Does Fox News have a good "reputation"?

Discussion in 'Politics' started by garbonzo, Dec 4, 2013.

  1. garbonzo Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    790
    You might wonder why this is in the linguist forum, but this has to do with the meaning of the word "reputation".

    The guy I'm debating with is trying to say that Fox News has a good reputation. He uses this definition:

    So he says that since Fox News has such good ratings and has a positive opinion among Americans, it has a good reputation.

    I'm trying to tell him that the word is relative, and even if he can prove it has a positive response from Americans, that doesn't mean it has an objectively good reputation.

    Some other guy was trying to show him how many errors Fox News has, but he tried to wiggle out of it by saying that wasn't the definition of the word reputation.

    What are your thoughts?
     
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  3. billvon Valued Senior Member

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    There is a difference between 'reputation for being entertaining' and 'reputation for being accurate.'

    All depends on how you define it. Heck, in some ways, the easy chick in high school has a good reputation.
     
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  5. exchemist Valued Senior Member

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    12,451
    Spot on!

    Anyone who maintains "popularity" is synonymous with "good reputation" is being disingenuous. But people in mass media organisations do frequently use this nakedly self-serving argument, nonetheless.

    We used to have the term "vulgar", to describe the sort of popularity that arises from lowest common denominator appeal. The word has fallen out of fashion, due to being thought snobbish and class-ridden, but it expresses the sort of distinctions we are talking about.
     
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  7. Captain Kremmen All aboard, me Hearties! Valued Senior Member

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    I sometimes listen to Fox Radio on the internet.
    For the past few months, almost always, the conversation has been about Obamacare.
    Is it possible that they have been talking about one subject continuously day and night for months?
    Or have I simply been lucky/unlucky?

    Added later. Just checked the station. Right now.
    They are talking about Obamacare.
    Try it.
    http://radio.foxnews.com/
    Click on listen live.
     
  8. Captain Kremmen All aboard, me Hearties! Valued Senior Member

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    Fox News is "fair and balanced".
    Fox News says so.
     
  9. spidergoat pubic diorama Valued Senior Member

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    54,036
    They have a great reputation for foxy news readers. A great reputation for spinning the news in favor of the GOP. A lousy reputation for actual news.
     
  10. GeoffP Caput gerat lupinum Valued Senior Member

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    22,087
    Like most media outlets, they have a distinct political bias. In the case of Fox, the direct bias is pro-GOP and anti-Dem. The others have different biases across broad socio-political philosophies.
     
  11. krash661 [MK6] transitioning scifi to reality Valued Senior Member

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    ˙ǝɔuǝᴉɔs ɹoɟ sʞɹoʍʇǝu sʍǝu ƃuᴉʌᴉǝɔǝp lɐɔᴉʇᴉlod ɯoɹɟ ʎɐʍɐ ʎɐʇs
    'ǝɔᴉʌpɐ ʎɯ
     
  12. joepistole Deacon Blues Valued Senior Member

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    22,910
    Fox News has a viewership, according to the most recent ratings, of about 2 million people. The US has a population of 317 million people. Do the math. Fox, an entertainment company masquerading as a news agency, is not representative of the nation at large. Fox caters to a niche market and is very popular in that niche market. But that doesn’t mean their viewers are well informed or that . On the contrary there have several studies which have consistently shown Fox viewers to be the most misinformed…more misinformed than people who watch no news at all.

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/23/fox-news-less-informed-new-study_n_1538914.html

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/...med-people-fairleigh-dickinson_n_1106305.html

    http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/pdf/dec10/Misinformation_Dec10_rpt.pdf

    http://www.mediabistro.com/prnewser...ted-fake-story-to-discredit-journalist_b75788

    Fox is also where discredited journalists are welcomed and glorified (e.g. Lara Logan).

    http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/11/...o-journalist-for-discredited-benghazi-report/

    And some portion of the Fox News viewership are Folks like me you just want to understand what the idiot faction is being fed to understand what they might do (i.e. cause a debt default or shut down the government, etc.).

    And then you have the man in charge of Fox News, the founder, Rupert Murdoch who is being investigated for violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and whose companies were responsible for bribery and international phone hacking. Yeah a really reputable company...only to the ditto head Kool-Aid drinkers.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/News_International_phone_hacking_scandal


    http://www.theguardian.com/media/2013/jul/04/rupert-murdoch-us-mp-fbi
     
  13. francescakat Registered Member

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    62
    True
     
  14. Daecon Kiwi fruit Valued Senior Member

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    3,133
    Fox News is like Britain's "The Daily Mail" newspaper, in T.V. format.
     
  15. joepistole Deacon Blues Valued Senior Member

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    Fox News has a reputation. They have reputation for playing fast and loose with the truth and for misleading and misinforming people.
     
  16. Buddha12 Valued Senior Member

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    All news stations are biased to a certain extent but some are much worse that others. If you will just objectively watch any of them and see what they are discussing as "news". I see more things about department stores than ever before. They talk about Black Friday which I did not realize was newsworthy to begin with. The types of stories they cover aren't what I need to know but instead what they want me to know and in their own biased ways.
     
  17. Write4U Valued Senior Member

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    20,069
    IMO, "reputation" has nothing to do with "popularity", it has to do with "being known by the population" and that can be viewed both ways. One can be of good repute or of ill repute.

    Mother Theresa had a good reputation (of good repute)
    http://thesaurus.com/browse/of good repute

    The Inquisition had a bad reputation (of ill repute)
    http://thesaurus.com/browse/ill repute

    Fox News is popular but has a reputation for being a propaganda machine rather than a news organization.

    Pornography is very popular but of ill repute. Go figure....:shrug:
     
  18. joepistole Deacon Blues Valued Senior Member

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    22,910
  19. Captain Kremmen All aboard, me Hearties! Valued Senior Member

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    I listen to Alan Colmes show occasionally.
    He is on weekdays 6-9 pm in the US, five hours later in the UK.
    He is surprisingly left wing for Fox, and quite funny.
     
  20. douwd20 Registered Senior Member

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    207
    Not exactly.
     
  21. joepistole Deacon Blues Valued Senior Member

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    22,910
    We don't see much of Colmes in the US. He did share a show with Hannity for a while. Holmes is pretty mild and timid especially when compared to a Hannity and just not a very good orator or voice of opposition. Colmes was Fox's straw man liberal. If Fox were serious they would get someone like Stephanie Cutter.
     
  22. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

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    24,690
    This is correct, but the question in the O.P. is whether Fox has a good reputation.

    I don't know the answer to that because I ignore cable news. As far as I'm concerned, TV news is for people who can't read, and cable TV news is for people who find broadcast TV news a little too challenging. I read the newspaper and only watch Jon Stewart because he admits that his show is "fake news," although it consistently deals expertly with real issues.

    There are a lot of people who believe that Fox news is complete, accurate and unbiased. There are also a lot of people who believe just the opposite. I don't know which group is larger.

    That is also a common point of view. I have seen no surveys to tell me which of these three "reputations" is most widespread.

    A few years ago I came across a statistic in a reputable (there's another variation of that word) publication, that the pornography industry comprises a larger segment of the U.S. economy than "legitimate" films and TV. I don't find this hard to believe, since the website that gets the most hits per month is porno. (Sorry, I didn't take down the name when I read that.

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

    )
     
  23. Balerion Banned Banned

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    8,596
    Hahaha. Reputation? Good? A?
     

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