Fox News Memo: How to be "Fair and Balanced" (and still lie through your teeth)

[FernBell]

http://www.slate.com/id/2154078/entry/2154079/?nav=tap3


As senior vice president, news editorial, for Fox News, John Moody oversees that cable news channel's story content and overall editorial direction. Fox News reporters and producers are accustomed to receiving daily editorial memos from Moody on what to expect or how to direct developing stories. More than anyone else except Fox News chairman and chief executive officer Roger Ailes, it is Moody who defines, for Fox News, what it means to be "fair and balanced."

Judging from Moody's Nov. 13 memo, reprinted below (a second memo appears on the following two pages), it is "fair and balanced" to gloat, prior to the vote to elect House leaders on Nov. 16, "The Pelosi effect is being felt. ... Let the blue bloodbath begin."

It is also "fair and balanced" for Moody to instruct the news staff to ask the following question of every guest who appears to discuss the pending immigration bill: "Does the U.S. have the right to defend its borders or not? ... Lets see if anyone says no."


Actual copies of Moody's memos....





In this memo, issued the day after the Democratic House victory, Moody rules that fairness and balance require Fox News to "note throughout the day" that "the war on terror continues" by reporting again and again that Hamas has told the Associated Press, "he people and the nation all over the globe are required to teach the American enemy tough lessons."






Fairness and balance also require Moody to reassure the Fox newsroom that "the elections and Rumsfeld's resignation," while certainly "a major event," were "not the end of the world," and to point out that "the Iraqi insurgents ... must be thrilled at the prospect of a Dem-controlled Congress."

Although Slate's copy of the memo ends here, a later draft posted independently by the Huffington Post has Moody going on to suggest that the Hamas statement mentioned on the previous page was a response to the Democratic victory: "We'll continue to work the Hamas threat to the U.S. that came hours after the election results. ... Just because the Dems won, the war on terror isn't over." Later that day on Live News, anchor Martha MacCallum aired a report in which she asked guest Christian Broadcasting Network terrorism expert Erick Stakelbeck about "reports of cheering in the streets on the behalf of the supporters of the insurgency in Iraq, that they're very pleased with the way things are going here and also with the resignation of Donald Rumsfeld."

That's fair and balanced, too.

[Berry Cool]

1. Proof positive of how "fair and balanced" they truly are.

I keep waiting for someone at Fox to say "These documents are fake...That's not the font we use!"

[LTR]

2. K+R

[BlackVelvet04]

3. Note he said

that there would be recounts in VA "for sure".

Wrong, dumb ass.

[TroglodyteScholar]

4. FNC viewers never considered the channel "Fair and Balanced" by OUR definition...

They think the right-slanted propaganda IS fair. They're not looking for equal time, or unbiased reporting...these people think that balance involves showing both the pro-Replublican and anti-Democratic views. Fox won't lose any viewers simply because this "balance" has been revealed for what it is.

[XOKCowboy]

5. Their world view says that any other news source is...

part of the "liberal media" and hence tainted with bias. Only Fox News gives them the news they want to hear. It's purely an enabler network for weak minded hateful people.

[question everything]

6. Joe Conason and Al Franken had a new phrase

they were talking about it on a recent Franken show, but I did not catch it.

Anyone?

[conscious evolution]

7. John Moody=Another cadidate for

a war-crimes indictment.
Sort of like these guys: http://foi.missouri.edu/newsmgmtabroad/crtconvicts.html
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20031203-113817-3449r.htm

[Gregorian]

8. Is John Moody just Karl Rove with lipstick?

I don't know. I searched the internets tubes high and low, and can't find a single photo of the guy. Obscure and Partial, you decide.

War or energy independence? You decide.

This guy is setting the agenda for the braindead of America. I think the bigger issues are either too complex or too ugly for the average people.

Or maybe war really is the only thing they can sell in perpetuity. Get to work, slaves!

[Gregorian]

9. 33 more internal memos.

http://mediamatters.org/items/200407140002

It's more of the same. Just a few years back.

And why can't I find photos of John Moody on the internet? Why is it he is in show business but won't be seen? How queer.

[mcg]

10. "... we will chyron Lieberman as an "I" for independent ..."

I had to look up 'chyron', see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chyron

Chyron can mean:

* The Chyron Corporation, which makes character generator graphics equipment for television broadcasters.
* A synonym for lower thirds, the graphics generated by character generators, whether the equipment is made by Chyron Corporation or not (a genericized trademark).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lower_thirds

In the television industry (especially in North America), lower thirds refer to graphics that take up the lower area of the screen, though not necessarily the entire lower third portion of the screen as the name suggests.

[Rex]

11. Foxnews should be shutdown for inaccurate news reporting.

Or be forced to change their name from a news station to an entertainment station IMO. I could take on every Foxnews 'pundit' all at once and still would have spare brainpower to bake a cake and surf the internet. :eyes:

The tragedy is when people believe anything Foxnews says. Sad.

[AllegroRondo]

12. Or sued for false advertising

"fair and balanced?" hardly.