I am a creativity and innovation expert.  Mostly I advise people on innovation process and facilitate new product development, that’s my work.  I write this blog to provide my insight on my area of expertise, innovation.  I’m not a political pundit.  So, you might ask, why am I starting a boycott of Fox News?  

It’s a good question.

I’m kicking off the boycott because there is a time to talk about creativity and a time to take creative action. My passion for creative action has been aroused by what I see as a giant con game being played on the American people, the citizens of the USA.  I firmly believe that Fox News is not news because it has such a clear conservative agenda and bias. The “fair and unbalanced” tag line is a flat out lie. Nearly all of Fox is conservative/right commentary.  I hesitate to use the word conservative, because frankly, the many conservatives I respect now, and have respected over the years, don’t deserve the guilt-by-association with Fox. 

Look, there is nothing wrong with taking a side and arguing for what you believe. That’s the American way. What is un-American, un-patriotic, and hypocritical is having a side and pretending you don’t!  Fox deserves to be boycotted because of: the non-stop hype around the Obama-Bill Ayers connection, the sullying of the good name of a decent organization, ACORN, the lack of scrutiny of Sarah Palin, and the subtle racism that is creeping into the campaign.  This selection of news stories has the smell of a desperate attempt to swing the election back in favor of John McCain.  McCain is complicit in all this because until just recently he failed to condemn the most vicious and unfair attacks, perhaps in American history.  He’s turned his pit-bull-with-lipstick loose and he is responsible for the vile words she is spouting. Linking Obama to Osama is being done directly now by McCain surrogates and he’s not condemning it.  This is wrong, it is un-American, and it should be stopped.

Some Americans simply don’t know that Fox doesn’t report stories, it creates stories.  Instead of focusing on the issues of the campaign, it is taking non-stories like the Ayers connection, and making it a story by stretching the truth all around the edges.  They then take these pseudo-stories and repeat them in a continuous loop until what at first sounds like b.s. takes on a ring of truth.  It’s brainwashing, not educating and informing. It’s not reporting, it’s propaganda.  It doesn’t react to events, it sets the agenda by framing “what is news.”  Because of their ratings superiority they effectively set the terms for the national debate, and I think that is way too much influence for one media outlet to have.  A boycott is necessary because until their ratings are impacted, their revenues, they won’t come clean and begin to truly be “fair and balanced.”

Let me put my cards on the table.  I am a liberal and I am proud of it. Don’t call me a socialist — I believe in capitalism. And, like old fashioned conservatives, I believe in a balanced budget.  And don’t call me unpatriotic because I opposed the Iraq war.  I will concede that some media personalities are liberal, a few, like Keith Olbermann for example.  But Keith’s is a voice in the left wilderness compared to Fox.  The so called liberal media bias may have been a reality at one time, but it is a time long past. Just take a drive across the midwest and tune in to virtually any AM radio station and then tell me there is a liberal bias. It no longer exists. Between Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, and others, a fair and balanced view of the news is no longer being presented to the American public.  They are being systematically brainwashed.

To be fair, I’d ask all TV news channels to be more clear with viewers as to what is news and what is opinion.  Let’s call them out on the difference.  If you are a conservative reading this my appeal to you is that this door swings both ways.  Lies hurt everyone, lies hurt all candidates, lies pull apart the American people.  Nobody wins in the long run with this situation.  

I don’t know how to do a Boycott of a news channel, I’ve never done one before.  Let’s just start by telling everyone we know about the Boycott.  Let’s just ask everyone to turn to some other news channel. I’ll look into how we might make it clear to Fox we are steering viewers to other news outlets.  Send your comments and creative ideas to this blog, let’s get this Boycott off the ground.  Let’s reinvent the news media.  

Spread the word via Twitter, Facebook, e-mail, and over coffee.  The Fox News Boycott has begun.