Networks respond to false Fox ad

[VaYank5150]

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Fox News is under fire for a newspaper ad they purchased Friday that inaccurately accused its competitors, including CNN, of failing to cover last weekend's Tea Party protests in Washington.

"How did, ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, and CNN miss this story?" Fox's newspaper ad asks.

The answer: They didn't.

CNN provided live coverage of the rally in Washington on Saturday, dispatching more than a dozen personnel, including multiple camera crews and the CNN Express Bus, to cover the event. Deputy Political Director Paul Steinhauser was live at Freedom Plaza; Correspondent Kate Bolduan reported live from the Capitol and throughout the crowd; All Platform Journalist Jim Spellman provided live hits all day after traveling for weeks on the Tea Party Express Bus; and CNN Correspondent Lisa Desjardins was live for CNN and CNN Radio from the National Mall.

CNN's Rick Sanchez weighs in on Fox's ad

CNN's coverage also included numerous live reports and interviews with protesters and newsmakers, including rally day speaker Sen. Jim DeMint and activist Art Gerhart, who was on the set with anchor Don Lemon to discuss the event.

In addition, CNN.com provided a live stream of the rally throughout the day.

ABC referred Friday to a statement by Matt Kibbe, president of FreedomWorks — the group that organized the event – characterizing the network's coverage that day as "fair and honest." The rally story was featured on the network's morning shows, nightly news broadcast, in extensive radio reporting and online.

MSNBC also pointed to its own reporting. "Just like every other network mentioned in the ad, MSNBC covered last Saturday's protest," the network said in a statement.

CBS detailed its coverage of the event in a statement issued Friday afternoon.

"CBS News had multiple crews on site with our Congressional Correspondent Nancy Cordes reporting," the network said in a statement. "It was the lead story on the CBS EVENING NEWS; CBS Radio News provided hourly reports during the day and CBSNews.com had the story in its rotating lead all day. They also processed the Nancy Cordes video and linked it throughout the site."

And CNN criticized Fox for its inaccurate statement. "Fox News' ad released today is blatantly false regarding CNN's coverage of the 9/12 rally," CNN said in a statement.

Watch some of CNN's Tea Party coverage here, and read some of our in-depth reporting.

CNN Political Ticker: All politics, all the time Blog Archive - Networks respond to false Fox ad « - Blogs from CNN.com

 

[VaYank5150]

Fox News Ad Battle Gets Uglier; CNN’s Rick Sanchez Called a “Sucker” | Print | Mediaite

The Washington Post ran a full-page instigating ad in today’s paper from Fox News that asks: “How Did ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC And CNN Miss This Story?” referring to the D.C. tea party protests on 9/12.

CNN’s Rick Sanchez said “you lie!” (seriously, he said that) – since his network and all the others did cover the protests. He also played a clip of Bill O’Reilly saying CNN covered the protests. But Fox News is sticking to their guns, and WashPost is defending the ad buy. What? (Updated, with comment from FOX)
Every network defended their coverage today, and TVNewser has a rundown of those defenses, plus this from Michael Tammero, VP of Marketing for FNC.

“Generally speaking, it’s fair to say that from the tea party movement … to Acorn … to the march on 9/12, the networks either ignored the story, marginalized it or misrepresented the significance of it altogether.”

Oh okay. So in Fox News’ opinion their competition didn’t cover the protests (or ACORN or the movement as a whole) in a way that they approved of. It is the opinion of Fox News (not fact, mind you) that the networks “missed” the story. This clears it up, and the ad makes sense. It’s not “fair and balanced” by any stretch of the imagination, but at least it makes more sense.

It’s also pretty much why the Post is totally fine with their decision. A spokesperson tells Politico, “The Post will not reject an advertisement based on its content or sponsor, unless the ad is illegal, false, advocates illegal actions, or is not in keeping with standards of taste. When we do not see anything in a particular ad that is contrary to these standards, we will not place limits on speech or content.”

Here’s the bottom line: Fox News didn’t “miss” this story because they were the story. They’ve driven the story, promoted the protests and covered them because they are the protests. The Fox Nation, the FOX opinion/community arm of the network’s web properties drove this story by actively helping register people to attend tea parties around the country. Glenn Beck promoted the D.C. protest (“It’s Time To Stand Up” he implored his audience) because he started the entire 9/12 movement.

