Fox News Posts Fake Kerry Article on Website

D

dennis_t

CAGiversary!
Their main political reporter, Carl Cameron, posted a fake story Friday about a supposed Kerry speech, complete with made-up quotes from Kerry.

It'll be interesting to see if this gets as much attention as the CBS fiasco. I guess they really are earning their nickname, Faux News.

It also raises a lot of questions about just how unbiased Cameron is, given that the fake story is full of that PAD-level "humor" that Limbaugh lovers gobble up.

They've since taken down the fake story and put up a retraction.

Link to archive of fake story: http://www.masstort.org/fox/FOXNews_com%20-%20You%20Decide%202004%20-%20Trail%20Tales%20-%20BTrail%20Tales-B%20What's%20That%20Face.htm

Link to retraction:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,134166,00.html
 
Well, the fake newstory thing is funny (can you imagine what a field day Fox would have if they found out that some other network's anchors spent their time writing fake Bush-bashing newstories for fun?), but I'm rather doubting the photoshopped picture thing. I'd say it could rather easily be explained by a difference in the angle of the camera. The first picture seems to have been taken more-or-less directly in front of the two canidates, while the Fox photo looks like it was taken more from Bush's side of the stage (what a surprise :p ) Since Bush would be closer, that would make him appear somewhat taller.

If they were going to go through the trouble of Photoshoping the picture, I think they'd have fixed the fact that he looks like he's trying to remember where he left his keys... (or something. He has a rather vacant, slack-jawed look in the second picture.)
 
[quote name='Drocket']Well, the fake newstory thing is funny (can you imagine what a field day Fox would have if they found out that some other network's anchors spent their time writing fake Bush-bashing newstories for fun?), but I'm rather doubting the photoshopped picture thing. I'd say it could rather easily be explained by a difference in the angle of the camera. The first picture seems to have been taken more-or-less directly in front of the two canidates, while the Fox photo looks like it was taken more from Bush's side of the stage (what a surprise :p ) Since Bush would be closer, that would make him appear somewhat taller.

If they were going to go through the trouble of Photoshoping the picture, I think they'd have fixed the fact that he looks like he's trying to remember where he left his keys... (or something. He has a rather vacant, slack-jawed look in the second picture.)[/quote]

Point taken....that's why I provided a disclaimer with the link.

I've since learned that not only is Cameron their chief political reporter, he's also the reporter assigned to the Kerry campaign!

So, Fox's man on Kerry is blatantly biased against his subject. I'm sure their viewers are getting nothing but the straight, unvarnished truth from him......
 
I can't stand how you idiots keep trying to find stuff to attack people with.

They admitted it was a mistake, removed it and moved on - which is more than anyone can say for CBS.
 
[quote name='Scrubking']I can't stand how you idiots keep trying to find stuff to attack people with.

They admitted it was a mistake, removed it and moved on - which is more than anyone can say for CBS.[/quote]

Except that CBS did admit their report was a mistake.

Of course, both networks showed more intestinal fortitude than Bush ever has in admitting a mistake....
 
A follow-up post from the blogger who uncovered this example of Fox News bias:

I will spare you any pretense of mock surprise that Fox News is ridiculously biased against the Kerry campaign. But it's one thing to know it and another to get such a blazing and undeniable example of it as a story with fabricated Kerry-bashing quotes put together by the Fox News reporter covering the Kerry campaign.

(Carl Cameron, the reporter in question, according to Fox spokesman Paul Schur, is Fox's 'chief political correspondent'.)

But it brings up a point raised in an article by Howie Kurtz a few days back.

On Monday Kurtz discussed a study by the Center for Media and Public Affairs that showed that Fox News coverage of Kerry was overwhelmingly negative.

Kurtz got these quotes from Cameron's boss Brit Hume ...

Brit Hume, Fox's Washington managing editor, whose "Special Report" was examined by the study, says he's surprised by the anti-Kerry findings. "Our day-in, day-out coverage by Carl Cameron has been extremely fair to Kerry, and the Kerry campaign has recognized this," he says.

"We did a lot on the Swift Boat Veterans. We thought it was a totally legitimate story and found it an appalling lapse by many of our competitive news organizations that were treating that story like it was cancerous." But even there, Hume says, "we were abundantly fair to John Kerry's side."

"Extremely fair" to Kerry? "Abundantly fair" about the Swift Boat stuff?

The same reporter who made up these 'Kerry quotes'?

"Women should like me! I do manicures."
"Didn't my nails and cuticles look great? What a good debate!"

"I'm metrosexual — [Bush's] a cowboy."

Kurtz could do us all a favor and get Hume on the horn to see if he's still willing to call Cameron "extremely fair to Kerry."

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/
 
Fox New has some dumbass on today saying that people like Bush because Bush is very religous and that he has strangth because of it. But Bush isn't putting religoin before politics. Hello!?!?! Anyone awake over there?! They should have pounded him into the ground because of that.

The main reason I hate Bush is because he's putting religoin before the Constution.
 
[quote name='dennis_t']Here's another touch of Fox News deviltry....they photoshopped a debate picture to make Bush look taller!

link:
http://www.conspire.com/fox-photoshop.jpg

Of course, this one is from a conspiracy web site, so caveat lector....[/quote]

Good thing you put the disclaimer there because that website has a very poor conspiracy theory or they just know jack about photography angles and such. Hell it's not even the same picture or taken at the same time as they are clearly standing closer together and then further apart, which could also effect their compared heights.

