Flashback: Fox News Repeatedly Provided Uncritical Forum For GOP Calls For Prosecution Of NY Times
As you know, Fox News is devoting hours and hours of airtime protesting the White House’s rough treatment of the network, claiming that it’s out of bounds for the Obama administration to assert that Fox isn’t a legit news organization. Fox’s on-air personalities are suggesting that other news orgs should rise to its defense.
So maybe it’s worth recalling this: A few years ago, Fox News repeatedly provided an uncritical forum for Republican calls for criminal prosecution of a fellow news org — The New York Times — after the paper ran a story revealing details of the Bush administration’s secret program tracking the financial transactions of terrorist organizations.
In June of 2006, Congressman Pete King — who was then chairman of the Homeland Security Committee and a key national security Republican — went on Fox News and called for prosecution of the paper in an interview with Fox’s Chris Wallace:
I’m calling on the attorney general to begin a criminal investigation and prosecution of The New York Times, its reporters, the editors that worked on this, and the publisher. We’re in time of war, Chris, and what they’ve done here is absolutely disgraceful. I believe they violated the Espionage Act.
Wallace didn’t utter a peep of objection. And that’s not all. King’s call for prosecution made huge news, and he was invited back onto Fox News to discuss it again. On his show, Bill O’Reilly gave King ample time to explain why prosecution of a fellow news org was warranted, and he registered no objections, even thanking King for his “straight talk.”
Fox gave ample coverage to King’s demand for prosecution, and I can’t find any evidence that anyone on Fox ever condemned it. And the larger context is important. King’s calls for prosecution didn’t occur in isolation; they took place amid a broader assault by the Bush administration, which repeatedly accused the paper of putting America lives at risk.
Does anyone remember if the Bush administration’s assault on The Times — and King’s calls for criminal prosecution — generated anywhere near the media outrage that the Obama White House’s assault on Fox has? That’s a sincere question. Anyone remember?
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Can’t say w/o running a Nexis search, but I do recall that the administration’s criticisms of the Times blew up pretty quickly when we learned that the programs in question were nowhere near as secret as we originally had been led to believe.
No, I certainly don’t recall any outrage coming from FOX about it. I’ll happily admit to not watching FOX 24/7, so if there was anyone at the network who had objections, I must have missed it.
But really, is this any surprise? Are there actually media people in DC who are actually so stupid as to not see FOX for what it is? That’s a sincere question, as well.
Investigative journalism is already a difficult profession, because one has to take the read of the situation beyond just the facts at hand to dig deeper. That job only gets harder when you’re talking about politics, which is incredibly nuanced and complicated. So all these people, who do this job and are likely intelligent people in their own right (most of them anyways), really don’t see that FOX is nothing but the GOPs media attack dog?
It’s all IOKIYAR bullshite. And hey, it was the “holy homeland” security at stake. Whatdaya libruls know anything about patriotism ?
What’s pathetic is that the same msm types are now defending faux against the boogie man, Obama.
The Washington spin machine makes my head dizzy!!! First of all the new meme is the Obama Administration “attacks” Fox News. They haven’t ATTACKED Faux news…they simply pointed out the obvious…that Faux is GOP boy Roger Ailes propoganda wing of the Republican Party. Nobody is saying they don’t have the right to say what they wish…their Tampa affiliate actually sued for the right to lie and that right was upheld in a court of law.
Pointing out an organization uses fake photos…stages and promotes right wing protests..lies about lack of coverage of same protests and then refuses to cover an equally large protest of ****…well the list goes on and on…
And then the old “false equivalency” monster rears it’s head..Faux fans like to point out MSNBC…and yes certainly K.O. and Rachel are the left’s answer to Bill O & Hannity…but MSNBC still tries to maintain news credibility during their “news” segments…if you toss in Dobbs all three major cable “news” outlets have slanted OPINION commentators…but ONLY Faux resorts to lies and distortions in what they PRETEND are a news capsules.
Simply pointing out intentional lies and distortion is hardly “attacking”.
‘Simply pointing out intentional lies and distortion is hardly “attacking”.’
I wish that’s where the WH would take this “war”. Every time someone asks them about it, they should respond with a statement like that above.
I think there should be someone making the rounds and pointing out that the Village tendency to protect the pals in the media and the idea of “unbias” despite the acknowledged fact that writers, and outlets, cannot help but see through their individual lenses.
No, the responses haven’t been at all comparable. FOX’s take on both is predictable, of course. The more interesting questions deal with everyone else.
The first instance was a simple (in terms of narrative) complaint about a singular story which involved (according to that narrative) a matter of national security. The present instance is considerably more broad and complex in reality and in narrative.
The main US media institutions have become quite frightened of blowback and bullying on national security matters since Viet Nam. Aside from politicians on the right, the Pentagon has become very effective in promoting these sensitivities and the Bush administration, perhaps Cheney most notably, demonstrated an adept hand at this (he’s still doing it now). Recall Richard Perle attacking Hersch as a “terrorist” for the piece on Perle’s financial connections to the defence industry. All of this is a fairly easy narrative for major modern media to take up and forward with little sense of or fear of the focus shifting to them.
