A few gems of 'fair and balanced' news coverage

RESEARCH AMONG viewers in the US this week showed that Fox News was America's most trusted news channel. Its presenters' pugilistic approach is coupled with what is widely perceived as a right-wing bias. Its motto, "Fair and Balanced", is often used as a stick to beat it with, although its continually strong ratings show that it is seldom bruised, writes SHANE HEGARTY

In US television, Fox News is not alone in giving a platform to ideologically driven star names. For example, Keith Olbermann, who presents a left-leaning alternative on MSNBC, regularly uses his own show to go to war with rivals at Fox. His feud with Fox’s Bill O’Reilly is particularly notable, with Olbermann once going so far as to wear an O’Reilly mask and give a Nazi salute.

However, much of Fox News’s success has come through its ability to deliver the bigger controversies and survive all accusations of its coverage being unfair and unbalanced. It has, for example, doctored photos to show subjects in an unflattering light. And it is has continued to thrive since Barack Obama’s election, which some commentators felt could herald a change in public attitudes towards its style.

Fox’s most popular and vocal presenters include O’Reilly, Sean Hannity and – a more recent addition – the often tearful Glenn Beck. Their personal views regularly impinge on the coverage, probably shaping viewers’ opinions to a significant extent.

Throughout the early days of the war in Iraq, Fox’s viewers were more likely than those of other channels to believe that Saddam Hussein had links with al-Qaeda and that weapons of mass destruction had been found in Iraq. Fox News criticised the accuracy of that research, but is unlikely to quibble with this week’s poll declaring it the most trusted.

Here are some of its highlights in recent years:

In 2003, Bill O’Reilly interviewed Jeremy Glick, whose father died in the attacks on the World Trade Center

Glick: “You invoke 9/11 to rationalise everything from domestic plunder to imperialistic aggression worldwide.”

O’Reilly: “That’s a bunch . . .”

Glick: “You invoke sympathy with the 9/11 families.”

O’Reilly: “That’s a bunch of crap. I’ve done more for the 9/11 families, by their own admission . . . I’ve done more for them than you will ever hope to do.”

Glick: “Okay.”

O’Reilly: “So you keep your mouth shut when you sit here exploiting those people.”

Glenn Beck, December 2009

“Federal spending is up 57 per cent since 2001. Obama is just putting his foot on the accelerator. And you have to ask: why? It hasn’t worked in Dubai. It’s not working in America or California. And it hasn’t worked in Greece. It hasn’t worked in Ireland. It didn’t work in Iceland. It won’t work here.

“What they are not reporting in Greece or Ireland is the unrest and the amount of violence because the people’s money has been squandered by out-of-control politicians. The people’s future has been destroyed by greedy governments, in bed with big business.

" The New York Timesjust reported that one out of every eight adults and one out of every four children get at least some of their food from food stamps. That's more than 36 million people. That sounds like we are headed down the same road as Ireland, Greece and Iceland."

Glenn Beck on Barack Obama, July 2009

“I’m not saying he doesn’t like white people. He has a problem. This guy is, I believe, a racist.”

Bill O’Reilly on a purported boycott of French goods

“In France they’ve lost billions of dollars, according to the Paris Business Review.” (The publication doesn’t exist.)

Glenn Beck, February 2009

“It’s a real blessing for me to tell you, sir, that the cavalry has arrived – Fox is here!”