The rejected ads have something in common -- a progressive message that Fox News would prefer its viewers not be exposed to.

In short, too confusing for their audience.

Partisan propaganda station refuses to air a political ad that's not partisan propaganda. Yawn.

What I'm really concerned with is finding a proactive way to isolate all the Foxbots from convincing anyone not already in their 27%. I couldn't care less if VoteVets gets their ad run on there, because frankly they shouldn't be wasting money trying to convince the closed-minded and the stupid.

Until and unless the Dems, who have power now and may not again for a long time, address the problem of slant and bias in the PUBLIC'S airwaves, and the issue of lack of accountability, auditability and transparency in the evoting machines, we are not likely to see any significant change. Corporations are run by people, people who love profit, money, and power more than they love other people. Is that so hard to understand? Most corporations care little if they screw people in order to get what they really want. Government can and should be a buffer and protector against those amoral corporations and their insatiable desire for more at virtually any expense. Fox Spews is a disgrace to the word "journalism" and a kick in the teeth to every legitimate investigative reporter who ever put his/her blood, sweat, and tears on the line in order to report the truth.

I'm willing to live with the reality that the Fairness Doctrine is not coming back, but the least the FCC could do is forbid stations from discriminating among which political or issue ads they are willing to run, if they run any such ads at all. Let FOX 'News' broadcast whatever tripe it feels like broadcasting under its own imprimatur, but if other groups want to buy ads on FOX to express differing viewpoints, they should have an absolute right to.

Why does Fox News hate our veterans?

-Z

With all due respect, Charlie, The 'airwaves' refer to broadcast media. I think Faux Noise is cable, and hence not held accountable.

Other than encouraging The Daily Show and MSNBC to continue to poke fun at them, there is not much we can do.

I don't buy stuff advertised on their network, but that's a bit passive.

dog bites man

I don't think they are worried about their audience being exposed to progressive thought. More likely, they don't want to listen to all the viewer complaints for letting evil liberals advertise.

Offer to run it during the Glenn Beck show! Don't they need advertisers pretty bad?

low-tech cyclist: As DAY said, Fox News is a cable news network. The FCC does not regulate cable television, only broadcast television.

As they draw their illusionary world ever tighter around themselves --and draw others into that delusion--we see the fully developed psychosis of the conservative mind: it spins its own language, its own truth, it talks at, never with others, and reality be damned. Freud once said psychotics love their delusions more than life itself and this is definitely proving true of this lot.

It's a world created by the idea of keeping others, real others, out.

Let's hope they don't get as far politically as one AH did with his programme in the 1930s.

The FCC does not regulate cable television, only broadcast television.
Posted by: mcc on July 19, 2010 at 2:55 PM

And therein lies the crux of the problem. The FCC needs to be given the power to regulate cable.

FOX, use the excuse the WaPo used about the lack of coverage for the Black Panther issue!

"Cable television is one of the most regulated businesses in the United States, subject to federal statutes, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), some state governments, and substantially all local governments. The Communications Act of 1934, the Cable Communications Act of 1984, the Cable Consumer Protection and Competition Act of 1992, and the Telecommunications Act of 1996, and the Rules and Regulations of the FCC, provide a comprehensive set of federal requirements governing the operation of cable systems."

Hence, there must be something we can do!

VoteVets is a commie, fascist, socialist organization that pumps the traitorist Obamabot line. This ad is just too reasonable. Obviously the VoteVet traitors are hiding their true commie, fascist, socialist Obamabot colors.

"And therein lies the crux of the problem. The FCC needs to be given the power to regulate cable."

OMG, yes! People can't change the channel or drop cable service!

In what respect, Charlie? wrote: "Hence, there must be something we can do!"

Regulation of cable television "systems" (e.g. Comcast) is not the same thing as regulation of the cable networks (e.g. Fox News) whose programming they carry, let alone the same as regulation of the content provided by those networks.

And Ed Henry, the head of WHCA wants to give this faux news station a front row seat?!?

What planet do these buffoons come from?

"The rejected ads have something in common -- a progressive message that Fox News would prefer its viewers not be exposed to."

Yep, lack of a TV ads keeps me up at night.

It's possible that Fox News really knows its audience and realizes that, in fact, it is "too confusing" for them. A black/white view of the world they can handle. Nuance or opposing viewpoints? Not so much.

Fox News is a dick.

Regulation of cable television "systems" (e.g. Comcast) is not the same thing as regulation of the cable networks (e.g. Fox News) whose programming they carry, let alone the same as regulation of the content provided by those networks.
Posted by: SecularAnimist on July 19, 2010 at 3:18 PM | PERMALINK

OMG, yes! People can't change the channel or drop cable service!
Posted by: Commander Cast on July 19, 2010 at 3:16 PM | PERMALINK
_______________________________________________

Problem is, people defacto consume FOX in restaurants, bars, airports, and service stations. That's what is on. If you are depending on the masses to turn it off or unplug it then, no offense but, you are being completely unrealistic. It ain't gonna happen. Fright wingers have almost complete control of the media. It has gotten so lopsided that if you mention FSTV or LinkTV to someone, they just look at you funny. Mention Fox or CNN and you get nods of recognition (and often approval).

