Fox Business News Faces Credibility Questions

The Rupert Murdoch empire added another province with the launched of Fox Business News, a cable TV network devoted to all things businessy, and a direct challenge to CNBC and Bloomberg. Definitely, it is too early to tell if FBN will take off, but there is one identifiable problem that it must address. The Fox brand hardly enhances the credibility of this business news source.

Fox News has been a cheerleader for the reactionaries in American politics for many years, and there is nothing wrong with having an editorial line (in fact, it’s impossible not to have one). Yet when that editorial line requires deliberate distortion of fact and misrepresentation of reality, one is engaging in propaganda rather than journalism. Fox News hasn’t distinguished itself as a journalistic outlet.

The Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland did a study back in 2003 about current events and the war on terrorism. Researchers found three misperceptions existed at that time about the discovery of alleged WMD in Iraq (there weren’t any), alleged Iraqi involvement in 9/11 (there was none), and international support for a US invasion of Iraq (it wasn’t very broad). Some 80% of Fox viewers held one of this mistaken beliefs, and only 20% were falsehood free. Among CBS viewers, the results were 71% and 30% (rounding makes it 101%); ABC’s split was 61% to 39%; CBS and CNN were 55% to 45% each; those who read papers were 47% to 57% (that is a majority had a handle on the truth), and the National Public Radio/Public Broadcasting System people were 77% right to 23% off base.

So, what does this mean to business reportage? After all, if a stock closes up, there’s no way to say it closed down. But as Fox has proved in the past, facts can be spun. Aaron Task of thestreet.com was on and said, “We’ll see $100 a barrel before we’ll see $65 again.” This journal agrees, but he went on to add that was good for the economy because it shows there is great demand for oil, meaning there is a lot of economic activity. He said he finds it annoying when a reporter says, “Stock prices rose in spite of a surge in oil prices.” One should say, in his opinion, “Oil prices and the Dow rise together.” A quick look at the stock market and the oil shocks of the 1970s will say all that needs to be said in debunking his misbelief. The demand in China and elsewhere doesn’t make America better off, and inefficient SUVs aren’t an economic boon either.

Overall, the first couple of days have set a rather light and breezy tone at Fox Business News, one that distinguishes it from the seriousness at CNBC – heck, there was an interview with a guy in Times Square, known locally as the Naked Cowboy (he really wears a hat, boots and underpants while playing the guitar for donations) on Monday. Maybe Americans, used to rather dumbed down TV at night, will latch onto this approach for their business news. One wouldn’t mind so much if the news it did provide was correct and its analysis accurate, but after Fox News did such a bad job in a basic matter of war and peace, there’s an understandable lack of faith that must still be overcome at FBN.

© Copyright 2007 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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