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Fox Ain't News, It's 'the Opposition Party'

Other media outlets need to highlight 'propaganda:' Boehlert

By Harry Kimball, Newser Staff

Posted Oct 13, 2009 1:40 PM CDT

(Newser) – “Fox News has exited the journalism community this year,” Eric Boehlert writes. “It's a purely political player,” which would be all well and good if other media outlets would just report that. As it stands, Fox goes happily about its “propaganda” while hiding behind the “façade of journalism,” created by the real press. Journalists are starting to call out the organization as an “opposition party,” but too many “naively” uphold a “gentleman’s agreement” whose time is long passed.

“Journalists have danced around the obvious,” Boehlert writes at Media Matters, casting in vain for the mover behind the “teabaggers” and the town hall screamers when it was mightily obvious. And news watchers “need to understand why it's becoming increasingly impossible to maintain any kind of public discourse regarding the issues of the day.” The truth is so simple, if the press would just tell it like it is: “A major so-called news organization is devoted to spreading as much misinformation as possible.”

[Images (3)]

[Quotes (2)]

Glenn Beck. (AP Photo)

Fox News commentator Bill O'Reilly. (AP Photo)

The Fox News Channel store at Minneapolis St. Paul International Airport in Minneapolis is shown. (AP Photo)

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It's clear that in 2009, Fox News is no longer in the business of journalism. Fox News isn't trying to inform people, it's trying to misinform them. That's not journalism. It's propaganda. - Eric Boehlert

Fox News still wants to enjoy the benefits of being seen as a news operation. It still wants the trappings and the professional protections that go with it. But it no longer functions as a news outlet, so why does the rest of the press naively treat it that way? - Eric Boehlert

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Fox Ain't News, It's 'the Opposition Party'