Cornell Insider

a blog by the writers of the Cornell Review

Posts Tagged ‘Fox News’

Olbermann Versus The Review @ Bailey

Posted by Michael Alan on March 29, 2011

Insider favorite Keith Olbermann ’79 was at Bailey Hall tonight and, while he gave a talk that was, at times, ridiculous, funny, and (yes, I’ll admit it) pretty good, the real draw came in the question and answer section.  The first questioner, an older gentleman who looked to be one of Ithaca’s crazy but lovable hippies, brought a copy of the February 16th edition of, you guessed it, the Cornell Review.  He was looking to bring Keith’s attention to the article on page two by a guest writer, Eco House basement cannabis enthusiast and sixth year senior Ephram Smith.  Olbermann, who must have been overcome with joy by Ephram’s praise for who he called the “Edward R. Murrow of Our Time,” threw the newspaper on the stage and stomped on it while pouring his bottle of designer water (look out, Keith, those are banned here now!) all over the hallowed pages.

[UPDATE]: The WSJ covers Olbermann’s speech / Review-stomping. ALSO: It’s a HotAirAlanche!  Welcome, HA readers!

But after the Insider took to the microphone to question Keith on his contributions to New Tone 2.0 (full coverage of this issue and the rest of Olbermann’s visit can be found in the next edition of the Review), this not-so-intrepid journalist came out to Mr. Olbermann as someone who writes for “The Conservative Voice on Campus,” but is also a big fan of his.  It’s not only the Cornell connection (we <3 all Cornell alumni, especially the ones that are smart enough to read the Insider), but also Keith’s commitment to undermining his more serious colleagues on the left by getting into childish feuds with his fellow cable news talking heads and spreading unfounded paranoia about anybody to the right of Howard Dean that endear him to the Insider.

What really got us, though, was K.O.’s baller whip.  We snagged a video of the stretch limo waiting to greet Keith outside of Bailey, which, by the way, was running in all its carbon emitting, gas guzzling glory with the host nowhere near ready to leave, and quickly asked the chauffeur about the gas mileage.  As you can see after the jump, he replied “14 MPG” and confirmed that the whip was indeed Keith’s ride for the evening.  While the lavish limo may score Keith some points with Xzibit and the crew at West Coast Customs, we can only imagine what his new boss at Current TV, global warming crusader and Not-President Al Gore, would think.

Video of Keith’s baller whip after the jump . . .

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Campus Insiders | Tagged: , , , , | 42 Comments »

Audiences for Fox News, CNN, MSNBC

Posted by Cornell Insider Staff on November 4, 2009

Pew Research has some illuminating data on the composition of audiences for the major cable news networks. A couple of quick highlights/conclusions can be extracted from the data:

1) Democrats make up a bigger percentage of Fox News’ audience than Republicans do of CNN’s audience. (The article does note that more people identify themselves as Democrats than Republicans).

2) Between 1998 and 2008, large numbers of Republicans migrated to Fox News from CNN and MSNBC. This may have more to do with the growth and increased availability of the Fox News channel , though, and less to do with the political leanings of the network.

3) The share of Democrats who watch CNN/MSNBC gradually increased between 1998 and 2008.

4) 63% of those who cited Fox News as their primary news source identified as Republicans or GOP-leaning. Similarly, 63% of those who cited CNN as their main news source identified as Democrats or Democrat-leaning.

Basically, the composition of the audiences of the major cable news networks seems to reflect the general bias/leaning of that network’s coverage. But more importantly, I hope that these data will put to rest the idea that Fox News’ audience consists of fringe elements of the American right.

Posted in Miscellaneous, National News | Tagged: , | 2 Comments »

Jarrett Stumped on CNN

Posted by Cornell Insider Staff on October 29, 2009

Sorry to keep beating a dead horse with a stick, but here’s a video of top Obama advisor Valerie Jarrett dodging a tough question on media bias from CNN’s Campbell Brown. As O’Reilly pointed out last night on The Factor, it’s interesting to watch all the news networks suddenly rally around Fox News.

Posted in National News | Tagged: | 2 Comments »

MRM #22

Posted by Cornell Insider Staff on October 25, 2009

cornellusa2- Continuing with our series of posts about the war between the White House and Fox News, check out this alternative viewpoint from Joe Klein. Even though he fits into the camp of people who think Fox “peddles a fair amount of hateful crap,” he still maintains that the administration is making a big mistake in focusing on attacking Fox and diverting attention away from the real issues.

- Bilmes has a good list of recommendations for improving homecoming (yeah, for those of you who didn’t know, we do have homecoming at Cornell).

- Cornell admins have decided not to reinstate Ujamaa Housing Director Ken Glover.

- A cool graphic from MetaEzra on the geographic distribution of Cornellians.

- Garry Kasparov, leader of The United Civil Front in Russia, criticizes the ineffectiveness of Obama’s “goodwill bubble.”

- An interesting post/discussion on grade inflation over at the Stanford Review Blog.

- Senator Gillibrand says cap and trade commissions will be good for NYC, fails to mention anything about carbon caps destroying the American economy.

Posted in Campus Insiders, National News | Tagged: , , , , | Leave a Comment »

(Kraut)Hammering the Nail in the White House’s Coffin

Posted by Oliver Renick on October 23, 2009

On Wednesday, Dennis wrote about Nile Gardner’s article on the war between Fox News and the White House.

From postwritersgroup.com

From postwritersgroup.com

There’s no doubt about it – a battle has been waged and the Capitol Hill generals are of the likes of Rahm Emmanuel, Anita Dunn, and David Axelrod.  Today, Charles Krauthammer (a.k.a ‘the Hammer’ at the Insider) takes on the subject, and as usual, explores and exposes every nuance of the most recent leftist media attack.

