Sadly all the major media news networks are nothing more than entertainment television today. FOX is better at it than the others. All are simply packed with 24/7 of biased editorials, soft-stories, commentators, paid-spots-disguised-as-stories, and blow-hard talk shows -- there is no real news on any of these networks.
That depends on how you define news, gwb. News is someone telling you something you didn't already know. Whether you believe the why or the how has to do with your own mental independence. But if I see a Fox show and someone tells me there was a shooting in a mall (as an example), and I wasn't aware of it, that's news to me. When the broadcaster then goes on to tell me why this might be, or who might be responsible and why they did it, or how it could happen, etc, this is all speculation. I may accept some of it or I may not. That has to do with me, not the channel. Half the time when I get home from work, I turn on O'Reilly (for example), he tells me stuff that has happened in Washington or around the world I may not have been aware of. That's all news.
O'Reilly spends at least as much time on spin as he does on facts. Sometimes, he leaves the facts spinning. Or how about when he has guests on, not so much that he wants to know what they have to say, but so that he could give them a good talking to?
All of the news networks (CNN, MSNBC, FOX, etc.) take a mere 45 seconds to deliver the news (that you may not have heard yet), and then take another 10 to 50 minutes telling you what you should think of this news. All of it driven by the bias of the network. Even the selection of which stories to air are driven by the bias of the network. News (no matter how important) that does not suit their bias is not aired. How many times has there been a news story that should be significant news and you wonder why one or more networks does not even mention it. Of course, they do two days later if a story completely blows up on social media and they can no longer avoid it. There are no longer news networks in North America that just deliver the straight news in context in an even-handed manner providing the facts. Those days are long gone. It has reached the point where the network news is little different than the "news" shows on the Comedy Channel and many people simply get their "news" (complete with 45 second highlights) from the Daily Show and others.
No. With Fox you get some news and lots of smug bias. With CNN, you get mostly news and insight - background from both sides. Opposing views are treated with far more respect and better balance, rather than playing favorites outright. But when any side presents a view with holes in it, those holes get spotlighted. Sure, there is some bias, but much less than what you find at Fox. As cable news goes, if you want far Right, go to Fox. Far left? MSNBC, from what I hear, although I don't watch it. Some semblance of balance? CNN.
I disagree with you regarding this. While I find some CNN in-depth specials (mainly focused internationally) provide insightful, balanced commentary -- most of CNN's domestic news is just the same as those on FOX. Talking head commentators, lots of bias, very little respect for opposing views, invitations only to "tame" commentators to represent opposing views with very little balance or respect. MSNBC is far worse than CNN and FOX in its absurdity and bias. I don't even see how MSNBC can even be considered a news network any longer. All of these networks (CNN, FOX, MSNBC, etc.) are more into biased commentary than actual news. The loser is the American population -- which is unfortunate.