MSNBC vs Fox News

Huntn

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I realize some of our forum members don’t have an outlet to listen to these news sources, but I’ll say that when I listen to MSNBC I hear reasonable and factual assessments of what is happening on the political front in the US. I hear a liberal viewpoint, but I do not hear slanted, untruthful liberalism. The important thing, there is a factual basis to what I am hearing. The impeachment hearings are the perfect example of accurate reporting with a liberal perspective.

When I infrequently listen to Fox News I hear blatantly slanted reporting, to a degree that their reporting is inaccurate, and they tell you what you should think about it. There are substantiated reasons why I refer to them as Faux News, Pravda West. A guy named Murdock turned Fox into a right wing, conspiracy theory propaganda machine. It can be argued this organization has done great harm to the fabric of Demicracy in the United States, acknowledge I have not been listening to Fox’s coverage of the current Impeachment heading, but we checked the other day, and on the first day of the impeachment, according to their schedule, it did not look like they were covering these hearings.
 

Eric

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I think they both cater to their respective bases, putting a spin on things from their point of view. IMO the biggest difference is that Fox News flat out propagates things that are simply untrue which makes them hard to take seriously, I don't mind a right wing perspective if it's truthful though. Personally though I just stick with CNN because they tend to be more in the middle, I just can't stand hyperpartisan opinions on either side that way.
 

ouimetnick

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As someone who doesn't have cable, I watch parts of MSNBC when I'm at my aunt's house, and parts of Faux on YouTube. Hannity, Carlson, Ingraham all spout conspiracy theories, making it harder to watch. Folks like Maddow spend too much time on a topic and take forever to get to the point (I realize she has an hour of time to kill) She is very thorough though. Ari Melber is probably my favorite, very thorough and he knows his stuff. Chris Hayes is okay, along with Rachel Maddow. I don't care for the rest. I should point out that when I do see MSNBC, it's at the end of the day, so I don't have an opinion on the programming they run during the afternoon.

Both put their spin on topics to cater to their viewers, but Fox is a spreader of dangerous conspiracies and MSNBC is not.
 

Huntn

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I think they both cater to their respective bases, putting a spin on things from their point of view. IMO the biggest difference is that Fox News flat out propagates things that are simply untrue which makes them hard to take seriously, I don't mind a right wing perspective if it's truthful though. Personally though I just stick with CNN because they tend to be more in the middle, I just can't stand hyperpartisan opinions on either side that way.
I‘ve heard no hyper- partisan views on MSNBC. If you look at the reporting from MSNBC on Trump during his term, it was all accurate appraisals of his actions and his agenda, yes it’s a liberal perspective, but it’s not fabricated.
 

Alli

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I never miss Deadline White House with Nicolle Wallace or the Rachael Maddow Show. They speak openly, honestly, and have on a variety of guests from many backgrounds.
 

Yoused

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Back when we had satellite, we would watch msnbc. Particularly, we always caught Countdown with Keith Olbermann. He was kind of an asshole, but what he said tended to resonate. He had a passion that I have not really seen from anyone else even though he was perpetually piquish.

Since going to local broadcast, the one channel that comes in reliably is the Fox affiliate, which is mostly entertainment but also the regular news. Recently they reshuffled the channels (the actual frequency numbers match the displayed channel number for one of about twelve channel groups) and suddenly we were able to get the local NBC affiliate. I swear, when compared to the Fox affiliate, the reporting on the NBC station was to a level of journalistic professionalism that the Fox station's news crew could not begin to approach. Perhaps the difference is subtle to most people, but it is pretty obvious to me. We can sometimes get the local CBS station, which does quite well on the news front, but the local NBC station has even them beat by a fair margin.
 

Thomas Veil

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Keith Olbermann was a lot of fun to watch. Yes, he was a strutting peacock. Yes, that Edward R. Murrow affectation of his was a bit over the top. But he also had a wicked sense of sarcastic humor, and it was nice to hear someone speak with a level of eloquence that was ten levels above George W. Bush, and fifty levels above 45th President of the United States Donald Trump.

