A Sense of Doubt blog post #2074 - CNN vs. Fox News - Bias vs. Fact Accuracy
12 DAYS - daily countdown to election day
I actually chimed in and answered a Quora question.
Here's that content. It may also serve useful in the classes I am teaching.
VOTE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
https://www.quora.com/How-similar-are-CNN-and-Fox-in-terms-of-biased-reporting
MY ANSWER
To be fair, independent reviewer of media bias and factual accuracy, the Media Bias Fact Check project, rates both CNN and Fox News as "mixed" in terms of the factual accuracy of their reporting. Though I will confess to having watched much more CNN than Fox News, I have noted times in which CNN just conveniently omits context to stories when the context would change the narrative it spins.
Though more likely to correct false or misleading claims than Fox News, CNN has as many failed fact checks in the review by Media Bias Fact Check as Fox News. Yet, if one compares the claims that were proven false between the two networks, CNN's are far more reasonable and feature claims, such as “1 percent of candidates that (the National Rifle Association) endorsed in 2012 won.” – FALSE, asserted by Van Jones, which when fact checked was false. That's a misinformation gaff on a different order of magnitude than a false Fox News claim that “NASA scientists fudged the numbers to make 1998 the hottest year to overstate the extent of global warming.”.
Often false or poorly fact checked claims are made by individuals on CNN, such as Van Jones, who is a guest brought in to provide commentary, and so the network did not write or produce his content or the analysis of his content. Granted, the network also rarely challenges or corrects these espoused views and supposed facts by its commentators. However, Fox News makes far more outlandish claims, which are easily proven false, as reported by its news anchors as written and produced by its networks. Even more outrageous, Fox News gives broadcast time to commentators like Tucker Carlson, who it has disavowed as saying anything truthful at all. As in "no reasonable person would believe Tucker Carlson" as Fox lawyers claimed in court in response to a suit brought by Karen McDougal against the network for claims made by Carlson about her alleged attempt to extort money from Donald Trump.
Fox persuasively argues [...] that given Mr. Carlson's reputation, any reasonable viewer "arrive[s] with an appropriate amount of skepticism" about the statements he makes.
CNN lawyers would not make the same argument about Chris Cuomo, Don Lemon, Anderson Cooper, Poppy Harlow, Erin Burnett, Gloria Borger, Abbie Phillips, Van Jones, David Axelrod, or Dana Bash.
It may be for this reason among others that on Media Bias Fact Check's spectrum that Fox News sits to the right of the Right classification skewing more toward the EXTREME right, where little actual truth exists. Whereas CNN skews away from Left and more toward Left Center.
What is true about both networks is that neither claim to strictly supply news to viewers. "by April 2016, a CNN executive officially described the channel as “no longer a TV news network” and instead as “a 24-hour global multi-platform network.” And as for Fox News: "As of October 2018, Fox News has added to their terms of use that they are an entertainment company: “Company furnishes the Company Sites and the Company Services for your personal enjoyment and entertainment.”
https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/cnn/
https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/fox-news/
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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2010.22 - 10:10
- Days ago = 1938 days ago
- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I plan to continue Hey Mom posts at least twice per week but will continue to post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.
https://www.quora.com/How-similar-are-CNN-and-Fox-in-terms-of-biased-reporting
They are not similar at all. CNN has correspondents in many places around the world and in fact it operates an international version. Though it features an evening lineup of opinion journalism steered to US interests it is fairly centrist and international in its viewpoint. Of course an internationalist viewpoint can look like a left wing viewpoint to an American conservative.
Fox news was designed to support Republican political goals and remains that way to this day. Though it has a few legitimate journalists it is not a serious news outlet. It is a uniquely biased platform.
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MY ANSWER
To be fair, independent reviewer of media bias and factual accuracy, the Media Bias Fact Check project, rates both CNN and Fox News as "mixed" in terms of the factual accuracy of their reporting. Though I will confess to having watched much more CNN than Fox News, I have noted times in which CNN just conveniently omits context to stories when the context would change the narrative it spins.
Though more likely to correct false or misleading claims than Fox News, CNN has as many failed fact checks in the review by Media Bias Fact Check as Fox News. Yet, if one compares the claims that were proven false between the two networks, CNN's are far more reasonable and feature claims, such as “1 percent of candidates that (the National Rifle Association) endorsed in 2012 won.” – FALSE, asserted by Van Jones, which when fact checked was false. That's a misinformation gaff on a different order of magnitude than a false Fox News claim that “NASA scientists fudged the numbers to make 1998 the hottest year to overstate the extent of global warming.”.
Often false or poorly fact checked claims are made by individuals on CNN, such as Van Jones, who is a guest brought in to provide commentary, and so the network did not write or produce his content or the analysis of his content. Granted, the network also rarely challenges or corrects these espoused views and supposed facts by its commentators. However, Fox News makes far more outlandish claims, which are easily proven false, as reported by its news anchors as written and produced by its networks. Even more outrageous, Fox News gives broadcast time to commentators like Tucker Carlson, who it has disavowed as saying anything truthful at all. As in "no reasonable person would believe Tucker Carlson" as Fox lawyers claimed in court in response to a suit brought by Karen McDougal against the network for claims made by Carlson about her alleged attempt to extort money from Donald Trump.
Fox persuasively argues [...] that given Mr. Carlson's reputation, any reasonable viewer "arrive[s] with an appropriate amount of skepticism" about the statements he makes.
CNN lawyers would not make the same argument about Chris Cuomo, Don Lemon, Anderson Cooper, Poppy Harlow, Erin Burnett, Gloria Borger, Abbie Phillips, Van Jones, David Axelrod, or Dana Bash.
It may be for this reason among others that on Media Bias Fact Check's spectrum that Fox News sits to the right of the Right classification skewing more toward the EXTREME right, where little actual truth exists. Whereas CNN skews away from Left and more toward Left Center.
What is true about both networks is that neither claim to strictly supply news to viewers. "by April 2016, a CNN executive officially described the channel as “no longer a TV news network” and instead as “a 24-hour global multi-platform network.” And as for Fox News: "As of October 2018, Fox News has added to their terms of use that they are an entertainment company: “Company furnishes the Company Sites and the Company Services for your personal enjoyment and entertainment.”
https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/cnn/
https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/fox-news/
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2010.22 - 10:10
- Days ago = 1938 days ago
- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I plan to continue Hey Mom posts at least twice per week but will continue to post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.
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