Intershame.com is devoted to exposing misbehavior. You can help us by nominating something you feel warrants public shaming. Thanks!
|
Intershame On: Fox News |
Habitually Mislabeling Politicians
06/24/2009
After the laughable labeling of disgraced South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford as a Democrat, Intershame thought we'd look back at the other times Fox News has mistakenly mislabeled Republicans. Note what each mislabeled politician was going through when Fox News wrongly identified them as Democrats. It's these details that make it hard to believe this is coincidence.
Let's start with the most recent and work our way down.
Who: Mark Sanford
What was going on when he was mislabeled: Just admitted to an extramarital affair after having disappeared without a word over Father's Day weekend.
When: June, 2009
Who: John McCain
What was going on when he was mislabeled: Campaigning for the Republican nomination for President of United States, one month before he wrapped up the nomination. McCain was considered too centrist by many in the Republican party.
When: February, 2008
Who: Arlen Specter1
What was going on when he was mislabeled: Grilling Bush Attorney General appointee Alberto Gonzales during hearings over the dismissals of eight U.S. attorneys.
When: July, 2007
Who: Mark Foley
What was going on when he was mislabeled: Involved in a sex scandal which forced him to resign from the U.S. House of Representatives.
When: October, 2006
Who: Lincoln Chafee
What was going on when he was mislabeled: Trailing his Democratic challenger Sheldon Whitehouse by 11 points during the Rhode Island elections for U.S. Senator. Chafee was labeled by National Journal as the most liberal Republican in the U.S. Senate.
When: October, 2006
Fox News producers either time their screw-ups with uncanny precision, or something more is going on here.
**UPDATE!** - A reader alerted us to a couple omissions. Here they are:
Who: Pat Toomey
What was going on when he was mislabeled: Recently announced he was a Republican primary candidate in 2010 United States Senate election in Pennsylvania. If nominated he would run against newly converted Democrat Arlen Specter for his seat.
When: May, 2009
Who: Ted Stevens
What was going on when he was mislabeled: Stevens was just found guilty of violating provisions of the Ethics in Government Act.
When: October, 2008
1 Ironically, Fox News accurately predicted the future as Arlen Specter became a Democrat in April of 2009.
Let's start with the most recent and work our way down.
Who: Mark Sanford
What was going on when he was mislabeled: Just admitted to an extramarital affair after having disappeared without a word over Father's Day weekend.
When: June, 2009
Who: John McCain
What was going on when he was mislabeled: Campaigning for the Republican nomination for President of United States, one month before he wrapped up the nomination. McCain was considered too centrist by many in the Republican party.
When: February, 2008
Who: Arlen Specter1
What was going on when he was mislabeled: Grilling Bush Attorney General appointee Alberto Gonzales during hearings over the dismissals of eight U.S. attorneys.
When: July, 2007
Who: Mark Foley
What was going on when he was mislabeled: Involved in a sex scandal which forced him to resign from the U.S. House of Representatives.
When: October, 2006
Who: Lincoln Chafee
What was going on when he was mislabeled: Trailing his Democratic challenger Sheldon Whitehouse by 11 points during the Rhode Island elections for U.S. Senator. Chafee was labeled by National Journal as the most liberal Republican in the U.S. Senate.
When: October, 2006
Fox News producers either time their screw-ups with uncanny precision, or something more is going on here.
**UPDATE!** - A reader alerted us to a couple omissions. Here they are:
Who: Pat Toomey
What was going on when he was mislabeled: Recently announced he was a Republican primary candidate in 2010 United States Senate election in Pennsylvania. If nominated he would run against newly converted Democrat Arlen Specter for his seat.
When: May, 2009
Who: Ted Stevens
What was going on when he was mislabeled: Stevens was just found guilty of violating provisions of the Ethics in Government Act.
When: October, 2008
1 Ironically, Fox News accurately predicted the future as Arlen Specter became a Democrat in April of 2009.
Comments
- 258 days agoFox "News"...what a joke. Their viewers are as bad or worse than Rush's "dittoheads."
- 258 days agoDon't forget about this one: http://images2.dailykos.com/images/user/191280/toomeypartyswitch.jpg
- 258 days agoFOX is not news! It's ridiculous. I'm British living in London and I would not for any reason whatsoever look to get actual news information from Fox. It's more of a parody of the general news media than The Daily Show.
- 258 days agoNo, by definition, anything that a Democrat does is wrong. Anyone that does anything wrong is a Democrat. So while these guys may generally be Republican, when they do something wrong they are Democrats.
