Franken-Lies-And-the-Lying-Liars-Who-Tell

12
The Chapter on Fox
They Distort, We Deride
or
We Retort, They Have Lied
or
They Purport, We Decry
or
They Are Short', We Have Plied'
or
Smorty Smort, Blort Dehlort
Now that TeamFranken has proven that there's no liberal bias in the mainstream media, we
can move on to the right-wing media.
I should start by telling you that when I first proposed this book, my publisher turned
me down flat. The year was 1986, and at that point, just about all the right-wing media was in
print: the Wall Street journal editorial page, the Washington Times, the National Review, et
cetera. My publisher made the point that even the thousands of people who read books got
most of their news from television. My book on the lies of the right-wing media would have
to wait until there was a whole network devoted to rightwing lies.
The Fox News Channel was launched by Rupert Murdoch on October 6, 1996, with
Roger Ailes at its helm. Both Murdoch and Ailes are colorful men. In Murdoch's case, the
color is green. Or magenta, the color of the Australian five-dollar bill. He has over two billion
of these. Forbes magazine ranked him the fourth most powerful billionaire in the world. If
you'll assume with me that billionaires are billions of times more powerful than normal people,
you can see that the Forbes ranking means a lot.
In addition to the Fox News Channel, Murdoch's News Corporation owns TV Guide.
You know how many people read TV Guide? Neither do I. But it must be millions. He also