Saturday, July 9, 2005
Fox News London terror coverage : terrible
Counterbias put up this quite interesting piece on the way Fox News has been reporting the London terror attacks.
Some interesting bits:
Brian Kilmeade, outspoken conservative and host of Fox & Friends, started the cacophony of egregiousness by belaboring the top-level ranking of global warming and African aid on the G8 agenda. The London attacks were “the first time since 9-11 when they should know, and they do know now, that terrorism should be Number 1,” Kilmeade suggested. “But it's important for them all to be together. I think that works to our advantage, in the Western world's advantage, for people to experience something like this together, just 500 miles from where the attacks have happened.”
In other words, the terror attacks were good for the Western World. Looking for the positives in a disaster is a regular occurrence for journalists exploring the bigger picture. But Kilmeade used the attacks to provide support for his own agenda—that the G8 was too worried about Africa and global warming, issues far from the top on the American Right's agenda. To suggest that terror attacks on London were a good thing because they remind people about terrorism is an incredibly political and rather devious suggestion.
Then, during Fox anchor Brit Hume’s coverage of the London bombings, Hume shifted to an economic perspective of the attacks—not normally a devious form of coverage in a capitalist world. But instead of looking at the economic significance of the attacks on world markets, Hume invoked his own stock portfolio: “I mean, my first thought when I heard -- just on a personal basis, when I heard there had been this attack and I saw the futures this morning, which were really in the tank, I thought, ‘Hmmm, time to buy’.”
“If they had picked France instead of London to hold the Olympics, it would have been the one time we could look forward to where we didn't worry about terrorism. They'd blow up Paris, and who cares?”
July 7th might have been scary enough to shock and awe these on-air personalities, but they aren’t just a guy in a bar commenting on world events—they are the middlemen between the world and Fox's keen audience, and wondering aloud about personal stock market gains due to terror bombing, or wishing terrorist attacks upon France, is problematic to say the least.
Some interesting bits:
Brian Kilmeade, outspoken conservative and host of Fox & Friends, started the cacophony of egregiousness by belaboring the top-level ranking of global warming and African aid on the G8 agenda. The London attacks were “the first time since 9-11 when they should know, and they do know now, that terrorism should be Number 1,” Kilmeade suggested. “But it's important for them all to be together. I think that works to our advantage, in the Western world's advantage, for people to experience something like this together, just 500 miles from where the attacks have happened.”
In other words, the terror attacks were good for the Western World. Looking for the positives in a disaster is a regular occurrence for journalists exploring the bigger picture. But Kilmeade used the attacks to provide support for his own agenda—that the G8 was too worried about Africa and global warming, issues far from the top on the American Right's agenda. To suggest that terror attacks on London were a good thing because they remind people about terrorism is an incredibly political and rather devious suggestion.
Then, during Fox anchor Brit Hume’s coverage of the London bombings, Hume shifted to an economic perspective of the attacks—not normally a devious form of coverage in a capitalist world. But instead of looking at the economic significance of the attacks on world markets, Hume invoked his own stock portfolio: “I mean, my first thought when I heard -- just on a personal basis, when I heard there had been this attack and I saw the futures this morning, which were really in the tank, I thought, ‘Hmmm, time to buy’.”
“If they had picked France instead of London to hold the Olympics, it would have been the one time we could look forward to where we didn't worry about terrorism. They'd blow up Paris, and who cares?”
July 7th might have been scary enough to shock and awe these on-air personalities, but they aren’t just a guy in a bar commenting on world events—they are the middlemen between the world and Fox's keen audience, and wondering aloud about personal stock market gains due to terror bombing, or wishing terrorist attacks upon France, is problematic to say the least.
