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I'm 120% sure that Fox News isn't a news channel!

by The_Cynic | December 10, 2009 at 08:05 am

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We all say it - "I am being 150% honest", "100% positive? Nope - 200% positive!". We use that because we want to explain that what we are saying or doing is good, perfect and right - though, as we also know, many times we are completely wrong and have to eat a bit of humble pie - yet, not Murdoch's Fox. There is no error in a poll which has an outcome of 120% of the people who were surveyed! Cool!

Lauren Petterson, executive producer of Fox & Friends, told POLITICO that she sees no error in the graphic. And for that reason, there will be no reprimand of staff under the “zero tolerance" policy.

“We were just talking about three interesting pieces of information from Rasmussen,” Petterson said. “We didn’t put on the screen that it added up to 100 percent.”

Though the questions won't be asked with the cynicism hat I do - for Fox News viewers are, in my mind, somewhat biased to their cause. They will see that there was no error and the executive producers were being 120% honest in their explanation.

Indeed, here’s the paragraph from Rasmussen’s article that Fox was referring to with the graphic:

Fifty-nine percent (59%) of Americans say it’s at least somewhat likely that some scientists have falsified research data to support their own theories and beliefs about global warming. Thirty-five percent (35%) say it’s Very Likely. Just 26% say it’s not very or not at all likely that some scientists falsified data.

While Petterson maintains that Fox & Friends didn’t err in displaying the information from Rasmussen, she acknowledges that the presentation wasn't perfect. “The mistake I do see is we could have been a little clearer here,” she said.

We have to question whether, again, Fox News is indeed a credible channel for news? It is in the eyes of the further-than-right-conservatives - and some who, shall we say are, not living in this reality.

This following Palin's book signing that was both in the past and present where thousands turned out before she had quit her job as governor - or written (someone else wrote it but ...), where Fox edited old coverage into new coverage and there was an on-air apology from Hannity himself!

Do they want to make Jon Stewart's job easy for him?

We have to take into account that Fox's exec's did say there was now a zero policy on on-screen cock ups - that is fine, we all make mistakes. Those mistakes should be corrected at the earliest opportunity, but to say that “We didn’t put on the screen that it added up to 100 percent.” That, surely, has now set a new president for Fox - each poll they now put up will have to say what percentage they are actually talking about.

If Fox, or anyone else should be unsure - you cannot have more than 100%, no matter how honest or sure you are about something.

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Spydermonkey

at 14:11 on December 10th, 2009

Fuax news,"real news" for ...... :)

(I don't want to insult ppl)

atomopawn (not verified)

at 23:54 on December 10th, 2009

Come on. It's obvious that the 35% is included in the 59%. The language of the clip is perfectly clear. When you have to go to such extraordinary lengths to trump up some means of discrediting Rasmussen, it's pretty clear to me that your own narrow agenda has blinded you to truth.