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Special Report
Capable of Honor: Fox at 15
The network that saved honest journalism celebrates triumph over liberal media.
(Page 2 of 5)
For months now Goldwater had been routinely assailed as an extremist by the Establishment media. As the Arizonan had methodically piled up delegates and inched closer and closer and closer to clinching the nomination, the leading lights of the American media had jumped into the fray with a startling ferocity, swinging viciously at Goldwater and his conservative followers.
Only weeks earlier, an alarmed John S. Knight, then president and editor of the Detroit Free Press and no Goldwater supporter, had seen enough of this vividly non-journalistic lack of honor to publish an editorial on the subject, saying pointedly of his media colleagues:
Their deep concern for the GOP’s future would be more persuasive if any considerable number of them had ever voted for a Republican nominee — of the syndicated columnists I can think of only a few who are not savagely cutting down Senator Goldwater day after day.
Some of the television commentators discuss Goldwater with evident disdain and contempt. Editorial cartoonists portray him as belonging to the Neanderthal age or as a relic of the nineteenth century. It is the fashion of editorial writers to persuade themselves Goldwater’s followers are either kooks or Birchers. This simply isn’t so. The Goldwater movement represents a mass protest by conservatively-minded people against foreign aid, excessive welfare, high taxes, foreign policy, and the concentration of power in the federal government.”
Walter Lippmann, the premiere columnist of his day (as well as once serving as an aide to the progressive President Woodrow Wilson and co-founding the liberal New Republic magazine) was regarded as a journalistic Zeus by his media colleagues, thus signaling the appropriate tone that was to be adopted by the media on Goldwater. Goldwater himself later noted acerbically that any word from Lippmann was enough to launch a journalistic echo chamber with “all sharing a common philosophical viewpoint, (where all) play follow-the-leader in order to maintain their membership group.”
And what was the word on conservatives and their leader handed down from this media chieftain up there on his journalistic Mount Olympus?
“We cannot afford,” Lippmann wrote shortly after Goldwater had defeated Rockefeller in the California primary, “to have a politician running for president who makes it his vocation to sharpen and to embitter the sectional, racial, class, ideological issues that we must learn to live with and to outlive. Nor can we afford the tom-toms and the flagpole sitting which he (Goldwater) substitutes for serious consideration of the terrible issues of peace and war.”
A clearer, more deliberate, misrepresentation of conservatism would be hard to find in the moment. Nor was this presented as partisan opinion. On the contrary, Lippmann, the ex-Wilson aide, the co-founder of a liberal magazine, was presented to the American people by his media allies as some sort of God of Objective Journalism.
As the weeks towards the convention shortened and Goldwater gained in strength, Lippmann stepped up his criticisms, now moving from loud to shrill. Goldwater wanted to “divide the country” and remake the GOP into his “kind of party.” And what kind of party would that be? Warned a hysterical Lippmann: “It is impossible to doubt that Senator Goldwater intends to make his candidacy the rallying point of the white resistance.”
Barry Goldwater? The rallying point for white resistance? The man who put an end to segregation in his family department stores? The man who, during his tenure on the Phoenix City Council and in the Arizona National Guard, helped desegregate all Phoenix schools, restaurants, and the state’s National Guard itself? The man who had had the temerity to say of Lyndon Johnson’s record on civil rights that he was a “faker”? The man who noted — accurately — that LBJ “opposed civil rights until this year (1964). Let them (Democrats) make an issue of it. I’ll recite the thousands of words he has spoken down the years against abolishing the poll tax and FEPC (Fair Employment Practices Commission). He’s the phoniest individual who ever came around (on Civil Rights).” That Barry Goldwater?
Not a word on these curious facts from journalist Lippmann. Why? Because Goldwater had voted against the 1964 Civil Rights bill not because he supported segregation but because of concern over individual rights with respect to renting property. Goldwater voted for the 1957 Civil Rights Act — which Johnson, with whom he disagreed, had watered down for segregation purposes. Goldwater had also supported the 1960 Civil Rights bill. Was this to be mentioned by Lippmann and his media acolytes? Not a prayer. Liberal media elites, led by Lippmann, had a stake in portraying Goldwater as pro-segregationist. No major news outlet was going to challenge Lippmann.
Lippmann’s liberal media collaborator over at the New York Times, James “Scotty” Reston, joined in with this character assassination masked as “journalism.” This was no small moment because the anchors and producers of the network evening news shows had already slipped into the habit of using whatever they found in the liberal Times as a starting point in shaping their broadcasts. In fact, Reston cut to the chase of the left’s fears about conservatives, revealing what really made liberals furious. The Goldwater/conservative challenge, Reston wrote angrily, was really all about a “counterrevolution against the trend of social, economic, and foreign policies of the last generation.” And that challenge to a status quo many Americans increasingly considered to be both economically fatuous if not, in foreign policy terms, appeasement — that challenge was unacceptable to its liberal defenders.
