Defending Fox News: A Liberal's Perspective

1215 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Journalism as a profession

In the article, “A liberal’s defense of Fox News”, Susan Estrich argues that the claims against Fox News are invalid and quite lacking. Estrich herself works at Fox News as a commentator and she seems to be quite qualified for her job as she is a tenured and titled law and politics professor at University of Southern California. For most of the part, Estrich delivers what seems to be a solid defense of Fox News. Estrich particularly writes the article amidst criticism faced by two journalists of Fox News regarding not following proper journalistic procedure in two separate interview that they had. The article was published in 2005 when the US was dealing with the aftermath of Iraq War and also faced several other issues of deficit. Estrich defends the actions by Fox News and further tries to paint Fox News as a news channel that follows proper journalistic integrity. Despite the article appearing to be convincing, I would not recommend the article to WRI 101 freshmen because the …show more content…

Estrich not only falls prey to generalization fallacy but also to faulty cause and special pleading fallacies. The greater issue with Estrich’s arguments is that the premise in her arguments are not supported by strong evidence. In many cases, Estrich does not provide any evidence for the claims that she makes. The lack of evidence and the use of fallacies collectively make Estrich’s article a very poor defense of Fox News. It should also be understood that many of Estrich’s arguments are also not explicitly mentioned and hence an average reader might not be able to infer Estrich’s arguments. Indeed, Estrich could have made her argument stronger by supporting her claims by strong evidence and writing in a clearer and concise

Show More
Related

  • Summary Of Clay Shirky's Article A Rant About Women

    549 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the article “A Rant About Women” by Clay Shirky he explains how adult males are better at furthering themselves, how females have more pressure about how the world views them. More men are usually the ones lying than women for career purposes. Shirky’s article starts a little sexist to with some tough criticism made towards women entering the job market. The author and I shared similar experiences such as lying to get ahead in our respective lives, as well as differences such as blaming a certain gender for one's wrong doing. and I was fortunate enough to not go through this.

    Read More

  • Informing America: 'Fake' News Programs

    1163 Words  | 3 Pages

    “Fake” news programs, such as The Daily Show, Zinser reasonably argues, have the potential to dilute mass media and deceive viewers. The Daily Show has been straightforward about its lack of legitimacy as a hard hitting news program, but “the show’s content and guest list suggest otherwise” (Zinser 367). Zinser indicates that The Daily Show should hold itself to higher standards because “people might well think they’re being fully or sufficiently informed while watching” (367). In other words, Zinser believes that if viewers tune in with the expectation of becoming informed and The Daily Show’s content consists of significant topics, the creators ...

    Read More

  • Critical Evaluation: Michael Moore’s “Idiot Nation”

    1051 Words  | 3 Pages

    If it was not apparent enough that America’s education system is failing, Michael Moore’s “Idiot Nation” openly explains to us about the truth. America, for being the richest country, is behind in the educational standpoint. America needs to rethink their standards when it comes to education. America is more focused on corporate earning than educating our youth. The author of “Idiot Nation” makes the reader think about how America is viewed in the world. The purpose of Michael Moore’s essay is to point out what is wrong with this nation and also give the reader the motivation to actually do something about the situation at hand. Moore is trying to make readers aware of where we send our children. The author is trying to shock readers with the facts to do something to improve the American education system.

    Read More

  • Fox News: King of the Cable News

    682 Words  | 2 Pages

    Fox News is constantly being bombarded with accusations of media bias, furthermore, a number of different instances of have occurred which question the validity of Fox News (Groeling). These instances occur throughout normal news broadcasts. Some of the more recent, and grossly biased broadcasts, were from the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections. Historically the Fox News Channel is known to lean heavily to the right, or on the republican spectrum. President Barrack Obama’s political party is widely known to the public as being democratic. Statistically, to this day according to studies over 17 million households receive some form of the Fox News Channel (Auletta). The Fox News Channel is published through a number of different channels to its viewers. These channels include: Television, radio, newspaper, internet and more increasingly electro...

    Read More

  • The Decline in Journalistic Substance: Does it Matter?

    965 Words  | 2 Pages

    Fallows writes that this is an age of “truthiness.” The age of mass misinformation is upon us. I remember reading about the age of yellow journalism for a high school history class. We were assigned to read Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle. We all know the story Sinclair tells. Like his book, the news of those times was written to support a certain viewpoint or perspective. I have often wondered where are the critics of today’s yellow journalism. How is Fox News that much different from the Hearst version of news in 1916? The difference is not apparent to me. However, Americans are less likely to care. We have much lower standards for everything. It is almost as though Vietnam and Nixon were the beginning of the end of American optimism and a sense of real decency. It is as though those two pivot...

    Read More

  • The Effects of Entertaining Politics on American Society

    1861 Words  | 4 Pages

    Amarasingam, Amarnath. The Stewart/Colbert Effect: Essays on the Real Impacts of Fake News. Jefferson, NC: McFarland &,, 2011. Print.

