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	<title>MushBrain &#187; fox&#8217;s bias</title>
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		<title>What the heck is FABMA?</title>
		<link>http://mushbrain.net/2009/11/12/what-the-heck-is-fabma/</link>
		<comments>http://mushbrain.net/2009/11/12/what-the-heck-is-fabma/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 12 Nov 2009 23:30:57 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>MushBrain</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[law & politics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[biased coverage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[birther movement]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[birthers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Bret Baier]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[fair and balanced]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[faux news]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Fox News]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[fox's bias]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[glenn beck]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[hannity's video]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[jon stewart]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[news programming]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[opinion programming]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sean hannity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[tea party protests]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[the daily show]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[unfair and unbalanced]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://mushbrain.net/?p=805</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[For a while now I&#8217;ve been toying with the idea of having a section of the blog called FABMA. No, it&#8217;s not another cutesy abbreviation for the latest Hollywood &#8220;it&#8221; couple. (Fabio Viviani and Padma Lakshmi, maybe?) It&#8217;s an acronym for what pops into my head every time I read or see something from Fox [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>For a while now I&#8217;ve been toying with the idea of having a section of the blog called FABMA. No, it&#8217;s not another cutesy abbreviation for the latest Hollywood &#8220;it&#8221; couple. (Fabio Viviani and Padma Lakshmi, maybe?) It&#8217;s an acronym for what pops into my head every time I read or see something from Fox News: &#8220;fair and balanced, my ass.&#8221;<span id="more-805"></span></p>
<p>My idea is that every once in a while I will randomly pull an article or video clip from Fox&#8217;s coverage, and analyze just how objective its &#8220;news&#8221; is. My hypothesis is that this self-proclaimed &#8220;fair and balanced&#8221; source will reveal itself as just the opposite &#8212; FABMA.</p>
<p>Now, obviously, the fact that Fox is biased is not news to the vast majority of humankind. But there are some people &#8212; and I am amazed by how many of them are otherwise normal people &#8212; actually do not see this bias. So, while I doubt many of those people read my blog, this is in part for them. The other part is that I just think it&#8217;ll be fun. Infuriating, but fun.</p>
<p>Now, I don&#8217;t have interns to sit around and watch Fox all day looking for good fodder for my blog. (But let&#8217;s take  a moment to think about how <em>awesome</em> it would be if I did&#8230;ahhh, that was fun.) So for the kickoff of FABMA, I am going to let Jon Stewart do the work. Plus, I&#8217;m sick and I really would like to try to squeeze in a nap today. [EDITOR'S NOTE: That never happened.]</p>
<p>So, here is The Daily Show analyzing Sean Hannity&#8217;s coverage of conservatives protesting health care reform on Capitol Hill last week:</p>
<table style="font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; color: #333333; background-color: #f5f5f5; height: 353px;" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="360">
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<td style="padding:2px 1px 0px 5px;"><a style="color:#333; text-decoration:none; font-weight:bold;" href="http://www.thedailyshow.com" target="_blank">The Daily Show With Jon Stewart</a></td>
<td style="padding:2px 5px 0px 5px; text-align:right; font-weight:bold;">Mon &#8211; Thurs 11p / 10c</td>
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<td style="padding:2px 1px 0px 5px;" colspan="2"><a style="color:#333; text-decoration:none; font-weight:bold;" href="http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-november-10-2009/sean-hannity-uses-glenn-beck-s-protest-footage" target="_blank">Sean Hannity Uses Glenn Beck&#8217;s Protest Footage</a></td>
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<td style="padding: 2px 5px 0px; overflow: hidden; width: 360px; text-align: right;" colspan="2"><a style="color:#96deff; text-decoration:none; font-weight:bold;" href="http://www.thedailyshow.com/" target="_blank">www.thedailyshow.com</a></td>
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<td style="padding:0px;" colspan="2"><object style="display:block" classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" width="360" height="301" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0"><param name="bgcolor" value="#000000" /><param name="flashvars" value="autoPlay=false" /><param name="src" value="http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:cms:item:comedycentral.com:255662" /><param name="wmode" value="window" /><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><embed style="display:block" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="360" height="301" src="http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:cms:item:comedycentral.com:255662" allowfullscreen="true" wmode="window" flashvars="autoPlay=false" bgcolor="#000000"></embed></object></td>
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<td style="padding: 3px; width: 33%;"><a style="font:10px arial; color:#333; text-decoration:none;" href="http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes" target="_blank">Daily Show<br />
