Fox News isn’t actually news. I know I’m not the first person to say this, but it is interesting to see how many people ignore just how truly incompetent this group of people are.

I do think incompetent is the best word, although another word that often jumps out at me when I watch various shows from that network is unprofessional.

Say what you like about liberal bias in the mainstream media, but at least most news networks try to keep some pretense of professionalism about them.

Fox News doesn’t even try. It is unapologetically pandering to whoever they think will listen to them.

Yet, one of the biggest problems with Fox News is that it is full of people actively lying to you for the purpose of trying to get better ratings (in the TV world ratings equal money).

Forget about the fact that earlier this year Pundifact (a fact checking site) recently discovered that Fox News only had accurate information 18% of the time.

I mean that Fox News as a whole is comprised of people that actively lie to you not just about the news, but about who they are as people.

In a recent interview on The David Pakman Show, David Silverman made comments that implied Bill O’ Reilly might not actually believe half the stuff he says, but he just says them to try to get better ratings.

A good example is how O’ Reilly is often fond of using the phrase: “Tide goes in, tide goes out, never a miscommunication, you can’t explain that” in his defense of why he believes in a god.

Yet clearly anyone with even a cursory understanding of 9th grade science can explain the tides. I think the harder thing to explain is why his show is still on the air after all the nonsense he says.

If you watch his show closely you’ll notice that O’Reilly tends to try to bait people into screaming matches by beginning a screaming match on almost every topic. He will repeat his one nonsensical line over and over again regardless of what his guest says.

His show is not a real show, but it is instead a purposeful manipulation of not just his guests, but also his viewers.

Yet his method of interviewing is a staple of Fox News. The guests are never allowed to speak, and if they are they are often forced to spend the entire interview one single nonsensical argument that is repeated ad infinitum throughout the entire interview.

Consider for example, Lauren Green’s interview with Reza Aslan, where she literally spends ten minutes asking him why he as a Muslim would write a book about Jesus. The very first thing he says when she asks him that is that he is a scholar of religions with four degrees, including one in the new testament and has been studying Christianity for over 20 years. Yet Green still spent 10 minutes asking the same question over and over, and at one point Aslan even pointed out that she had already asked that question three times.

Had Green done even the most cursory amount of research (you know, her job) she would have had all the answers to every question she asked him, and would actually be able to ask a few more legitimate questions.

There have been many reports of Fox News instructing its anchors to specifically report with a conservative bias, and, as previously mentioned, the lack of research is just embarrassing for a national news network. That type of lazy and incompetent work would not be tolerated literally anywhere else in the professional world, so why should it be acceptable for Fox News?

At the end of the day, I’m not the one who should be getting angry at Fox News though. The real people who should be upset with Fox News are the conservatives they claim to represent.

Well, technically they don’t claim to represent the Republican party, they claim to be fair and balanced, yet it is demonstrably true that it is the least fair and balanced of any single network out there.

Former Fox News Pundit Eric Burns said that Fox News may ‘occasionally’ lean right (excuse me while I go laugh uncontrollably at how much of an understatement that is) but it gives a voice to conservatives whose voices aren’t often heard.

However, for those of you conservatives out there I ask you this. Do you really think that laziness, incompetence and the consistent inability to have a rational discussion with a human is the best voice for republicans?

Mike Rauser is a staff writer for The Dakota Student. He can be reached at [email protected].