Fox News network vice president visits Tech
Maggie Kiely
Issue date: 10/26/07 Section: News
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Brian Wilson spoke at the Society of Professional Journalists meeting in the Mass Communications building.
Robert Wernsman, a journalism instructor, said Wilson contacted him after he showed his class the documentary "Outfoxed."
According to the Web site http://outfoxed.org, the documentary "examines how media empires, led by Rupert Murdoch's Fox News, have been running a 'race to the bottom' in television news." The film explores the different ways in which news can be manipulated to get a certain message across.
"A student in my principles of journalism class contacted her father after we viewed the documentary," Wernsman said. "Her father happened to know Brian Wilson, and within 36 hours, Brian Wilson contacted me and said he would like to pay a visit and talk to my class."
Wernsman said he accepted Wilson's self-invitation in the spirit of being fair and balanced.
At the meeting, Wilson addressed "Outfoxed" issues and said he did not believe it was an example of journalism.
"They never, ever came to us to say, 'Hey, we're making this documentary about you, and we'd like to hear what your side of the story is,'" he said. "I don't know what you're definition of journalism is, but that doesn't match my definition at all; I think you owe it to the subject of your story to give them an opportunity to respond."
In the documentary, there are many people who claim to be Fox reporters who were told to slant their story to meet the channel's agenda.
"Some people in that documentary were said to be Fox reporters - sort of," he said. "Most of them were affiliates; I think there was one reporter who actually worked for the Fox News Channel. I worked for an affiliate for 12 years, and I can assure you (the network and its affiliates) are completely different organizations, and there is no interaction between them."
Wilson said he believes the reason Fox often receives criticism for being biased is because of the opinions of Fox hosts like Bill O'Reilly.
"Bill O' Reilly is not a journalist; it is an opinion-based program," he said. "I think we get unfairly smeared because of Bill O'Reilly, and it has a huge following. I don't agree with half of what he says, but that is what characterizes Fox News."
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Viewing Comments 1 - 6 of 10
CuriousGeorge
posted 10/26/07 @ 9:21 AM CST
Kudos to Wernsman for allowing Wilson to speak on campus. I'm not in Mr. Wernsman's class, so I don't know what other materials he has presented, but I wonder if he has any issue or concern with the liberal bias of all the other networks. (Continued…)
RIckey Ricardo
posted 10/26/07 @ 10:44 AM CST
The truth always has a liberal slant.
Radius
Alan Perkins
posted 10/26/07 @ 3:11 PM CST
Bollocks! Mr. Wilson conveniently ignores the presence of Roger Ailes, the Head of the Fox News Channel and the new FBN. Roger Ailes is the TV wizard that created the famous "Willie Horton' ad for The Bush/Quayle, organized the "vast right wing conspiracy" and who regularly gives the GOP wide-swath to edit the message on Fox News Channel. (Continued…)
Dan Smith
posted 10/26/07 @ 3:33 PM CST
There is a definite liberal slant to the MSM. The leftists are the ones like the New York Times who wanted the war, threw "Curveballs" and deceived the V. (Continued…)
mike
posted 10/26/07 @ 4:29 PM CST
I have to love the opinion of the people who don't like Fox News. They seem to know all about opinions with anchors and reports yet they never watch the channel? If they were not watching it why is CNN getting beat 4 to 1 in viewers? MSNBC is something like 8 to 1 behind in viewers? Thanks to all the liberal FoxNews haters that make them the number 1 news channel on cable TV! Maybe we can have CNN put Bill Schneider on more as everybody knows he is the most balanced reporter of them all on cable tv news channels. (Continued…)
Radius
Alan Perkins
posted 10/26/07 @ 4:47 PM CST
You are right. I do not like Fox News Channel because it is neither Fair nor Balanced. But I do watch it quite often. My Job requires me to do so.
Not that there is any validity conferred by "winning", but let's look at the facts as you see them:
There is a consistent 36-39% of the cable television universe that tunes in (cumes) to FNC. (Continued…)
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