Fox News's detrimental impact on America

Pro set the agenda for the debate so that this round excludes Con rebuttals. I'll present that in the next round. 1. Fox serves its audience Fox News [Fox or FNC] is by far the largest cable news channel. “Fox News Channel will end 2012 as the number one cable news channel for 11 straight years, and the number three ad-supported channel in all of cable TV in prime time. FNC will be up slightly from 2011 in just about every time period and demo. The network will end up with the top 11 cable news shows in total viewers, and the top seven in the adults 25-54 demo.” [1. http://www.mediabistro.com...]They have roughly as many viewers as all the other cable news channels combined. Fox News is a mix of hard news on politics and international affairs, news of crime and natural disasters, news commentary, weather forecasts, business stories, human interest stories, celebrity news, health stories, news trivia, sports headlines, and some pure entertainment. People like to watch the mix. News commentary fills prime time after the straight news on weekday evenings, and because the commentary is mostly right-wing, and that makes it the subject of left-wing attention. The commentary is not strictly about hard news stories, there are discussions on the spectrum of topics. So, is Fox attracting viewers a benefit to society? It is a benefit because by watching the Fox News mixture or hard and soft news, people learn many things. They are better off watching Fox News than Honey Boo Boo or Jersey Shore or any of the other shows on cable that are as free from intellectual content as producers can accomplish. The audience for cable news is not fixed, like any other genre on television it competes with what's available. 2. Fox News serves those most interested in the news. Fox serves those with only modest interest in the news, but it also serves the other end of the interest spectrum. Which media outlets are most preferred by the most informed segment of the population? A Pew Poll shows that viewers of Stewart/Colbert, Fox News' Bill O'Reilly, NPR listeners, and Rush Limbaugh were all among the best informed people in the country. All had between 50% and 54% of highly informed listeners, the top category in the poll. At the bottom were Local TV News, Fox News Channel, and, at the very bottom, network morning shows. [2. http://www.people-press.org... ] No matter what your ideological predilection, you are unlikely to believe Stewert, O'Reilly, NPR, and Limbaugh are equally pure gold in terms of impartial presentation of facts and logic. What it means is that they are serving up red meat (or hot tofu, if you prefer) to well-informed people. Despite O'Reilly being at the top of informed viewers, FNC as whole is only a step above the network morning shows in having a well-informed audience. That means that Fox uses a mix of material to attract people with marginal interest in news, exactly as the network morning shows do. I believe network morning shows are providing a benefit in the same way as Fox; they expose people to hard news by mixing it with softer stories. People who are well-informed often have strong views about issues. That's a good thing because public debate is driven by strong advocates. Most of the electorate benefits by watching the advocates duke it out, and earning about the issues in that way. 3. Fox News provides debate on the issues. Fox's commentary is weighted towards right-wing viewpoints. What distinguishes Fox's commentary from many other media outlets is that Fox includes dissenting viewpoints and promotes debate. Fox regular commentators include liberals Sally Kohn, Juan Williams, Alan Colmes, Kirsten Powers, Shepard Smith, Geraldo Rivera, Mara Liasson, Bill Shultz, Susan Estrich, Bob Beckel, Sanita Jackson, and Simon Rosenberg. Geraldo Rivera has his own program. Shepard Smith hosts the Fox evening news. Beckel and Schultz share hosting duties on daily programs. Socialist professor Marc Lamont Hill is a frequent guest on O'Reilly and other Fox programs. The leftist viewpoint does not get equal time on the commentary shows, but they get to make their case so the audience learns what the controversy is about. If you are a fan of debate, you'll get to see fallacies and dropped arguments in practice. There is no other popular media source that serves up as much. The networks have some round tables on Sunday talk shows, and some on morning shows. In their versions the conservatives are heavily outnumbered, for example three to one on ABC's The View. Far left MSNBC has somewhat-conservative Joe Scarborough on in the morning, and that's about it. Debate or dissent are rare. Rachel Maddow has never disagreed with a guest on her program on any subject other than how terrible the right is. You have a much better chance seeing a socialist debate issues on Fox. 4. Fox News provides unique news coverage. Fox was the first major media outlet to question the Obama Administration's claim that the assault on the Benghazi started with demonstration against a YouTube video. The Administration ultimately admitted there was no demonstration at Benghazi. Fox broke the story of corruption and waste at the General Services Administration. [3. http://tinyurl.com...] Fox first reported and “A top State Department official acknowledged Thursday that cables warning of serious security concerns at the U.S. compound in Benghazi went to department headquarters” [4. http://www.foxnews.mobi...] Fox broke the story of a U.S. marine imprisoned in Mexico on bogus charges, and put pressure that helped get him released. Fox provided fair coverage of Hillary Clinton's primary battle with then-Senator Barack Obama. “Hillary Clinton appeared on "Fox & Friends" Tuesday morning, where she discussed sexism with co-host Gretchen Carlson and took the opportunity to say that she "appreciated" Fox News' balanced coverage of her campaign.” [5. http://www.huffingtonpost.com...] There are dozens of such cases. Fox probably picks up these stories and presses them because they are of interest to conservatives. That's fine. Getting news out to the public is a benefit. 5. Fox News is the primary source for Libertarian opinion on television. If you want to find out what libertarians have to say, John Stossel has, to my knowledge, the only weekly libertarian program on television. Libertarian Judge Andrew Napolitano is a frequent commentator on legal issues. Late night satirical humor show Red Eye (sort of a right-wing The Daily Show) is hosted by libertarians Greg Gutfeld and Andy Levy, and regularly feature libertarian guests including Reason Magazine editors and Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson. Business news program host Neil Cavuto regularly features libertarians, and defended Ron Paul against media smears and dismissal. [6. http://www.humblelibertarian.com... ] 6. Fox News is the primary source for Conservative opinion on television. I think my opponent will concede this fact. The issue is whether allowing conservatives air time is good thing. PBS and MSNBC prove liberal opinion almost exclusively. (Almost … there's McLaughlin on PBS, etc.) I defend not only the right of the Left to express opinions, but affirm the value to the country of having such outlets. Political scientists at UCLA found Fox News' evening news biased only slightly right of center. "If viewers spent an equal amount of time watching Fox's 'Special Report' as ABC's 'World News' and NBC's 'Nightly News,' then they would receive a nearly perfectly balanced version of the news," [7. http://newsroom.ucla.edu...] It's a benefit to have diverse viewpoints. Fox benefits society by offering a non-liberal view.