FOX NEWS INSIDER: "Stuff Is Just Made Up"

[meegbear]

Asked what most viewers and observers of Fox News would be surprised to learn about the controversial cable channel, a former insider from the world of Rupert Murdoch was quick with a response: "I don’t think people would believe it’s as concocted as it is; that stuff is just made up."

Indeed, a former Fox News employee who recently agreed to talk with Media Matters confirmed what critics have been saying for years about Murdoch’s cable channel. Namely, that Fox News is run as a purely partisan operation, virtually every news story is actively spun by the staff, its primary goal is to prop up Republicans and knock down Democrats, and that staffers at Fox News routinely operate without the slightest regard for fairness or fact checking.

"It is their M.O. to undermine the administration and to undermine Democrats," says the source. "They’re a propaganda outfit but they call themselves news."

And that’s the word from inside Fox News.

Note the story here isn’t that Fox News leans right. Everyone knows the channel pushes a conservative-friendly version of the news. Everyone who’s been paying attention has known that since the channel’s inception more than a decade ago. The real story, and the real danger posed by the cable outlet, is that over time Fox News stopped simply leaning to the right and instead became an open and active political player, sort of one-part character assassin and one-part propagandist, depending on which party was in power. And that the operation thrives on fabrications and falsehoods.

"They say one thing and do another. They insist on maintaining this charade, this façade, that they’re balanced or that they’re not right-wing extreme propagandist," says the source. But it’s all a well-orchestrated lie, according this former insider. It’s a lie that permeates the entire Fox News culture and one that staffers and producers have to learn quickly in order to survive professionally.

"You have to work there for a while to understand the nods and the winks," says the source. "And God help you if you don’t because sooner or later you’re going to get burned."

<snip>

http://mediamatters.org/blog/201102100007

[Overseas]

1. K&R ! //nt

[Skip_In_Boulder]

2. It would have been nice if they had named their source

As without a name the right wing will be able to bury this quickly. Everybody else already knows this is the truth about Fox.

[meegbear]

6. I totally agree ...

"unnamed sources" can be total BS. The "insider" should come out of the shadows.

[Poboy]

3. NSS, recommend.

[JoePhilly]

4. Fox is the "Professional Wrestling" of News ... all choreographed. nt

[tanyev]

5. And why would the insider think people wouldn't believe this?

It's quite obvious to anyone with functioning brain cells.

[liberal N proud]

7. If I were a president or CEO of one of the other organizations...

I would be broadcasting this 24/7 until they were brought to their knees.

But seeing how we have a collaborative propaganda machine that only appears to be multi sourced "news" I doubt any of the major networks will ever mention this.

[Erose999]

8. A scathing critique, but absolutely worthless without a named source. I like MediaMatters, but

if they're gonna run stuff like this that need to have names to connect to it.

Also, I think the way they fill their articles with links to other MM articles that say the exact same thing as the one you're already reading is... counterproductive. It seems like whoever runs that site must have ADD or something.

[HopeHoops]

9. Just confirming what we already know - FOX is bullshit.