Mike Bowerbank said that  the most invalid belief of American conservatives is that “FOX News is news and not ideologically-driven entertainment” because it is not registered as a “news agency”.  Now that is an interesting statement! One of the things I noticed is when people complain about the Fox News journalism style, they rarely check to see if what they have written makes sense. Since I went down this path before in the post, The Changing Face Of Journalism, I decided to do a little fact checking on his statements and here is what I said.

Like Joe I was curious about the registered news agency statement. When I look up news agencies I find that Wikipedia lists only two new agencies in the United States, Associated Press and United Press International. If we use the logic you used to condemn Fox News than you are condemning New York Times, Washington Post, and all of the major news networks, too.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the news agency concept, subscribers to the Associated Press can use stories written by the AP unchanged in their publications. Since 1999 UPI has largely left the news agency business. For business news you will find a lot of stories that originate at Dow Jones and Bloomberg. They are not news agencies either but I respect what they have to say.

The point you made about exaggeration and failed predictions in 2012 is not unique to Fox News. The same statement can be made about some broadcaster or newspaper in every election. Are you trying to tell me that NBC, ABC, and CBS predicted every election correctly and never exaggerated? How many of these broadcasters correctly predicted the rise of the Tea Party?

The biggest difference between Fox News and the other broadcasters is that Fox News listens to its viewers and gives them what they want. In business we used to say that the first rule of business is that the customer is always right. The second rule is that when in doubt re-read the first rule. So if you want to hear about the collapse of the Affordable Care Act exchanges, Benghazi, the IRS scandal, Ms. Clinton’s indictment for espionage, or government run amok then Fox News is your only source. The news editors at the other broadcasters have already decided that these are not news stories. They call it editorial discretion. I call it bad for business and their ratings show it.

News has always been ideologically-driven entertainment because it sells newspapers or attracts viewers. Look up the history of Yellow journalism. The idea that a story from the New York Times, Washington Post, or Fox News is thoroughly vetted is ridiculous. If they are reporting the news and not ancient history, they are going to make mistakes and the Internet is going to tell them quickly.

Considering all of the evidence I have gathered the most invalid belief of conservatives is still up for debate.