Truth and Fictions

The name of one of Rupert Murdoch’s more controversial projects, Fox News Channel, is something of a misnomer. The channel cannot be considered an objective source of information by any stretch of the imagination, and to deem it “news” is an insult to the very idea of what true journalism is. The list of misdeeds and controversies in which Fox has been embroiled are a Wikipedia page long, and the jesters whom they now seem fond of employing represent little more than proof that, in America, dishonesty and insanity do not preclude gainful employment. Every time one believes that the absurdity of Fox’s behavior has reached its acme, it surpasses itself by redefining what is truly absurd, at times even devolving into hysterics.

Given Fox’s constant attacks on reason and manipulation of the facts—even including the events they report—it is shocking and disappointing that so much of the American public appears to be captivated by that duplicity. The onus is on more credible news sources to expose Fox News for what it really is. Unfortunately, the once-vaunted CNN, with a few exceptions, seems more concerned with Balloon Boy than with exposing Fox’s lies concerning the most important issues of our day.

But even if slothful mainstream media outlets cannot take up the task of challenging Fox, the burden of delegitimizing it shouldn’t fall on the executive branch. Recently, White House Communications Director Anita Dunn made clear just how concerned the White House is in her indictment of Fox as “a wing of the Republican Party.” That slip reveals that the White House is in fact concerned with the lies surrounding the national discourse—concerned enough to attack it in an official public-relations capacity.

It is unclear what political ends the Obama administration is hoping to achieve with this confrontational approach to Fox. This is a news channel that thrives on controversy, and its anchors glut on polemics. Its audience seems captive to the lies of Glenn Beck and co., but they appear unlikely to trust the words of any politician, even the most charismatic one. Furthermore, the White House will hardly be viewed as an objective arbiter of the truth if it continues to level such retaliations in the wake of the national imbroglio that is the health-care “debate.” And even if the administration could critique Fox from a position of unquestionable credibility, ad hominem assaults are not the way to dispel the fogs of fiction.

At a time when myths and half-truths pose serious threats to intelligent discourse and one of the greatest problems of our generation—health care—must be engaged with seriously, these schoolyard antics on the part of both Fox and the White House neither are politically expedient nor do they move debate forward. The White House should take Fox’s deliberate deceptions seriously, but there are more intelligent ways to deal with lies than picking a fight that can’t be won at a reasonable cost. For now, the focus should be on what is being said, not who is saying it. People barely understand health-care reform as it stands, and entering the fray with fists flailing and insults flying provides the American public with neither assurance nor the truth.

Derrick Asiedu ’12, a Crimson editorial writer, is a social studies concentrator in Leverett House.