Fox News is Not Conservative

E.D. Kain writes on The League of Ordinary Gentlemen that Fox News is not conservative (hat tip Andrew Sullivan).

A larger point is that Fox News is simply not conservative. The fact of the matter is, I find NPR and even News Hour more conservative than Fox - but in a different sense, I suppose, than the standard boiler plate conservatism that has so infested American politics. What I mean to say is that the conservatism of Fox News tends to be wrapped up in loud, divisive, trashy television that is cheap and ugly and reactionary and essentially all things distasteful that conservatives should look at with scorn and antipathy. The measured, reserved, thoughtful and culturally sensible tone of NPR is far more conservative. I’d rather my kids listen to it than watch Glenn Beck.

I have always been offended by the network's self-righteous right-wing moralizing given that it leads all cable news outlets in air time devoted to the trashy scandal of the day (e.g. Scott Peterson, Anna Nicole Smith). The exception to this is when such a scandal proves embarassing to a Republican political figure such as Larry Craig or Mark Foley. In that case, Fox devotes far less air time than its competitors. Time got it right when it noted that Rupert Murdock's goal seems to be to get the network's audience riled up.

It wasn't just the politics; it was the aesthetics. News on Fox looks like a video game, full of bluster, blondes and blaring graphics. Ideology aside, Fox makes the news urgent, even when nothing's going on.

--Ballard Burgher