Full Episodes</a></td>
<td style="padding: 3px; width: 33%;"><a style="font:10px arial; color:#333; text-decoration:none;" href="http://www.indecisionforever.com" target="_blank">Political Humor</a></td>
<td style="padding: 3px; width: 33%;"><a style="font:10px arial; color:#333; text-decoration:none;" href="http://www.thedailyshow.com/videos/tag/health" target="_blank">Health Care Crisis</a></td>
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<p>Fair? Balanced? My ass!!</p>
<p>Under recent fire from the Obama Administration, which has labeled Fox <a href="http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1929058,00.html" target="_blank">&#8220;opinion journalism masquerading as news,&#8221;</a> Fox executives have <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/10/21/obama-compares-fox-news-talk-radio-says-hes-losing-sleep-controversy/">defended</a> distorted coverage from programs like Hannity and Glenn Beck by characterizing them as opinion programming. Last time I checked, &#8220;opinion&#8221; did not include blatant misrepresentation and outright lies. Wait, wait, let me <a href="http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/opinion" target="_blank">check the definition</a> again. Nope, still doesn&#8217;t.</p>
<p>But even if we throw Fox a bone and assume that anything goes on &#8220;opinion programming&#8221; on a <em>news</em> channel &#8212; and that&#8217;s one HUGE bone; we&#8217;re talking T. Rex bones here &#8212; that still doesn&#8217;t explain the coverage out of their &#8220;news programming.&#8221; Remember this classic?</p>
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<p>In fairness, this idiot <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/06/10/fox-news-changes-terroris_n_106306.html">lost her job</a> after that comment. And she&#8217;s also apparently not what Fox execs consider &#8220;news&#8221; programming. So, what is considered news on the Fox <em>News</em> Channel? Well, not much you&#8217;ve ever heard of.</p>
<p>Again, I&#8217;m not going to reinvent the wheel. Here&#8217;s Jon Stewart.  (For a short version, watch 3:26-6:22.)</p>
<table style="font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; -x-system-font: none; color: #333333; background-color: #f5f5f5; height: 353px;" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="360">
<tbody>
<tr style="background-color:#e5e5e5" valign="middle">
<td style="padding:2px 1px 0px 5px;"><a style="color:#333; text-decoration:none; font-weight:bold;" href="http://www.thedailyshow.com" target="_blank">The Daily Show With Jon Stewart</a></td>
<td style="padding:2px 5px 0px 5px; text-align:right; font-weight:bold;">Mon &#8211; Thurs 11p / 10c</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 14px;" valign="middle">
<td style="padding:2px 1px 0px 5px;" colspan="2"><a style="color:#333; text-decoration:none; font-weight:bold;" href="http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-october-29-2009/for-fox-sake-" target="_blank">For Fox Sake!</a><a></a></td>
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<td style="padding: 2px 5px 0px; overflow: hidden; width: 360px; text-align: right;" colspan="2"><a style="color:#96deff; text-decoration:none; font-weight:bold;" href="http://www.thedailyshow.com/" target="_blank">www.thedailyshow.com</a></td>
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<td style="padding:0px;" colspan="2"><object style="display:block" classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" width="360" height="301" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0"><param name="bgcolor" value="#000000" /><param name="flashvars" value="autoPlay=false" /><param name="src" value="http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:cms:item:comedycentral.com:253738" /><param name="wmode" value="window" /><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><embed style="display:block" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="360" height="301" src="http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:cms:item:comedycentral.com:253738" allowfullscreen="true" wmode="window" flashvars="autoPlay=false" bgcolor="#000000"></embed></object></td>
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<tbody>
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<td style="padding: 3px; width: 33%;"><a style="font:10px arial; color:#333; text-decoration:none;" href="http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes" target="_blank">Daily Show<br />
Full Episodes</a></td>
<td style="padding: 3px; width: 33%;"><a style="font:10px arial; color:#333; text-decoration:none;" href="http://www.indecisionforever.com" target="_blank">Political Humor</a></td>
<td style="padding: 3px; width: 33%;"><a style="font:10px arial; color:#333; text-decoration:none;" href="http://www.thedailyshow.com/videos/tag/health" target="_blank">Health Care Crisis</a></td>
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<p>Ok, so those big name talking heads are just pundits. What are the <em>real </em>newspeople on Fox saying? Well, this Special Report with Bret Baier, which indulges the fanatical &#8220;birther&#8221; movement by accusing the White House of &#8220;brush[ing] aside&#8221; inquiries into Obama&#8217;s citizenship (even after the Supreme Court dismissed two cases challenging the same), is considered news. (Be sure to stay tuned for the &#8220;fair and balanced&#8221; commercial that follows.)</p>
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<div style="font-size:0.9em;"><a href="/watch/1966429-baaamm-fox-news-covers-obamas-citizenship-and-birth-certificate-issue">BAAAMM! Fox News Covers Obama&#8217;s Citizenship and Birth Certificate Issue</a> &#8211; Watch more <a href="http://vodpod.com">Videos</a> at Vodpod.</div>
<p>One word: FABMA!</p>
<p>So now I&#8217;ve laid the groundwork. Keep an eye out for future installments of FABMA. And feel free to post links to your favorite golden nuggets below.</p>
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