Media Context

I would hire Shirley Sherrod in a moment. A woman who admits to having preconceived notions and prejudices, but then learned to overcome them? A woman who speaks honestly and openly about race relations and the need to move past them? A woman who has grown and changed and become a better person through her experiences? I'd hire her in an instant!

But, politics being what they are today, instead we get a much-edited, out-of-context clip that seems to show Ms. Sherrod as a racist and getting cheered by the NAACP for it. The Tea Party should be ashamed for it. And Fox News should be even more ashamed for picking it up, doing no research or fact-checking at all, and running with the story without verification.

I feel bad that Shirley Sherrod had to go through this episode in her life. It is too bad that her bosses and the federal government were lied to by this news channel (and the Tea Party) and also didn't do any fact-checking before asking for her resignation.

This is the third Fox News "gaffe" of this type in recent memory. First, they cut footage from a different rally into the footage of the Tea Party rally to make it seem like more than the about 100 people showed up. They didn't even do a good job with it, as the old footage spliced in showed fall colors on the trees and people in coats, while the Tea Party rally was held in late spring. After being called on the carpet, Fox News' response was basically, "We didn't think anyone would notice or care."

Then they edited one of President Obama's speeches (at West Point) to make it seem like he was not getting support from the audience or claps/cheers with what he was saying. They even were found to have repositioned some of President's comments and gestures to make it look even worse for him (like he was annoyed at the lack of clapping/cheering). When nearly every other news media jumped on them for this out of context, biased, and downright wrong video and the segments they did supporting it, Fox News' response was to say it was simply an "editorial decision." Misrepresenting the news is NOT an editorial decision, it is slander/libel (depending on if it is spoken or written).

I'm not supposing that the left is without blame. However, so far, I haven't seen any indications of MSNBC or CNN, two of the supposed left bastion, getting caught misrepresenting facts, editing video to show things in a more positive or negative light, or re-editing video to be out of sequence or context. I don't see articles about how they have taken the President's comments out of context and misrepresented what he said. I haven't seen reports of them taking the Tea Party speeches and using them out of context to misrepresent what was said or done.

With these three recent incidences being so publicly rebuked, along with all their previous issues, I have a hard time understanding why so many people still get their news from Fox News. If I found any one source of my news to be purposefully and intentionally misleading its audience in these ways, I would take them off of my list of news sites. Or course, I'm one of those people who reads the left, the right, and a few middle-of-the-road sources, and then makes up my own mind (guessing that the truth is likely somewhere in the middle of all the rhetoric). I guess, if I only watched Fox News, I likely wouldn't even know they are lying to me regularly.

I was always taught that when the chips are down is when you need to be the most honest, the most forthright, and above reproach. It lends credence to your side and is more persuasive than lying or obfuscating things. As the Right is currently "down," now would be the time for a right-leaning news agency to follow that advice. So, it is too bad that Fox News doesn't have that same approach with its journalistic standards. I'm fine with them leaning right and wanting right-wing politics to succeed. But they need to show the successes and failures of both political sides honestly -- that will bring more viewers, more rewards, and more ad dollars in the end than the shoddy journalism they seem to be practicing now.