Secular Animist, you are basically correct, yet consider these facts:

#1 Establish in 1934, the FCC was designed to regulate all radio and TV that either originate from the United States or enter into it from international sources.

Broadband Access

#2 The FCC pledges that its main goal is to allow for equal broadband access to every American citizen by maintaining a watchful eye on all service providers.

Healthy Competition
#3 The FCC supports a healthy competition between communication service providers in an attempt to increase the value the American people will receive as a result.

Media
#4 The FCC states that the American media must maintain a diverse agenda and promote a fast transition to digital modes of delivery.

I repeat, "The FCC states that the American media must maintain a diverse agenda"! 91% right wing, 9% progressive is hardly "a diverse agenda". It hardly "increases value" to have a slanted, republican-based agenda in the MSM when polls all show that America is polarized on major issues. Balance and fairness need to be restored. Diversity and value to all have a strong role and legacy at the FCC, and more can and should be done, by them and others.

Read more: What Agency Regulates Cable TV? | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/facts_5011390_what-agency-regulates-cable-tv.html#ixzz0u9rMCnm0

Zorro - Ditto
Just what I was thinking but you said it first.

--Problem is, people defacto consume FOX in restaurants, bars, airports, and service stations. That's what is on. If you are depending on the masses to turn it off or unplug it then, no offense but, you are being completely unrealistic. It ain't gonna happen. Fright wingers have almost complete control of the media. It has gotten so lopsided that if you mention FSTV or LinkTV to someone, they just look at you funny. Mention Fox or CNN and you get nods of recognition (and often approval).--

I don't know about you, but I avoid places that have TVs, like bars or restaurants (service stations, WTF?). Apparently, you don't (or can't) and are being programmed by FOX because that is all you guys whine about. And right wingers control the media? News to me. Does the NYT, CNN and WaPo know this? I await the day for Krugman to be fired...

I applaud VoteVets for taking on the issue, but I have a serious problem with the generalized statement about "our enemies know we're dependent on their oil," while showing a clip of a man in traditional Arab dress walking in a desert in front of an oil storage tank, inferring that Saudi Arabia and the rest of the Middle Eastern countries are the enemies the United States are fighting in Iraq.

Last time I checked Al Quaeda doesn't own any oil fields, and the countries in the Middle East who sell us oil would just as soon NOT have that interrupted or stopped through sabotage by Al Quaeda.

VoteVets would have done more good simply pointing out that our dependence leaves us unnecessarily open to sabotage and leaving the Arab/Moslem hysteria to those who do it best -- "real Americans" like Sarah Palin.

Confusion? Kind of like all the conservative advertising on this Washington Monthly website?

The difference is the audience. We don't like it, but we understand the bigger picture.

I'm guessing it has something to do with education. Or in the case of most American Conservatives considered the Republican "base", that would be the lack of education.

I will admit that while I agree with VoteVets' message, I find most of their commercials very confusing. The last one - the new one I haven't seen - was particularly badly worded.

If this sounds familiar, it's because it's happened before. In May, VoteVets put together a similar ad, which Fox News deemed "too confusing" for its audience.

Of course it's "too confusing." It's factual and reality-based, and Republicans have no interest in having their minds confused by facts once they've been properly indoctrinated. And so far as "reality based" is concerned, they're still making up their own reality as they go along.

Not a single use of "cognitive dissonance"? A pluses all around for originality!

I don't know about you, but I avoid places that have TVs, like bars or restaurants (service stations, WTF?). Apparently, you don't (or can't) and are being programmed by FOX because that is all you guys whine about. And right wingers control the media? News to me. Does the NYT, CNN and WaPo know this? I await the day for Krugman to be fired...

Posted by: Commander Cast on July 19, 2010 at 3:53 PM | PERMALINK
---------------------------

Good for you buddy. Oh, and you've never had your car worked on at a service station and sat in the waiting area where there is a TV? Guess you avoid that too. You know, you really need to get out more often. While your getting out, maybe you'll stop whining about Krugman.

The rejected ads have something in common -- a progressive message that Fox News would prefer its viewers not be exposed to. -- Steve Benen

This one is a double-barreled one, though. Mosque News is financed, in some portion, by the Saudis so, the idea that our dependence on oil and our occupying presence (and resultant exposure to danger) in the Middle East are in any way connected is not going to be encouraged.

Pravda!

Fox is pretty shamelessly a propaganda outlet for America's enemies. And yet, they feel invulnerable. Speaks volumes about their "patriotism."

Roget Ailes at Pox News is nothing more than a right-wing dictator, running his own little right-wing death squads on air day and night (death, that is, to fact-based-news and sanity).