    Read More

  • Interdisciplinary Studies Questions and Answers

    1286 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the Beyond Borders textbook on pages 60-74 Michael Parenti’s article “Mass Media: For the Many, by the Few” goes into great detail of the few corporations that control the media and the costs of this practice. Let us first discuss what classifies as media. We have newspapers, magazines, radio, films, television, etc. Television and radio are the most dominated forms of media that are in the hands of four giant networks, which are, ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX. These media corporations not only own television networks but other forms of media, such as; cable companies, book publishing houses, movie studios, satellite television, etc. Since the broadcast industry has failed to provide adequate regulation policies the competition has decreased, and this has caused a large economic influence. The competition was supposed to lower prices, instead there has been an increase in cable rates and phone rates. In addition, media owners don’t hesitate to exercise control over news content. They frequently kill stories they dislike and in other ways inject their own preferences. In other words, they determine which person, which facts, which version of the facts, and which ideas shall reach the public. The media can also have a political influence. “Progressive candidates are not only competing against well-financed opponents but also against the media’s many frivolous distractions. It is nearly impossible for these candidates to try and run a meaningful campaign because the media will withhold their media coverage .” The few corporations can spin the media any which way. In sum, the media is ne...

    Read More

  • Research Paper On Trayvon Martin

    627 Words  | 2 Pages

    Mifflin, Lawrie. "At the new Fox News Channel, the buzzword is fairness, separating news from bias.." The New York Times. The New York Times, 6 Oct. 1996. Web. 25 Apr. 2014. .

    Read More

  • Public Opinion and Television

    5266 Words  | 11 Pages

    In the second chapter I will deal with "media control" and show how television can be abused by political powers in order to direct the public opinion. After describing the general effects of such influences I will finally return to the example of America and analyse the social and political effects of Rupert Murdoch´s "media monopoly" in the Unites States. Finally I will explain the methods of mass manipulation employed by his Fox News Channel, which are outlined in Robert Greenwald´s film OUTFOXED.

    Read More

  • The Powerful Effect of Fake News

    2875 Words  | 6 Pages

    From the beginning days of the printing press to the always evolving internet of present day, the media has greatly evolved and changed over the years. No one can possibly overstate the influential power of the new media of television on the rest of the industry. Television continues to influence the media, which recently an era of comedic television shows that specialize in providing “fake news” has captivated. The groundbreaking The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and its spin-off The Colbert Report have successfully attracted the youth demographic and have become the new era’s leading political news source. By parodying news companies and satirizing the government, “fake news” has affected the media, the government, and its audience in such a way that Bill Moyers has claimed “you simply can’t understand American politics in the new millennium without The Daily Show,” that started it all (PBS).

    Read More

  • Fallacies And Deception Essay

    434 Words  | 1 Pages

    Being able to thoroughly analyze the content of any media empowers the public, giving them their own opinion. Modern media has a sly way of brainwashing its audience, whether it’s convincing you that the war on terror is a defense for the United States, or that being a socialist means wanting the destruction of the current government. Interestingly enough, this brainwashing mechanism has been used for ages, increasing in complexity and deception by the minute. The ignorance of the

    Read More

  • Political Changes In American Politics

    1777 Words  | 4 Pages

    A comprehensive study compared U.S. media outlets to political figures in terms of how Conservative or Liberal the politician or the media source was. This was done by counting the number of times each cited different think tanks and policy groups. “Our results show a strong liberal bias. All of the news outlets except Fox News’ Special Report and the Washington Times received a score to the left of the average member of Congress” (Groseclose and Milyo 1192). It follows logic that because of this bias, Americans will be split on which media is consumed. If one is a Republican, he or she is likely to watch, listen to, or read Republican biased material. The same goes for a Democrat. People tend to read what affirms their beliefs (Morris 711). The media may be the largest obstacle in the way of a party free society. The advent of new technology and the access to near limitless information about political candidates should be a sure-fire way to ensure the public knows the truth about the history of each candidate and what he or she stands for, but sadly the popular media, just like any other businesses, need to make

    Read More

  • Media Bias and Ethical Journalism: A Trump Perspective

    1263 Words  | 3 Pages

    These facts are overshadowed when Trump emphatically criticizes the media by saying, “I know why I get bad treatment from the New York Times. It’s because it’s owned by Mexico”. Trump’s outrageously disparaging rhetoric overwhelms the objective facts presented by liberal media outlets, painting them as biased, while distracting the populace from the accurate content presented.

    Read More

  • Argumentative Essay On Media Bias

    875 Words  | 2 Pages

    Media journalism plays a significant and powerful role in delivering news content, and in reporting on American politics especially. Millions of

    Read More

  • Social Movement Protests

    791 Words  | 2 Pages

    However there is tremendous demand on news organization to make a profit. This is only achievable is by selling their audience to advertisers, mainstream large markets then cater to the mass audience. Fearful of losing their market shares these organizations tend to reduce their coverage of serious political debate, and thus abandoned their responsibility for educating and informing citizens, the favor of material intended for entertainment (Heywood, 181). In addition news organizations targeting niche markets instead opt to provide alternative information to unsatisfied audiences with whatever they can find in the mainstream media. Usually mainstream journalists are inclined initially to censor information to avoid unpopular or controversies. And it is that information which niche media has an incentive tackle, especially stories about human rights violation. In Lawson’s book he discusses how Mexico’s media led to increased coverage by niche media, then by mainstream media of the corruption by its government he

    Read More

More about Defending Fox News: A Liberal's Perspective

Open Document