Fox (News) Friends is Really Stupid

daver · June 2008

Basically, some guy made up a story about a middle school wherein some kids tossed leftover Easter ham onto a table of Muslim students. Hilarity ensued. It used the name of a _real_ school superintendent. "The story attributed numerous made-up quotes to Superintendent Leon Levesque, including the need to teach kids that "ham is not a toy" and references to developing an "anti-ham response plan."

The nimrod Fox News folk that it was real and ran with it.

The spoof was reported as fact on "Fox and Friends" on April 23. After Levesque contacted Fox, the network aired a retraction.

Among other things, the anchors had quoted Levesque as saying, "All our students should feel welcome in our schools, knowing that they are safe from attacks with ham, bacon, pork chops or any other delicious meat that comes from pigs."

The anchors also told viewers several times, "We are not making this up."

In his slander suit, Levesque who sought $75,000 in damages, said he was ridiculed and overwhelmed for days with phone calls and hate mail, including threatening calls to his home.

U.S. District Judge D. Brock Hornby, who sits in Portland, concluded Tuesday that Fox News was unprofessional in reporting false and "outrageous quotations" without confirming their accuracy, but did not act out of malice.

Judge tosses school official's lawsuit against Fox News

MOD · June 2008

I hate Fox.

jeffrey · June 2008

I'm sure they followed standards and confirmed it with, like, 3 separate myspace pages.

sweet tea · June 2008

i didn't know slander had to be malicious to be actionable.

this changes everything.

excuse me, i have some phone calls to make.

jack krohn · June 2008

This thing is not limited to Fox. Take the Duke Rape Case as an example, where the NYT, Washington Post, CNN, and many other major media outlets convicted the lacross players from day one and refused to admit error even as evidence of their innocence mounted. A Brooklyn college professor named KC Johnson co-authored a book on this subject with journalist Stuart Taylor called "Until Proven Innocent".

Another example is that of Adelaide Abankwah, the fake name of a Ghanian woman named Regina Norman Danson, who feiged a dramatic tale of genital mutilation in hopes of gaining political asylum in the US. The story gained media attention and support from Julia Roberts, Vanessa Redgrave, and Hillary Clinton before ultimately being exposed as a hoax.

An artist named Joey Skaggs has made a career out of playing jokes on the media: www.joeyskaggs.com

I can't tell if it's laziness on the part of reporters or pressure to meet deadlines in the fast-paced world of cable TV, the internet, blogs, blackberries, cell phones, etc. Either way, I believe this sort of thing is pretty common and often goes unnoticed or uncorrected.

daver · June 2008

Jack Krohn wrote: This thing is not limited to Fox. Take the Duke Rape Case as an example, where the NYT, Washington Post, CNN, and many other major media outlets convicted the lacross players from day one and refused to admit error even as evidence of their innocence mounted. A Brooklyn college professor named KC Johnson co-authored a book on this subject with journalist Stuart Taylor called "Until Proven Innocent".

Another example is that of Adelaide Abankwah, the fake name of a Ghanian woman named Regina Norman Danson, who feiged a dramatic tale of genital mutilation in hopes of gaining political asylum in the US. The story gained media attention and support from Julia Roberts, Vanessa Redgrave, and Hillary Clinton before ultimately being exposed as a hoax.

An artist named Joey Skaggs has made a career out of playing jokes on the media: www.joeyskaggs.com

I can't tell if it's laziness on the part of reporters or pressure to meet deadlines in the fast-paced world of cable TV, the internet, blogs, blackberries, cell phones, etc. Either way, I believe this sort of thing is pretty common and often goes unnoticed or uncorrected.

I think what you are describing is a whole different problem than the stuff I posted above. The stuff about the ham is just pure stupidity. The Duke rape, the genital mutilation, etc. are indicative of a deeper issue with the media along the lines of Tawana Brawley twenty years ago that has never been corrected in all this time.

carnivore · June 2008

carnivore · June 2008

Bill-O gets PWND by a 16 year-old kid:

MOD · June 2008

That kid is brilliant!!!!!!

eggcream · June 2008

And you are posting about a 2 month old story why? One that nobody cares about.

:shock:

carnivore · June 2008

eggcream wrote: And you are posting about a 2 month old story why? One that nobody cares about.

:shock:

Apparently you're incorrect. Quite a few people seem to care. And you tend to harp on much older stories about Obama.

daver · June 2008

eggcream wrote: And you are posting about a 2 month old story why? One that nobody cares about.

:shock:

Um, I posted June 4th. The judge tossed the lawsuit June 4th. True, it happened in April, but June 4th is when it got its day in court. And was tossed. So June 4th is when it gets posted about. *shrug*

carnivore · June 2008

Fox news is not just stupid, but also racist:

carnivore · June 2008

Fox news is not just stupid, but also racist:

livetotravel · June 2008

Fox and it's white male 25-50 listenership are racist pigs

livetotravel · June 2008

Fox and it's white male 25-50 listenership are racist pigs

daver · June 2008

Livetotravel wrote: Fox and it's white male 25-50 listenership are racist pigs

Thanks for the intelligent and insightful comment. It was truly helpful.

daver · June 2008

Livetotravel wrote: Fox and it's white male 25-50 listenership are racist pigs

Thanks for the intelligent and insightful comment. It was truly helpful.

Fox (News) Friends is Really Stupid

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