Fox News v Hurricane Ike. It's going down like a storm

By Remote Control on Sep 14, 08 10:58 PM

There's a lot wrong with Fox News, the Murdoch news channel which is blasted into UK homes via the ol' Sky box. Yes it's biased, massively in favour of the Republicans. Yes, it's dumbed down in a way even the brains behind BBC Breakfast News would find offensive. And yes, it doesn't understand the irony when it announces it is the news channel which is "fair and balanced."

But, by God, it's compulsive viewing when there's a storm on. In the UK, when there's a severe flood on, Sky News might go over to its "news wall" more often for an update than usual. At Fox News, with Hurricane Ike pounding Texas (natural born Fox News territory if ever there was such a place) they went to their, wait for it: Extreme Weather Center [sic]. Oh yes, this is news injected with dangerous hormones to the factor of 10.

Over on the BBC, all British viewers got to see of the storm in Texas was the damage it did to the hotel its crew was staying in. Rather self indulgent, I thought. At Fox, they dare not even think about going inside when there's a storm on. They even have headgear emblazend with Fox News written on it to keep them dry but branded when it's wet.

Did you hear what the anchor said when the reporter was taken out by the wave? "Even when he takes a licking, he keeps on ticking!" Not even Drop the Dead Donkey could have dreamt this up!

And then, while hundreds of thousands are homeless, power's out everywhere, the fact the reporter took a fall becomes the story!:

I also loved this clip. No weather experts in the studio here. If you're worth you salt you're out at the scene:

It goes on and on. At one point, a reporter was on the scene describing how he was surrounded by all sorts of debris - boats on road, contents of houses in the rivers and so on. The woman back in the studio: "Is it possible to pan the camera round. I hope to god it's not on tripod." Yes, that's right. We've got cars hanging out of trees and the anchor in the studio is worried about what the camera is attached to.

And then there's the language. It's supposed to be English but when did you last here Huw Edwards announce "There's a whole heap of stuff going on down in Texas."

Finally, even in a storm, Fox doesn't get irony, and one reporter, also in Texas, said: "Some people in Texas stayed the storm out. I think that says more about Texans than it does about Ike." He probably didn't mean it confirmed that George W Bush, Texas's best-known native, wasn't an exception to the rule when it came to braincells, but there you go.

God Bless Fox News.