Fox News crosses the line?

[Rokenn]

Conservative Carlson Battles Conservative Fox

Conservative Crossfire commentator Tucker Carlson has expressed outrage after Fox News Channel showed his home phone number on the air Thursday, resulting, he said, in a flood of phone calls. Fox apparently was retaliating after Carlson, during his CNN commentary defending telemarketers, responded with the unpublished number of the Washington bureau of Fox News Channel when someone in the audience asked if he would give out his home number. "Fox had every right to be annoyed by what I did, amusing as I thought it was," Carlson said Friday, "but they had no right to invade my privacy, or to enable their followers to threaten my family." Carlson, whose political viewpoint would appear to mesh well with those of the commentators at Fox, nevertheless called his rivals, "a mean, sick group of people."

[Seraph]

I personally think that Carlson violated one of the key rules of politics. Don't mess with someone unless your ready to deal with them fighting back. If Carlson didn't want his home phone number out then he should have said so when he was asked. Thats not what he did, he decided to be cute and lie in responce to the question. I might have a little sympahty for him if he appologized, but rather he decided to resort to childish name calling.

[Chewbacca]

I think the difference between publicly displaying a private business number and a private home number is vast.


I think mean-spirited and sick are quite an accurate descriptions of Fox's actions considering it was obviously personal retalitation for an ill-advised joke. I would add the word petty to the list myself.

They could have made fun of his bowtie or the Clinton shoe-eating incident, something little less personal and insidious.

I'm actually kinda suprised, I would think GOP TV wouldn't mind a joke from a like-minded commentator. On the other-hand, I guess it doesn't suprise me really considering Fox's snobbish elitist adtitude towards competitors.

[ 09-29-2003, 04:35 PM: Message edited by: Chewbacca ]

[antryg]

Isn't it kind of funny that the strongest defenders of telemarkenting are those who never have to receive a phone call from them.

I think if telemarketers had to give their and their bosses home phone number to everybody that they called, then this wouldn't be seen as such a strong free speech issue.

[Larry_OHF]

Originally posted by antryg: Isn't it kind of funny that the strongest defenders of telemarkenting are those who never have to receive a phone call from them. I think if telemarketers had to give their and their bosses home phone number to everybody that they called, then this wouldn't be seen as such a strong free speech issue.

Right you are...and also Seraph. You guys said it all for me.

[Chewbacca]

Originally posted by antryg: Isn't it kind of funny that the strongest defenders of telemarkenting are those who never have to receive a phone call from them. I think if telemarketers had to give their and their bosses home phone number to everybody that they called, then this wouldn't be seen as such a strong free speech issue.

At least telemarketers aren't publishing people's home phone numbers on television, that puts them a notch up from Fox in this instance, in my opinion.

[Cerek the Barbaric]

Originally posted by Chewbacca: I think the difference between publicly displaying a private business number and a private home number is vast. I think mean-spirited and sick are quite an accurate descriptions of Fox's actions considering it was obviously personal retalitation for an ill-advised joke. I would add the word petty to the list myself.

I agree that Fox should have given Carlson's business number rather than his home number, but I really can't summon much sympathy for Carlson. Here's why.

He does a commentary defending telemarketers (a very unpopular stance to begin with)...but he doesn't have to worry about telemarketers calling his house because he has an unlisted number.

When asked if he would be willing to give his number, he gives the unpublished number of Fox's Washington Bureau. What prompted this? As far as I can tell, Fox hadn't done anything to Carlson to warrant this.

Carlson agrees that Fox had a right to be annoyed (even though he still thought his little joke was "amusing"), but claims they had NO RIGHT to retaliate. Sorry, he gave out Fox's number, so they decided to give out his. Tit for Tat.

Finally, Carlson may have received a flood of phone calls, but I'm sure he has already gotten a NEW unlisted number and that the problem has been resolved. The expense involved in changing private numbers is not going to be an obstacle for someone with Carlson's salary. The time and aggravation spent informing friends and family of the new number is worth consideration, but still could be accomplished in a couple of days.

Finally, it's no secret that Fox has never been big on integrity (although they often claim otherwise). Then again, CNN was guilty of actually manufacturing an anti-American "news piece" during the war....an act I found to be far more hypocritical than anything Fox has done.

I know Fox claims to be the "only unbiased source" of news on TV. I also know that Pro Rasslin' swore the "fights" were real for most of my life. I give equal weight to both claims.

[Chewbacca]

LOL, nice commentary Cerek! [img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img]

I really don't sympathize with him or his pro-telemarketer stance myself, but thats another topic.

BTW what did CNN fabricate that was anti-american...I missed that.

Im a newshound in recent times, I watch both CNN and Fox, neither of them are as terrible as the critics make them out to be (myself included, I must admit) I take it on a show by show basis.

[ 09-30-2003, 12:11 AM: Message edited by: Chewbacca ]

[Cerek the Barbaric]

Originally posted by Chewbacca: LOL, nice commentary Cerek! [img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img] I really don't sympathize with him or his pro-telemarketer stance myself, but thats another topic. BTW what did CNN fabricate that was anti-american...I missed that. Im a newshound in recent times, I watch both CNN and Fox, neither of them are as terrible as the critics make them out to be (myself included, I must admit) I take it on a show by show basis.

They created an "interview" of a British officer and a couple of his "soldiers" and then showed doctored footage of American troops incorrectly identifying standard military firearms of the enemy, IIRC. Can't remember the exact details, but it was basically a fake interview using professional actors, and the sole purpose was to make the American troops look like poorly trained, undisciplined idiots. The "British officer" and soldiers were openly ridiculing the American troops for their lack of intelligence and knowledge of military weapons.

The fact that the whole thing was staged by CNN using professional actors was far more "mean spirited" (especially doing such an act during a time of war) than Fox's retaliation to Carlson. Maybe Ziroc will soon have the former War Forum archived. Then I could go back and find the exact article.

Now, I'll admit that's just one incident compared to Fox's daily mission of presenting the "Right" news to the viewing public. Still, I thought CNN had FAR more integrity than that. In fact, I would have expected such an act (only done in reverse to ridicule those who opposed the war) from Fox, but never from CNN.

[Chewbacca]

http://www.ironworksforum.com/ubb/no...ubb=forum;f=14

Here is a link to the war forum. That is pretty pathetic. Im gonna do some 'fact finding' on my own on the topic as well. I also recall quite an intersting post in the war forum that was about some Fox imbellishment as well.

Why? Why make stuff up? It is odd that CNN would go that far, because as far as I can tell they don't have *much* of a slant, I have always seen them as centrists if anything. Well I do only watch Aaron Brown and Lou Dobbs on a regular basis so maybe there is something I am missing.

On Fox I try to catch Cavuto, though I am usually at odds with his commentary and Hannity and Colmes is a great lesson in whats wrong with over-polarizing left/right (IMO). And of course O'Reily, who has his good moments and his absurd moments (again IMO).

T.V. News is a weird animal. I'll take NPR and the print media over all tv news anyday, if only because they are both more in-depth. For example NPR amongst others were reporting good news *and* bad news about Iraq months ago, way before the current critism of media one-sidedness. I notice recently both Fox and CNN are tripping over themselves to show more good stuff from over there. Funny how things work...

[ 09-30-2003, 12:50 AM: Message edited by: Chewbacca ]