Robert F. Kennedy Jr: Fox News Has Divided Country In A Way Not Seen Since Civil War

[Flatulo]

84. I appreciate your reasoned response, and I don't question the 90% figure for

RW domination of radio, but I'd like to see some studies that show what the percentage off television 'news' is considered to be biased to the right. To be honest, I watch very little TV outside of HGTV, but I have seen a fair amount of Fox and I find their straight news to be pretty non-controversial. The problem with Fox is that a very large percentage of their programming, probably 80% or more, is 100% opinion, but is not identified as such. Yeah, I'm aware of a number of celebrated falsehoods that they've broadcast, like identifying Rs as Ds with associated unfavorable coverage. Perhaps they should be fined for such transgressions.

But I see the complaints about their election night coverage as being outright lies as extreme. Sure, they had Karl Rove there spinning his numbers, and he was wrong. But was he aware that the actual reality on the ground was not favoring Romney? Election night presents a flood of data, and profound projections are made on somewhat scant data, albeit hopefully using sound sampling methodologies. But was Rove outright lying? I doubt it. I think his cognitive dissonance was running interference for reality, and his projections were based more on wishful thinking and arrogance than on deception. And to their credit, the Fox data crunchers in the back room got it right.

But as regards the Fairness Doctrine, be careful what you wish for. I believe that people of good faith but with different ideological leanings could arrive at vastly different rulings on whether or not programming is 'fair and balanced'. The stuff around the mean can be pretty fuzzy, and I don't want the government deciding for me that I need to see less or more of this or that programming.

Thanks again for not flaming me, and if you have a chance to cite any television news fairness studies, I'd certainly look at them. Myself, I remember a survey a while back where a large majority of journalists self-identified as liberal. It was a long time ago, and yes, their viewpoints do not necessarily make it onto the air if they do not align with the agenda of their corporate masters, but that's one data point. I found it believable since journalists tend to be highly educated and have to be able to understand widely opposing viewpoints, which typically are characteristics of liberals.