Fox News should admit to bias

Fox News announced earlier this month that former Alaska governor and 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin will be a regular contributor.

who governed a state boasting a smaller population than Hillsborough County, was instantly propelled into the’limelight after presidential candidate John McCain chose her as his running mate. During the campaign, she demonstrated her limited understanding of issues.

In ‘Race of a Lifetime,’ a book by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin, campaign aids said Palin didn’t know what the Federal Reserve did, and she suggested that Sadaam Hussein attacked the U.S. on 9/11. She also lied about her support of the infamous ‘bridge to’nowhere,’ according to the book.

Palin’s addition to the Fox News team is right-wing bias. The network shouldn’t have hired her, but at least it could admit its obvious bias once and for all.

‘I am thrilled to be joining the great talent and management team at Fox News. It’s wonderful to be part of a place that so values fair and balanced news,’ Palin said in a release.

It seems Palin has a limited understanding when it comes to Fox News as well. Despite the daily claims by the network, most people should know that it is’anything but ‘balanced.’

Founded in 1996 by conservative media mogul Rupert Murdoch, Fox News has become a’mouthpiece for the Republican Party. It boasts some of the most well-known political commentators in the U.S., including Glenn Beck, Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity.

Playing to the tune of its conservative chorus, Fox News seems willing to cast aside its’responsibility to be a news outlet -’empowering the voting public with unbiased reporting – in favor of profit and notoriety.

In November, while trying to exaggerate the number of ‘tea party’ protesters at a rally in Washington, Hannity actually showed footage of a different’protest in Washington, which drew a much larger crowd. Then again, with Palin’s history of misinformation, she should be right at home with the network.

A 2003 study by the Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) at the University of Maine found that 67 percent of viewers who watched Fox News as their primary news source believed Sadaam Hussein was connected to al-Qaida – which was not the case – and that only 16 percent of PBS and NPR viewers believed there was a connection.

Palin is even considering’running in the 2012 presidential election. The network’s CEO, Roger Ailes, who had been urged to run, passed on the opportunity and said to Politico, ‘This country needs fair and balanced news more now than ever before, so I’m going to decline a run for the presidency.’

This ‘news’ network should not turn into a 24-hour infomercial, furthering conservative ideology while still pretending to be fair and balanced. President Barack Obama refuses to grant Fox News an interview.

It is not a matter of conservative and liberal. News networks should remain as unbiased as possible, but with the station’s history and recent hiring of Palin, Fox News can no longer pretend to do this.

Justin Rivera is a senior majoring in history.