Wednesday, March 2, 2011

FOXNews and presidential candidates

Several of the Republicans considering runs for the White House are contributors to FOXNews, which includes a lucrative contract. Seemingly, this is a conflict of interest. After all, if Sarah Palin is commenting on the air today about Obama, and being paid for it, how can the reporters working for FOXNews report about her fairly?

Today, FOX announced it is suspending Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum for 60 days, pending their decisions on whether to run. I suspect more of this will be forthcoming.

6 comments:

  1. Great point. but from what i hear they arent exactly Fox employees.

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  2. Well, they are. They have contracts making them employees of FOXNews, just like Sarah Palin and Mike Huckabee.

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  3. I didn't realize that Santorum was in the running. Perhaps Keith Olbermann is contemplating a run as well. Even after their contract suspensions and they do decide to run, there is still no gaurantee of Fox objectivity.

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  4. I saw an article in the NYTimes about this. This is great promo for the candidates as well as FOX.. Hiring potential candidates attracts viewers... I guess media really is all a business!

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  5. I understand that it is a bias for Foxnews to employ republican candidates, but does anyone actually believe in any of these channels objectivity? i think Fox should openly endorse the party they like, and be open- not shy away and pretend non-partisanship.
    I can't imagine anyone actually expects Fox to endorse democrats. do people expect that?

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  6. I agree with Sarit, the media is a business. (That's not to say that all they care about is making money, but that is a major part of it). As long as Fox recognizes the conflicts of interest as they arise, I see the amount of Fox employees and contributors that are (probably) planning on running for president as impressive. It shows good business decision making on behalf of Fox.

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