It’s a shame he couldn’t control his mercurial attitude...although there were times his pique was justified. That electrically-challenged studio they gave him at Current was just ridiculous. John Oliver was not the first person to do his show from an empty void. 😄

As to local news... our local NBC affiliate is also the most professional TV outfit in town. The CBS outlet, by contrast, is very much of the “If it bleeds it leads” variety of “journalism”. That makes it quite a contrast with The CBS Evening News, but, sadly, in spite of being on the verge of self-parody, it does earn them high ratings.
 

Chew Toy McCoy

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MSNBC did themself no favors by its constant barrage of Russiagate coverage, whether you believe it was real or not. They spent way too much air time on it that could have been spent on other issues. Fox attempted the same thing with Hunter Biden. I love the “We wouldn’t cover it if people weren’t interested in it.” copout. “When we stopped covering the Kardashians our revenue stream completely collapsed!” said no network or show ever.
 

SuperMatt

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MSNBC did themself no favors by its constant barrage of Russiagate coverage, whether you believe it was real or not. They spent way too much air time on it that could have been spent on other issues. Fox attempted the same thing with Hunter Biden. I love the “We wouldn’t cover it if people weren’t interested in it.” copout. “When we stopped covering the Kardashians our revenue stream completely collapsed!” said no network or show ever.
I’ve read the Mueller report. There was a lot of illegal activity to report. Jail sentences were handed out. We have verified evidence that a foreign country was attempting to subvert our election. Kind of silly to compare that to the misdeeds of a candidate’s kid. Especially when one “scandal” had little to no evidence, little to no consequence, and the other literally threatened our democracy.

Comparing things featured on Fox vs. other networks is silly. Just today for instance, if you look at their homepage, it’s crying about an actress being “cancelled” for espousing offensive views online, people trying to blame the Capitol riots on Nancy Pelosi, multiple free campaign ads for Lara Trump, and multiple opinion pieces about “cancel culture,” .... and of course ... a story about Antifa.
 

Alli

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As to local news... our local NBC affiliate is also the most professional TV outfit in town. The CBS outlet, by contrast, is very much of the “If it bleeds it leads” variety of “journalism”. That makes it quite a contrast with The CBS Evening News, but, sadly, in spite of being on the verge of self-parody, it does earn them high ratings.
We have a bizarre situation here. The Fox affiliate used to be the NBC affiliate, so the news team is really good. The NBC affiliate is owned by Sinclair so it's a lose lose. If I want local news I actually go to the mayor's Facebook page.
 

Chew Toy McCoy

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I’ve read the Mueller report. There was a lot of illegal activity to report. Jail sentences were handed out. We have verified evidence that a foreign country was attempting to subvert our election. Kind of silly to compare that to the misdeeds of a candidate’s kid. Especially when one “scandal” had little to no evidence, little to no consequence, and the other literally threatened our democracy.

Comparing things featured on Fox vs. other networks is silly. Just today for instance, if you look at their homepage, it’s crying about an actress being “cancelled” for espousing offensive views online, people trying to blame the Capitol riots on Nancy Pelosi, multiple free campaign ads for Lara Trump, and multiple opinion pieces about “cancel culture,” .... and of course ... a story about Antifa.

Still doesn't excuse the fact that MSNBC made it seem like the only news that matters for at least several years. It would be like talking about nothing but this recent impeachment for several years and their far more evidence and (pending) convictions than even Russiagate.
 

SuperMatt

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Still doesn't excuse the fact that MSNBC made it seem like the only news that matters for at least several years. It would be like talking about nothing but this recent impeachment for several years and their far more evidence and (pending) convictions than even Russiagate.
There’s an argument to be made that Russia trying to interfere in American elections SHOULD be the top story, especially when the administration was denying it and restricting details from being released. There is no reason for Joe Biden‘s son to be on the front page of Fox for months on end.
 

