Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan >>Fox News Channel anchor Shepard Smith apologized for a "lack of balance" following a political report where the Republican candidate for New Jersey governor was interviewed and the Democratic incumbent wasn't.<< Read more: <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/10/28/entertainment/e124727D63.DTL&tsp=1#ixzz0VGvzh7Qz" target="_blank">http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/...VGvzh7Qz</a> Kudos to Fox News Channel's Shepherd Smith for trying to live up to the station's tagline once again. Has to be a lonely role.
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan Video of the incident: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGefbh2osMQ" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...fbh2osMQ</a>
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan I have no idea if he is conservative or liberal. Which is really how it's supposed to be with a news anchor, isn't it?
Originally Posted By Sport Goofy Interesting, but the whole "balance" gimmick at Fox is out of whack. I've never criticized Fox for being unbalanced. In fact, they often go to extreme measures to give coverage to opposing viewpoints -- even when those viewpoints are patently false. This is why Fox covered the "birthers" for so long even after the whole issue was debunked. I've often thought that if there was coverage on the earth being round, Fox would have someone on the show claiming that it was flat just so they could have their "balance." You see, the news isn't always balanced. There is concept called "facts" that should determine how most stories are portrayed. On Fox, facts are irrelevant. They believe that every story element has an opposing viewpoint, no matter how ridiculous it might be. I don't care if Fox is balanced. They can run conservative talking heads and exclusive interviews with conservative politicians until the cows come home. All I would like for them to stop doing is reporting falsehoods and opposing viewpoints with the same weight as information that is based on factual evidence and logical conclusions.
Originally Posted By mawnck >>This is why Fox covered the "birthers" for so long even after the whole issue was debunked.<< No, that's not why. <a href="http://www.foxnation.com" target="_blank">http://www.foxnation.com</a>
Originally Posted By Sport Goofy ^^ You're right. It's not why, but it is the faulty logic they use to justify the continued broadcasting of these "balanced" viewpoints.
Originally Posted By Princessjenn5795 Shepard Smith is actually the one person on Fox news that I like.
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan >>You see, the news isn't always balanced. There is concept called "facts" that should determine how most stories are portrayed.<< Agreed. But in this case, when covering a political campaign, there is a case to be made for balance (as in, don't exclude coverage of one of two candidates due to the bias of the network's head honcho.) And there is always a case to be made for fairness. While it's true that there aren't always two equally valid "views" of any given news item, there are some basic journalistic standards of fairness that are sorely lacking on Fox (and yes, in other media as well, yeah, yeah, yeah.)
