuracy in a news channel's stories...please keep up with us...or, take a nap and we'll wake you when we get to talking about ACORN again.
it's that damn tourette's again...."Foxnews today..." Gigi yells out,"ACORN!"
Gigi says:
"Walrus,
It's appropriate to bring it up to Ryan because he was just defending ACORN yesterday...."
Gigi, how do I say this nicely? GO TO THAT PAGE AND COMMENT ABOUT ACORN THERE! THAT'S WHERE THE ACORN COMVERSATION IS!
Walrus,
I'm hurt. As frustrated as I've been with you, I've never told YOU where to go!
Gigi says:
"Walrus,
I'm hurt. As frustrated as I've been with you, I've never told YOU where to go! "
I'm trying to shake you awake...don't believe everything the right tells you...don't believe everything the left tells you...THINK...every side has an agenda...you have an agenda, I have an agenda, foxnews has an agenda, msnbc has an agenda...in the end, use logic to extract the truth...don't let foxnews feed you bull, don't let msnbc feed you bull...and especially, don't let glenn beck feed you bull...his aganda is ratings and ONLY ratings...he fell into something that gave him ratings and he is milking the heck out of it.
Walrus,
Thanks for the advice. I will think for myself.
I've listened to Glenn Beck on the radio for 5 years. I've read a couple of his books. I've gone to a book signing, shook his hand and looked in his eyes. That was before he was on Fox News.
He's not perfect and I'm sure he's not always right, but I believe he is sincere. If I catch him lying (as Obama has been caught several times 'video') I'll stop trusting him. Until then he deserves to be taken at his word.
If you want to retain your credibility, you shouldn't assign evil motives to people and declare them to have an agenda of ratings and ONLY ratings, without any evidence at all. If he's lying about something, (like Obama has been caught doing) feel free to point it out.
Gigi says:
"Walrus,
Thanks for the advice. I will think for myself.
I've listened to Glenn Beck on the radio for 5 years. I've read a couple of his books. I've gone to a book signing, shook his hand and looked in his eyes. That was before he was on Fox News...."
well then, stop getting your feelings hurt when thinking people call you an idiot for believing Beck's drivel.
Walrus,My feelings were hurt because you told me where to go (below) ha.I couldn't care less if people
Walrus:
I said I was 'hurt' because you told me 'where to go' (below). I think you know I was kidding.
I couldn't care less if so-called 'thinking people' think I'm an idiot for believing Beck..Nearly everything he says can be verified. If I catch him lying, I'll stop trusting him.
These same so-called 'thinking people' know Obama is a liar (caught on tape several times) and either are so ideologically driven that they don't care; or so uninformed that they don't know.
Why would I care if THEY think I'M the idiot?!
(please disreguard my post immediately below-pushed 'enter' before I was done.
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