Chew Toy McCoy

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There’s an argument to be made that Russia trying to interfere in American elections SHOULD be the top story, especially when the administration was denying it and restricting details from being released. There is no reason for Joe Biden‘s son to be on the front page of Fox for months on end.

Russia (and the US) interfere in a lot of elections, and China. This isn’t news. It’s common knowledge. It’s certainly not 2 years worth of constant coverage.
 

SuperMatt

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Russia (and the US) interfere in a lot of elections, and China. This isn’t news. It’s common knowledge. It’s certainly not 2 years worth of constant coverage.
Some people do want to know what foreign countries are doing to interfere in American elections. For those who don’t, they can change the channel.
 
U

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I think they both cater to their respective bases, putting a spin on things from their point of view. IMO the biggest difference is that Fox News flat out propagates things that are simply untrue which makes them hard to take seriously, I don't mind a right wing perspective if it's truthful though. Personally though I just stick with CNN because they tend to be more in the middle, I just can't stand hyperpartisan opinions on either side that way.
(I don't have Cable so my opinion is formed based on online stuff)
I avoid MSNBC sand Fox because you'll get a very predictable spin on things.

Fox and CNN are similar in many ways. Fox and CNN cover a lot of things the other don't and if you look at the two, they serve a goal of achieving their respective spins. For example in the summer, Fox was favoring headlines about BLM being violent, and CNN about the opposite. If you saw agent provocateur activity, it tended to be headline at CNN, and low-key on the bottom of FoxNews with as short reporting as possible.

CNN is very fast food-like, so if you want to see the major trends, you scan their headlines. If you want to see good quality reporting, you read NYT with some delay. I like to watch Reuters' Now for 15 min news (Apple TV app), they are generally pretty decent on factual reporting (meaning they filter shoddy stuff) and it keeps you on track of trends. I like ViceNews Tonight for interesting news...they make the most engaging news with a lot of attention to the human element; a very left wingy approach but generally aligns with my values.

At the end of the day, if you want to be informed on a topic, you have to get your hands dirty and read the data generated by experts (not media analysts, which to date I consider a synonym for fancy bullshitter).
 

Chew Toy McCoy

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Some people do want to know what foreign countries are doing to interfere in American elections. For those who don’t, they can change the channel.

Fair enough. Also I don't know anybody who watches network news, so I really don't know why I'm pushing this issue. Even the highest rated shows on network news channels have a pathetically small percentage of the population watching. If anything, you probably have a bigger percentage of people talking about what people are watching/being fed than people actually watching/being fed. I'd even argue Fox News probably gets more attention and exposure from people who hate the network than people who watch it regularly.
 
U

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Russia (and the US) interfere in a lot of elections, and China. This isn’t news. It’s common knowledge. It’s certainly not 2 years worth of constant coverage.
Some people do want to know what foreign countries are doing to interfere in American elections. For those who don’t, they can change the channel.

Election interference by the USA has been an irritating thing if your country is affected. I still have an impression that the USA isn't necessarily the good guy in Venezuela. However, you cannot emphasize it enough that the Mueller report proved concerted efforts by Russia, in an election that was won by 73K strategically placed midwestern battleground votes by a guy who was so soft on Russia it takes a mental marathon not to interpret as a sign of compromise.
 

Chew Toy McCoy

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I like ViceNews Tonight for interesting news...they make the most engaging news with a lot of attention to the human element; a very left wingy approach but generally aligns with my values.

I heard a quote from a Vice detractor a while back and I haven’t been able to take Vice seriously sense. “We send interns into war zones to discover local vegan recipes.” :ROFLMAO: Honestly, it feels like they are sent somewhere with the only instructions "Go find the most miserable or filthy looking person and give their story the Hollywood treatment."
 
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