1. It's a foreign affairs story, not a domestic politics one.

Admit it, you can count on one hand the number of countries the Fox newsroom cares about and is willing to cover in any detail. And Egypt is not among them. (I'd suggest America, Israel, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Great Britain make the cut.) The channel devotes a comically small portion of its time and resources to covering the world, which means it's instantly at a disadvantage when news breaks six time zones away. Add in the fact that Fox News usually doesn't care when news breaks six time zones away and you have a recipe for today's somnambulant coverage from Egypt. After all, it took them at least a week to get a correspondent over there to cover the situation on the ground.

2. Obama can't be blamed. Well, not in any kind of coherent way.

Sure, Megyn Kelly wrung her hands about how Obama could "go down in history as the president who lost Egypt." But wait, lost? As in Obama was president when potentially historic, pro-democratic reforms were finally implemented in Egypt? You mean that kind of "lost"? Doesn't hold up very well, does it? Fact is, whenever a big news story is missing a get-Obama angle, Fox News appears adrift and unsure. That's been especially true with its Egypt coverage.

3. It's not a hate-based story that divides Americans.

So far, the uplifting tale about how the Egyptian people are altering the course of their history doesn't really have a villain who Fox News can demonize state-side. Sure, President Hosni Mubarak is starring as the out-of-touch autocratic leader who is being forced from office. But Fox News really prefers stories that pit entire segments of the U.S. population against each other and where paranoia, as well as resentment, are allowed to fester and then be amplified. (Think: Terri Schiavo.)

4. It took Fox News a long time to find a boogeyman.

The Muslim Brotherhood now fits the bill, and the Fox team relentlessly fear mongers about the group and warns how Egypt will turn into a cauldron of Islamic extremism if the group rises to power. But that fear angle has only really emerged to the forefront in the last couple days. For more than a week Fox News had to cover the story without its prescribed level of mistrust and alarm.

5. There are no bombs going off in the street of Cairo.

When Fox News does cover that part of the world it's usually because there are dead bodies and because Arabs or Muslims are responsible for the dead bodies. And if Fox News is going to cover a news story that far away, it damn sure wants to be able to portray the locals as active, they're-setting-off-bombs-in-the-streets type of terrorists. But Egypt today? Not so much.

6. Egypt today can't be explained by retired generals or terrorism experts.

Since 2001, Fox News' foreign coverage has most often consisted of a revolving cast of retired military men as well as terrorism experts who are ushered on and off the air to talk about invasions and troop levels and extradition and WMD's. (Don't forget the WMD's!) But Egypt doesn't fit into the framework and Fox News doesn't seem to have a plan B in terms of dealing with that fact, other than straining to find ways to turn the crisis into an excuse to fearmonger about Muslims.

7. It exposes Glenn Beck as being even more insane than people already thought he was.

Beck's been doing his best crazy-uncle-in-the-attic routine, trying to connect dots between Egypt's grassroots democratic revolution to communists, Marxists and, of course, ACORN. But c'mon, I don't even think anyone inside the cable channel buys Beck's hard-to-follow nonsense. Instead, my guess is his loony tunes performance in recent days is prompting even more head-shaking in the hallways than usual.

8. Fox News producers don't know any prominent Arabs or Muslims.

Well, that's an exaggeration, but you get the point. (The channel does, however, enjoy access to lots of discredited guests.) Fox just doesn't know what to do with stories that are told exclusively through the perspective of Arabs or Muslims. Fox is extremely comfortable trafficking in Islamophobia. But Arabs or Muslims peacefully protesting for change and demanding Egypt practice a more open form of democracy? The folks at Fox News just don't know what to do with that kind of script.


9. The GOP doesn't seem to have a clearly defined position on the Egyptian revolution, nor is it passionate about the turmoil.

If the Republican National Committee doesn't have an angle on the story, then neither, apparently, does Fox News. It's a symbiotic relationship. If for some reason the Republican Party felt passionately about the Egypt story and if the script were different and Republicans aggressively opposed the uprising, you can bet Fox News would condemning it on the hour, every hour.

10. It's an actual news story.

Like, with breaking events, shifting storylines and one that requires journalism to bring the sprawling story into focus. By contrast, Fox News is essentially a talk channel (it's AM radio with pictures). And it's a talk channel about partisan American politics, which is why breaking news from Egypt is of no interest to Rupert Murdoch's team.

Let's face it, the sooner this Egypt story recedes into the background the happier everyone at Fox will be. And the sooner they'll be able to get back to doing what they do best: Practicing non-news.



http://www.opednews.com/articles/2/Ten-Reasons-Fox-News-Doesn-by-Eric-Boehlert-110203-750.html

Hmmm and when I google fox news and Egypt many articles come up.. interesting....

Oh come on it was worth the read just for this... I howled.... from above

7. It exposes Glenn Beck as being even more insane than people already thought he was.

Beck's been doing his best crazy-uncle-in-the-attic routine, trying to connect dots between Egypt's grassroots democratic revolution to communists, Marxists and, of course, ACORN. But c'mon, I don't even think anyone inside the cable channel buys Beck's hard-to-follow nonsense. Instead, my guess is his loony tunes performance in recent days is prompting even more head-shaking in the hallways than usual.

There is also no T&A so Fox ignores it.

The point is its utter nonsense.

Anyone could make a random list and say what they want.

3 Reasons best in show doesnt care about egypt.

3. Its not a US conspiracy theory.

2. It doesn't attack Bush or Palin

1. It doesn't slander the GOP

Maybe you should start a thread? It of course would not be near as funny as this one.

I dont see any humor in it and I find it irrelevant to this section of the forums. If you are trying to make jokes please post them in teh jokes forum.

Pretty pointless and childish!

when the story started I picked it up on the internet... I then went to all the news services...

Three news services were reporting on it.

BBC, Al Jeezera, and FOX...

It was some time before the rest of the American mainstream news picked it up...

Reckon this story posted as OP is a bit of pretty propaganda.

Out of the american Mainstream media only Fox news had it.