TV veteran Norman Horowitz--his bio says that he started in the TV business in 1956, when he was 24, and rose to head up Polygram Television and MGM/UA Telecommunications, among other big gigs--writes a guest post for TV Week entitled, "A Raging Liberal Defends Fox News."
In his essay, Horowitz attacks David Brock's Media Matters for its relentless and systematic attempts at the "suppression of free speech." Horowitz makes clear that he doesn't agree with everything Fox does, but, in the spirt of Voltaire, he will do defend Fox's right to say it.
Here's the whole text:
Many take the position that if you do not approve of what someone’s press is publishing that it is acceptable to somehow destroy the offending press.
In the “pretend spirit” of free speech Media Matters for America (MMFA) wants to stifle the free press rights of Fox News. MMFA is not at all pleased with Fox News and has chosen to find a way to stop Fox News from publishing.
It is both sad and objectionable that MMFA objects to press freedom.
Media Matters has said:
...Don't think for a minute, however, that [Glenn] Beck's departure means Fox News has suddenly embraced accountability and restored credibility. A responsible journalistic organization wouldn't have needed two years, a million lost viewers, and hundreds of lost advertisers to show Beck the door -- but Fox News isn't a responsible journalistic organization. The network still specializes in misinformation and falsehoods, including their famous tagline: "fair and balanced."
Fox News can't keep the lies going alone. The network relies on the support of a wide range of advertisers who, through their financial support, help Fox News maintain a full-time operation promoting deception, provoking anger, and serving as the Republican Party's mouthpiece all under the guise of news.
Because this has gone far enough, we've launched a new campaign to show advertisers just what they're sponsoring when they partner with Fox News and to inform the public about which companies are supporting Fox's dishonest and divisive agenda.
Join us today at Drop Fox.
It's time for advertisers to decide. Will they continue to put their brand on the line by spending money to associate their products with bigotry, political attacks, and deliberate misinformation? Will they risk their reputation by helping to perpetuate Fox's toxic effect on civil discourse? Or will they act responsibly and pull their ads from the so-called news network?
The hundreds of advertisers who refused to support Beck's nightly hour of hate and paranoia put much-needed pressure on Fox News to get him off the air. As the rise and fall of Glenn Beck shows, Fox News and its parent company News Corp. will only respond when their bottom line is threatened. Together, we can change the incentives for News Corp. and end the destructive effect Fox News has on our national conversation.
Get involved in this important effort!
Join us today at Drop Fox.
Matt Butler
CEO and President
Media Matters for America (MMFA)
Matt Butler
CEO and President
Media Matters for America (MMFA)
Media Matters of course can take issue with what Fox News promulgates and can publish opposing opinions of its own.
As many know, my politics pertaining to the media is that just about “anything goes.”
If you don’t approve of it don’t watch it, read it, or listen to it. Suggest that your friends and family might choose to do the same and that is fine.
If you don’t approve of it don’t watch it, read it, or listen to it. Suggest that your friends and family might choose to do the same and that is fine.
But MMFA has crossed a line by trying to stifle a voice of which they don’t approve. They suggest, in a manner of speaking, that the public destroy the Fox presses by removing the financial support of Fox News that comes from Madison Avenue.
What a horrid position it is for MMFA to take.
We all need to support the right to publish commentators such as Glenn Beck and many others at Fox News. I personally find what they are spewing noxious. But that’s the point. As distasteful as it might be, we all need to defend speech we don’t agree with as long as it's not inciting people to riot and things of that nature.
A famous example, of course, is one cannot yell “Fire!” in a crowded theater when there is no fire.
If MMFA doesn’t like much of what is said on Fox News, they can say so, and they can say it quite LOUDLY.
If MMFA doesn’t like much of what is said on Fox News, they can say so, and they can say it quite LOUDLY.
But their shouting emits a foul odor when they are advocating the suppression of views expressed on Fox News along with the suppression of Fox News itself.#