All of this, as John S. Knight had indicated, came against a media backdrop where Goldwater and his supporters were routinely and dishonestly assailed by Lippmann’s media camp followers as Nazis, racists, primitives, and crazies.
SO IT WAS THIS JULY NIGHT that a media earthquake began. A media earthquake that would launch a chain of events resulting eventually in the creation of Fox News. Touched off by the unlikely person of a decidedly moderate Republican: former President Dwight D. Eisenhower. The moment, in prime time television, would become the first open schism between audience and journalists that would ultimately produce the success story of Fox News. It shook the rafters of the San Francisco Cow Palace — and began to harden the perception by millions of average Americans about the credibility of every media outlet from the national television networks to radio and their local newspapers.
Stepping to the podium to deliver what many expected to be a routine, even dull Eisenhower speech, the former President unexpectedly let loose with an attack on the full blossoming of American liberalism, beginning with the judiciary. Said Ike, already on record that his appointment of liberal Republican California Governor Earl Warren as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court was “the biggest damn fool mistake I ever made”:
About the Author
Jeffrey Lord is a former Reagan White House political director and author. He writes from Pennsylvania at jlpa1@aol.com.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (72) | Leave a comment
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Timothy L. Pennell| 10.4.11 @ 6:54AM
Here's my problem with FOX.
Somebody PLEASE, explain to me why you run Glenn Beck out of town, and EMBRACE that Lying Crook Thief POS: Charlie Rangel, kissing his *ss like he was SOMEBODY.
Get rid of Juan Williams. He really is, just too stupid to watch.
Lose the whole Alan Combs, thing. He is Repulsive to look at. Whenever he's on, he looks like he'd rather be strapped to a Gurney, waiting to be Executed. And C: If he REALLY believes the things that he says he believes? He should be checked by Bomb Sniffing Dogs, every time he walks in to the room.
p.s.: The DEBATE was unwatchable. If Wallace wants to be his Father? Let him go to CBS.
RT| 10.4.11 @ 8:25AM
Regarding Chris Wallace: indeed, he is a poorly-disguised leftie who constantly attacks his conservative guests. But, other than that Fox News is only serious news channel on tv.
PhilTheCapitalistPig| 10.4.11 @ 3:59PM
Chris Wallace is a true journalist who asks tough questions. Get over it.
Donald | 10.4.11 @ 4:39PM
Let's see now: "Chris Wallace is a true journalist who asks tough questions. Get over it."
Did I read that right? OK, fine. Now, riddle me this Batman: Is asking Michele Bachmann "Are you a flake" a tough question? If it is, I wonder if ol' Philbert the Pig thinks "tough journalist Chrissy" has the journalistic stones to ask that OTHER Michelle (Obama) the same tough question?
tick-tick-tick ...
My guess is ... NOT! Not unless he'd like to see his All Day Party Pass to the White House stuffed into the bottom of his size 2 shoes.
Actually, and now that I think of it ... that little stuffing might make him two inches taller than the 4'6 he reaches now.
Tough journalist? He's a clone of his daddy, Philbert. Just another left-wing weasel.
Get over it. Pahhh-leez!
USSAlabama| 10.4.11 @ 9:16AM
Beckel is a joke , and he acts like it.
Colmes on says what he has read somewhere else, and yes, he does believe it.
Juan is stupid.
Kristin Power talks with no knowledge and pay attention, if she is asked a hard question, she adjusts the answer to some other thing.
Caroline Heldman is a female Alan Colmes, totally unbearable.
Whom have I forgotten?
USSAlabama| 10.4.11 @ 9:17AM
Also, please see my post below regarding Ailes comments in Newsweek.
loulou| 10.4.11 @ 10:24AM
Geraldo Rivera.
W| 10.4.11 @ 7:16PM
Kristin and Caroline are hot. Leave them alone. You can get rid of the others.
They do need some liberals on the shows so the host can point out their errors and debate.
I don't like O'Reilly. He triangulates like Clinton and doesn't take a strong conservative position until it is obvious even to him. He has this "let's be fair to Obama" routine down. He does get invited to Obama's Christmas party, but Hannity doesn't.
1blumutt| 10.4.11 @ 11:22PM
Laughing too hard, right now, to read more than Timothy L. Pennell's contribution, here. Only thing I want to add, here, we now change channels a-l-s-o when snotty " I'm smarter than you by three" Chris Wallace comes on.
