In July 2014, Politifact found that Fox News was truthful only 18 percent of the time in statements that it made. Case in point: Fox News (I use the term loosely) and Bill O’Reilly sent one of their crack producers, Jesse Watters, to Vermont to expose the ?truth? about that liberal bastion. His “in-depth” reporting consisted of a visit to only one town (Bennington) and interviews with only six sources, who by the way were aged 17-24. The end result was a? segment on O’Reilly’s show in which he and Watters amuse themselves by watching heavily edited clips and discussing just how liberal those silly Vermonters are.
Students involved in the Quantum Leap Exhibit Program at Mount Anthony Union High School in Bennington, Vermont chose this story to dissect to see how it measured up against the published Ethics of Journalism per the Society of Professional Journalists. What they found boggles the mind. The students produced a video in which they listed Fox News? many violations, including:
- Visiting only one town in the state (Bennington)
- Interviewing only six sources, ages 17-24, which is hardly an accurate demographic representation
- Serial stereotyping
- Distorting perception
- Manipulating viewers
- Not remaining objective
- Predetermining the outcome of the story
- Deliberately distorting truth
- Failing to ID sources
- Pandering false information
- Being out of touch with current values (gay marriage, pot decriminalization, etc.)
- Leveraging archaic folkways
- Engaging in inconsistent hyperbole
- Distorting truth and engaging in propaganda
- Conducting snarky interviewing and sly editing
The students rightly concluded that Fox News was not, at least in this case, practicing journalism but rank propaganda. They claim that they learned a valuable lesson in journalism, i.e. what NOT to do, by studying this one segment on a network that regularly distorts and perverts information in order to further their right-wing propaganda machine. Hey, maybe Fox News serves a purpose after all.
Watch the students video below:
