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CNN covered the Tea Party extensively. AP Photo David Becker
Usually when Fox News distorts they usually do so in a subtle fashion. Correcting Fox News therefore typically requires a lot of explaining and argumentation and even the issue is still debatable. However in the clip below Rick Sanchez undeniably catches Fox News in an outright lie with no argumentation or explanation needed.
The issue concerns a full-page ad Fox News ran in the Washington Post. In the ad Fox News asserts that the other major news networks all "missed" coverage of the 9/12 Tea Party protests while Fox News provided the fair coverage.
Anyone who watched networks other than Fox News last weekend for any significant amount of time knows the ad is simply false. In the clip below Rick Sanchez also demonstrates that the Fox News ad is simply false with many clips of CNN's coverage of the protests.
In addition Sanchez notes the difference between "coverage" of an event and "promotion" of an event. As I noted in some of my previous pieces Fox News hyped the event beyond all reason. Even after the event Fox News was still promoting by exaggerating the crowd size in Washington D.C. I personally believe that CNN even went dangerously close to promoting the event at times though their coverage was certainly more "fair and balanced" than Fox News. As can be expected MSNBC gave their liberal slant by spending most of their time talking about the negative aspects of the protests including some of the racist imagery displayed.
If Fox News and the Washington Post want to maintain any credibility they should run a retraction in the paper. It is one thing for Fox News to give a conservative slant on stories as MSNBC does in the opposite direction. It is quite another thing for Fox News to simply start lying beyond all reason.
Comments
No no fox never lies
Great article-
I was thinking about writing something along the lines of whether the Washington Post should have published the ad in the first place- I notice we write very similar stories...lol your probably already going there...
Anyway,
It would have been one thing if Fox were speaking about the amount of people who attended (that wouldn't have been a lie)and there was controversy there; but to say the other networks didn't cover it! Wow! I think their marketing person needs to be fired-
that ad is utterly ridiculous
The ad asked how "CNN missed this story". Mr. Witt [probably unintentionally] misrepresented the ad by saying that it claim that CNN "missed coverage." Rick Sanchez also confused missing a story with missing coverage.
Reporting a story is more than just covering it; although covering the event is a necessary first step. A story is more than just isolated facts. Telling a story requires weaving those facts together in an intelligible, meaningful way to describe what is happening and why. Part of the story is fairly and honestly presenting the viewpoint of the protagonists [the protestors]. While CNN did rudimentary coverage of the event, they missed the story.
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