Old Soldier| 10.4.11 @ 7:32AM
I half agree with Timothy. Some of Fox's liberals are just too dumb. Beckel is a caricature of an ignorant blow-hard. Williams is knowledgeable about the politics in Washington, but seems totally ignorant on the implications of any given policy. Get some better liberals guys.
That said, the 6pm Fox News is by far the best news show out there. Good reporting then some good diverse opinion and analysis.
Teaghan| 10.4.11 @ 8:15AM
That show "The 5" is so bad! Beckel is hard to watch and listen to. We only watch the 6pm news with Bret and sometimes O'Reilly. Hannity grates my nerves, he always sounds like his gonads are in a vice. For those of you who can get FOX Business New, what do you think of that channel?
Old Soldier| 10.4.11 @ 9:00AM
But Gutfield is brilliant. He baits Beckel and dances around him like a terrier. I record Red Eye sometimes too. I love his kind of logical conservatism and sarcasm.
Occam's Tool| 10.4.11 @ 1:50PM
Unfortunately, Fox News is moving towards the "Center." BIIIIGGGGG MIIIISTTTAAAKKKEEE! Just like O'Reilly should have been an anti-Obama attack dog instead of an apologist.
RCV| 10.4.11 @ 2:30PM
Unfortunately, you guys are just moving further right by the day. It's not Fox which is moving.
Occam's Tool| 10.5.11 @ 5:38PM
Ok, RCV. I'll admit that Attilla the Hun was a puss.
x-Mattress | 2.2.12 @ 10:22PM
Puss in Boots..LOL..
Old Soldier| 10.4.11 @ 9:06AM
Fox Business - John Stossel is awesome.
loulou| 10.4.11 @ 10:26AM
Juan Williams is only knowledgeable about his career. He's a kneejerk prog who is milking this NPR kerfuffle for all it is worth. Williams rarely has anything of value to offer.
Bill A | 10.4.11 @ 2:37PM
It would be difficult to find "better liberal guys". The current liberal argument in America cannot withstand simple logic. This is why the liberal agenda is filled with undefineable topics like "living wage" and "social justice".
POST American| 10.4.11 @ 7:39AM
--------PLEASE!
FOX Newscorp, the greatest Oxford Fabian
front FAKE OP of ALLLLL time is NO kind
of 'answer' to the probem of capstone Globalist
media.
Putting aside the FACT that Murdoch's
people are, even now, working with the
propaganda ministry of RED China,
and that Newscorp's been financially behind such
'Reconquista' ops as thre movie 'Machete'---
the T&A burlesque at FOX
has supported 'Banker Bailout', refused to
go after, or even give much of an airing, to
the country wide awakening to the illegal FED,
has basically caved to illegal immigration,
and our loss of sovereignty and, indeed,
our entire economy, to NAFTA/GATT.
They have given virtually NO coverage
to the unfolding, and ever more suspiciously
'sourced' FUKISHIMA world nuclear disaster.
Likewise their pass on such matters as David
Rockefeller's public call, last November, for MASSIVE and RAPID world DEPOP
----"by any and all means"
----AND the ever mounting scandal not
only around the cancer filled POLIO shots
of the 50's-70's ---but the link between
shots and autism in the young.
And then there's the out n out
deceptive treachery of their Ron Paul 'coverage'.
Needless to add, the broad daylight,
Bush/ Cinton/ Buch/ Obama CFR front
RED China sellout and TREASON OP
has never even been mentioned as such.
Finally, even during the heyday of the passing
Beck fake op --virtually NEVER a word
about TREASON --or the people that George
Soros himself fronts for ---the ROT-child
global banking USURY cartel.
-----'Daring' 'populist' FOX?
-------------------GIVE US A BREAK-------------------
Teaghan| 10.4.11 @ 8:15AM
Are you on drugs? Seriously!
Beau Blotz| 10.4.11 @ 8:31AM
Ever thought of working for PMSNBC. You make as much sense as SHarpton or Matthews. You'de fit right in.
Cpm| 10.4.11 @ 9:36AM
This is just the latest installment of Lunatic Poetry Slam.
Ryan| 10.4.11 @ 12:54PM
Do you have a website? I would like to see your rants spelled out more...maybe.
irish19| 10.5.11 @ 12:07AM
We control the vertical. We control the horizontal.
Ken (Old Texican)| 10.4.11 @ 7:59AM
Jeffrey,
Splendidly done!
And your title was perfect; "Capable Of Honor"
davelnaf| 10.4.11 @ 8:09AM
Interesting article. Even though I recognized the MSM as biased, partisan hacks I watched their coverage of news ‘events’ because it was the only game in town. Now, as a devoted Fox viewer of many years, I think of my viewership of the MSM with the distaste one might have as an adult for one’s adolescent behaviors. Ironically, I only know about what liberal media shills are up to on any given day when Fox points out another detestable example of the MSM’s slanted, if not deceitful, coverage.