- 258 days agoIn my experience, having worked in live TV news, the kids they hire as BA's (the people who tell the graphics operators what to type in) sometimes do not get all the facts straight, or wrong information is fed to them, and they tell the graphics operators what to type in, so if they have bad info, then the graphics operators have bad info, and bad info gets aired. Knowing all that goes into creating live TV, I highly doubt this has been intentional. If you look at how many mistakes sports TV channels have made naming players' positions, it's easy to forgive Fox news for getting some peoples' political parties wrong occasionally.
- 258 days agoI would buy the argument it was accidental if Fox ever erred on the opposite side anyone got stats on how many times disgraced Democrats have been labeled Republicans on Fox? Stands to reason there would be an equal number of mistakes on the other side as well. I find Fox to be at best dishonest and irresponsible in some of what they call news. Its like the Jerry Springer show of news except nobody wrestles a naked relative at the end of the debate. Which I find extremely disappointing I would hope they would have at least on real brawl.
- 257 days agoWell this is going on what BC said about how easy it is to make mistakes which is true, it is simple to do every once in a while. As far as only being mislabeling screw-up-republicans, that is probably due to the fact that they are the republican news and that they pay much more attention to republican screw up facts than that of democrat and can correct those mistakes. They probably have mislabeled that way sometimes when it doesn't really matter like in interviews and what not. IMO what this article needs is comparisons to other networks as well as other sided screw ups. I am not for fox or anything but a little unbiasedness would be nice (and very hard to come by). It is really easy to look through and pick out a few once in a while events to prove a point and exclude others that dispute it.
- 257 days agore: nrylee
They are considered a Republican news organization because they have a Republican bias, not because they only cover Republicans. That established, in what world would they pay MORE attention to Republican screw-ups than Democratic ones? - 257 days agoFox News is just balancing the scale against CNN, MSNBC and the rest...if the liberal media can bash, slander, and manipulate then why can' the conservative side do the same? Seems that liberals are always WHINING about something...oh yeah, to the Brit...stay out of it, you don't count...remember WWII sprechen ze Duestche??
- 257 days agoMod Con you are a classic...in grade school you were the name caller hiding behind the teacher, in HS you were the narc and in college you were the class cheat...now you're just a bigoted fool!!
- 257 days agoMod Con. Please don't insult or English friends that fought bravely alongside us in WWII. We owe them just as much thanks as you think they owe us. Read a history book before you go bashing our true friends and allies.
- 257 days agoSo they should change thir slogan from "fair and balaced" to "unfair to provide balance"? Mod Con, unfortunatly not all conservatives are as smart as you (although with that comment to the brittish citizen it seems to be a low bar) and they don't understand the fact that FOX opperates with a conservative bias. a lot of people take what Glenn Beck and Bill O'Rielly say to heart.
- 257 days agoZeke17, Mayormc, CON7R0L: Democrats??????WHINING is not a trait I respect or honor. Do something productive. If you buy into what you hear/see on the news without applying common sense and your own opinion then you are in a bad place. zeke17 my message to you is this: I am not a bigot...I am though sick of whining little liberal jerks like yourself hiding behind this kind of crappy website to poke at people that are well beyond you ability to understand much less converse with intelligently. I would guess that you were they guy who ratted his buddies out in grade school, you were probablly the guy who got narced on in high school, and probably didn't attend much less finish college....
- 257 days agoFOX news sucks balls any way you cut it. Quit defending them, you're just making yourself look as stupid as they do by alligning yourself with their "news". And i KNOW you're not stupid.
- 257 days ago"I am though sick of whining little liberal jerks like yourself hiding behind this kind of crappy website to poke at people that are well beyond you ability to understand much less converse with intelligently" Wow, is that one well-written statement, or what? Funny how you believe everything Fox states as "true", when they are well known throughout the world for their conservative bias. As far as whining goes, I think Norm Coleman (Republican) kind of holds the record for that, at this point. Also funny how when people you perceive as liberal point out inconsistencies you label them "whiners." Give me a break!
- 257 days agoMod Con, it's ironic that you would say that you are well beyond my ability to comprehend or converse intelligently with, because your grasp upon the English language seems to be tenuous at best. I lost count of the grammar and spelling errors in your previous comment around twenty-five. Besides, you're representing the typical Republican. Embarrassed by your affiliation, you become far too defensive and you come off as stupid, worthy of ridicule, pathetic, weak, whiny, and obnoxious. Stop commenting.
- 257 days agoNobody takes Fox news seriously. But they would be great.. if they'd just run a laugh track along with their inane commentary
- 257 days agoGood grief Mod Con. You may think Liberals are always whining, but your posts seems to be the shrillest, pettiest, most divisive and joven posts in this entire forum. To quote Jon Stewart, "You're hurting America." America seems to spend an incredible amount of time involved in the world's affairs, and if a Brit chimes in on American affairs, I'm all for it. As Obama asks us all for, we need a good, vigorous debate to shake things up and remind us we need to keep working on improving our way of life. Take a pill, Mod Con...
