Fox News came out swinging at all the “snobs” that are ignoring the tragedy of Anna Nicole Smith and focusing on the silly Iraq war.
Fox News host John Gibson remains fixated on the late Playboy playmate. Every day since Smith’s death on Feb. 8, Gibson has devoted significant segments of his show “The Big Story” to Anna Nicole.
On his radio show on Friday, Gibson attempted to defend his coverage. He accused reporters — such as CNN’s Anderson Cooper — of “news-guy snobbery” and attacked them for covering the Iraq war. Mocking Cooper, he said, “Oh, ‘There’s a war on! There’s a war on!’ Maybe, just maybe, people are a little weary, Mr. Cooper, of your war coverage, and they’d like a little something else.”
The exact day the whole new broke about A.N. I stopped watching CNN & Fox News. I just can’t stand that are kids are dying each day and the news wants to talk something we all now what happened (I’m all for due process) but this is not news.
I’m back to the Nightly News at 5:30 cable news is just not worth the headache.
Ah yes, the wizards at Fox as leading proponent of the “Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain…” school of journalism.
Just because they destroyed CNN and MSNBC is no reason to get pissy, kids.
“Oh, ‘There’s a war on! There’s a war on!’ Maybe, just maybe, people are a little weary, Mr. Cooper, of your war coverage, and they’d like a little something else.”
If Americans don’t want to participate in the national dialog, fuck them.
I don’t “like” hearing about the war every day, but I think its important to be informed, vote, and speak out. If you think Anna Nicole, who has zero impact on the lives of people around the world, is more important than the war, the economy, education, health care, or the revitalized public interest in the hula hoop, then you, like the rest of the Fox cadre of Bush apologists, are a fool.
Sure, the annointed “news” arm of the Republic Party thinks she’s important – there’s hundreds of millions of $$ up for grabs!
If she had died broke, they wouldn’t waste 10 seconds on her – but money, as Cyndi said, changes everything. Who gets in on that pile of cash? Inquiring plutocrats want to know!
Can’t give Fox Snooze credit for everything, James. Time-Warner doesn’t need help to screw up any portion of its media empire.
James, how exactly did they ‘destroy’ CNN?
In case you hadn’t noticed, they passed CNN in # of total viewers a while back.
I’m sorry, was Fox the only network covering Anna Nicole’s three ring circus? Really? The only one, huh?
#7 – ratings. Ad revenue. The only two ways that matter. For a few years Fox News was getting better ratings that the other three combined. That has since changed, but they are still far and away #1.
#3 – This says more about the audience than the abilities of the Fox “news” team. But then O’Reilly claims he never told a guest to shut up and Coulter claims to be a female, so lies and distortions are probably the norm there. They must be very proud at Murdoch HQ, I suppose.
Don’t forget American Idol and NASCAR helped Fox “find their level” in the American ethos.
What’s next? I predict a program named “Fair Play” extolling the virtues of a creationist high shool teacher fighting off his homosexual tendencies.
Al Jazeera English via the net is the best $6 a month a person can spend, and I have yet to see an Anna Nicole story; that in it of itself is a consumer surplus.
#10 – TJG
You a trip! 🙂
“…claims to be a female.” Yes, she certainly does give male-to-female transsexuals a bad name… If only Rush wasn’t so stuck on butch boys, they could definitely be an item. More interesting than TomKat, doncha think?
In the past I bought cow manure to work into the soil of my vegetable garden. I’ve found something that works a lot better. On clear days I put a TV tuned to Fox News next to the plants. Last summer I grew several 30 pound tomatoes.
3,
Shouldn’t your talk be less military and more anna nicole?
#9 – #7 – ratings. Ad revenue. The only two ways that matter. For a few years Fox News was getting better ratings that the other three combined. That has since changed, but they are still far and away #1.
Comment by malren — 2/27/2007 @ 9:55 am
So?
What puzzles me when I read the comments posted here is how illogical they are. I read “parents today suck”, “the roads are full of bad drivers”, “most Americans are fat and stupid”.
Well, if the general population is a bunch a drooling mouth breathers, why should I believe that Fox is better because more people watch them? Didn’t the overwelming masses on this blog already confirm that the overwelming masses are idiots? Wouldn’t that make Fox a news source for idiots?
I don’t know… I’m just asking 🙂
I get my news from Comedy Central between 11 and midnight. Other than that, I use news.google.com
forget the rest of “tv news”.. worthless all of it
Why watch 24 hour news channels at all? 24 hours worth of filler doesn’t do it for me. I would like to see all their ratings go down. You can have them all. I get all the news and information I need right here on the Internet.
Actually, Lauren, Fox has marginally higher viewership- that’s hardly destruction. CNN still owns the key demographics. MSNBC about doubkled their earlier numbers, too, despite still being in third place.
Don’t you guys realize that news shows in this country are now entertainment shows. If you want to see news watch the BBC.
#21 – Cable news networks do contain a lot of filler. Yes.
Cable news and network news both have more infotainment than anyone needs. Yes.
Local news is 100% devoid of any useful content at all. Yes.
The BBC contains far more complete international coverage. Yes.
But your stand of writing off American news and only watching the BBC is…respectfully… bullshit.
If you really want to be informed, you collate news from a variety of sources. And CNN and MSNBC do a reasonable job of presenting at least the top headlines, and a slightly better job of giving a forum to experts and policy makers. It isn’t remotely worthless. It just isn’t complete.
And sadly, there are too many conservatives owning news outlets to allow for what we need, truly critical coverage…
I get all my news from Dvorak Uncensored. Which is unfair and off-balanced.
Lauren, Fox’s marginal edge in viewership is haqrdly ‘destruction,’ asp as CNN still owns the key demographics.
Jennifer – ‘destruction’ wasn’t my term. As for myself, I was just pointing out that, lamentable as it is, they do have the lead in overall viewership across demos…
Outside of her family, what the eff is the attraction of Anna Nichole Smith?
Outside of the imbiciles who actually watch Fox Spews, who cares what they show?
Outside of those who stop and stare at auto accidents and the like, who could possibly give a shit?
How the eff will any of this save American and Iraqi lives?
John Gibson isn’t Fox News…..he’s a commentary show. Bill O’Reillhy isn’t a news show, he’s a commentary show. There is actually only a small amount of Fox News that is actually a news program…..just like CNN and MSNBC.
Good or bad, better or worse, Fox is the leading cable News Network in all demographic groups. I don’t think Liberal’s and Leftists are considered a demographic group…but who knows…. 🙂
Several of Fox News channels shows are in the top 5 watched cable shows, O’Reillhy is the number 1 watched cable show in the country.
Fox is not the same as Fox News….they are 2 seperate channels, both owned by Murdoch(who supports Hillary).
Am I the only one here that doesn’t concern himself on how many viewers something has or how popular a particular product is to gauge how good it is?
So what, Fox news has more viewers. “Titanic” has the highest gross of any movie. Windows has the highest number of users. Yet, are any of these a bastion of what one would consider “good” or are they just “adequate”?
The mediocre settle for the adequate. I aspire for something more, though I don’t always get it.
After 24-7 of Fox covering blond white women, the goofballs on “Fox News Watch” then self-righteously complain about “the mainstream media” getting the big stories wrong!
Makes my head feel like exploding.
PS: i want to mention what a great photo that is of Smith. I know it may have killed her trying to get that thin but still…
I drive around all day and so I get my news from: 1. NPR radio and the BBC, which is also on my local PBS radio station, and 2. From podcasts of other good radio shows.
Good radio is where it’s at, kids!