PattyMor| 10.4.11 @ 8:29AM
I watch Fox, but verify my news via various internet sites. Never, ever trust anyone in the media without confirmation from other sources. And, remember a Saudi Prince owns a chunk of News Corp.
The 5 is unwatchable. Beckel is unwatchable and I turn off any program he is on. Juan is affable and tries to defend liberalism, but liberalism is undefendable. Its centralized control no matter how you try to dress it up. Its all been tried before. You can call it kings, queens, despots, dictators, politibureaus, communism, socialism, or fascism. All flavors of the same brew. I'll take freedom any day.
TrueBlue| 10.4.11 @ 6:15PM
Yes, but the fact that Fox even has them on shows more willingness to actually discuss a topic than any other "news" channel. If the libs had any brains they'd be trying to get their smart guys on Fox since so many people watch it.
hardcard| 10.4.11 @ 8:41AM
Fox was good but soros and his $$$$ got to them,
R.Murdock was outtted he lost his balls, Glenn Beck lost his sponsers because of soros and his boycott, Beck was asked to go peacefully $$$$$. Roger Ayles is an employee. The end.
Paul Kotik| 10.4.11 @ 9:07AM
Several of the commenters here seem to think Fox News should be a conservative and/or right-wing propaganda medium, and are irritated by the Beckels and Colmes's who populate the Fox shows as commentators.
Fox News Channel is exactly what it says it is: fair and balanced. If it weren't, I wouldn't be shouting at the TV set half the time a Fox opinion show or segment is running! Beckel isn't exactly dumb, unless being an ultra-orthodox progressive is prima facie evidence of stupidity. The lefty talking heads Fox presents are rarely stupid, except in that sense. I'm glad that the commenters are so inflamed by what they say - I know I am! - but we've got to face it: this is the face and the yap of our enemy.
We've got to steel ourselves, watch, listen and figure out how to straighten them out. It's a tough row to hoe, since what we're taking on is no less than a deep religious belief. That's what progressivism is. But look - they've managed to erode Judeo-Christian religious belief across the West in just a couple of hundred years. Why can't we find a way to do the same to the cult of progressivism? Should be easy, as it really is a dumbass religion.
bull-gator| 10.5.11 @ 3:40PM
Most lucid observation thus far...
USSAlabama| 10.4.11 @ 9:12AM
To Jeffrey Lord,
Why is Ailes saying in Newsweek Magazine that he plans to "quietly reposition' Fox News so that it is less 'right-wing'?
That it is "okay" with him if people think Glenn Beck was fired?
I have loved Fox. But I will not like a change like that -- for them to become what we finally had a choice from.
Dan Hirsch| 10.4.11 @ 9:49AM
To the USS Alabama;
Murdoch and Ailes are businessmen first.
The TV news business has five or six major players, with most displaying a very liberal core, liberal being whatever the Democrat party line is for the day.
15 years ago Fox comes along and sits down on the right side of the market. Not very close to the others, but not all that far away. Conservatively-inclined viewers notice this and are so happy, relieved to find a news outlet that does not openly mock them, they like it. They develop viewing habits; they watch a lot of Fox News.
The existing news outlets take a very aggressive tone against the "unbalanced, right wing" Fox. Politicians take up the call; Obama starts a war with Fox. Remembering that almost any publicity is good (Not "all," ask Anthony Weiner.) Fox gains more viewers, mostly conservative.
In business, you must always be winning or losing market. Your viewership is up or it's down, rarely does it just sit there. So what to do to get more viewers? We have heard most of the Fox anchors discuss their good ratings numbers, so that viewers will know that they are watching popular shows.
But now, having picked up most of the right, where to get more viewers?
Just like Republican statists, where do we get more voters? From the moderates, the middle! Voila Fox is moving to the "Center." But if the rightmost position is moving to the center, the average position of the TV news is also moving left.
So I think a paean to Fox News at this point is just plain silly. It's a business; they run it like one. The minute that they feel that a conservative point of view is troublesome, it's going to be quietly abandoned. Where is Glenn Beck, anyway? And with Ailes moving to the "center", Alabam', they are doing nothing except exploiting a market niche. And not very convincingly in my book.
DTOM
P.S. A moderate is an individual who takes the two opposing arguments and then picks the mid-point of the line between them. He is impressed by the candidate who moves the farthest from his principles to the opposition's. He cannot tolerate anyone with the unadulterated audacity to think they have a valid point of view.
