Eric Boehlert: Two new reasons Fox shouldn't have White House press credentials

[Nevilledog]

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Eric Boehlert
@EricBoehlert
my latest—stop legitimizing them;

Two new reasons Fox shouldn't have White House press credentials
Listen now (8 min) | Tucker racism, covering up Gaetz
pressrun.media
5:26 AM · Apr 12, 2021

https://pressrun.media/p/two-new-reasons-fox-shouldnt-have

Blogger Heather Digby Parton tweeted a perpetual truth last week: "I didn't think Fox could go any lower. I was wrong."

Rupert Murdoch's propaganda network dove towards new depths recently when its most-watched host, Tucker Carlson, openly promoted white supremacy conspiracies, and the entire Fox News staff tried to cover up the raging Matt Gaetz sex scandal. In the process, Fox News again confirmed it has no business being allowed in the White House press briefing room, where legitimate news outlets are given the opportunity to pose questions.

Fox News isn't a newsgathering organization, therefore it does not need White House access. Giving them prestigious 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. press passes just delays the much-needed Beltway discussion that’s needed about the crooked network and its place in our political culture.

It's clear the Biden White House doesn't want to pick a fight with Fox News right now, which would inflame the entire Republican Party and the billion-dollar right-wing media industry. Not when Democrats are dealing with a country still reeling from a deadly health crisis and millions of out work. And having Fox News in the briefing room does help brandish the image that the Biden team is willing to engage with the other side, as White House press secretary Jen Psaki often does, patiently unplugging Fox News correspondents' attempted gotcha questions.

That's the politics of the situation — the optics. But the reality is that Fox News continues to be a deliberate cancer on this country, and any attempts to help legitimize it — by pretending it deserves to be alongside CNN in the White House briefing room — is not only wrong, it's dangerous.

*snip*

[maxsolomon]

1. Well, now, that's the ENTERTAINMENT portion of Fox's lineup.

The rest is super-accurate, unbiased, hard-hitting news.

[lame54]

2. Fox puts the White in red White and blue

[RussellCattle]

3. As long a Psaki is cutting them off at the knees, I can live with their "access".

[Caliman73]

4. He's correct. They are not news, they are propaganda.

I will say this. There is no such thing as "unbiased" completely objective news. There does tend to be a liberal bias toward news and information and that is because of the very nature of "liberal thought and ideology". Within "liberal thought and ideology" is the idea that you can get to some kind of truth by reporting facts and information in a sort of dispassionate way. While it is rather naive to think that the information carries with it some sort of implied narrative, the act of trying to be objective is important. Right wingers don't even try. They simply lie about it in order to advance their own agenda. They act like there are two sides, when in fact, there are multiple, multiple sides. "Liberal" journalists actually try to present different sides, but right wingers cry foul if their view point is not offered up as a factual, opposing view point, when it almost always is not factual but only serves to try to advance a false narrative.

I will say this again, as I have said before. Rachel Maddow is an opinion commenter on MSNBC and Tucker Carlson is the same on Fox. Regardless of your opinion of Maddow, you cannot argue that she does not present information with a leftward bias. She has said so explicitly in the past. Both Maddow and Carlson were recently sued for defamation of character and had to mount a defense. Here is the major difference between Fox and MSNBC in their approach to both news AND opinion shows. Carlson's defense against defamation was ultimately, that no reasonable person would find that Carlson's words could be construed as anything more than hyperbole and entertainment. Basically, you can't take as "Serious" anything that Carlson says because he is a known purveyor of bullshit entertainment. He defeated the defamation case on those grounds. Rachel Maddow's defense? EVERYTHING I REPORTED WAS FACTUALLY ACCURATE, THEREFORE, NOT Defamatory. She also defeated the case.

Fox lies, they know they lie, everyone knows and expects them to lie. That is not a news organization. There is a difference between bias, which everyone has, and straight up falsehoods and propaganda, which Fox, and all of its new right wing competitors engage in.