The news is Legally allowed to Lie.

oudeis on 28/6/2009 at 02:49

Quote Posted by SD

Fox News is especially good at it. They have turned dishonesty into an artform.

Take lying hypocritical sack of shit, Republican Governor Mark Sanford, for example. Voted to impeach Clinton over Lewinsky, never far from the lynch mob whenever a political opponent is revealed as a philanderer. Caught this week having an affair himself.

Fox News covered it, of course. Spot the deliberate mistake:

Inline Image:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v216/DannyClein/ReligioTardery/Faux001.jpg

They have form for this though. When Republican Congressman and all-round anti-gay bigot Mark Foley was caught out pestering teenage boys for sex, this was Fox's take:

Inline Image:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v216/DannyClein/ReligioTardery/Faux002.jpg

These are not isolated cases.

Fuck, that's unreal, even for them. And these are the cunts who announced (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_Libby) Scooter Libby's conviction on four out of five counts of perjury, lying to the FBI, and obstruction of justice thusly:

Inline Image:

http://i559.photobucket.com/albums/ss31/ohferfuxsake/FairandBalanced.jpg

Pyrian on 28/6/2009 at 03:32

Yes, the news can and does lie to you. Anybody to whom this fact is, itself, news, has a significant educational insufficiency.

'Course, random anonymous (or pseudo-anonymous) people on the internet can lie to you, too. :cheeky:

fett on 28/6/2009 at 03:42

I lie to you guys all the time. I'm actually a 4 foot tall black lesbian who once sold jewelry on a cable channel. And I've never even had sex with Duck. I know it's a shocker but hey we're all trying to be honest here right.

belboz on 28/6/2009 at 05:00

it says on a wiki site that the first amendment only applies to congress. So i guess the news can do anything they want as the law doesn't apply to them.

smallfry on 28/6/2009 at 06:29

I only watch news if it's (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3eooXNd0heM) sung. ((http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fngEnIkz44) more)

Aerothorn on 28/6/2009 at 18:22

Heck yeah! The First Amendment is broad and sweeping, and I frankly wouldn't have it any other way. There are serious costs (this, for instance) but I think the benefit to society and public discourse is worth it.

The thing is, even if it's "legal", there's still the market at work here: this case is public, people know that FOX lies. But they want to be lied to (as they lie to themselves) so they watch it anyway.

gunsmoke on 29/6/2009 at 09:56

Quote Posted by SD

Yeah, I lived in South Carolina for a while (Downtown Charleston :thumb: ), and damn it was like an alien world, politically. Much different than Ohio, even though they both are Red states.

DDL on 29/6/2009 at 11:03

Unless I'm reading this wrong, I'd argue there's a key difference between news agencies "biasing the truth" (be it reporting only on stories that support their right/left wing leanings, or selective quoting or whatever), and news agencies "outright lying".

The fox news Rep to Dem switch example, for instance. That's not right wing bias, it's an actual LIE.

If they'd downplayed the story, or simply not reported it, I would (I guess) be happy with that, but ultimately there's an inherent trust that whatever the news reports as fact ...is fact.

If you breach that trust, and have the fact that you CAN breach that trust government stamped as "A-OK", there's something wrong. Sure, you could argue that people who watch fox news will probably be so misinformed anyway that it makes no difference, but seriously: one relies on news agencies to report what they believe (to the best of all available evidence) to be the truth. Right?

Otherwise the entire concept of 'news' just goes right out the window, and you might as well call it 'worldview infotainment' or something.

If I read something in the news and it later transpires to be incorrect, I expect there to be a good explanation as to why, and an apology for printing incorrect information. Under this scheme it seems the news people could just say "Oh yeah that. Yeah, we were just fucking with you. We can do that, you know."

Doesn't this strike you as wrong?

Queue on 29/6/2009 at 13:36

Another site for more (http://www.turnoffyourtv.com/networks/foxnews/foxnews2.html) Fucx-News fun.

In reality, CNN is just as bad as Fox News. I'll only trust NPR for unbiased news coverage, or the BBC.

Pyrian on 29/6/2009 at 18:20

@DDL: It's not that those of us who believe in freedom of the press are for news stations lying, it's that we're against the government determining what does and does not count as "fact", because at the end of the day the government will lie, too.