The problem with a moderate is this: if Joe Stalin and Pol Pot were running for President, the moderate would agree to the murder of millions of his fellow citizens because both candidates agree to it. Sound ridiculous? It's not-it's what they do. Sheesh. DTOM
PPS If you listen to their evening line-up, you find mostly moderates. And blondes, titillation, and the latest, media-frenzied, stupid, nationally-unimportant crime trial. Eye candy. Which is not bad, but subtract the hard content and that eye candy does become the substance.They are not getting more serious, they are getting less serious. And where our country is going is not time for silly journalism from the only televised right wing outlet.
Too bad Limbaugh works for Ailes, Rush is probably the only one who might be able to place a TV news program to the right of Fox and really open things up on TV...DH
USSAlabama| 10.4.11 @ 10:23AM
Dan, I agree with everything you say here.
It has been impossible to ignore the tabloid aspect of the content. My housekeeper once gasped at "all that makeup" and low-cut dresses. Several visiting teens and my own too. (It's vulgar.)
I recently saw a graph on another similar site to this one showing how the 'center' is actually 'center-left'. If I can find it I'll link it.
Never knew Rush works for Ailes. He shows no interest in media ventures such as expanding beyond radio - unlike Glenn Beck who started the internet GBTV - with it's own news and Beck's show - where he says he can tell the full truth without a network telling him not to.
Rush could do what Murdoch did and even if it were true center, which with him it would be reliably and categorically right, FOX would lose a major portion of that huge audience.
loulou| 10.4.11 @ 10:38AM
Does Limbaugh work for Ailes? That doesn't sound right.
What planet is Lord living on? This article might have been accurate 5-10 years ago. When did Lord write it?
Dan Hirsch| 10.4.11 @ 3:00PM
DOH!
Hey! That was me screwing up there.
Ailes was Rush's executive producer when Rush was on TV in 91 and 92. They are still big friends; Rush mentions Roger as a friend from time-time on his show.
So, MISTER LIMBAUGH, there goes your excuse, pal. You could work in friendly competition with Roger. Actually, I think from a brand positioning point of view, having Rush on TV again would let Fox move rightward to pick up some of Rush's HUGE audience.... and the entire TV spectrum would shift noticeably right.
Which would be a very good thing for the country, a very, very good thing.
DTOM
Joe R| 10.4.11 @ 9:17AM
I trust Fox News the way I would trust a rattlesnake. The only person worth crap on the entire network is Neil Cavuto. Just because they're not as left wing as MSNBC doesn't mean they're not liberal.
loulou| 10.4.11 @ 10:32AM
Joe R, I completely agree.
Fox News USED to be an alternative. Now it's almost indistinguishable from the MSM. Of course it's not as bad as MSNBC but nothing is.
I stopped watching Fox regularly. Even the conservatives are establishment elites. Krauthammer the Great is no conservative but he does love being part of the salon. Fred Barnes? Pro illegal immigration. Too many lefties opining. And don't forget: a Saudi owns a chunk of Fox. It shows in the coverage of the Middle East.
I get my news from talk radio and blogs.
That said, Red Eye is brilliant and really, the only good thing about Fox News.
VonMisesJr| 10.4.11 @ 10:56AM
Fox news and Hannity arose about the same time due to the pioneer work of Rush. But it all was made possible as Rush says because they validate what the average American believes, not what Rousseau, Hegel, Nietzsche, Kant and Marx indoctrinated in elitist such as Lippmann.
Fifteen years later, the socialist are panicing. The message has expanded with Levin and Beck, websites such as American Thinker, Jewish World Review and this fine site, as well as great conservative writers and the TEA Party. The socialist are now overwhelmed, and they can never get their reputations back. Socialist of all flavors have lost and a year from now it will be etched in history.
USSAlabama| 10.4.11 @ 11:25AM
VonMises -- there is something very important in what you write -- look at what has expanded those voices of that message . . . radio and internet.
I have a strong feeling that internet news channels will increase, making television broadcast a relic.
Perhaps so much so that the fact that only about 20% of the population identifies as liberal will become obvious in the choices of advertisers deciding in which venues to sink their dollars.
Reflected in content as well.
Bill A | 10.4.11 @ 2:47PM
Did you see yesterday where it was announced a new partneship between ABC News and Yahoo?
Their first show was live coverage of Stephanopolous interviewing Obama with questions supposedly drawn from online viewers.
I believe we can expect more of these types of endeavors. I am not sure I like this development.
Ken (Old Texican)| 10.4.11 @ 11:01AM
OK guys.....
quit bitching!
I rarely watch FOX on TV.....but read almost every article on their website each day. (I can read faster than they can blab. smile)
They do a darned fine job on the web-site.
Heh, Rush works for RUSH...and you and I. He turns more revenue than many countrys' GDP.