Earlier this week, the man in charge of overseeing the executive payrolls at organizations receiving stimulus money, Ken Feinberg, was offered up by the Treasury Department to interview on just about every news network except Fox.  Fortunately, the other news channels refused such an offer without the inclusion of the White House’s step-child network, Fox.  Krauthammer points out the important relevance of a seemingly trivial action:

This was an important defeat because there’s a principle at stake here. While government can and should debate and criticize opposition voices, the current White House goes beyond that. It wants to delegitimize any significant dissent. The objective is no secret. White House aides openly told Politico that they’re engaged in a deliberate campaign to marginalize and ostracize recalcitrants, from Fox to health insurers to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

He goes on to point out that such actions taken by the White House do not violate any laws or constitutional guidelines, but rather an intangible political principle that must be held up.

There’s nothing illegal about such search-and-destroy tactics. Nor unconstitutional. But our politics are defined not just by limits of legality or constitutionality. We have norms, Madisonian norms.

Madison argued that the safety of a great republic, its defense against tyranny, requires the contest between factions or interests. His insight was to understand “the greater security afforded by a greater variety of parties.” They would help guarantee liberty by checking and balancing and restraining each other — and an otherwise imperious government.

Factions should compete, but also recognize the legitimacy of other factions and, indeed, their necessity for a vigorous self-regulating democracy. Seeking to deliberately undermine, delegitimize and destroy is not Madisonian. It is Nixonian.

What Dennis said in his last post is absolutely true, and the Hammer reaffirms this in his article – there is absolutely no doubt that the White House will lose this battle.  The more effort the administration puts in to delegitimizing Fox News, the more they empower it.  My question is: who is in charge of this assault?  For a president that was hailed as being so incredibly smart and politically agile, this is by far one of the worst possible moves the White House could make, and Obama has not made a visible effort to end it.

Posted in National News | Tagged: , | Leave a Comment »

The White House’s War Against Fox News

Posted by Cornell Insider Staff on October 21, 2009

Nile Gardiner has an excellent article in The Telegraph about why the White House will ultimately lose its war against Fox News. He argues that by openly declaring war against Fox News and accusing it of opposing the administration, the White House will only succeed in drawing even more viewers to the cable news channel.

Rupert Murdoch v. Barack Obama

Rupert Murdoch v. Barack Obama

I have long argued that Fox News’ success does not only stem from it’s alleged ideological leanings. Okay, I’ll admit, the network is right-leaning, but they are also fair and balanced. Daytime news reporting is unbiased and includes guests/pundits from both sides of the political spectrum. Yes, Glenn Beck’s political leanings are clear, but Special Report with Brett Baier (6:00-7:00), The Fox Report with Shepard Smith (7:00-8:00), and yes, even The O’Reilly Factor are all politically balanced shows. (Note: I won’t contend with accusations that O’Reilly is acerbic, rude, pretentious, etc., but if you actually think he is a conservative cheerleader, you really have not watched his show in the last five years.) Hannity is a conservative cheerleader, but he always has liberal guests on the show to debate the other side of the issue. Like Gardiner points out in his article, Fox News is not successful because of the political views of the people it puts on television, but because it “is not afraid to challenge the status quo, and take on the power of big government.”

He continues to say that “Fox benefits from an extraordinary level of professional management that sets the gold standard for cable news organizations.” This point I could not agree more with. The reason I watch Fox News for afternoon and morning news is not because I’m tuning in for a conservative twist on the day’s events, but because the quality of their programming is so much better than than CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, etc. The colors and graphics are better, the dialogue with guests is more entertaining, and, I’ll admit it, the weather girls are hotter!

There’s no question that Fox News is more popular and powerful then ever because of Obama’s declared opposition to the network. But why do they oppose it so much? Fox News is a scapegoat, and as Obama’s refusal to go on Chris Wallace’s Sunday morning talk show demonstrated, it is nothing more than a scapegoat. You see, the Obama administration was not worried about the President being treated unfairly on Wallace’s show. Quite the opposite, actually. Had Obama appeared on “the opposition network” and received a good slate of constructive questions, along with due compliments and fair criticisms, Fox News would have been exposed for what it really is: a right leaning but fair and balanced network. And if that truth was exposed to the skeptics, to all those who actually do think that Fox News is responsible for Obama’s sliding poll numbers, then they would have to face up to their own truth: the only thing that is responsible for Obama’s mounting failures and growing opposition is his own administration. That’s a tough admission for those who are still banking on the audacity of hope.

Posted in National News | Tagged: , | 5 Comments »

Monday Reading Madness #8

Posted by Cornell Insider Staff on July 20, 2009

- Television news anchor Walter Cronkite died on Friday. He was well before this writer’s time, so I will let Robert Feder and John Dickerson speak for his legacy in American journalism. Robert McNamara also passed away earlier last week.

- An quick and interesting survey of the party affiliations of top Cornell administrators and notable faculty. Much more Republican/Independent than one would suspect. As Bilmes points out, the biggest surprises are Skorton (Democrat) and Maas (Republican).

- One year ago, Fox News journalist and White House Press Secretary Tony Snow lost hist battle with cancer. His colleagues recently reflected on his life.

- This has nothing to do with Cornell, politics, conservatism, or any of the other topics normally discussed on this website, but I’m confused to the point of intrigue with this human carpet guy.

-  Along the same lines of Professor Maas and out-of-the-norm articles, here is a piece Oliver wrote on his 72-hour encounter with sleep deprivation.

-  In case you missed the buffoonery that was the Franken-Sotomayor questioning, here’s a brief excerpt where they went on into lengths about their favorite TV-shows.  So this is the scrutiny our SC Justices undergo nowadays?  The love affair needs to end.

Posted in Campus Insiders, National News | Tagged: , | Leave a Comment »

 
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