NY Times: FoxNews Coverage of Afghanistan Unabashedly Pro-American
In the business section of The New York Times this morning, Jim Reutenberg reports that the Fox News Channel is encouraging reporters and anchors to take a pro-American position on daily events in the War on Terrorism. According to the article, "Ever since the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, the network has become a sort of headquarters for viewers who want their news served up with extra patriotic fervor. In the process, Fox has pushed television news where it has never gone before: to unabashed and vehement support of a war effort, carried in tough-guy declarations often expressing thirst for revenge."
Isn't FoxNews simply keeping the news of the day in context with the events of September 11? Why is the New York Times surprised, in the hundred channel environment of digital cable and DirecTV, that someone decides to do the news with a pro-America viewpoint?
One has to wonder why the Times doesn't connect this story with the kind of information being conveyed in Bernard Goldberg's upcoming book about CBS News. Don't FoxNews' editorial stance seem a lot more reasonable when placed in the same context with Goldberg's revelations about CBS? America needs Fox to be out there not just to cater to the tastes of conservative viewers, but also to provide an avenue for conservative perspectives within the media establishment to get a fair hearing.