Dear friends, Many of us already know that Fox News is biased -- but it's actually
much worse than that. For years they have used lies, distortions, and
race-baiting to divide this country. Recently, it's gotten downright
dangerous. Earlier this summer, a heavily armed man got into a gun
fight with police after he was pulled over on his way to kill people
at the Tides Foundation[1] -- an obscure non-profit that Glenn Beck
regularly demonizes on his Fox News TV show.[2] Fox News is bad news for America -- and it spreads, and is
legitimized, partly through TVs in public places. That's why I've joined the TurnOffFox campaign -- the first part of a
larger campaign to diminish the influence of Fox. It's about educating
people about Fox and getting it turned off in stores, restaurants, and
other public places. Will you join me? It takes just a moment to declare your own household
"Fox free", and at the same time appeal to public establishments in
your community to stop playing Fox. *And you'll get a FREE Turn Off
Fox sticker when you do.* Click here: http://turnofffox.org/landing/?id=2483-1428787 No other news organization that's considered legitimate consistently
wages smear campaigns based on lies and race-baiting. But for years
Fox News has done exactly that, and the pattern has only gotten worse
since Barack Obama entered national politics. Here are just a few examples: -- A frequent Fox guest, Jesse Lee Peterson, said that the majority of
Black people have poor moral character, and cited "what they did to
the dome" after Hurricane Katrina as evidence.[3] Peterson has also
used his platform on Fox to claim that 90% of Black people are racists
-- against Whites.[4] -- In a case of naked race-baiting, Fox host Glenn Beck called
President Obama a "racist" who had a "deep-seated hatred for White
people or the White culture."[5] Earlier that week, Beck claimed that
the President's health insurance reform proposals were a form of
"reparations" designed to "settle old racial scores."[6] -- Fox host John Stossel argued that the public accommodations section
of the Civil Rights Act -- which prevents businesses from
discriminating based on race, sex, and other factors -- should be
repealed.[7] -- Fox News hosts Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity were the first to air
deceptively edited and incomplete video of Shirley Sherrod's remarks
to the NAACP.[8] The video made it seem like Sherrod was confessing to
using her position at the USDA to discriminate against White farmers,
when she was really talking about the importance of overcoming
prejudice. Sherrod lost her job over this misrepresentation, which Fox
enthusiastically repeated without seeking the facts. Fox has since
tried to pretend it had nothing to do with this smear -- but Fox is
the number one reason these kinds of distortions and smears have any
part in our national dialogue. The examples above aren't even a tenth of Fox's vicious lies and
smears, and over the years they've just gotten more brazen. The goal of Turn Off Fox is to reduce the number of public TVs showing
Fox News, while spreading the word about Fox's poison (and how it
works) to those who don't know. Signing up for the campaign is just the first step. We make it easy
for you to tell us about businesses playing Fox. If you're willing to
talk with them, we'll provide you with straightforward materials that
explain why they shouldn't be a party to what Fox is doing. And if
there are businesses you know that want to tell the world they would
never play Fox, you can help them declare themselves a "Fox-free
zone." As businesses Turn off Fox and stand up as Fox Free, and as we
encourage our friends and family to do the same, we'll help make
clear, to people across the country, what Fox is about. And we'll
reduce their ability to do harm. Please join me in signing up for the TurnOffFox campaign: http://turnofffox.org/landing/?id=2483-1428787 Thanks. References 1. http://bit.ly/a5F7kW
2. http://mediamatters.org/research/201007290032
3. http://mediamatters.org/research/200510030005
4. http://bit.ly/c060C0
5. http://mediamatters.org/research/200907300019
6. http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/200907230040
7. http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/201005200033
8. http://mediamatters.org/blog/201007200060
much worse than that. For years they have used lies, distortions, and
race-baiting to divide this country. Recently, it's gotten downright
dangerous. Earlier this summer, a heavily armed man got into a gun
fight with police after he was pulled over on his way to kill people
at the Tides Foundation[1] -- an obscure non-profit that Glenn Beck
regularly demonizes on his Fox News TV show.[2] Fox News is bad news for America -- and it spreads, and is
legitimized, partly through TVs in public places. That's why I've joined the TurnOffFox campaign -- the first part of a
larger campaign to diminish the influence of Fox. It's about educating
people about Fox and getting it turned off in stores, restaurants, and
other public places. Will you join me? It takes just a moment to declare your own household
"Fox free", and at the same time appeal to public establishments in
your community to stop playing Fox. *And you'll get a FREE Turn Off
Fox sticker when you do.* Click here: http://turnofffox.org/landing/?id=2483-1428787 No other news organization that's considered legitimate consistently
wages smear campaigns based on lies and race-baiting. But for years
Fox News has done exactly that, and the pattern has only gotten worse
since Barack Obama entered national politics. Here are just a few examples: -- A frequent Fox guest, Jesse Lee Peterson, said that the majority of
Black people have poor moral character, and cited "what they did to
the dome" after Hurricane Katrina as evidence.[3] Peterson has also
used his platform on Fox to claim that 90% of Black people are racists
-- against Whites.[4] -- In a case of naked race-baiting, Fox host Glenn Beck called
President Obama a "racist" who had a "deep-seated hatred for White
people or the White culture."[5] Earlier that week, Beck claimed that
the President's health insurance reform proposals were a form of
"reparations" designed to "settle old racial scores."[6] -- Fox host John Stossel argued that the public accommodations section
of the Civil Rights Act -- which prevents businesses from
discriminating based on race, sex, and other factors -- should be
repealed.[7] -- Fox News hosts Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity were the first to air
deceptively edited and incomplete video of Shirley Sherrod's remarks
to the NAACP.[8] The video made it seem like Sherrod was confessing to
using her position at the USDA to discriminate against White farmers,
when she was really talking about the importance of overcoming
prejudice. Sherrod lost her job over this misrepresentation, which Fox
enthusiastically repeated without seeking the facts. Fox has since
tried to pretend it had nothing to do with this smear -- but Fox is
the number one reason these kinds of distortions and smears have any
part in our national dialogue. The examples above aren't even a tenth of Fox's vicious lies and
smears, and over the years they've just gotten more brazen. The goal of Turn Off Fox is to reduce the number of public TVs showing
Fox News, while spreading the word about Fox's poison (and how it
works) to those who don't know. Signing up for the campaign is just the first step. We make it easy
for you to tell us about businesses playing Fox. If you're willing to
talk with them, we'll provide you with straightforward materials that
explain why they shouldn't be a party to what Fox is doing. And if
there are businesses you know that want to tell the world they would
never play Fox, you can help them declare themselves a "Fox-free
zone." As businesses Turn off Fox and stand up as Fox Free, and as we
encourage our friends and family to do the same, we'll help make
clear, to people across the country, what Fox is about. And we'll
reduce their ability to do harm. Please join me in signing up for the TurnOffFox campaign: http://turnofffox.org/landing/?id=2483-1428787 Thanks. References 1. http://bit.ly/a5F7kW
2. http://mediamatters.org/research/201007290032
3. http://mediamatters.org/research/200510030005
4. http://bit.ly/c060C0
5. http://mediamatters.org/research/200907300019
6. http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/200907230040
7. http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/201005200033
8. http://mediamatters.org/blog/201007200060
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