[Media-watch] Fox Vs. CNN: a deepening divide - Macon Telegraph - 27 July 2004

[Julie-ann Davies]

Syndicated - originally published in Dallas Morning News 17 July 2004.
_____________________________________


http://www.macon.com/mld/macon/news/nation/9253062.htm

 Posted on Tue, Jul. 27, 2004





Fox vs. CNN: a deepening divide

BY COLLEEN MCCAIN NELSON

The Dallas Morning News


DALLAS - (KRT) - In the divisive world of cable television news, three
letters say a lot about a person.

The TV nation, like the electorate, is split down the middle, with viewers
choosing sides: Fox or CNN. And just as in presidential politics, most are
committed to their preference, with few swing voters or undecideds up for
grabs.

As the race for the White House heats up, the partisan divide is deepening
on the TV dial.

Charges and countercharges of bias fly between viewers of the two networks,
with Fox watchers labeling the competition liberal and CNN viewers dubbing
the other guys GOP-TV.

But are the broadcasts on Fox News Channel and CNN really that different?

For viewers such as Patty Cron, the answer is an unequivocal "yes."

A frequent business traveler, she insists on staying in hotels that offer
Fox News.

"A lot of hotels just have the Ted Turner CNN package," she says. "When that
happens, I check out and switch hotels."

The result of such unwavering loyalty, media experts said, is a growing
disconnect between those who rely on "fair and balanced" news, which Fox
says it provides, and those watching "the most trusted name in news," which
CNN claims to be.

While a diversity of opinions and information sources is useful, media
experts say, the danger of this divide is a lack of consensus on even basic
facts.

"The common ground for public understanding and public information may be
destroyed in all of this," said Frank Sesno, a former CNN executive and a
professor of public policy and communication at George Mason University.
"The simple question of what happened today becomes something we're in
danger of arguing over."

---

Network representatives say the question of whether Fox or CNN promotes a
point of view is easily put to rest.

No, each said without hesitation.

Both claim to be the best and most unbiased source of news.

"It's obvious that we place the highest premium on being impartial, on
providing all sides - not just both sides - but all sides," said Matthew
Furman, CNN spokesman.

"We try to make sure that everything is fair and is balanced," said Bill
Shine, vice president of production for Fox News. "It's our slogan, but it's
also what we live by."

Shine said Fox goes so far as to take a stopwatch into the studio to ensure
that opposing viewpoints get equal airtime. Furman said that during every
step of production - from guest bookings to script vettings - fairness is
considered at CNN.

For confirmation of their evenhandedness, both networks turn to their
audiences. Cable news viewers represent only a sliver of the television
universe, but they are an engaged and brand-loyal bunch.

Fox points to its success in the ratings, which have consistently outpaced
the competition, making the 8-year-old network No. 1 in cable news. "The
American public likes what we do, and that shows in the ratings," Shine
said.

At CNN, the network cites studies showing that people of all political
stripes are tuning in. "The ideological makeup of our audience most closely
mirrors the makeup of the country," Furman said.

A study released last month by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center found
that conservatives are watching Fox in greater numbers. CNN's audience has
become more Democratic, but the network still draws a politically varied
audience.

According to the study, 52 percent of Fox viewers describe themselves as
conservative, compared with 36 percent of CNN's audience. CNN has more
credibility with viewers - 32 percent believe what they hear on the network,
compared with 25 percent for Fox - but CNN's rating has slipped in the last
couple of years.

---

Hector Leija was a CNN viewer but gradually grew frustrated with the
network. A Republican, Leija abandoned CNN after becoming fed up with what
he perceived as undue criticism of the president.

"I got tired of all the negative," he said. "They were bashing my man Bush,
so I had to make the switch."

As Leija sees it, all networks slant their stories, so he might as well
watch the channel that mirrors his views.

"When people are in agreement with one another, they tend to be good
company. Fox and I are good company," he said.

