Balanced news ?. Review on Fox News Channel

As a rule I do not watch Fox News. I prefer BBC world , which is probably a little staid in comparison to its more glamorous counterparts like Fox And CNN , but is nevertheless in my opinion definitely more balanced in news reporting .

Watching all these self –promos on Fox, with all the lovey-dovey emails pouring in from viewers the world over is a little too much for me to take ! “ we love you fox ! “ or “ you’re the best , Fox !” or better still “ We used to watch CNN , until one day we saw ur news. Now we never watch anything but Fox “………..( for those of you who don’t watch the channel..these little titibits are aired ever so often during commercial breaks ).

Now going by normal human nature , for every one person praising someone or something, there are two critics hovering quite nearby !!!! ( just ask any sportsman or film personality, he’ll only be too happy to elaborate on that one for you ! ) . So , this would naturally mean that Fox would definitely be getting those mails which ( to put it very politely) are not too appreciative ! So where are those mails ? Well, wherever they are , there certainly not being aired on the channel . Hmmm..wonder why ?

FOX News .. The source of balanced and unbiased news ! That’s how their slogan goes.

Last week, there was a discussion on the Palestine issue. Now there were these three guests who were quite obviously of Jewish origin and needless to say they were ripping apart the Arabs . I don’t blame them . I mean I sure wouldn’t expect them to speak out in favour of the Palestinians ( anymore than I would expect Pakistani President Musharraf to speak in support of the Indian Army !!! ). But what im trying to say is that, how do you present “balanced” views , if you have only the one side presenting their views ???

And quite ironically, the main topic of discussion was how “biased” the arab media is ??

That was bad enough as it were. Then we had this debate ( again I would say “debate” is kinda misleading cos there was only one view there ! ) ..on whether the US should attack Iraq . And Fox had this rather funny guy blasting wonderful statements like….” Actually all the arab states would like us to finish off Saddam Hussein ! They just wont admit it, so they make all these threatening noises like “touch Iraq and we’ll withdraw all support to the US military” That was so funny that I couldn’t stop laughing for sometime….and it also made me wonder whether this guy has anything to do with writing speeches for the poor American President ( who rather unfortunately manages to put his foot in his mouth whenever he opens it !! )

SO that’s how “balanced’ Fox News is. For those of you who think im harping a little too much on the word “balanced” its only because that’s the what Fox is claiming is its USP !!!!

Then of course there’s Mr. O’ Reilly !!! Aaaah ! Now where would Fox be without him !!! The Mr. Controversial of Fox ! The man who quite obviously says things just to stir up a controversy !!!

Last week, in an interesting program called “Fox vs Hollywood “, I heard him blasting Cher ( yeah, the pop star) cos she refused to give him an explanatory statement for her declaration that she hated “Republicans” . When the actress who was a guest on the show pointed out that she wasn’t obliged to do so , Mr . O’ Reilly, put on this rather long suffering expression ( if you have seen the O’Reilly show you’ll agree with me when I say that expression isn’t O’ Reilly at all !!) and said “ Cher owes it to the people of America . And it my duty to the people to make sure she gives a statement !!!! “

Well, excuse my thinking on behalf of the American public , but I daresay the American public doesn’t care two hoots about Cher’s political likes and dislikes !!!!!

I don’t watch much of Fox news . And that’s not cos im a CNN fan…...the last time I checked they were giving extended coverage to a car chase, complete with aerial shots ( a la OJ Simpson!!) ( only this guy wasn’t even a celebrity…just some petty crook !!!!!)

But I must say that whenever I do switch on to Fox News, there’s always something even more ludicrous than the last show I’d seen.

I mean , you see, I thought I’d seen it all , when I saw the latest O’ Reilly show on “Friends” ( the sitcom) . The topic of “hot “ discussion was whether Rachel (played by Jennifer Anniston) was setting a good moral example for youth around the world by having a baby out of wedlock !!!!!!! ( Help me !! ) They had this very pious, goody two shoes kinda guest lady declaring that hers was a perfect family, and that there should be more sitcoms based on people like her ! “good” people . ( yikes ) It was unbelievable ! I mean either they think that todays’ youth lacks a brain to think for themselves or they’re just incredibly naïve !!!

But I was wrong….( about having seen it all..) Few days ago there was this program on “Chelsea Clinton and her emergence as a sex symbol “ which started with the presenter going “ Oh boy ! Hasn’t she grown ! “ ( or something like that ) ( honest !!).

I leave it to you to decide how good a news channel this is !!!!!!! You see, I don’t trust myself to come up with a very “balanced” verdict !!!