What's Wrong with The Fox News Point of View?



"Fair and Balanced" Front Man - The Beckster

 There have been some pointed accusations directed towards the cable news powerhouse, Fox News, lately.  First there was Barack Obama's claim that the Fox News "point of view" is destructive of America.  Now Maxine Waters has chimed in saying that Fox is "anti-immigrant."  The left just doesn't like Fox News, despite the latter's repeated claim of being the one true "fair and balanced" network.  I watch Fox News.  I am not sure why since I disagree with virtually everything espoused on it.  I do think they have the prettiest female anchors and reporters, so maybe that could have something to do with the appeal, at least for me (although I am sure none of you died-in-the-wool conservatives out there would ever admit to such a lascivious motivation).  I will admit that almost every panel enlisted to debate a particular "issue of the day" will have the token liberal viewpoint represented.  Poor Bob Beckel is a regular on Sean Hannity's "late great American panel" and gets pummeled by Hannity, the moderator, and the other two conservatives pitted directly against any idea Beckel dares to put forth.  In short, Fox News is ANYTHING but "fair and balanced."  That modern day "McCarthyite" Glenn Beck has to be the most unfair and unbalanced ("unhinged" may be a better description) news figure on the planet.  Yet he has millions of viewers who hang on his every silly chalk board illustration.  Go figure?  There is some appeal presented by Fox News that makes it the number one cable news network by a very long shot.  But the question posed by this post is "what's the big problem" with Fox?  I for one don't necessarily believe that the conservative viewpoint is always the wrong one.  I do not think that rampant and unrestricted capitalistic excess is good for the planet, or we the people who inhabit it.  The prevailing conservative thought-line seems to always suggest that government should just step out of the way and let the capitalistic train chug down the track unhindered.  But the reality is that that is exactly what we had for eight years under Bush before the train derailed.  That of a compassionate and conscientious "brake-man" is a proper role for government to play in order to prevent future derailments.  But what really concerns me about Fox is that they foment a certain brand of fear in an attempt to undermine any ideas they deem contrary to their unrestrained capitalistic point of view.  I will take as a "for instance" their almost wholesale assault on global warming and any proposal for a legislative mandate that attempts to deal with this global problem.  Just the very fact that Glenn Beck, a self-avowed global warming denier, is given so much air time provides the proof in the pudding.  Yea, O'Reilly claims to "believe in" global warming, but I have never seen a piece of carbon reducing legislation that he wouldn't quickly belittle and reduce to kooky ideas from left-wing nut jobs.  Fox News is definitely up to something and that something has nothing to do with fair and balanced journalism.  No, it is to propagate their particular brand of conservative world view.  Let me put it this way, if the November election turns out to be the conservative landslide that many are predicting, I am fairly certain Rupert Murdoch will throw a lavish party to thank all the Fox News anchors, reporters and regular guests for a "job well done."