The Dangers of Ideological News (Part 2 of 2)

By Nathan Ausubel

The danger of ideological news goes well beyond the reporting of “no-go-zones.” According to many experts, Fox News and MSNBC not only report faulty information but also influence the political process. In the weeks leading up to an election, TV channels are known to favor one party’s candidate above the other candidate, so much so that they impact actual voting habits. When he was running for reelection, Obama only received 6% of positive coverage from Fox News, whereas 46% of coverage was negative.  From the liberal MSNBC, Obama received the opposite treatment: 39% of positive coverage versus 15% of negative coverage.¹ Mitt Romney received a similarly biased treatment as Obama’s competitor. Fox gave him 28% of positive coverage and only 12% of negative coverage. MSNBC, once again, proved to be its mirror image, as it gave Romney only 3% of positive coverage and a staggering 71% of negative coverage.¹ Fox News and MSNBC claim that they are committed to balanced coverage of the news, but rather than giving both parties an equal chance to win over voters, they are instead letting ideology get in the way of fair reporting.

Fox News is so biased when reporting elections that it actually influences voting patterns. In 2007, professors Stefano DellaVigna and Ethan Kaplan found that Fox News has a “significant impact on voting for Republican candidates.”² Even after controlling for confounding variables such as town characteristics, the researchers had ample evidence to show that Fox News encourages voter turnout and the conversion of moderate Democrats into Republicans.  They were able to reach such conclusions by comparing voting patterns in 9,256 towns before and after the introduction of Fox News.²

Rupert Murdoch’s TV network has been particularly effective in galvanizing opposition to the Obama administration. For example, the Fox News hosts have given a powerful voice to the critics of the Affordable Care Act, even those with wild conspiracy theories.  The network has also gone so far as to encourage “tea parties” that protest Obama’s tax policies.³ The Obama administration has long since realized that Fox News is not an impartial news source giving balanced coverage of the president. Anita Dunn, the White House communications direction has said that the administration will treat Fox News “the way that we would treat an opponent,” and she accused the network of “undertaking a war against Barack Obama and the White House.”³ While the Obama administration battles with the network, Fox News will continue will continue to promote the interests of the Tea Party and to alienate conservatives from a president once accused of having “a deep-seated hatred for white people.”³ This treatment of the president is, unfortunately, typical of news agencies that find inspiration in ideology instead of in proper news. Rather than informing viewers about Obama’s performance, Fox News is instead spinning a conservative narrative that is encouraging political opposition to the current administration.

Partisan news is a clear danger to this country. It misinforms viewers about events happening around the world, undermines the principles of journalism, and influences the voting process. Unfortunately, the owners of Fox News and MSNBC have rigorously denied that they deliver an ideology rather than a quality product. For example, Rupert Murdoch once said, “I challenge anyone to show me an example of bias in Fox News Channel.”⁴ Obviously, he is far from the truth, and in fact, the public thinks that press accuracy is at its lowest ranking in over two decades.⁵ Still, Fox News and MSNBC remain troublingly popular news agencies, even as they come under scrutiny for biased reporting. TV networks need to shift away from ideologically driven stories, or else they will continue to place unhealthy influence on the American public. Otherwise, the future of journalism is at stake.

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¹ Holcomb, Jesse. “5 facts about Fox.” Pew Research Center. Pew Research Center, 14 Jan. 2014. Web. 1 Feb. 2015.

² DellaVigna, Stefano and Ethan Kaplan. “The Fox News Effect: Media Bias and Voting.” The Quarterly Journal of Economics 122.3 (2007): 1187-1234. Web. 1 Feb. 2015.

³ Carr, David. “The Battle Between the White House and Fox News.” The New York Times. The New York Times Company, 17 Oct. 2009. Web. 1 Feb. 2015.

⁴ Shah, Anup. “Media in the United States.” Global Issues. Global Issues, 28 Jan. 2012. Web. 1 Feb. 2015.

⁵ “Press Accuracy Rating Hits Two Decade Low: Public Evaluations of the News Media: 1985-2009.” Pew Research Center. Pew Research Center, 13 Sep. 2009. Web. 1 Feb. 2015.

The Dangers of Ideological News (Part 1 of 2)

By Nathan Ausubel

Fox News has never had a reputation for impartial reporting. For years, liberals had criticized the news channel for delivering a conservative, politically driven message that has misinformed viewers about events happening around the world. However, until recently, Fox News made few steps to correct the damage, until a controversy broke out last month.

In mid-January, Fox came under scrutiny for releasing a fictitious story about “no-go-zones” in Europe. According to Fox anchors, countries such as England and France were filled with regions that were off limit to non-Muslims and operated under Shari’a law. The story was obviously false, but Fox insisted on selling the story of Steve Emerson, a “self-described expert on Islamist terrorism.”¹ However, once the story was under scrutiny, Fox surprised many people by taking blame for the sloppy journalism. “To be clear,” said Fox host Julie Banderas, “there is no formal designation of these zones in either country and no credible information to support the assertion that there are specific areas in these countries that exclude individuals based solely on their religion.”¹

This apology was much overdue. For obvious reasons, Fox News should never have published a story that veered so far from the truth. Fox made the right decision to apologize for its mistake, but it needs to realize that a single apology will not make up for years of unreliable reporting. In its mission statement, Fox claims that it stands for “tolerance, open debate, civil discourse, and balanced coverage of the news,” but clearly Fox is not upholding its mission statement.² Instead, it is delivering a partisan message and a conservative agenda.

To be fair, Fox News is not the only news agency known for its biased coverage of events. MSNBC is arguably just as biased, but it lies on the liberal end of the spectrum. In their defense, partisan news sources are not necessarily inherently bad, as long as they deliver high-quality news and tell all sides of an issue.

Unfortunately, Fox News and MSNBC are not living up to these ideals of journalism. In fact, the basic objectivity of journalism is in danger as long as news agencies prioritize ideology above quality news. According to PunditFact, a fact-checking project of the Tampa Bay Times and Poynter Institute, 60% of the statements made on Fox News are at best “mostly false.” MSNBC does not rank much better, as 46% of the statements made on NBC/MSNBC are false. In comparison, 82% of the information told on CNN is at least “half true.”³ The reason that CNN performs so well is that it lies at the center of the ideological spectrum and makes a serious effort to eliminate political biases. In comparison, Fox News and MSNBC are much more likely to invite self-proclaimed experts and pundits with extreme political views to speak on their talk shows.

All across the country, TV channels are cutting back on the amount of quality news and replacing them with ideological opinion pieces that are easily mistaken for hard fact. By embracing this new style of journalism, Fox News and MSNBC demonstrate that they are no longer committed to journalistic excellence but rather to selling an ideology to a mass audience. Fox News was suffering from this corrupting influence when it released a story about fictitious “no-go-zones” in Europe; it was so concerned with its conservative, anti-foreigner agenda that it forgot to fact-check its sources.

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¹ Mackey, Robert. “Fox News Apologizes for False Claims of Muslim-Only Areas in England and France.” The New York Times. The New York Times Company, 18 Jan. 2015. Web. 1 Feb. 2015.

² “Statement of Purpose.” Fox Nation. Fox News Network, 2015. Web. 1 Feb. 2015.

³ Wemple, Erik. “PunditFact ‘scorecards’ show false statements on Fox News, NBC/MSNBC.” The Washington Post. Nash Holdings, LLC, 8 July 2014. Web. 1 Feb. 2015.