When is a news story not a credible news story? When it’s on Fox News, of course. The station, whose shoddy and biased reporting is exposed in the video Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism, has done it again. This time, the network that regularly attacks Democratic hopeful Barack Obama and his wife is kissing up to the right-wingers behind the anti-gay marriage initiative (Prop 8) that will appear on the California ballot in November.

On Friday (July 18), major mainstream news sources in the state reported that the latest poll shows Californians rejecting the homophobic ballot proposition by a slim majority. Not Fox. The station that acts as a cheerleader for the War in Iraq and other George Bush and Dick Cheney follies ran this headline: “Field Poll Understates Support for Proposition 8.”

Says the story’s lead paragraph: “A new Field Poll released today shows Proposition 8 -- the Marriage Protection ballot initiative -- is gaining among likely voters, although the survey continues to significantly understate support for the initiative, officials with the Proposition 8 campaign said today. The poll also shows that advocates of same-sex marriage are losing ground, compared to the last Field Poll released on May 28.”

The basis for the lead is that the May 28 poll showed 54% opposed to a ban on gay marriage, the latest says it’s 51%.

Compare the headlines in other papers. The Los Angeles Times: “Slim majority of California voters would uphold gay marriage.” Reuters: “California opposes move to ban gay marriage: poll.”

The San Jose Mercury News had two stories: “Poll: California voters oppose gay marriage ban” and “Prop. 8 facing a fight.”

Isn’t there any way to shame Fox into at least pretending to try and report news fairly and accurately? I don’t expect objective coverage from any media outlet. Objectivity is a lie the American media promotes to convince the world it has a monopoly on the truth.

I used to be a journalist. I was told by editors to be “objective.” I concluded after about 15 years in the business that the best one could hope for is to be fair and balanced, that is, to present both sides. Even then, I realized that there were many things I as a writer had no control of, i.e., the headline for my story, its placement in the newspaper, the photo that accompanied it, etc. All of these things can add a slant to a story.

Case in point: An editor of mine, who hated former President Ronald Reagan with a passion, chose the worst picture of the man every time I wrote a story about him. He admitted that he did it. He wanted to make Reagan look stupid or deranged.

If Fox wants to be the mouthpiece for every looney right-wing perspective in the world, that’s its business. It should advertise itself that way. “Fox: Right-wing, christian, pro-military, pro-war, pro-Republican news all the time.”

Friends don’t let friends watch Fox.

Tommi Avicolli Mecca is a radical southern Italian atheist queer with a website: www.avicollimecca.com