Just look at the way Foxnews.com’s supposed “news” story covered the protests in D.C. From their “news” report:

They came. They saw. They protested.

Yet it remains to be seen whether the demonstration Saturday in the nation’s capital, against what protesters view as out-of-control spending by an expanding federal government, will conquer Washington.

It’s no surprise the other networks are actively trying to discredit this ad. But CNN sensed a chance to pounce, and they have been most active in refuting the point. Today they sent a statement that included dozens of embeddable links of their coverage, images and more.

> Update Saturday at 2pmET: We got ahold of someone at FOX today for a reaction to the reactions. An FNC exec laughed it off, saying, “‘Thank you very much,’ and a special thanks to Rick Sanchez who has always been a sucker…he’s a gift that keeps on giving.” (See this from July.)

This was part of CNN’s statement:

Fox News’ ad today is blatantly false regarding CNN’s coverage of the 9/12 rally.

CNN provided live coverage of the rally in Washington throughout the day Saturday, Sept. 12. CNN dispatched more than a dozen personnel and multiple camera crews, including the CNN Express, to cover the event. CNN’s deputy political director Paul Steinhauser was live at Freedom Plaza, CNN correspondent Kate Bolduan live from the West Front of the Capitol and roved the crowd, CNN’s Jim Spellman provided live hits all day after traveling for weeks on the actual Tea Party Express, and CNN’s Lisa Desjardins was live from the National Mall.

You get the idea.

Now that brings us to Sanchez. He unleashed on Fox News during his 3pmET hour. But most ironic – he played a clip of O’Reilly, actually saying CNN covered the protests. Check out his rant:

 

[VaYank5150]

Oh come on...where are all of you Faux News supporters on this????

 

[elvis]

Virginia Skank is at it again.

 

[VaYank5150]

Virginia Skank is at it again.

So, do you defend Fox's false accusations?

 

[elvis]

Virginia Skank is at it again.

So, do you defend Fox's false accusations?

Do you defend Carter's? I'll be a million dollars that you did.

 

[VaYank5150]

Virginia Skank is at it again.

So, do you defend Fox's false accusations?

Do you defend Carter's? I'll be a million dollars that you did.

Carter's words were a disaster. The sad part is, he was not the only moron to make such ludicrous statement. Maxine Waters and some other idiot in Congress said similar things. So no, I do not defned Carter's statements and actually wish he would just STFU.

 

[rdean]

Virginia Skank is at it again.

So, do you defend Fox's false accusations?

Do you defend Carter's? I'll be a million dollars that you did.

You mean his charge that Republicans are racist? I'm not sure you could prove that because there are so few blacks in the Republican Party. Some might suspect they are not welcome.

 

[RadiomanATL]

Waahh waahh.

Such a stupid thing to get worked up over. Really really stupid thing.

My station constantly says things like "song so&so, you heard it here first!". We don't know if we were the first. We don't care. What matters is giving the impression in the listeners head that we're on the cutting edge of playing the hot new tunes. Do our competitors cry and whine about how they play the song as well? No, they use the same damn tactics. It's called marketing. Use it or get left in the dust.

Same thing here. It's meant to give an impression in the potential viewers minds. The other stations whining about it is a reaction. And since they were not pro-active and instead reactive, they lose. Fox has them dancing to their tune.

Oh, and the ad is obviously targeted at conservatives. Fox knows it audience and caters to them. This can be seen as bias in some instances. The people that say that Fox doesn't do this don't know what they are talking about.

 

[elvis]

So, do you defend Fox's false accusations?

Do you defend Carter's? I'll be a million dollars that you did.

You mean his charge that Republicans are racist? I'm not sure you could prove that because there are so few blacks in the Republican Party. Some might suspect they are not welcome.

When did Jeremiah Wright become a republican?

 

[VaYank5150]

Waahh waahh.

Such a stupid thing to get worked up over. Really really stupid thing.

My station constantly says things like "song so&so, you heard it here first!". We don't know if we were the first. We don't care. What matters is giving the impression in the listeners head that we're on the cutting edge of playing the hot new tunes. Do our competitors cry and whine about how they play the song as well? No, they use the same damn tactics. It's called marketing. Use it or get left in the dust.

