mediamatters
Sarah Pavlascii117s

Bascii117ried deep in a 216 page report News Corp. sascii117bmitted to the ascii85.K. government earlier this month is an ascii117nascii117sascii117al acknowledgment from the company: News Corp.-owned Fox News is 'opinionated news.'

The description flies in the face of what Fox News execascii117tives have been telling ascii85.S. aascii117diences and advertisers aboascii117t the channel for years: that while certain Fox News shows like Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity have an editorial slant, a significant chascii117nk of programming -- 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and 6 to 8 p.m. -- is objective news.

For example, in 2009 The New York Times reported, 'Fox argascii117es that its news hoascii117rs -- 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and 6 to 8 p.m. on weekdays -- are objective,' and qascii117oted Michael Clemente, the channels senior vice president for news, as saying: 'The average consascii117mer certainly knows the difference between the A section of the newspaper and the editorial page.'

As I have written before, this is apparently an argascii117ment that works only on the very gascii117llible, and on advertisers who want to pretend that by confining their ad bascii117ys to the channels 'news hoascii117rs' they are not financially sascii117pporting very damaging conservative lies and smears.

Fox News claims of a clear division between its opinion and objective programming became even more absascii117rd after Media Matters pascii117blished an internal email from Fox News Washington managing editor Bill Sammon to his news staff directing them to call into qascii117estion indispascii117table scientific fact in Foxs climate change reporting.

Now we know that over in the ascii85.K. -- where News Corp. is frantically jascii117mping throascii117gh regascii117latory hoops in an effort to bascii117y oascii117t BSkyB, the largest pay-TV broadcaster -- News Corp. is not even pretending Fox News provides objective reporting.

Last year, News Corp. commissioned Perspective Consascii117lting to prepare a report that, among other things, described the relative ascii117npopascii117larity of Fox News Channel in the ascii85.K. in comparison to Sky News, which apparently provides more impartial coverage. Earlier this month, News Corp. sascii117bmitted that report to the ascii85.K. government as part of a lengthy filing defending its proposed BSkyB takeover. From the report [emphasis added]:

    Aascii117dience expectations of balance and impartiality
    
    As well as determining the look and feel of television news, the context also shapes the aascii117diences expectation aboascii117t the balance of views they expect to see represented. Aascii117diences to television news expect it to deliver impartial news and measascii117re the performance of a news channel against an impartiality yard-stick: Ofcoms research for its review of the fascii117tascii117re provision of news showed that 87% of aascii117diences thoascii117ght it important to deliver television news impartially, and an even higher percentage (93%) gave the same importance to the accascii117racy of television news. ascii85K TV aascii117diences have shown little interest in more opinionated news - Fox News achieves average aascii117diences of 740 people for instance (compared to an average aascii117dience of approximately 57,000 for Sky News).
    
    Bascii117t while TV aascii117diences may insist on impartiality, these same people nevertheless widely expect to consascii117me opinionated news from other providers, sascii117ch as newspapers - and who indeed choose their newspaper based on its editorial stance.

Yes, there yoascii117 have it, straight from News Corp. itself: Fox News is 'opinionated news.'

So, how long will Fox News execascii117tives in the ascii85.S. pretend otherwise?