Sandman
November 14th 03, 06:12 PM
http://poynter.org/forum/?id=thememo:
10/31/2003 4:43:48 PM
Posted By: Jim Romenesko
From CHARLIE REINA: So Chris Wallace says Fox News Channel really is fair
and balanced. Well, I guess that settles it. We can all go home now. I mean,
so what if Wallace's salary as Fox's newest big-name anchor ends with a
whole lot of zeroes? So what if he hasn't spent a day in the FNC newsroom
yet?
My advice to the pundits: If you really want to know about bias at Fox, talk
to the grunts who work there - the desk assistants, tape editors, writers,
researchers and assorted producers who have to deal with it every day. Ask
enough of them what goes on, promise them anonymity, and you'll get the real
story.
The fact is, daily life at FNC is all about management politics. I say this
having served six years there - as producer of the media criticism show,
News Watch, as a writer/producer of specials and (for the last year of my
stay) as a newsroom copy editor. Not once in the 20+ years I had worked in
broadcast journalism prior to Fox - including lengthy stays at The
Associated Press, CBS Radio and ABC/Good Morning America - did I feel any
pressure to toe a management line. But at Fox, if my boss wasn't warning me
to "be careful" how I handled the writing of a special about Ronald Reagan
("You know how Roger [Fox News Chairman Ailes] feels about him."), he was
telling me how the environmental special I was to produce should lean ("You
can give both sides, but make sure the pro-environmentalists don't get the
last word.")
Editorially, the FNC newsroom is under the constant control and vigilance of
management. The pressure ranges from subtle to direct. First of all, it's a
news network run by one of the most high-profile political operatives of
recent times. Everyone there understands that FNC is, to a large extent,
"Roger's Revenge" - against what he considers a liberal, pro-Democrat media
establishment that has shunned him for decades. For the staffers, many of
whom are too young to have come up through the ranks of objective
journalism, and all of whom are non-union, with no protections regarding
what they can be made to do, there is undue motivation to please the big
boss.
Sometimes, this eagerness to serve Fox's ideological interests goes even
beyond what management expects. For example, in June of last year, when a
California judge ruled the Pledge of Allegiance's "Under God" wording
unconstitutional, FNC's newsroom chief ordered the judge's mailing address
and phone number put on the screen. The anchor, reading from the
Teleprompter, found himself explaining that Fox was taking this unusual step
so viewers could go directly to the judge and get "as much information as
possible" about his decision. To their credit, the big bosses recognized
that their underling's transparent attempt to serve their political
interests might well threaten the judge's physical safety and ordered the
offending information removed from the screen as soon as they saw it. A few
months later, this same eager-to-please newsroom chief ordered the removal
of a graphic quoting UN weapons inspector Hans Blix as saying his team had
not yet found WMDs in Iraq. Fortunately, the electronic equipment was
quicker on the uptake (and less susceptible to office politics) than the
toady and displayed the graphic before his order could be obeyed.
But the roots of FNC's day-to-day on-air bias are actual and direct. They
come in the form of an executive memo distributed electronically each
morning, addressing what stories will be covered and, often, suggesting how
they should be covered. To the newsroom personnel responsible for the
channel's daytime programming, The Memo is the bible. If, on any given day,
you notice that the Fox anchors seem to be trying to drive a particular
point home, you can bet The Memo is behind it./CONTINUED BELOW
Ex-Fox News staffer on The Memo/CON'T.
10/31/2003 4:41:58 PM
Posted By: Jim Romenesko
REINA LETTER CONTINUED/The Memo was born with the Bush administration, early
in 2001, and, intentionally or not, has ensured that the administration's
point of view consistently comes across on FNC. This year, of course, the
war in Iraq became a constant subject of The Memo. But along with the
obvious - information on who is where and what they'll be covering - there
have been subtle hints as to the tone of the anchors' copy. For instance,
from the March 20th memo: "There is something utterly incomprehensible about
Kofi Annan's remarks in which he allows that his thoughts are 'with the
Iraqi people.' One could ask where those thoughts were during the 23 years
Saddam Hussein was brutalizing those same Iraqis. Food for thought." Can
there be any doubt that the memo was offering not only "food for thought,"
but a direction for the FNC writers and anchors to go? Especially after
describing the U.N. Secretary General's remarks as "utterly
incomprehensible"?
The sad truth is, such subtlety is often all it takes to send Fox's newsroom
personnel into action - or inaction, as the case may be. One day this past
spring, just after the U.S. invaded Iraq, The Memo warned us that anti-war
protesters would be "whining" about U.S. bombs killing Iraqi civilians, and
suggested they could tell that to the families of American soldiers dying
there. Editing copy that morning, I was not surprised when an eager young
producer killed a correspondent's report on the day's fighting - simply
because it included a brief shot of children in an Iraqi hospital.
These are not isolated incidents at Fox News Channel, where virtually no one
of authority in the newsroom makes a move unmeasured against management's
politics, actual or perceived. At the Fair and Balanced network, everyone
knows management's point of view, and, in case they're not sure how to get
it on air, The Memo is there to remind them.
