The Hindu : International : CNN founder attacks Fox News

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jan 28, 2005

International

International

CNN founder attacks Fox News

New York: The CNN founder, Ted Turner, never shy about speaking his mind, has compared the ascent of Rupert Murdoch's Fox News to the rise of Adolf Hitler before the Second World War. ``Adolf Hitler was more popular in Germany than the people who ran against him,'' he told a conference of programming executives in Las Vegas. ``Just because you are bigger doesn't mean to say you are right,'' he added. In a typically pugnacious speech, the 67-year-old billionaire also told the audience at the Natpe programme sales market that Fox had become a propaganda tool for the Bush administration. ``There's nothing wrong with that,'' he said. ``It's certainly legal. But it does pose problems for our democracy. Particularly when the news is dumbed down, leaving voters without critical information on politics and world events and overloaded with fluff. We need to know what's going on in the world. A little less Hollywood and a little more hard news would probably be good for our society.'' Fox hit back in equally confrontational style. ``Ted is understandably bitter having lost his ratings, his network, and now his mind,'' a Fox News spokesman said. Fox News, which began in 1996, has become the most watched cable news channel in America by appealing to the conservative right. The channel features aggressively right-wing chat show hosts, including the scourge of the left, Bill O'Reilly, and appears to encourage anchors to editorialise.

— © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004

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