He is a leading character in my novel, and I thank goodness for him most every day.
www.txbooks.blogspot.com
james wilson| 10.4.11 @ 11:07AM
Fox, such as it is, is on the way out. ALL of the heirs of Murdoch have made clear their plans to go left with it. You see the anticipation of that in their programming.
Who Knows?| 10.4.11 @ 11:26AM
Excellent history lesson, Mr. Lord.
Pace the dog that didn’t bark, perhaps the biggest lesson to absorb from your Fox News big picture story are all the “little” nuggets you offer, especially about LBJ getting rich in a nefarious fashion. What ought to shake people up is fully realizing that all the buried stories outnumber by many orders of magnitude those that are CHOSEN by our gatekeepers, especially the MSM.
For every “JFK slept with a mafiosa babe” story, know that there are such stories for probably EVERY one of the many hundreds of “leaders” on the left, and surely some on the right.
In my retired “dotage”, I’ve been regularly watching reruns of “Perry Mason”. What a trip down memory lane! What stands out is the recognition of the hundreds of familiar faces of supporting actors. I always check the credits to see if I remember their names, but it’s only those select few who later went on to become famous that I recognize.
Just so, when it comes to the “actors” in the left wing show, over all the years to date. Just think of the many thousands or more of them who’ve had to “do a dirty dance” to become top dogs in their program!
As far as Fox News goes, “Everybody dies from something”, as Jocelyn Elders once said---to mucho put down laughter.
However, this fact DOES pertain, and sooner or later the game must be seen through. For me, then, at 69, as a slow learner who’d been reluctant to give up watching all the entertaining drama queens and kings on TV duel away, it was a final solution to happily KILL CABLE TV!
Just reading the comments today about suffering through good old boy Bob Beckel, oleaginous Alan Colmes, et al reminded me of how lucky my choice to stop PAYING MONEY for these turkeys was. When you discover you’ve been pinching yourself, and that’s the cause of your pain---well, you just stop doing that.
All the above said, memories DO continue to arise to tempt one. As a 1960 HS graduate, I was “lucky” to be among those who got to read “Advise and Consent” in English---or was it Social Studies---class, so as a newbie that book was the first serious “game” I played having to do with politics. (Ah—trying to get through “Organization Man” was another TOO serious challenge for me, at that time!)
The hoary overarching scheme of life, about how a human progresses through stages, and as they age they return to a childlike more simple one, does have cachet---and, it’s simply grand! I was always interested in understanding it all. What IS the human dance all about???
Hence, as a lover of math and truth, politics quickly dropped into the hellhole of unconcern for me. Even before leaving HS, I’d played the word into “pole” “ticks”.
Steeped in Einstein and relativity, it seemed to me that the two poles called Republican and Democrat were clearly cases of NOT being one with it all, and NOT worthy of my serious attention. Of course, living in the world eventually sucked me into a “Crossfire”-like Brady-Novak “war” habit.
But, NOW—KISS rules, again. Simple is as simple does.
Or, as a famous Chinese poem puts it---
“Before I had studied Zen for thirty years, I saw mountains as mountains, and waters as waters. When I arrived at a more intimate knowledge, I came to the point where I saw that mountains are not mountains and waters are not waters. But now that I have got its very substance I am at rest. For it’s just that I see mountains once again as mountains, and waters once again as waters.” Quoted in “The Way of Zen” by Alan Watts, 1957
Or, as James Broughton put it—
This is It
And I am It
And You are It
And so is That
And He is It
And She is It
And It is It
And That is That.
Tina B| 10.4.11 @ 12:39PM
Kookookatu. . . .
Puleeze.
What is the human dance about? Almost 70?
You should know that by now. It's not you or me or he or she or it, but Him.
Who Knows?| 10.4.11 @ 4:26PM
It's Her, you dummy.
Tina B| 10.4.11 @ 9:26PM
So, all those references to Father, by His Son, were a mistake?
jothepro| 10.4.11 @ 11:27AM
Glenn Beck was not fired. He quit to start his own news channel. GBTV.
MM| 10.4.11 @ 12:20PM
A fact which everyone mentioning it confirmed.
Mimi| 10.4.11 @ 11:33AM
All I can say is... for this country FOX NEWS is a GOD SEND! We are coming to our senses....SEE THE TRUTH ! They are a GIFT that keeps on giving....Keep up the good work and a SINCERE congtratulations and THANKS !!!
Howard| 10.4.11 @ 1:05PM
I found this to be a great article. I do have two bones to pick:
1. The fact that Bull Connors was a member of the Democratic Party was no big deal. In fact, in 1965 there were virtually no GOP in the Old South. There was a big chasm between northern and southern Democrats back then.
2. The Tet offensive was a profound trauma to liberals. They hated LBJ, but bought into his belief that the Vietnam War was winnable. Once Tet happened, they looked only at the negative, the fact that there was an offensive, not the fact that the Viet Cong suffered heavy losses. The resulting 45 years of Democratic Party policy is based on the Tet Offensive. Not condoning them, but offering a perspective.
martin j smith| 10.4.11 @ 3:25PM
I USED to watch FOX NEWS regularly. Now I do not. Why: They have gone to the dark side. I never bought the "fair and balanced" but ok. Now I think
FOX is afraid of Obama and are trying to show they are not their enemies. The price. The truth. So long FOX.
PhilTheCapitalistPig| 10.4.11 @ 4:01PM
Some of you in these comments need to take your meds to stop all that foaming at the mouth.
Jeffrey, great read. You smacked this one out of the park.
Paul from SA| 10.4.11 @ 6:01PM
I find myself watching Fox News less and less. I would prefer un-biased, objective and truthful reporting over fair and balanced. It's not necessary to discuss devil worship if the topic is Christianity.
Currently, they are the anti-Rick Perry channel, unable to report anything positive about Perry or what he's done in Texas, and only able to report the current bad news against Perry. "
Breaking News: more bad news about Rick Perry."
Fox News is too tabloid. I used to like Megan Kelly. She used to be smart and inquisitive. Now she's too smiley and is constantly posing for a glamour shot.
I have a crush on Martha McCallum and Shannon Bream.
O'Reilly sucks. He's is too obsessed with being accepted by Stewart, Colbert, Whoopi, Behar, etc. Anyone notice Michelle Malkin and Kirsten Powers and other women no longer appear on his show?
I will never watch Geraldo ever again, after he accused me of hating all hispanics and that he wanted to spit on Michelle Malkin's face.
Alan Colmes has to be the last person I would want to ever meet. Talk about hostile and confrontational and disgruntled.
Occasionally, Kirsten is fair and independent and that makes her attractive, but other times, she repeats her instructions from the DNC.
Juan Wiliams just repeats the DNC talking points, especially when it comes to race and the Tea Party.
Bob Beckel is Archie Bunker.
I like their Saturday morning business shows. I like Brenda Buttner, Tracy Burns, Victoria Barret and some others.
I'm sick of Karl Rove and Dick Morris, and no longer can listen to what they say. They are so obviously against Perry and for Romney. Brit Hume has also joined the anti-Perry bandwagon. Sometimes, they think we're soooo stupid. We want a conservative gov't, not immediate majority power to control the committees.
We need a new channel that reports the truth and stays away from the Breaking [Tabloid] News.
Tina B| 10.4.11 @ 9:35PM
Oh Paul, I resonate with so much of your disappointment at FOX News' decline, and add that they seem to have NO time for Herman Cain either.
Yep, I'm pretty much over them, but, as Mr. Lord pointed out, they were beautiful in their prime. Some of them still show glimmers of that heyday.
Now we have the internet news, and TAS and these responses, to get our daily Conservative facts fix.
Paul from SA| 10.5.11 @ 12:28PM
Tina B, thank you for resonating!
I agree about Herman Cain. They routinely dismiss Cain. I like Stuart Varney, but the other day he described and criticized Cain's 999 plan without knowing the details of the plan. When it comes to their non-favorites, even they need to commit some journalism and do some research before opining.
Paul from SA| 10.4.11 @ 9:12PM
...and Sean Hannity keeps referring to Perry's immigration policy based on the state's in-state college tuition program. It's not Perry's entire immigration policy. Hannity is very careful in his wording and has been doing this for months. He is obviously against Rick Perry, trying to deceive viewers to think Perry is for amnesty and the Dream Act. Shame on Hannity! It's one more reason I don't like Fox News and most of their hosts anymore.
steve bennett| 10.4.11 @ 9:34PM
THANK YOU,THANK YOU,THANK YOU !!!!
steve bennett| 10.4.11 @ 9:38PM
Just so there is no misunderstanding I am thanking J. lord not some of the assinine comments presented.
Nite| 10.4.11 @ 9:59PM
I used to never miss Glen Beck, but since he left, I don't watch much anymore. Neal is fairly interesting, and I watch Hannity some, but rarely anyone else. Chris Wallace really enjoyed stirring up Bachmann and Santorum attacking Perry in the so called debates. These attacks had already occurred in the previous debate. He then let Romney get by without answering a question, then allowed him to attack Perry. Then Sunday, after the hit piece by WP, he encouraged Cain to make comments about the hunting lease previously used by Perry and his family. Cain did some more trashing. Wallace is a leftie, who wouldn't know objective journalism if it bit him on the butt. So will I watch FOX much? Very little. They can move farther left and watch their ratings go in the toilet.
POST American| 10.4.11 @ 10:48PM
---------------------BOTTOM LINE---------------------
FOX 'News' remains the greatest Oxford Fabian
control op of ALLLLL time.
Murdoch, a confessed 'former' socialist
working for the establishment, is a truly
major player in enabling the rise of
'EUGENICS friendly' RED China and
dumbing down and culturally degrading
the West.
FOX has been absolutely KEY in 'easing'
the public past ANY consciousness, ANY
revelation of the Globalisation and RED China
sellout and TREASON OP.
They are currently burying, NOT just
John Wheeler's murder, the deteriorating
FED situation ---and the greatest world
nuclear disaster and DEPOP OP in history
(--FUKISHIMA--) but ANY spotlight on the culprits.
The staff, tone and manner of FOX news presentation
is beyond T&A for morons.
-----it's TSA -----for your mind...
Zbigniew Mazurak| 10.5.11 @ 3:22AM
I like Lord's articles, but not this one. I vehemently disagree with it.
Fox News was started as a conservative TV channel and was such until ca. the late 2000s. Then, liberals began to slowly take it over. Some people claim that FN needs to be "balanced" and let the Democrats also speak. But why on Earth, instead of hiring moderate Democrats like Ike Skelton, they've hired strident liberals like Juan Williams (who professes opinions even more extreme than those of Barack Obama), Chris Wallace (a longtime registered Democrat), Bob Beckel, and Lis Wiehl? When Wiehl was told that Rick Perry's HPV mandate contained an opt-out, she claimed it did not. And this Lis Wiehl is supposed to be a former prosecutor?
POST American| 10.5.11 @ 5:59AM
-----------------BOTTOMLESS LINE-------------------
AGAIN, Rupert Murdoch is undoubtedly a
member of the Globalist capstone AND
an utterly 'on board' Oxford Fabian.
They buried FUKISHIMA almost as deep
as the John Wheeler murder just a week
or so before. NO probes there--------
In fact, they even brought Rockefeller
'Right' op Ann Coulter in to crack jokes
about radiation exposure.
FOX News has brought NO consciousness
of the TREASON OP ---or even such things
as weaponized GM food ---OR mandated,
RED China made, aborted child sourced,
Gates Foundation funded ---injections
---for your children.
FOX is there to 'bring in' compliance
for the now installed and waiting to go
RED China-Globalist-EUGENICS
'New World Order' of things.
Expect all your 'fave' FOX shows on
those flat screens that will saturate
the FEMA camps you'll one day be
'retired' to.
Now FOX commentators, even fans MUST
admit, are engaged in pat, dumb down
breakdowns and formulations.
The T&A level of O'Reilly is becoming
a complete embarassment.
"I have a friend who's brother is in
the CIA. Though he NEVER talks
about what he does ---he did give
us one piece of serious advice
----NEVER WATCH TV."
-ALAN WATT
(2007 archive Nat. Intel)
-----------------------WE DON'T-------------------------
Petronius| 10.5.11 @ 10:22AM
I don't get Fox News because I 'm not hooked up. From what I've seen of it, "fair and balanced" means trying to have it both ways. It's the gingrich network of circlejerknalism.
Brian| 10.5.11 @ 4:01PM
Fox has done more damage to the conservative movement then MSNBC could have dreamed. It's not what they cover that's the problem but what they don't cover.
Occam's Tool| 10.5.11 @ 5:40PM
I get my news from Weasel Zippers.
POST American| 10.6.11 @ 4:05AM
-----------------"NEVER WATCH T.V."----------------Alan Watt
Kevin| 10.7.11 @ 6:00AM
"Fox News is Capable of Honor. " They apparently choose to avoid it as has been proven time and time again by numerous polls showing the severe right-wing slant of Mr.s Murdoch, Ailes, and all the "journalists" Fox employs as well as the inaccuracies foisted upon their viewers. Remember, this organization gained the right to lie and call it "news" after one of their stations fired Jane Akre and Steve Wilson for refusing to lie about monsanto and their rBGH-laced milk thus hiding the fact that America is the unwitting and unwilling participant in a giant experiment.
"Mimi| 10.4.11 @ 11:33AM
All I can say is... for this country FOX NEWS is a GOD SEND! We are coming to our senses....SEE THE TRUTH ! They are a GIFT that keeps on giving....Keep up the good work and a SINCERE congtratulations and THANKS !!!"
Really? Just goes to show the effectiveness of marketing over facts. If an organization feels the need to tell they're "fair and balanced" then they know you won't be able to tell unless THEY tell YOU.
When a person who is honestly mistaken hears the truth they will either cease being mistaken or cease being honest. While most conservative seem to prefer the latter option, Fox's avoidance of the truth, by definition, avoids honesty. America deserves better.