FoxNews' Glenn Beck

I have a question for you guys outside the US.  Do you have the same polarized punditry that we have here? 
Are your "voices  of news" dominated by left and right screaming with few quality sources for centrist voices, for fairly objective reporting?

Or is this largely a US phenom? 

I'm truly interested, since I don't have cable, I never get to watch foreign news outside of the occasional BBC report. 

Finnforest wrote: I have a question for you guys outside the US.  Do you have the same polarized punditry that we have here?  Are your "voices  of news" dominated by left and right screaming with few quality sources for centrist voices, for fairly objective reporting? Or is this largely a US phenom? I'm truly interested, since I don't have cable, I never get to watch foreign news outside of the occasional BBC report.

In Australia, we have one particular program, which although relatively unbiased and reliable for new, is still very plasticated...

Although we do have SBS - An international channel, which is really good and very informative. It runs pretty independently, and never really seems to be attempting to propagandize or intimidate anyone.

EDIT:

I'll also add that since Kevin Rudd became PM here, all the news shows have become ~trendy left wing Labor supporters~.

Edited by progkidjoel - October 25 2009 at 18:47

floydispink wrote: Finnforest wrote: I have a question for you guys outside the US.  Do you have the same polarized punditry that we have here?  Are your "voices  of news" dominated by left and right screaming with few quality sources for centrist voices, for fairly objective reporting? Or is this largely a US phenom?  I'm truly interested, since I don't have cable, I never get to watch foreign news outside of the occasional BBC report.  The broadcasting here in the Netherlands is pretty balanced I think, although it tends to be a little more left than right. The news on the public channels is really good and objective I think, as the reporters and whoever has a major role in creating the news never really adds their own opinion to it. The news on the commercial channels is much more "entertainment" based, with lots of opinions by reporters in the form of laughing and useless chatting.  The political system here is very different from the US one. We have a lot of political parties, all with their own views on society, and they all get several minutes every day to show their own "commercial". Also, every Tuesday a debate can be seen live on the public channels.  We don't have anything here that comes even close to Fox news. Though I don't know Fox that well, I've only seen a documentary about it... which was not very positive.

Pretty much the same here.
But conservative media isn't much of a force in Sweden. At all. We basically have liberal vs. socialist media nowadays, which pretty much sums up the mainstream political climate here.

I think we can count the Daily Show and Colber Repor as news.  You are likely better informed than the typical Fox News viewer. v v v

Edited by Slartibartfast - November 02 2009 at 06:33

http://politicalhumor.about.com/
1. "This president I think has exposed himself over and over again as a guy who has a deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture....I'm not saying he doesn't like white people, I'm saying he has a problem. This guy is, I believe, a racist." –on President Obama, sparking an advertiser exodus from his FOX News show, July 28, 2009 (Source)

2. "I'm thinking about killing Michael Moore, and I'm wondering if I could kill him myself, or if I would need to hire somebody to do it. ... No, I think I could. I think he could be looking me in the eye, you know, and I could just be choking the life out. Is this wrong? I stopped wearing my What Would Jesus -- band -- Do, and I've lost all sense of right and wrong now. I used to be able to say, 'Yeah, I'd kill Michael Moore,' and then I'd see the little band: What Would Jesus Do? And then I'd realize, 'Oh, you wouldn't kill Michael Moore. Or at least you wouldn't choke him to death.' And you know, well, I'm not sure." –responding to the question "What would people do for $50 million?", "The Glenn Beck Program," May 17, 2005 (Source)

3. "When I see a 9/11 victim family on television, or whatever, I'm just like, 'Oh shut up' I'm so sick of them because they're always complaining." –"The Glenn Beck Program," Sept. 9, 2005 (Source)

4. "The only [Katrina victims] we're seeing on television are the scumbags." –"The Glenn Beck Program," Sept. 9, 2005 (Source)

5. "I think there is a handful of people who hate America. Unfortunately for them, a lot of them are losing their homes in a forest fire today." –on why people who lost their homes in forest fires in California had it coming, "The Glenn Beck Program," Oct. 22, 2007 (Source)

6. "I have been nervous about this interview with you because what I feel like saying is, 'Sir, prove to me that you are not working with our enemies. ... And I know you're not. I'm not accusing you of being an enemy, but that's the way I feel, and I think a lot of Americans will feel that way." –interviewing Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), the first Muslim U.S. congressman, Glen Beck's show on CNN's Headline News, Nov. 14, 2006 (Source)

7. "Al Gore's not going to be rounding up Jews and exterminating them. It is the same tactic, however. The goal is different. The goal is globalization...And you must silence all dissenting voices. That's what Hitler did. That's what Al Gore, the U.N., and everybody on the global warming bandwagon [are doing]." –"The Glenn Beck Program," May 1, 2007 (Source)

8. "So here you have Barack Obama going in and spending the money on embryonic stem cell research. ... Eugenics. In case you don't know what Eugenics led us to: the Final Solution. A master race! A perfect person. ... The stuff that we are facing is absolutely frightening." –"The Glenn Beck Program," March 9, 2009 (Source)

9. "You have the artwork of Mussolini there, here in New York at Rockefeller Plaza." –analyzing the artwork decorating Rockefeller Plaza, which he said contained a hammer and sickle, Glenn Beck show on FOX News Channel, Sept. 2, 2009 (Source)

10. "O-L-I-G-A-R-H-Y." –misspelling "oligarchy" on his chalk board while claiming he had deciphered a secret code that he said was proof President Obama was trying to create an "Oligarhy," Aug. 27, 2009, Glenn Beck show on FOX News Channel (Source)

Bonus Quote

"You know, we all have our inner demons. I, for one – I can't speak for you, but I'm on the verge of moral collapse at any time. It can happen by the end of the show." –"The Glenn Beck Program," Nov. 6, 2006 (Source)

Funny Quotes About Glenn Beck

"Satan's mentally challenged younger brother." –Stephen King, writing in "Entertainment Weekly" (Source)

"Finally, a guy who says what people who aren't thinking are thinking." –Jon Stewart, on the "The Daily Show" (Source)

"The comfort of today's mythical homespun aw-shucks-TV-totalitarian-Lonesome-Rhodes Glenn Beck is that everyday he gives away the essential truth that he is an idiot." –Keith Olbermann, on "Countdown With Keith Olbermann" (Source)

"Even the leather-winged shouting heads at Fox News look like intellectual giants next to this bleating, benighted Cassandra. It's like someone found a manic, doom-prophesying hobo in a sandwich board, shaved him, shot him full of Zoloft and gave him a show." -- Buffalo Beast, naming Beck in its annual list of the 50 Most Loathsome People in America (Source)

Edited by Slartibartfast - November 02 2009 at 06:36

Finnforest wrote: I have a question for you guys outside the US.  Do you have the same polarized punditry that we have here?  Are your "voices  of news" dominated by left and right screaming with few quality sources for centrist voices, for fairly objective reporting? Or is this largely a US phenom?  I'm truly interested, since I don't have cable, I never get to watch foreign news outside of the occasional BBC report.

Ugh...my roomie has it on right now.
Time to put on my biggest headphones, and blast the music

Equality 7-2521 wrote: I don't know why people get so offended by jokes and hyperbole they can't pick up.

A Person wrote: I honestly don't ever watch the news, unless you count the occasional Daily Show/Colbert Report as news.

I don't live in America but I do watch those both religiously. I guess I now have a somewhat messed up view of American politics, but it's so much more interesting than NZ where our political 'problems' are just molehills made into slightly larger molehills  (not that i should be complaining).

I prefer to think of us as amnesiotic, amanesiosiac, uh whatever, I forgot.