Same thing here. It's meant to give an impression in the potential viewers minds. The other stations whining about it is a reaction. And since they were not pro-active and instead reactive, they lose. Fox has them dancing to their tune.

Oh, and the ad is obviously targeted at conservatives. Fox knows it audience and caters to them. This can be seen as bias in some instances. The people that say that Fox doesn't do this don't know what they are talking about.

While you make a lot of sense here, what would be their point? Why PAY for a full page ad if you are catering to your base? What positive return could FOX be looking for here? All they have done (IMHO) is further alienate themselves from the others? Is that good business?

 

[VaYank5150]

Do you defend Carter's? I'll be a million dollars that you did.

You mean his charge that Republicans are racist? I'm not sure you could prove that because there are so few blacks in the Republican Party. Some might suspect they are not welcome.

When did Jeremiah Wright become a republican?

What does Wright have to do with any of this?

 

[RadiomanATL]

Waahh waahh.

Such a stupid thing to get worked up over. Really really stupid thing.

My station constantly says things like "song so&so, you heard it here first!". We don't know if we were the first. We don't care. What matters is giving the impression in the listeners head that we're on the cutting edge of playing the hot new tunes. Do our competitors cry and whine about how they play the song as well? No, they use the same damn tactics. It's called marketing. Use it or get left in the dust.

Same thing here. It's meant to give an impression in the potential viewers minds. The other stations whining about it is a reaction. And since they were not pro-active and instead reactive, they lose. Fox has them dancing to their tune.

Oh, and the ad is obviously targeted at conservatives. Fox knows it audience and caters to them. This can be seen as bias in some instances. The people that say that Fox doesn't do this don't know what they are talking about.

While you make a lot of sense here, what would be their point? Why PAY for a full page ad if you are catering to your base? What positive return could FOX be looking for here? All they have done (IMHO) is further alienate themselves from the others? Is that good business?

They are maintaining their base.

And don't forget. Their base at the moment dwarfs their competitors.

 

[RadiomanATL]

Waahh waahh.

Such a stupid thing to get worked up over. Really really stupid thing.

My station constantly says things like "song so&so, you heard it here first!". We don't know if we were the first. We don't care. What matters is giving the impression in the listeners head that we're on the cutting edge of playing the hot new tunes. Do our competitors cry and whine about how they play the song as well? No, they use the same damn tactics. It's called marketing. Use it or get left in the dust.

Same thing here. It's meant to give an impression in the potential viewers minds. The other stations whining about it is a reaction. And since they were not pro-active and instead reactive, they lose. Fox has them dancing to their tune.

Oh, and the ad is obviously targeted at conservatives. Fox knows it audience and caters to them. This can be seen as bias in some instances. The people that say that Fox doesn't do this don't know what they are talking about.

While you make a lot of sense here, what would be their point? Why PAY for a full page ad if you are catering to your base? What positive return could FOX be looking for here? All they have done (IMHO) is further alienate themselves from the others? Is that good business?

It also has the words "Fox News" being said over competitors airwaves.

In essence, Fox is getting free advertising and more mileage out of one simple ad.

Brilliant.

 

[VaYank5150]

Waahh waahh.

Such a stupid thing to get worked up over. Really really stupid thing.

My station constantly says things like "song so&so, you heard it here first!". We don't know if we were the first. We don't care. What matters is giving the impression in the listeners head that we're on the cutting edge of playing the hot new tunes. Do our competitors cry and whine about how they play the song as well? No, they use the same damn tactics. It's called marketing. Use it or get left in the dust.

Same thing here. It's meant to give an impression in the potential viewers minds. The other stations whining about it is a reaction. And since they were not pro-active and instead reactive, they lose. Fox has them dancing to their tune.

Oh, and the ad is obviously targeted at conservatives. Fox knows it audience and caters to them. This can be seen as bias in some instances. The people that say that Fox doesn't do this don't know what they are talking about.

While you make a lot of sense here, what would be their point? Why PAY for a full page ad if you are catering to your base? What positive return could FOX be looking for here? All they have done (IMHO) is further alienate themselves from the others? Is that good business?

They are maintaining their base.

And don't forget. Their base at the moment dwarfs their competitors.

Based on what? I watch CNN 95% of the time, and all I ever see is their own commericals touting themselves as the most watched cable news network?