- 257 days agoOh-h-h!! Does FOX still have a "News" program?? Are there humans, still watching it?? Hm-m-m! I thought FOX was running content, for the convenience of the Daily show and John Stewart. Who knew!! Wow!! I am shocked, I am shocked!!
- 257 days agoThe oldest example of Fox mislabeling politicians here was in October '06. From then, till now, Fox News has been broadcast for about 23,000 hours. This author has found 5 . . . I repeat, 5 examples of this happening. That's a conspiracy? Hardly.
- 257 days agoI see a real simple difference in Liberal and Conservative type media: Blatant dishonesty. Both sides slander each other and that's free speech for you but the right just tends to lie about whatever they think they can get away with. Is whining about dishonesty wrong? Does lying really count as free speech?
- 257 days agoFox "News" is a joke. It's just that simple. Talk about whining. I actually heard a commentator blame Barbara Eden for "traumatizing" him as a child by showing her belly button on TV (Jon Stewart had a great time with that one). The rest of it is fear-mongering, venom-spewing twaddle that, at times, verges on sedition.
- 257 days agoHmmm.....MSNBC: EXTREME liberal points of views, absolutely NO validity. ABC: on Obama's balls. In the tank for the messiah. NBC: Owned by Jeff Immult, will stand to gain lots of money for cap and trade, therefore is Obama's mouthpiece. Its so funny about liberals. You believe freedom of speech only applies when people share the same views. There is only one channel out there that has conservative viewpoints as oppose to the rest having liberal commentary. Why worry about it? I think I may know that answer. You sheeple just can't live with the fact that they crush everyone in ratings. It so sad being the loser. I hope this oppressive government will work out for you. It actually might. They don't believe people can make their own decisions. I guess you proved their argument well, you imbeciles.
- 257 days agoelissaj420: A) I'm not sure how you back your statement of "oppressive government" with any actual data or consistent definition of oppression. B) In what universe does ratings=truth? If more people have seen Rock of Love Tour Bus than Hamlet, does that make Rock of Love a better work of art? C) Why must we search for balance in the news, why not a network void of opinion, void of any commentary? Perhaps if this country could sit down and focus on a story for more than 30 seconds we wouldn't need commentators filling in the place of journalists yelling at the screen.
- 257 days agoWord, cericd. Ratings = good show. "Shows" usually don't include many facts. Therefore, good ratings do not equal factual information. Just like all of those uber-popular "Reality" television shows. Everyone knows that it's not 100% real life... There are cuts and snippets, set up situations... Unfortunately, that is television. :( I just watch the Spanish Channel's news. They are usually pretty middle ground on things... A full-on facts-only source would be amazing. I feel like that is sort of too utopian to actually occur... Oh well, I guess the moral of the story is to take all the "news" with a grain of salt?
- 257 days agoIntershame, rise to the challenge! Let us know the results of your research -- over the same time period, how many Democrats were involved in a scandal? And how many of those were mislabeled Republicans? (Of course, to make this data meaningful you'd have to also include the number of Republicans involved in a scandal -- my guess is that it's a higher number than Democrats.) I agree that Fox's "mistakes" are grossly irresponsible -- but so is journalism like the above. If you want to differentiate yourself from Fox, give us the whole story.
- 257 days agoOpen your minds, stop the bias, be objective, verify sources, facts are not a person giving talking points...facts are actual provable evidence...i.e. written or verbal records, etc, liberals are dumb, conservatives are dumb, independents are dumb, stop following the sheep to the slaughter, do your own research (which does not involve cheesy poofs and a television)
- 257 days agoActually, BC couldn't be more wrong. Networks, especially Fox no longer use PA to get the Lower Thirds to the Chyron, and haven't in years. The PRODUCER, writer or E.P. inputs the information and it's gets into the Duet. This is NOT simple human error, this is a intentional thing. I can say this b/c I worked at Fox until a year ago as a CG operator. When I would catch a mistake like this before it aired, the producer TOLD me NOT to change it.
- 255 days agoI can't hardly believe their fair and un-balanced news. Do you believe lately how they think they have to do negative stories about Obama because they think everyone else is doing only positive? They are goofy. I found this other blog also, http://newsy1.wordpress.com that does a pretty good funny job of picking on FOX.
- 253 days agoYou got it all wrong, it's pronounced "Faux news", as in fake. I once watched Comedy Central's _The Daily Show_ and mused what it would be like to have a 24-hour comedy news channel. Then, I remembered that we already do. Thanks Faux News!
- 160 days agoThe Supreme Court of the US has ruled that fox news does not have to tell the truth. End of story. They brag about it and lie. What do you think the dumb people who watch fox are like mentally?
Add a Comment
