Has a Corporate News outlet ever involved itself in leading a protest against the Government?

[FrenchieCat]

Because that is what News-corp aka Fox News is doing.


VIDEO: Fox News Signs On To Tea Party Agenda, Aggressively Promotes Anti-Obama Protests
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/04/10/fox-news-tea-party-video/


REPORT: "Fair and balanced" Fox News aggressively promotes "tea party" protests
http://mediamatters.org/items/200904080025?f=h_top


Spontaneous Uprising? Corporate Lobbyists Helping To Orchestrate Radical Anti-Obama Tea Party Protests
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/04/09/lobbyists-planning-teaparties/


FOX News -- PROMOTING, Not Covering Tea Parties
http://www.seeingtheforest.com/archives/2009/04/fox_news_promot.htm

Fox News isn’t the only right-wing organization involved in building up these so-called “grassroots” events. The tea parties have been heavily backed by corporate lobbyists. The principle organizers of many of the local events are actually the lobbyist-run think tanks Americans for Prosperity, Freedom Works, and Newt Gingrich’s American Solutions. The groups are heavily staffed and well funded, and are providing all the logistical and public relations work necessary for planning coast-to-coast protests.

Isn't that some kind of conflict of interest between
presenting oneself as an unbiased news source on the one hand,
while actively attempting to create news itself,
by actively going after one's own government?

Isn't that like inciting riots or something? :shrug:

Shouldn't the FCC have something to say about this
astroturf movement being led by some of the biggest names
employed by a cable news outlet that bills itself as
"fair and balanced?"



FCC Contact information: http://www.fcc.gov/contacts.html


Go here for complete instructions and link
on how to file an FCC complaint on-line at the FCC site!http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x8335666

[baldguy]

1. It'snot against "The Government"

It's against "The UnAmerican Liberal Elite"

[Top Cat]

19. Yes it is they view the Government as being Dem at this time

[Luminous Animal]

2. Not that I recall...

but RCTV in Venezuela was a partner in the coup against Chavez.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

3. Treason - to the guillotine1

[panader0]

4. Just emailed Jonathon Adelstein to bitch.

Thanks for the link.

[FrenchieCat]

6. I filed a complaint online

at this link....
https://esupport.fcc.gov/sform2000/formA!input.action?form_page=2000A

[prolesunited]

5. No, and they shouldn't

but having journalistic integrity and ethics would imply that they are even journalists in the first place.

[Warren Stupidity]

7. actually of course they should

media, as per the first amendment, ought to promote political positions. Journalistic integrity and editorial opinions are two different things.

The problem isn't that Fox is promoting a protest movement, the problem is that our 'press', in particular broadcast media, is owned and controlled by the same set of people who have corrupted our government and control it. If we had a vibrant broadcast media promoting a broad array of political opinion, Fox would be just one of many voices. Instead we have something entirely different.

[FrenchieCat]

10. It's desceptive advertising, as they are not telling the truth as to who is involved in

promoting these protests. This is a breach of ethical conduct under the FCC rules and regulations.

[Warren Stupidity]

12. which rule is being broken?

Fox isn't selling us teabag protests, so claiming this is 'deceptive advertising', seems a bit of a stretch to me. They are editorializing - and they have the right to do that. The problem is that there is almost no diversity of opinion.

[FrenchieCat]

14. They have not noted who the sponsors of this "Teabag" protests are.....

The principle organizers of many of the local events are actually the lobbyist-run think tanks Americans for Prosperity, Freedom Works, and Newt Gingrich’s American Solutions. The groups are heavily staffed and well funded, and are providing all the logistical and public relations work necessary for planning coast-to-coast protests.
http://www.nowpublic.com/world/fox-news-promotes-anti-obama-tea-parties-video

And they lie when they call it grassroot protest movement.

It's called propaganda.

[Warren Stupidity]

20. "It's called propaganda." - absolutely

and that would be protected free speech. You claimed they were engaged in deceptive advertising and violations of FCC regulations - I want to know which ones. I hate what they are doing, but as far as I am concerned, the problem is not that Fox is taking sides (duh!) the problem is that there is almost no diversity of side-taking in broadcast media. The fourth estate is supposed to take sides and disseminate opinion, but it has to be a broad range of opinions or it is a dysfunctional fourth estate.

[MiniMe]

8. Calling Faux a news organization is your first mistake

They are a right wing spin machine

[HowHasItComeToThis]

11. FOX IS TRYING TO OVERTHROW THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

THAT IS THEIR GOAL.


THEY LOVE WEAK INEFFECTIVE STATE AND LOCAL GOV

[Warren Stupidity]

13. protests are protected free speech

EVEN IF YOU SHOUT

[FrenchieCat]

15. The problems isn't with the protest,

it is how the events themselves, before they happened, have been marketed and promoted.

The people who are really coordinating and paying for the events are not grassrooters,
they are large corporations with News Corporation being one of them.
That information hasn't been disclosed to the public during the promotion,
and that is deceptive marketing.

[Warren Stupidity]

21. Ok - but there is no and should be no law against promoting dissent.

You really want to pass a law that prohibits promoting and marketing dissent? How would that pass constitutional muster?

[Bjorn Against]

9. I was preparing to write a blog about this.

The teabaggers have been promoted endlessly by the media, yet when our side has a protest they act as if it is going to be a violent event with lots of broken windows and anarchists rioting in the streets. I have been to many protests, including some the police warned would be violent. I was at the last two RNC protests in both New York and St. Paul and I marched with tens or even hundreds of thousands of peaceful protesters and the only violence I witnessed was from the police. Yet the media still focused on these imaginary "violent anarchists". With the teabaggers their coverage has been very different they are suggesting it is a big grassroots movement despite the fact that it appears the idea was hatched in corporate boardrooms, and in fact they are suggesting that if anything does happen it will be at the hands of leftist infiltrators. It could not be any more clear which side our media is on.

[opihimoimoi]

16. GOP Stagnation....Democrats Evolution :o) The Pubs are Toast

The Information Age is Here to Stay.....Astuteness Level is Climbing.....People are fucking worried...where are the answers to what seems an insurmountable group of concerns...some are of the Global Kind...

[BlooInBloo]

17. It'll be like the Clinton pots&pans or whatever the hell that fail was....

Except this'll be more expensive.

[onenote]

18. self delete

[TheKentuckian]

22. I think this is a lot of FAIL, so don't care much but I'm sick of

FOX and the like being granted the status and consequentially the stature of political viewpoint capable of discourse and dissent. This is because you are entitled to your own opinion but not your own facts. Especially, when you are considered the press.

Making up shit and pumping misinformation into the ether is not dissent and it is certainly not the purpose of the press.