Are lower thirds on Chavez fair and balanced?

By Steve Safran 

The Daily Show calls them “Cavutos”: lower-thirds on news that end in a question mark, usually indicating a strong hint of the channel’s belief. (Cory Bergman: Defiant Despot?) TVNewser rounds up a very funny list of the lower-thirds from Fox News’s coverage of Hugo Chavez’s visit to the U.N. Thursday. Here’s some of Brian Stelter’s timeline: 7:16pm: “Pres Chavez: Narcissistic personality disorder?”; 10:54am: “How dare Hugo Chavez blast the United States?”; 11:02am: “Should we stop buying Chavez’s gas from Citgo stations?”; 11:59am: “Chavez insults U.S.: Where is the outrage?”; 12:29pm: “Should U.S. continue to fund U.N. after applause for Chavez? All those question marks before 12:30? Won’t that spoil your lunch? Question mark journalism: this is news?

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