Fox News

Recently, on a Facebook chat about sports, the issue of Fox News came up, and one of the guys chatting there was mildly upset to my reference about the station, referring to it as Faux News.  By my isolated comment, he believed that I was a devoted patron of the station, which I'm not.  I watch one show on that network religiously -- The Five -- and will check out the station from time to time if there's a segment on one of the shows that might interest me.  I do the same thing on the Clinton News Network, which I revile generally, but I don't patronize any one news organization for the simple reason that paritsanism has infected journalism.

That being said, there are some reasons to tout Fox News beyond my favorite show.  If nothing else, Fox News provides a counterbalance to the overtly biased network and cable news shows that populate the airwaves.  The network news shows -- ABC, CBS and NBC -- have largely abdicated their responsibility to investigate the government while it is Democratic and work overtime when it is Republican.  Even when there are glaring reasons to investigate the government, such as Benghazi, the IRS scandal, the NSA scandal, the Keystone pipeline delay, Obamacare, the Secret Service investigation, the AP scandal and myriad others, the MSM takes a pass.

To wit:  I read somewhere that the MSM had investigated the ongoing Chris Christie flap, in which no one died, exponentially more than it had looked at Benghazi.  Given the relative seriousness of the outcomes, the only logical conclusion is that there is bias within the MSM.  To its credit, Fox News takes a look at the Christie imbroglio as much as it looks at a given scandal that came from the White House.

Fox News isn't perfect.  That's not the point.  Bill O'Reilly is pompous beyond measure, Megyn Kelly is the virginal dominatrix and the panel on The Five need to learn how not to talk over one another.  Greg Gutfeld is simply sophomoric with his neverending attempts at humor, proving the point that the law of averages does work; sadly, he's a very insightful thinker who should stick more to commenting on his observations and quit trying so hard to be cute and funny.  Some of its lesser talent needs to get its facts straight, but that issue isn't peculiar to Fox News.  ABC, for example, when looking into the Aurora, Colorado movie shooter, found a guy on social media who it presumed was the suspect, and that he had ties to the Tea Party.  It turned out they had a man with the same name but no connection to the shooting.  Zealous to attack the right, ABC got it wrong.

The women on Fox News are not just eye candy.  For example, he aforementioned Ms. Kelly worked for a well respected law firm as a corporate attorney for a number of years.  Kimberly Guilfoyle is a former prosecuting attorney (who seems to revel in the role of sex kitten, but that's another issue...). Dana Perino is a well educated former spokesperson for former president George W. Bush.  Other women who regularly appear on the network are similarly experienced and credentialed.

What critics of Fox News conveniently forget to mention when taking the network to task is that, despite their dislike of the news Fox puts out, at least its commentary isn't base and reprehensible.  At MSNBC, for example, it's had to let Martin Bashir resign -- although not firing him was a huge mistake -- for his uncouth comments about Sarah Palin, fire Alec Baldwin for his homophobic rant, force Melissa Harris-Perry to apologize for her moronic and insensitive comments about race and countless other missteps that are uttered in the name of journalism.  Suffice it to say, a network that would give that notorious race-baiter Al Sharpton his own show should have its license revoked by the FCC.

At least with Fox, there is an attempt to present the side that the vast majority of the MSM is ignoring.  That certain groups don't like it underscores their complaints.  What other news person or journalist would have pressed the President as Mr. O'Reilly did Sunday?  When a Republican is in charge, they probably agree with the late Justice Louis Brandeis, who famously wrote that sunlight is the best disinfectant.

It is, of course, unless one has no olfactory sense or likes the smell of stench.

Then one becomes a vampire.

(c) 2014 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles