Of course, what else would they be?

[JaiDee]

You know the Westboro Baptist Church, the lunatics who hold those signs at funerals saying "God Hates Fags" and "God Hates America" and all those other nonsensical things? Did you know they are a [gasp!] left-wing cult?

If you watched Fox News You would!

Some people in America actually watch [and believe] that network, can you even imagine?

http://www.newshounds.us/fox_calls_westboro_baptist_church_a_left_wing_cult_12242012

Hardcore left-winger pictured below....

[deepthroat]

F**k.... I better not have to hear this crap at Christmas dinner with my wrong-wing relatives.

[pacman]

What a hateful, horrible bunch of people those Westboro Baptists are. I watched a doco on TV about them that made jump out of my chair in anger. They are certifiable in their mistaken belief they are right & all other sane, intelligent people are wrong.

Do the Fox viewers actually accept they are left wing? Surely some of the Fox fans have finally woken up they are being lied to. Doesn't anyone hold Fox to account? I know some networks take potshots at Fox from time to time but nothing seems to cut through. Or does it?

[JaiDee]

The problem is, the right-wing crazies just say ALL the other stations are far left-wing, so they deserve to have at least ONE channel which is far right.

Those people aren't so bad, the ones who admit that Fox is horribly bias; at least they know the real truth. The really problematic people are the ones who say things like "Fox is fair and balanced, no bias there!" or who really have no IDEA that they are being lied to. These people, who populate places no one cares about like Mississippi and Arkansas, actually get their news only from places like Fox and Limbaugh and Beck and other scary people; frankly, there is no hope for them now and these are the people they are talking about when they say that people who watch FOX are less-educated than people who watch no news at all.

http://www.businessi...s-at-all-2012-5

{scary thought; these people vote!}

As a relative moderate who was a Reagan guy but started to move much further left during the Clinton and [especially] Bush years, I only see serious bias on 2 stations; MSNBC [far left] and FOX [far right]. PBS radio is pretty far left also. Maybe I am just not seeing it, but I feel like CNN, where I get most of my news, is pretty much straight down the middle. NBC, CBS, ABC, etc.......same. But again, this is from a moderate/lefty point of view; if I were a Republican from Texas I am sure I would only see those networks as spawns of Satan and Moscow and would surely turn to FOX also.

[Lefty]

I don't think MSNBC is far left. I think they are the most correct accurate news station in the USA. The tea partiers like to call them far left when others say Fox is far right, as sort of a retaliation.

[deepthroat]

I don't think MSNBC is far left. I think they are the most correct accurate news station in the USA. The tea partiers like to call them far left when others say Fox is far right, as sort of a retaliation.

Lefty, I loves my MSNBC almost as much as you do, It's where I get the majority of my news as well - as it fits my sensibilties. But I'm fairly certain Jai Dee is right.

Most of the folks who watch Fox would say almost the same thing - "I don't think Fox News is far right, it's the only station that actually gives the truth. The lefties like to tar us with the brush that says we're all right wing wackos, but they've been brainwashed by the lamestream media" (or something similar).

Won't keep me from watching it, but I do have to remind myself sometimes that the truth usually lies somewhere between the two extremes.

[JaiDee]

I don't think MSNBC is far left. I think they are the most correct accurate news station in the USA. The tea partiers like to call them far left when others say Fox is far right, as sort of a retaliation.

Chris Matthews on Election night, 2008; "I Felt This Thrill Going Up My Leg" As Obama Spoke"

That's not real journalism, that's cheerleading, and they do it virtually every day over there. You would never hear Brian Williams or Tom Brokaw say something like that, nor should they. Newsmen should be objective and not lean one way or the other; if you have seen Ed Schultz, Matthews, Lawrence O'Donnell and even the extremely smart and well-spoken Rachel Maddow and haven't come to the conclusion that they are left-leaning liberals, you just aren't watching closely enough. Keith Olbermann also, since fired from there and also CurrentTV and unable to hold a job anywhere else; hardcore lefty.

Don't get me wrong, I like all those people, especially Olbermann. But they are not truly objective, look-at-both-sides journalists as they should be. I also watch MSNBC, Alex Wagner is certainly my favorite person on TV news [and half Burmese!], but to say it's not a left-wing network tells me you are not watching it objectively. How often do you hear about Benghazi over there? Sure, FOX beats it to death as they do every anti-Obama story, but for MSNBC to hardly even mention that or any other story which may put Obama in a bad light, that is NOT accurate. They beat the piss out of Abu Ghraib while FOX barely touched it; that is not accurate either, by FOX. Have you ever heard MSNBC tool on Obama for not keeping his campaign promises [from 5 years ago!] to get us out of Guantanamo or Afghanistan? Nope, and you won't.

CNN seems to me to have no agenda. They may be a little left -of -center and Ted Turner is certainly not what you would call a conservative, but they just report the news and usually don't take a side either way. They also don't have the FOX-style flying graphics, loud noises and constant "Alerts" for something as mundane as a police chase west of Phoenix. That's why I like watching them and it's probably also why they have such low ratings; many people want to be entertained while watching the news, I just like getting the news.

[JaiDee]

Believe it or not, people outside of America; some people actually consider this network real!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/27/9-wildest-things-fox-mashup_n_2365592.html?utm_hp_ref=media

[deepthroat]

Have you ever heard MSNBC tool on Obama for not keeping his campaign promises [from 5 years ago!] to get us out of Guantanamo or Afghanistan? Nope, and you won't.

Actually, I would disagree with that statement Jai Dee. I still agree 100% with the theme (MSNBC is one-sided in it's coverage) but I have often heard the commentators - Rachel Maddow, Chris Matthews and Lawrence O'Donnell in particular - take the administration to task over failed promises, especially the non-closure of Gitmo. And Rachel has been on the topic of the continued war in Afghanistan on a weekly basis for the past 2 years. She doesn't pull any punches in calling this a failed policy of the President.

This doesn't make them any less biased, but only points out that they sometimes do point out the flaws of the left as well. They're not completely blind, merely biased.

CNN pisses me off at times, which is a good indicator that it probably is more non-denominational in it's coverage as I believe it probably pisses off Fox Fans just as much. If both the Lefties and the Righties are mad, then it's probably a good compromise.

[JaiDee]

That's why newspapers have become a joke as well; cutbacks because no one is buying their papers anymore! So their 'reporting' quickly became a joke, and half their shit now comes off the AP wire or from Reuters or some other news-gathering oqganization. I used to pick up the Herald and the Globe out of Boston daily for years; only cost a half a buck each, so for a dollar I could get filled in on news from the left and the right, plus sports and weather, etc....I also picked up the Bangkok Post every day whenever I was there.

Then something called The Internet came along, the death of many newspapers and the death of hard news gathering. I haven't picked up a paper in years now; what's the point? And I am just as guilty as everyone else as far as getting the news off this foolish toy; my Google news feed is actually pretty good, because you can set up catagories of the news you want and they will send you 5 or 6 links a day to just those. World news, US news, politics, stocks, sports, etc......all on one page and usually without any bias because the info comes from so many sources. I find it hysterically funny when I click on a link and someone asks me to pay if I want to see more.......the NY Times and the Boston Globe are famous for this....with so many out there for free, why on earth would I pay you?

TV news I simply can't handle much anymore......I keep on MSNBC or CNN in the background [like right now] if I am hanging around the house in the daytime, but rarely at night when their "opinion" nonsense comes on. I have much better things to do with my time, or if i am watching TV would rather watch a movie any day.

[pacman]

What I can say is that America's idea of 'left wing' and everybody else's idea of the same are radically different. What Americans call 'left wing' would probably still be slightly right of centre in the UK. The Democratic Party would probably equate with the Conservative party (in their less loony/radical moments), whereas the Republicans as they are now probably equate with The Monster Raving Loony Party (yes, that IS a real political party, though not a serious one) if they adopted the policies of the extremely far-right BNP (British National Party).

Nice post route67. I agree with your summation about the Democrats, they aren't a very left wing party at all compared to the left wing in other countries. It's interesting that there are no radical Socialists espousing Communist views representing the Dems yet there are elected representatives of the Republicans who would not be out of place in the Nazi Party. For their right wing view that is, not for their beliefs. I'm not suggesting any of them want to invade Poland or attack Jews.

I always explain that our two major parties do not align with the Dems & the GOP. In both Australia & the UK, there are members of parliament who would shock American voters with their radical views. But I don't see it as a weakness of our systems, there's nothing like having one of them deliver a speech or give an interview where they express an extreme POV to spark political debate which in turn gets the public to focus on the issue.

[Lefty]

‎"I'm undoubtedly a liberal, which means that I'm in almost total agreement with the Eisenhower-era Republican party platform." ~ Rachel Maddow