 

[VaYank5150]

Waahh waahh.

Such a stupid thing to get worked up over. Really really stupid thing.

My station constantly says things like "song so&so, you heard it here first!". We don't know if we were the first. We don't care. What matters is giving the impression in the listeners head that we're on the cutting edge of playing the hot new tunes. Do our competitors cry and whine about how they play the song as well? No, they use the same damn tactics. It's called marketing. Use it or get left in the dust.

Same thing here. It's meant to give an impression in the potential viewers minds. The other stations whining about it is a reaction. And since they were not pro-active and instead reactive, they lose. Fox has them dancing to their tune.

Oh, and the ad is obviously targeted at conservatives. Fox knows it audience and caters to them. This can be seen as bias in some instances. The people that say that Fox doesn't do this don't know what they are talking about.

While you make a lot of sense here, what would be their point? Why PAY for a full page ad if you are catering to your base? What positive return could FOX be looking for here? All they have done (IMHO) is further alienate themselves from the others? Is that good business?

It also has the words "Fox News" being said over competitors airwaves.

In essence, Fox is getting free advertising and more mileage out of one simple ad.

Brilliant.

Call me naive, but I am hoping this ad is grounds for a libel suit.

 

[Dr.House]

Virginia Skank is at it again.

keep it up and he'll ignore you...

 

[Zoom-boing]

This is an e-mail I got from the Media Research Center. I provided the links in the article at the end. Seems it was reported, er mis-reported.

They lie! Even though most estimates pegged the crowd at last weekend’s 9/12 taxpayer protests at 60,000 to 70,000 or more, The New York Times would only say “thousands” marched at the rally in our nation’s capital. And they buried the story on page A37.

Just one day after the event, the Washington Post ran a story denigrating the 9/12 march as having “everything to do with race” while CNN chimed in about the “racial tinge” to the tea party movement.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg of the liberal media’s mis-reporting of the historic Taxpayer March on Washington, D.C., this past weekend.

Meanwhile, the liberal media continue to promote President Obama’s fast-tracking of government-run health care -- with seemingly no regard for objectivity or balanced reporting.

I have included links to recent MRC reports on the media’s distorted reporting on the 9/12 rally in Washington as well as the health care debate.

All these reports were filed in the past few days by our dedicated staff of MRC researchers, reporters and bloggers. We’ll continue to work tirelessly to keep you informed as the so-called “mainstream” media help Obama and the left push their extreme socialist programs on America.

Thanks in advance for all you are doing to expose and counter liberal media bias.

Massive Conservative D.C. Protest Buried and Dismissed, But Smaller Liberal Rallies Hailed

WaPo Promotes Story That 9-12 Marchers Are Racist: 'They Don't Even Know What They Are Protesting' | NewsBusters.org

CNN's Situation Room Charges: 'Racial Tinge to Tea Movement' | NewsBusters.org

 

[VaYank5150]

This is an e-mail I got from the Media Research Center. I provided the links in the article at the end. Seems it was reported, er mis-reported.

Seems WHAT was er, mis-reported?

 

[RadiomanATL]

While you make a lot of sense here, what would be their point? Why PAY for a full page ad if you are catering to your base? What positive return could FOX be looking for here? All they have done (IMHO) is further alienate themselves from the others? Is that good business?

They are maintaining their base.

And don't forget. Their base at the moment dwarfs their competitors.

Based on what? I watch CNN 95% of the time, and all I ever see is their own commericals touting themselves as the most watched cable news network?

Neilsen.

CNN is playing a semantics game. All stations do.

Put it this way....CNN is the most watched cable news network... since it's inception. CNN is the most watched cable news network....worldwide. CNN is the most watched cable news network.....by left handed blonde 33 year old females (OK, I made that one up).

Point is, its always possible to be number 1 in something. Thats why every radio station always says something like "Number 1 again...thanks for listening to blah-blah-blah".

But when it comes to the numbers that count. Audience size in prime-time, Fox has 'em all beat. Significantly so. Ya know why? It's cause they give info-tainment. CNN still tries to give news, and well hell, thats just not fun to watch. Straight news is boring. Spirited commentary on the news? Now thats great television.

MSNBC is trying to get into the info-tainment game as well, but Fox has too much of a head start for them to catch up anytime soon.