This morning on America's Newsroom on Fox, Megyn Kelly and Bill Hemmer had their panties in a wad because the new Newsweek cover had used a close up picture of Sarah Palin for its cover. The Fox duo accused Newsweek of being biased and trying tomake Palin look bad. I wonder where Newsweek got the idea?
On the July 2, 2008 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends, Doocy and Kilmeade showed Photoshopped pictures of New York Times reporter Jacques Steinberg and editor Steven Reddicliffe without telling viewers that the photos had been altered.
In their piece Doocy and Kilmeade put pictures on screen that made Reddicliffe look like he had dark circles under his eyes, had yellow teeth, and balding hair.
For Steinberg's photo they squished his head into an oval, enlarged his nose, ears and chin, and yellowed his teeth.
To not disclose that these pictures had been digitally altered and to portray the pictures as real is completely dishonest, journalistically unethical, and just plain petty.
This is just another example of how Fox does not employ real journalists.
Recall that Fox News has a habit of being duped into running news stories that turn out to be fake:
1) Phony story about a 13 year-old boy in Texas who used his father's credit card to go on a $30,000 spending spree, culminating with a game of Halo at a motel with a couple hookers. (The kid convinced the hookers he was a midget traveling with the circus.) The story was nothing short of genius, and it got picked up far and wide -- it made into a segment on Fox News (in which Jeanine Pirro made a passionate argument for the prostitutes' arrest).
2)“Fox & Friends” aired at least eight segments on a purported “news” story that was actually a parody article written by a publication similar to The Onion.
The backstory: In the town of Lewiston, Maine, a group of Somalian Muslim middle school students were the subject of a cruel prank when their peers placed a ham steak next to them in order to personally offend the students. School officials filed a report because the students considered the act to be a hate/bias crime.
Fox & Friends reported the details as actual news. Poking fun at the students, hosts asked whether ham was “a hate crime…or lunch?” and showed screen shots of ham sandwiches, starving Somalians, belching, animal noises, and mock “reenactments” of the incident. Ironically, the hosts assured viewers several times, “We’re not making this up!”
3) Carl Cameron, a Fox reporter who covered the Kerry campaign, wrote an item that looked like a news story with made-up Kerry quotes. The item was posted on the Fox News site.
The phony item read in part:
'"Didn't my nails and cuticles look great? What a good debate!'
Kerry said Friday.
"Aides say he will step up attacks on the president in the next few days, and pivot somewhat to the domestic agenda, with a focus on women and abortion rights.
'"It's about the Supreme Court. Women should like me! I do manicures,' Kerry said."
Kerry was quoted as saying of himself and President Bush:
"I'm metrosexual — he's a cowboy."
So there you have it, Fox is not a real News organization.
Labels: Bill Hemmer, digitally altered, dishonest, Doocy, Fox, Friends, Jacques Steinberg, Kilmeade, Megyn Kelly, New York Times, Newsweek photo, Palin, Steven Reddicliffe, unethical