And yeah FOX News is damn biased, but what can ya do. I find the NY Times is biased too and has printed made-up stories before as well, yet it's still fairly regarded, in fact you've posted a few articles from there I think. Also you won't see this FOX thing get half as much coverage as the CBS thing, because it was not primetime network news where millions were watching, nor is it a legnedary anchor like Dan Rather. Regardless this guy from FOX should be fired or at the very least suspended and taken off political reporting. Anyhow, the mainstream media has some serious problems, and unfortunately I don't think we'll ever see them be truly fair & balanced in our lifetime.
 
[quote name='Duo_Maxwell'][quote name='dennis_t']Here's another touch of Fox News deviltry....they photoshopped a debate picture to make Bush look taller!

link:
http://www.conspire.com/fox-photoshop.jpg

Of course, this one is from a conspiracy web site, so caveat lector....[/quote]

Regardless this guy from FOX should be fired or at the very least suspended and taken off political reporting. Anyhow, the mainstream media has some serious problems, and unfortunately I don't think we'll ever see them be truly fair & balanced in our lifetime.[/quote]


So Dan Rather shouldn't be punished at all, but this guy should be fired? Why?
 
No, that isn't at all what I was implying, I think Dan Rather should totally be fired or at least punished and never allowed to do the Nightly News or 60 minutes again. But CBS is too weak to fire him.

Actually, Dan Rather is even worse IMO because after so many years doing the Nightly News, he should know important good fact checking is in journalism, instead he chose to shirk his duty as a journalist and thusly should def. be punished.
 
[quote name='dennis_t'][quote name='Scrubking']I can't stand how you idiots keep trying to find stuff to attack people with.

They admitted it was a mistake, removed it and moved on - which is more than anyone can say for CBS.[/quote]

Except that CBS did admit their report was a mistake.

Of course, both networks showed more intestinal fortitude than Bush ever has in admitting a mistake....[/quote]

Dennis, I actually think you are a decent left of center poster on this forum but I take issue with your statements.

The problem with the Rather story is that he was emphatic when questioned that they checked thier story and it was accurate.

And they hung on for several weeks to that position.

From what I read about the Fox story, they F'd it up and printed a retraction.

You are smart and reasonable, albeit wrong politically, I think you can at least conceede a (1) a difference in response between the networks and (2) a difference in the speed with which each issue was resolved.

CTL

***

As an aside, it appears to me you can link to anything, including that I have two vaginas on the internet.
 
The problem with Fox on this issue is less that they published the story (though how exactly that happened is an interesting story, I'm sure...) and more the fact that they spend time writing blatently anti-Kerry articles for their own amusement. Its quite clear that the person they have assigned to covering Kerry despises him, and that's not a situation that leads to 'fair and balanced' reporting.

As I said (sort of, in an aside above), can you imagine the field day that Fox News would have if another network had made this blunder, only with Bush as the target instead? Regardless of how it happened or who was responsible for it, Fox would have paraded it around for weeks as an example of the liberal media pushing an evil, left-wing agenda, all the while reminding their audence of who you can turn to to fair and balanced coverage. When it happens to them, though... oops, sorry, our mistake, never mind.

Personally, though, I don't even think that Cameron needs to be reprimanded, let alone fired (though whoever let the story slip through onto the website needs a talking-to...) What he does or thinks on his own time is his own business. What they need to do, though, is assign a truly non-partisan reporter to give unbaiased coverage the Kerry campaign, unless they want their 'Fair and Balanced Coverage' to turn into a joke. Wait, never mind, too late...
 
[quote name='CTLesq'][quote name='dennis_t'][quote name='Scrubking']I can't stand how you idiots keep trying to find stuff to attack people with.

They admitted it was a mistake, removed it and moved on - which is more than anyone can say for CBS.[/quote]

Except that CBS did admit their report was a mistake.

Of course, both networks showed more intestinal fortitude than Bush ever has in admitting a mistake....[/quote]

Dennis, I actually think you are a decent left of center poster on this forum but I take issue with your statements.

The problem with the Rather story is that he was emphatic when questioned that they checked thier story and it was accurate.

And they hung on for several weeks to that position.

From what I read about the Fox story, they F'd it up and printed a retraction.

You are smart and reasonable, albeit wrong politically, I think you can at least conceede a (1) a difference in response between the networks and (2) a difference in the speed with which each issue was resolved.

CTL

[/quote]

I absolutely concede that Fox moved much quicker than CBS, CTL. After all, they knew they had a made-up story on their hands from the get-go. Rather really thought he had proven the story, beyond a shadow of a doubt, and stuck by it until he found out differently. Then he did the right thing and admitted his mistake.

In the end, I think both networks did a good job in their retractions. And I think the point raised by someone else earlier is completely valid: CBS's error made more of a splash because, let's face it, this is Dan f@#i!ng Rather who completely shaq-fued up a major piece on the President of the United States.

However, there is no way I would ever let Carl Cameron cover the Kerry campaign again, now that he has put his bias on public display. They should yank him off that story immediately and assign another reporter if they want to preserve their journalistic credibility.

CBS already has taken a similar tack, spiking a story about the Bush administration's misstatements regarding Iraq's alleged nuclear arsenal because they figure they now have no credibility on the subject. I would hope Fox would show the same interest in keeping their hands clean. Surely they have another reporter over there who'd like to step up and cover a national campaign?
 
[quote name='David85']They both should be fired, problem solved. :)


Dennis T center...

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA[/quote]

Hey, I got no problem with that solution. Rather's never been my cup of tea.

As for the rest of your post....Huh?
 
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