This is my first Diary and I'm aware that much has been said about this Republican PR machine in the past. In this diary I will attempt to give you my take as Australian that knew little about Fox until this election started.
It has been about a year since I wrote my Diary and in view of recent events I thouht I should update. Thing is, I refuse to watch these people now so my update is based on heresay, albeit MASSIVE heresay. From what I've read, it seems if anything FOX has become worse with Obama becoming President and this Beck Turkey carrying on like a circus freak.
I've wondered many times why Fox hasn't been called out more often, they don't do news, never have !
Ok I started watching Fox news about 2 years ago. The O'Reilly Factor, H&C etc are on in the morning Australian time so I watched while having my morning coffee, go..ing through emails, and updating my own website. I had just signed up to Foxtel who are a cable provider in Australia and I knew nothing about Fox news.
To understand where I am coming from I should make it clear that I also knew very little about US politics at this time. Of course I knew George Bush, The Clintons, Al Gore and few other of the more well known pollies. And believe it or not I did not really understand the difference between a Republican and a Democrat, believe me this was even more confusing at first with Fox labeling Democrats as Liberals, in Australia our conservative party is called the Liberal party, and honestly there is not a great deal of difference between our 2 major parties One last thing to add before I get the point, I am what we call a swing voter, I think you guys call us independants or undecided.
Anyway to my story. When I began watching "The Factor", "H&C", etc I was amused and even entertained watching these guys arguing and talking over the top of each other and not having access to much other American news shows I was taken in by there constant reminder that they are fair and balanced and according to Fox the rest of the media in the US are corrupt, and they drummed this BS constantly. O'Reilly assured me that MSNBC and you guys here at DKos were evil incarnate.
Well after a few months of having their Republican agenda drilled in to my brain I started to wake up, I didn't just smell a rat, it was giant New York sewer rat. Now I could list the plethora of outright lies and half truths I realized they had been spinning at me but I doubt there's enough megabytes on Dkos and I think most of you know anyway and I haven't time to write a book. So if I could just make a few comments on the various FOX hosts and contributors.
Bill O'Reilly : You had me sucked in at first with your BS about not being for one side or the other and NO SPIN. This is biggest load of horse manure I've ever heard. O'Reilly you are a Republican to the core and a hypocrite of the highest order. Again I could list a plethora of the BS this oaf has spewed out but I think you all know, so just one. You are such a patriot and you nearly burst blood vessels when someone speaks ill of the US, why Bill are you not on Todd Palins case, all Reverend Wright said was GD America, Palin and his cohorts hate the US to the point that they want their own country.
Sean Hannity : Where to begin ? H&C, Fair and Balanced, the question is to laugh or cry. Since Hannity realized Barack was going to be the Dem nominee he stopped bashing Hillary and joined Karl Rove in rummaging through the Obama's trash cans. Alan Colmes is a nice guy but one can see he was hand picked for his inability to bring any balance whatsoever to this farce. Hannity has used this show to bring an hour a day of smearing Barack Obama. His reason of course is "We don't know anything about this guy" But gee we didn't know anything about Palin either, when the media did a little digging on Palin, Hannity and O'Reilly were outraged. Sean Hannity is an utter disgrace, his latest mantra is "Journalism died in 2008". What the hell would this GOP groupie know about journalism.
Greta Van Susteran : She was part of the group playing endless loops of Rev Wright under the guise of "We don't know this guy". However when Palin was selected for McCains VP she rushed to Wasilla to do a week of stories about what a wonderful person Sarah was, interviewing friends and neighbours and obviously edited out any negatives. No mention of Troopergate, no mention of the seccessionists, it was a week of showing a fluffy, cuddly, patriotic American family spew Yep journalism should did die in 2008. This was a freaking joke.
Now some regular Fox contributors
Dick Morris : What a truly nasty little man. God forbid, but I think this guy is going to have a heart attack at times as he tries to spit out his anti Democrat rhetoric without taking a breath.
Karl Rove : Do I really need to say anything, though I should mention that the so called dirt on Obama turned up on H&C about the same time Rove became a regular.
Juan Williams : Is this guy really a Democrat ???, honestly he tries so hard to appease O'Reilly and Hannity I wonder, maybe he gets a fat pay check.
Laura Ingraham : Awful person, I wouldn't care if she supported Fidel Castro, this woman is just a nasty piece of work, snide, dishonest and truly brainwashed.
Ann Coulter : Just YUKK, do people like this really exist, or is this a hologram.
Newt Gingrich : Nuff said EH
Dennis Miller : The guy can make me laugh but somewhere along the line someone convinced him boogey men were coming for America and Bush was going to save him.
Michelle Malkin : see Laura Ingraham but perhaps double it. She's not seen so much on Fox these days, perhaps O'Reilly realized her website was the one truly espousing hate.
Bernie Goldstein : Just go away, you have nothing useful to say AT ALL
There's plenty of others and a few brave Democrats like Kirsten Powers but I'll leave some room for others that may wish to commen