Fox News' Dr. Keith Ablow: Joe Biden May have Dementia

At least we can agree on something. Biden is a jerk. I was very disappointed when Obama chose him.

Now that I've proven you wrong (or you've failed in your attempt to prove me wrong) will you continue to claim that Fox News lies over and over? If so, you're being intellectually dishonest, and there's no point in having a discussion with someone who is knowingly intellectually dishonest.

Close but no cigar. The reporters in question worked for WTVT and prepared a highly critical - although not scientifically accurate - four part series on Monsanto's use of rGBH. At that time - pay attention here - Fox did not own the station. They bought it later, and as such became part of the litigation. And, to further show how your example isn't valid, the series was never aired. The suit was about the reporters being dismissed, not about WTVT broadcasting false or biased information. A report that NEVER AIRED certainly does not constitute evidence that Fox has ever aired a news report that was biased.

From Reason.com: "In 1997 Wilson and Akre began preparing a piece on a controversial Monsanto milk additive called recombinant bovine growth hormone, or rBGH, which had been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1993. The hormone has been blamed over the years for a variety of real or imagined offenses, from early puberty in girls to prostate cancer. Probably the fairest assessment about the product is that there is mixed scientific opinion, pitting activists against researchers whose funding often comes directly or indirectly from agribusiness companies and their trade associations. The FDA’s scientists judged that the additive posed no health threat.

On balance, the weight of evidence appears to back Monsanto. In October 2003, after more than a decade of intense public debate, The Washington Post summed up the issue this way: “Could hormones meant to make cows give more milk lead to early puberty, as some parents fear? On its face, it sounds plausible enough. But government and pediatric health experts say there are no scientific data to back up such an association.…There is also no evidence that milk from hormone-treated cows contains harmful amounts of antibiotic residue or promotes cancer.”

Wilson and Akre contended that their investigation uncovered the dark secrets of rBGH—notwithstanding that by the time the reporters turned their attention to the issue, more than 2,000 articles had been written on the subject. Their reporting did not contribute to the scientific debate, but it did disclose some moderately interesting Florida angles, such as grocery stores’ refusal to disclose to consumers the use of the chemical.

Prior to broadcast, Monsanto wrote to Fox’s cable news boss, Roger Ailes, arguing that the reporting was palpably biased against the company and warning about the “enormous damage that can be done.” The letter stated that the reporters “have prejudged the safety of” rBGH, and it insisted that Ailes personally ensure the duo “get the facts straight.”

The planned four-part piece, which Fox argued in court was not breakthrough journalism, never aired. Wilson and Akre claimed Monsanto’s rant caused the station to pressure them to broadcast lies—which were basically Monsanto’s defense of its product. WTVT executives countered that they were merely demanding fairness. Wilson and Akre stalled for nine months, producing no other significant work. They constantly rewrote the rBGH script and then, according to the litigation, torpedoed the series every time it neared completion. The reporters claimed they rewrote the script 83 times. They had to bend ordinary mathematics and the English language to get that total: If they added a few words to each part of the series, they called that four rewrites of the project.

By late 1997 the station was fed up and decided not to renew the reporters’ contract. Wilson and Akre filed suit in May 1998."

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And how did that suit turn out? "Florida’s Second District Court of Appeal ruled the case had “no merit from its inception”. Here's a bit more, again from Reason.com

"A jury dismissed all claims by Wilson in August 2000 but gave a limited verdict to Akre, ordering Fox to pay her $425,000. In a complicated decision, the jury sided with Akre by agreeing that she was a whistleblower because she had threatened to go to the FCC over portions of the series she believed to be a violation of the 1934 federal Communications Act. Wilson and Akre had argued successfully in their trial that they shouldn’t have to prove news “distortion,” but only that they believed distortion occurred. Jury instructions made six references to that “belief standard.” (Wilson and Akre would neglect to include the believed in most of their subsequent descriptions of the verdict.) How the jury managed to decide for Akre but reject Wilson’s claims was never explained. Wilson, who had represented himself, claimed his aggressiveness repulsed the jury. The Fox lawyers say Akre made a sympathetic plaintiff when she discussed her daughter and described how Fox had ruined her career.

Florida’s Second District Court of Appeal ruled the case had “no merit from its inception” and reversed Akre’s win. Last year, in the final chapter of the legal case, Wilson was ordered to pay WTVT $156,000 in legal bills."

http://reason.com/archives/2006/05/05/the-strange-case-of-steve-wils

I wish I had a nickel (well, a dime or quarter in this economy) for every liberal guest or commentator FOX regularly features, minus as much for every conservative MSNBC brings on their shows.

Fox liberals: Lis Wiehl, Shepard Smith, Kirsten Powers, Mark Lamont Hill, Juan Williams, Leslie Marshall, Alan Colmes, Mary Ann Marsh, Eric Dyson, Lanny Davis, Joe Trippi, James Carville. On and on.

MSNBC conservatives: Morning Joe?... Oh, Pat Buchanan. Help me out here.

Apparently in the world of Republicans, because that is EXACTLY what Romney did, and somehow that was ok but as soon as someone you don't like is doing it it's "Oh Noes! He must have a mental illness!" Hypocrisy is nothing new to the Right Wing though, eh?

God, I hope this guy isn't allowed to treat kids. Oh my God! Laughter and energy are signs of dementia, what a quack.