“Fox News Watch,” a poor imitation of CNN’s “Reliable Sources” (which has its problems too from time to time), has fallen off the deep end and into a pit of more right-wing propaganda. The show has degenerated into mostly a group of right-wing talking heads coming on and whining about the “liberal media” while turning a blind eye to bias and anything else negative that comes from the right. Listen to the clip as the far-right and oftentimes irrational Jim Pinkerton (who reportedly left the show to go work for Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee before returning) brings race into the issue and then tries to marginalize President Obama by referring to his background as a community organizer (as if that is some kind of a negative label). He then sprinkles a little sugar on it to try and soften it.
I discovered this story at Think Progress:
JANE HALL: That’s true but you can scare people to the point — I mean, I think there’s a difference between…
RICH LOWRY: Who is scaring people about the drug companies and the insurance industry?
HALL: I mean, you have people shouting down U.S. congressmen.
LOWRY: There is scare tactics on both sides.
HALL: If someone hanged an effigy and — and a congressmen having to be escorted to his car, that is not civil discourse.
JIM PINKERTON: Here’s scare tactics.Scare tactics is Rachel Maddow taking the first ten minutes of every show this week to denounce them and call them names and talk about Astroturf. By contrast, Senator Claire McCaskill, Democrat from Missouri, said in her Twitter account, listen, I think this is just real people. That’s the choice. The real terrorism going on is MSNBC and the liberal media.
HALL: Oh, that is so upside down.
PINKERTON: They’re playing liberal snob to white working-class Americans.
This is from a panelist on a show that is supposed to be analyzing the media?
Pinkerton is a far-right nut who struggles to see any good coming from the other side. he uses the line with “liberal snob” and “white working-class Americans” to scare people about this black president. You don’t expect Pinkerton to be challenged much for this on Fox News.
On “Reliable Sources,” Sunday (Aug. 9), host Howard Kurtz provided a platform to S.E. Cupp, a right-wing blogger who repeatedly talked about the “liberal media” as Kurtz hardly challenged his biased guest for spewing right-wing talking points.
I have a fundamental problem with media watchdog shows like ”Reliable Sources” and “Fox News Watch” bringing on biased talking heads. Isn’t it a contradiction to have a show supposedly analysing the media by discussing and debating media-related issues (including issues related to bias) with biased panelists?
Even if you “balance” your panel, you still provide a platform to political ideology (left wingers and right wingers) on shows that are supposed to be designed to hold the media accountable.
Frankly, hosts of these shows need to work harder to find objective panelists or cancel the shows.
