Got any questions for him?

So Rupert, would you say Fox News is fair and balanced?

ASK THIS | March 17, 2010

Marvin Kalb will be interviewing Rupert Murdoch on April 6th. We've got a few questions we'd like Marvin to ask. Maybe you've got some, too?

By Arthur Rowse
aerowse@starpower.net

On April 6, Marvin Kalb will interview Rupert Murdoch, head of Fox News and other news outlets, at the National Press Club. What questions do you think Kalb should ask? As far as we know, the very experienced host of the Kalb Report hasn’t asked for help, but we might just be forward enough to send a worthy few to him. Here are some for starters. We invite others.

The most repeated slogan of Fox News is that it is “fair and balanced.” Do you feel that your network conforms to its own standard?
As you know, a basic rule of journalism requires that dispensers of news distinguish facts from opinions. Would you say that Fox News has a good record on this?
We all know that press freedom can sometimes be used to create a public menace, such as an Adolf Hitler. Do you worry at all about this when your newest star, Glenn Beck, calls President Obama a racist, among other things?
In order to reduce public confusion and answer critics of Fox journalism, would you be willing to follow the example of some leading news organizations and hire an ombudsman to ride herd on violators in house and report to the public on a periodic basis?

Need a little inspiration? See this piece on Murdoch and the press by Howell Raines in the March 14 Washington Post.

Arthur E. (Ted) Rowse is a retired journalist (ex-Washington Post and U.S.News) and author.

E-mail: aerowse@starpower.net

Comments

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Mr.
Posted by Robert L. Vogel
04/14/2010, 08:10 PM
In the free marketplace of ideas, money can often win the argument. There has been a flood of it from bank bailouts, health insurance proceeds, wealthy 'conservatives', oil companies and other corporations. Lobbyists handle massive amounts. The Chamber of Commerce can funnel it to media to hide the actual source and a lot goes to Rupert Murdoch's minions.

Sarah Palin, Mike Huckabee, Newt Gingrich are highly paid Fox News political analysts. So are Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity. These are the people that initiated and nurtured the tea party movement. Rupert Murdoch, the owner of Fox News, has all of them on his payroll.
Given Murdoch's role, it is no surprise that the tea party message is corporate. Denying global warming is good for oil companies, opposing health care reform benefits insurance companies and pharma, blocking renewed regulation of the financial sector satisfies banks and sets the stage for another even worse collapse of the economy, privatization removes activities from public oversight, deficit mongering that leads to cuts in government spending could devastate the economy. (Economists like Joseph Stiglitz, Paul Krugman and James Galbraith opine that the stimulus was much too small and that, given the amount of joblessness, more is needed.) This is not time to balance the Federal Budget. If tea partiers have their way, we are in for much worse.

Not only are Fox commentators right-wing ideologues, they need to stretch the truth to serve the corporate agenda.

Since corporations are regarded as 'persons', shouldn't they, as a condition of their charter, be responsible citizens ?

How is News Corp responsible ?

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