Fox News: Fair and Balanced?

It�s ironic that I had a hard time finding tonight�s story considering how much has happened in the last few days. There was definitely plenty of subject material to put to use, but none of it really interested me. Our president once again sparked outrage because he revealed classified information to the Russians and fired FBI director James Comey last week. And while there has been outcry and anger and lots of talk, nothing has happened. These events changed the minds of nobody. News anchors read out this information dramatically with �breaking news� plastered on the screen. Late-night comedians mocked the president and his actions. Surrogates for the president lamely tried to defend the president�s actions. And then the president took to Twitter to threaten and accuse his opposition of who knows what (doing their job?). We have been down this road too many times. Nobody�s mind has been changed by these events. The people who believed that our president is a puppet of the Russian government still believe they are right. The people who believed that this Russian collusion scandal is a witch hunt to overthrow the president still believe they are right. There is talk of impeachment. But there has been no action.

            To follow my rule about not talking about Donald Trump, I�m not going to talk about him. But I will talk about how he is being covered by a certain news organization: Fox News. When news breaks about information coming from inside the White House (such as the declassifying of information to foreign ambassadors), Fox News does not talk about the fact that the president just betrayed our allies and possibly committed treason. They instead decide to talk about how this information was leaked to the press. They aren�t angry or concerned about the information from the leaks, they are angry that the information was being leaked. It�s like being a teller at a bank and witnessing a robber empty the bank�s vault. Instead of trying to bring the robber to justice, you instead get angry with the bystander who called the police to report the situation. It doesn�t make sense. Unless you, the teller, are friends with the robber and want to help him escape.

            It�s na�ve to suggest that Fox News is �fair and balanced� when they do things like this. It is the duty of the journalist to inform the people of the truth and what is happening. It keeps the government honest and is essential to democracy. Leaking is a way of completing that task. It forces the government to be honest or risk losing the trust of the people. That is the opposite of what Fox is doing. They are acting like anti-journalists who think that nothing should be disturbed and everybody should keep their heads down. It�s propaganda.

            Jon Stewart devoted 16 years of his life to trying to get the country to understand that fact. Those 16 years will have been wasted unless we continue to hold Fox accountable for their actions. In the words of Stewart himself, �We must, together as a nation, stop watching Fox News.�

            Tonight�s blog is short. I have been experiencing writer�s block for the past few hours and I couldn�t find a story that grabbed my attention. Hopefully I�ll have something more interesting next week. If you have something that you want me to talk about, feel free to let me know. That�s it for this week.