Like Leija, many viewers are seeking affirmation - not information, experts
said.

"We have too much info to sift through to form our own opinions, so we lean
on partisan hosts who form them for us," said Matthew Felling, media
director for the Center for Media and Public Affairs.

In a world of sound bites and bullet points, many viewers seek out
simplistic, definitive declarations rather than sift through complexity and
nuance, said Felling, who likened many people's TV watching habits to eating
at a restaurant instead of preparing a home-cooked meal.

"They go to the opinion mongers rather than prepare their own because it's
easier and saves time - much like eating out," he said.

CNN viewer William Newbill agreed, saying that many people are unwilling to
debate issues and prefer to boil things down to digestible, black-and-white
answers. Fox News, he said, is populated with talking heads making grand
pronouncements - regardless of whether the evidence supports their opinions.

"It would be one thing if they were just right-wingers," he said. "But they
don't get their facts right, and they go out of their way to dispute facts
that mainstream media reports accurately."

But Fox News president Roger Ailes has asserted that the rest of the media
is so far left of center that an objective network such as Fox seems
conservative by comparison.

Brent Baker, vice president of the conservative Media Research Center, said
Fox News breaks from media "groupthink" by presenting story angles that
weren't being covered by left-leaning networks.

"It provides an alternative because they're offering information you can't
get elsewhere," he said.

Baker acknowledged many of the prime-time commentators at Fox are
conservative and said that some CNN anchors are more fair than others. But
in general, CNN appears to be a liberal network, he said.

"Overall, the Fox News Channel is more fair and balanced than anybody else,"
Baker said.

Bias appears to be in the eye of the beholder, though, as many longtime
journalists disagreed.

"This is a very complicated issue," said Sesno, who consults for CNN and
teaches a class about media bias. "What you see mostly depends on where you
stand."

CNN, he said, takes a traditional approach to news, reporting from a
detached perspective and raising tough questions.

"There's a sense that when you watch Fox, you're on America's side," he
said. "They have built a network that people expect to be more conservative,
more supportive of the current administration."

Viewers and experts point to the two networks' coverage in Iraq and
Afghanistan as an example of how CNN and Fox approach news differently.

In some ways, the two networks aren't even speaking the same language, as
they use dueling spellings and phrases when referring to the same people and
places.

Fox News' word choice often mirrors that of the Bush administration. The
network regularly reports Iraq news under the heading "Operation Iraqi
Freedom," and Fox is one of the only news outlets that refers to the
al-Qaida leader as "Usama" bin Laden.

CNN has reported on "the fight for Iraq," "the war in Iraq" and the
"countdown to handover." And its anchors call bin Laden "Osama."

Breaking news dominates CNN's Iraq coverage - bombings, soldiers' deaths and
government news receive prominent play. But Fox anchors make a concerted
effort to tell positive stories about progress in Iraq. They regularly show
pictures of grinning Iraqi children and ask viewers to write in describing
soldiers' good deeds.

"While other networks focus only on the bad news in Iraq, we try to balance
it out," Linda Vester told viewers recently. "Here's a little boy clearly
grateful for the help."

Whether such feel-good pieces are newsworthy could be debated. But the
coverage leaves the impression that the network is unwilling to ask
challenging questions, said Joe Angotti, professor and chairman of the
broadcast program at Northwestern University.

"Fox continues to take a flag-waving approach," said Angotti, a former vice
president and executive producer at NBC News. "While the other networks are
acknowledging people killed in the war. ... Fox considers that almost
unpatriotic."

But regardless of which side viewers fall on in the TV news debate, viewer
Jim Depew said the recalcitrant positions both sides have taken are
discouraging.

"People are just too wrapped up in their views," he said. "They want their
side to be right, even if they're wrong.

"For me, if I turn on the news, I just want to see news," Depew said.

---

 © 2004, The Dallas Morning News

Visit The Dallas Morning News on the World Wide Web at
http://www.dallasnews.com

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.
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