10/31/2003 4:43:48 PM
Posted By: Jim Romenesko
From CHARLIE REINA: So Chris Wallace says Fox News Channel really is fair
and balanced. Well, I guess that settles it. We can all go home now. I mean,
so what if Wallace's salary as Fox's newest big-name anchor ends with a
whole lot of zeroes? So what if he hasn't spent a day in the FNC newsroom
yet?
My advice to the pundits: If you really want to know about bias at Fox, talk
to the grunts who work there - the desk assistants, tape editors, writers,
researchers and assorted producers who have to deal with it every day. Ask
enough of them what goes on, promise them anonymity, and you'll get the real
story.
The fact is, daily life at FNC is all about management politics. I say this
having served six years there - as producer of the media criticism show,
News Watch, as a writer/producer of specials and (for the last year of my
stay) as a newsroom copy editor. Not once in the 20+ years I had worked in
broadcast journalism prior to Fox - including lengthy stays at The
Associated Press, CBS Radio and ABC/Good Morning America - did I feel any
pressure to toe a management line. But at Fox, if my boss wasn't warning me
to "be careful" how I handled the writing of a special about Ronald Reagan
("You know how Roger [Fox News Chairman Ailes] feels about him."), he was
telling me how the environmental special I was to produce should lean ("You
can give both sides, but make sure the pro-environmentalists don't get the
last word.")
Editorially, the FNC newsroom is under the constant control and vigilance of
management. The pressure ranges from subtle to direct. First of all, it's a
news network run by one of the most high-profile political operatives of
recent times. Everyone there understands that FNC is, to a large extent,
"Roger's Revenge" - against what he considers a liberal, pro-Democrat media
establishment that has shunned him for decades. For the staffers, many of
whom are too young to have come up through the ranks of objective
journalism, and all of whom are non-union, with no protections regarding
what they can be made to do, there is undue motivation to please the big
boss.
Sometimes, this eagerness to serve Fox's ideological interests goes even
beyond what management expects. For example, in June of last year, when a
California judge ruled the Pledge of Allegiance's "Under God" wording
unconstitutional, FNC's newsroom chief ordered the judge's mailing address
and phone number put on the screen. The anchor, reading from the
Teleprompter, found himself explaining that Fox was taking this unusual step
so viewers could go directly to the judge and get "as much information as
possible" about his decision. To their credit, the big bosses recognized
that their underling's transparent attempt to serve their political
interests might well threaten the judge's physical safety and ordered the
offending information removed from the screen as soon as they saw it. A few
months later, this same eager-to-please newsroom chief ordered the removal
of a graphic quoting UN weapons inspector Hans Blix as saying his team had
not yet found WMDs in Iraq. Fortunately, the electronic equipment was
quicker on the uptake (and less susceptible to office politics) than the
toady and displayed the graphic before his order could be obeyed.
But the roots of FNC's day-to-day on-air bias are actual and direct. They
come in the form of an executive memo distributed electronically each
morning, addressing what stories will be covered and, often, suggesting how
they should be covered. To the newsroom personnel responsible for the
channel's daytime programming, The Memo is the bible. If, on any given day,
you notice that the Fox anchors seem to be trying to drive a particular
point home, you can bet The Memo is behind it./CONTINUED BELOW
Ex-Fox News staffer on The Memo/CON'T.
10/31/2003 4:41:58 PM
Posted By: Jim Romenesko
REINA LETTER CONTINUED/The Memo was born with the Bush administration, early
in 2001, and, intentionally or not, has ensured that the administration's
point of view consistently comes across on FNC. This year, of course, the
war in Iraq became a constant subject of The Memo. But along with the
obvious - information on who is where and what they'll be covering - there
have been subtle hints as to the tone of the anchors' copy. For instance,
from the March 20th memo: "There is something utterly incomprehensible about
Kofi Annan's remarks in which he allows that his thoughts are 'with the
Iraqi people.' One could ask where those thoughts were during the 23 years
Saddam Hussein was brutalizing those same Iraqis. Food for thought." Can
there be any doubt that the memo was offering not only "food for thought,"
but a direction for the FNC writers and anchors to go? Especially after
describing the U.N. Secretary General's remarks as "utterly
incomprehensible"?
The sad truth is, such subtlety is often all it takes to send Fox's newsroom
personnel into action - or inaction, as the case may be. One day this past
spring, just after the U.S. invaded Iraq, The Memo warned us that anti-war
protesters would be "whining" about U.S. bombs killing Iraqi civilians, and
suggested they could tell that to the families of American soldiers dying
there. Editing copy that morning, I was not surprised when an eager young
producer killed a correspondent's report on the day's fighting - simply
because it included a brief shot of children in an Iraqi hospital.
These are not isolated incidents at Fox News Channel, where virtually no one
of authority in the newsroom makes a move unmeasured against management's
politics, actual or perceived. At the Fair and Balanced network, everyone
knows management's point of view, and, in case they're not sure how to get
it on air, The Memo is there to remind them.