Fox News, otherwise known as Faux News among professional journalists, once again shows its true colors with one-sided coverage of events in the Middle East.
Writes Eric Bohlert in The Huffington Post:
"We’re covering the story from every angle!" enthused a Fox News anchor Friday, as Rupert Murdoch’s all-news channel, like CNN and MSNBC, went wall-to-wall covering the latest round of violence in the Middle East. Despite that hype, Fox News has pointedly refused to cover every angle of the bloody, on-going story and in the process has walked away from professional journalism and crossed over into propaganda; a dangerous new chapter even for Fox News.
Based on a review of the blatantly one-sided collection of guests and experts FNC has booked to discuss the conflict recently, it’s obvious Fox News has opted to present an hermetically sealed version of events from the Middle East and spoon feed its viewers a pre-school-like version of the news. Fox News has moved beyond the warmongering it trademarked during the run-up to the Iraq war in 2003 and slipped into a conscious, company-wide decision to purposely cordon off topics of discussion.
That the Middle East battle is told primarily through the eyes of Israelis is not surprising. American news organizations have more resources inside Israel, better sources within the Israeli government and most Americans clearly sympathize with the Israelis in their never-ending conflict with Arabs. And Fox News has certainly had its thumb on the scale. Last week Bill O’Reilly warned about a coming Holocaust. And during one of the endlessly looping FNC conversation about Iran’s alleged puppet-like manipulation of Hezbelloh, Fox News’ on-screen text asked, "Are Saddam Hussein’s WMDs Now in Hezbollah’s Hands?"
But what’s been startling about Fox’s overall coverage, and especially the roster of guests it has hosted, is that it obliterates the traditionally tilted American media stance and crosses over into something else entirely. Following Bush’s lead of openly picking sides in the Middle East conflict and chucking the notion of acting as an honest broker, FNC has decided there is no ‘other side’ of the story to report on. Not if you look at the collections of experts FNC has invited on the air.
