Comments on: Are Fox News and O’reilly fair to their viewers?

By: Tom W

Tom W — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 00:43:08 +0000

I commend you that you say that watch Fox News and MSNBC just so you get a broader view. The sad fact, and one that so many in here seem to just accept, is that news is slanted. It should not be slanted at all. You should not have to watch so many channels to get news, news should strive for journalistic integrity but it falls so very short of that. In terms of Obama I think I see a few things that are disturbing that the left news is not even talking about. One, when asked in a news conference about all of the Clinton appointees he responded (and I saw it) that you cannot just appoint people without experience to these jobs, they are important jobs that require experience. It seemed that someone editorialist should have mentioned Obama’s campaign basic tenet that his lack of experience was good and that it was not necessary to be the President. We all accepted that pretty much. No one picked up that and ran with it.
Two, Obama has steadfastly declined to produce a birth certificate indicating that he is an American citizen and there is a battle in Hawaii about that where his mother registered his birth when she brought him to the US from Indonesia. If Obama is not a US citizen (which he should be able to demonstrate, why does just not do that?) If he is not, and was elected to the Presidency without meeting the most basic requirement, what would that say about American journalism?
And Three I would think that an independent news would be seriously questioning Obama’s appointment of so many old time political party hacks to important postions in government. What about the Change thing and thats what I voted for but it seems to be nowhere to be found. Why are major news organizations not taking him to task for this?
The sad turth is that we do not get good information on which to base our decisions and support because the news reports propaganda and nothing more. Its no better that FOX is this way or CNN is that way, why do we accept that they slant news at all??

By: ritchwilliams

ritchwilliams — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 01:29:37 +0000

Um, put away your political affiliation and tell be that you believe CBS, NBC, ABC, Katie Couric, Tim Russert, Dan Rather are ‘fair’ to their viewers. Please. NO ONE was asking any real questions of Obama while he was running for president. NO ONE. In fact, I recall very clearly on the evening of the election one anchor commented, “You know, I **** to say it, but Sen. Obama really is a stealth candidate. Who is this guy? What do we really know of him?” Well, if you’d ignored the tingle in your thigh and actually asked real questions you WOULD know who this guy was and is. The ONLY news organization that was asking any real questions of BOTH candidates was Fox. Period. End of story.

You see, the problem with some folks is the fact that the guy is only ‘straight’ if he’s waving your flag. Anything else, anything you don’t agree with, is not straight. You want truth and fairness? We all do. But you need to be able to recognize it when you see it or when you can acknowledge that you are not getting the truth or the full story. The major media completely covered for this guy. They even admit it. Now, is that ‘fair’ to their viewers? Apparently you believe that it is.

By: silenced at lvl 6 from BB libs

silenced at lvl 6 from BB libs — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 02:03:52 +0000

Actually if you saw it recently it was a re-airing of an interview done before he was the President elect. Obama was and maybe given a free pass by the media so Oreily was a bit pushy to say the least but guess what it’s easy to push the remote and change it. I actually prefer BBC myself at least until they start the crickets scores jesh…

By: Des-n-Jes

Des-n-Jes — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 01:45:10 +0000

Bill O’Reilly isn’t news. He is commentary. At 7:59, Shep sometimes says, “The news is ending, commentary is starting. The O’Reilly Factor coming up next.”

And I would say O’Reilly is pretty in your face, but no less fair than Jon Stewart or Keith Olbermann.

You know this goes both ways, right?

By: namsaev

namsaev — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 16:52:26 +0000

He’s a lot straighter then Reid, Pelosi, Schumer, Boxer, Feinstein, Frank, and the list goes on and on.

*LOL* O’ Reilly has a lot less bias than leaders of Congress have.

By: Chupate esa!

Chupate esa! — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 21:22:43 +0000

Republicans have certain demagogy that has to be kept as cultural common sense to stay in the game. Fox News is just the perfect tool for that because most people trust their source of news. There’s nothing fair about that unless you come out up front with the agenda instead of hiding it.

By: Think Before You Type

Think Before You Type — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 19:47:02 +0000

O’Reilley was fair to Obama. In fact, he was the only one besides Joe the Plumber that asked Obama a tough question. By the way, Obama has said that he felt he was treated fairly on Fox News so this is all in your head.

By: ortisthetortoise

ortisthetortoise — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 11:22:40 +0000

Ya gotta listen to the guy in his entirety, not just make assumptions based on one interview.

On his radio show today, O’Reilly said Bush will probably go down as one of the worst Presidents in history – mostly because of the economic meltdown and partially because of the blood and treasure spent on Iraq.

How much more straight up can you get?

There isn’t a single liberal commentator, mainstream media commentator, network television anchor or reporter who would say something similarly critical of Obama. They’re not giving it to you straight. O’Reilly is.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 10:46:05 +0000

I am not an O’Reilly fan in the least. I have always found him to be a blowhard who considers himself to be not only the smartest person in the room, but rather the smartest person in the world. The behavior you describe is very commonplace for O’Reilly he does it on his radio show also. He cuts off anyone who doesn’t agree with him then spends exorbitant amounts of time explaining why he is right and they are wrong without ever allowing them to actually make their case in the first place.

Now having said that, I must also say this. It is incorrect for people to link opinion based programming to news content because they are different beasts. This is my biggest complaint about people who complain about Fox News. They claim Fox News is biased but never actually cite news based content. Instead they talk about O’reilly, Hannity, etc. and then link them as though they were the anchors of the true news content presented on the network. This is at best a false comparison.

By: edw08

edw08 — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 09:15:09 +0000

somebody has to ask him the tough questions the rest of the media let him slide.

By: snoopy_0752

snoopy_0752 — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 07:05:47 +0000

Wa, wa, wa! The Chosen One has been victorious. No one is allowed to be mean to him or criticize him. We get it.

Now move on.

By: jj2625

jj2625 — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 05:55:38 +0000

The ultimate goal for each network is ratings.

By: smellyfoot ™

smellyfoot ™ — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 11:34:19 +0000

Bill O’Reilly has a particular interview style – and it is loud and combative (even sometimes when there is no reason to be). Is that fair? Sure. You only have to watch O’Reilly twice to know what you are going to get from him during his interviews. If you don’t like his style, then don’t watch!

But Fox does not push O’Reilly as “news.” It is political commentary – like his personal opinion page.

And did you watch the whole interview with Obama? Or just snippets? For the most part, I though O’Reilly was playing it easy….

By: itzazoo

itzazoo — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 09:43:10 +0000

go back to the country you are originally from then. I watched the same interviews and hardly see it the way that you do. bush was never “addicted to alcohol and drugs. he used them but wasn’t addicted. He was trying to get your messiah to answer the questions instead of trying to evade them.

By: Rash Man

Rash Man — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 23:05:39 +0000

it has become an entertainment show for the converted. O’reilly is a conservative and MSNBC is more liberal. I like CNN, they at least try to be fair and balanced.

By: BeachBum

BeachBum — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 19:32:53 +0000

I am proud to say that Fox does not play a part in my life AT ALL. Unless I want to watch stupidity – then I turn on the real pros on the Simpsons. OReilly can’t handle them as competition.

By: pixidoas243w

pixidoas243w — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 01:37:15 +0000

o’reilly always seemed straight up