Let me make this next point crystalline; “every” news organization from CNN to CBS to Miami's Herald to L.A.'s Times gets it wrong on occasion, and every single report risks reflecting the biases — political, racial, religious, class, educational, geographical, generational — of the reporter. This will be true until the day the news business is no longer run by human beings.
But Fox is in a class by itself. In its epidemic inaccuracy, its ongoing disregard for basic journalistic standards of fairness, its demagogic appeals and its blatantly ideological promotions it is, indeed, unique — a news source in name only. That's not just an opinion: a 2003 study found Fox viewers more likely to be misinformed than those who get their news elsewhere.
As Pitts suggests, the name itself is a lie. This is not a news organization in the sense that its first priority is the dispassionate reporting of facts. Legitimate news outlets police themselves in acknowledging factual errors and hiring ombudsmen or public editors to hold themselves accountable. Fox News does none of these things despite frequent factual inaccuracies. Its clear priority is the promotion of an ideological agenda.
UPDATE: Ezra Klein notes the following on his Washington Post blog.
Michael Clemente, Fox's senior vice president for news, gave an unintentionally revealing quote to Time's Michael Scherer: "The fact that our numbers are up 30 plus in the news arena on basic cable I'd like to think is a sign that we are just putting what we believe to be the facts out on the table."
Most news organizations, in my experience, do not have to qualify the word "facts" with the words "what we believe to be." On the other hand, as Fox says, that model is good for ratings.
UPDATE #2: White House Communications Director Anita Dunn states the obvious to CNN.
--Ballard Burgher
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