But now that the WH is attempting to focus attention on intrinsic and broad media failures and media manipulation, I think they are just continuing to refuse any serious reflection on what their functions/purpose is versus what it ought to be. As an example here, the near complete failure of these institutions to even mention how they facilitated the promotion of misinformation and propaganda through the Pentagon’s organization of ‘military experts’ to fill the cable shows with pro-war ideology.
It’s a tough problem for the WH and for all of us. Likely most of you saw the interview by Bill O’Reilly of Sally Quinn last week. How depressing that this individual would have become so myopic through the internalization of beltway self-protective values and perceptions.
I think it’s up to all of us outside of these institutions to do what we can to shake them up and afflict them. They have become themselves “the comfortable”.
Paul W: looking out for pals in the Town is SOP. Greg: send this to Howie Kurtz. He has some difficulty the WH parties for Republican supporting journalists, RW bloggers and Fox “Noose” types. It is so typical: Tapper gets his knickers in a twist over Fox. Will they return the favor? Doubt it.
I guess I was a bit surprised that credible(sorry, it’s the best I could think of) news organizations came to the defense of the news org that trashes all of them on a daily basis as being biased.
Do they owe Fox favors from during the Bush administration or something because of Fox providing them access that only Fox could obtain at the time? Is that why they came to Fox’s defense?
It’s bizarre considering Fox is dragging the rest of the news to the level of it’s stupid when those organizations turn around and defend Fox as if it’s nothing more than a GOP propaganda source.
There’s a pretty good video in here of Andrews and Jarrett from this weekend. Jarrett seems to be a little sensitive to the “fair and balanced” comment from Andrews.
“During a debate on police powers, insurance, and the Constitution, Andrews — who appeared with Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) — found himself talked over and unable to make his point.”
“Can we have just a minute of ‘Fair & Balanced’ here, just an an exception?” Andrews asked, as Blackburn chuckled.
Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/26/fox-news-anchor-yells-at_n_333501.html
BL: I did not see the Quinn interview. But Quinn like Broder have the view that Washington belong to them. In the Clinton years they were high and mighty. Yet any serious review of Quinn current position as one of the arbiters of what is acceptable in Washington began with an unfortunate romantic interlude that led to a divorce. Her subsequent marriage to one of Washington’s prominent editors provided the cachet. She now joins John Meacham to lecture us on morality! Sinners to well in the Village.
This is really a pathetic attempt to find equivalency, as I think even Bernie’s rather circumspect post acknowledges.
OT
Both CNN and the WSJ are reporting that Reid will present bill with Public Option Opt-out today or tomorrow. This from CNN:
“WASHINGTON (CNN) – Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is poised to proceed with plans to introduce a Senate health care bill with a public health insurance option that would allow states to opt out, a senior aide to Reid told
CNN on Sunday.”
“The aide, who did not want to be quoted by name when talking about private deliberations, said a final decision would be made Monday.”
“Reid is likely to make the move without having firm commitments of support from 60 senators, the number needed to break a filibuster, according to the aide. Describing the move as a “risky strategy,” the aide said Reid believes including the public option is the right approach, and that the senator is “cautiously optimistic he can get the votes necessary.”
And this from the WSJ:
“Details of the legislation could change, but its broad outlines are becoming clear. Employers with more than 50 workers wouldn’t be required to provide health insurance, but they would face fines of up to $750 per employee if even part of their work force received a government subsidy to buy health insurance, this person said. A bill passed by the Senate Finance Committee had a lower fine of up to $400 per employee.”
“The bill to be brought to the Senate floor would create a new public health-insurance plan, but would give states the choice of opting out of participating in it, a proposal that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada backed last week.”
It will be interesting today and tomorrow to see if the anonymous sources have it right this time.
“It will be interesting today and tomorrow to see if the anonymous sources have it right this time.”
I don’t trust any of the sources because every time you turn around, they say something else.
But the opt-out is still on the table and I don’t like it, but whatever is passed is passed.
@alan – the link is here… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpNr3ENUdzg&feature=player_embedded
You said: “But Quinn like Broder have the view that Washington belong to them.”
I think the key word in your sentence is “them”. Watching the video, would one conclude otherwise than that Quinn would be more comfortable sitting down for a meal and glass of wine with O’Reilly or Ailes rather than Grayson or Josh Marshall.
MSNBC,CNN,ABC,CBS,NBC, are far and balanced to what political party again? Oh, yes The Democrats!
“What’s pathetic is that the same msm types are now defending faux against the boogie man, Obama.”
I agree. This is tedious, really.
“MSNBC,CNN,ABC,CBS,NBC, are far and balanced to what political party again? Oh, yes The Democrats!”
I’m so sick of these childish nyah nyah nyah false equivalencies.
Grow up. The discussion isn’t about which media outlets talk about which policies -it’s about the fact that Fox personally attacks the president with lies all the time.
Tena,
We all have grown up and live in the real world. Your alternative world where you spew your lies is the biggest joke around. Your like talking to a 13 year old. You think you have all the facts, and you don’t, so you try to speak loudest. I always continue to love that when you get cornered on those pesky facts you end it by saying “I don’t care, you’ll never change my mind”…typical open minded progressive….love my point of view or else!
“I always continue to love that when you get cornered on those pesky facts you end it by saying “I don’t care, you’ll never change my mind”…typical open minded progressive….love my point of view or else!”
See what I mean? This is nothing more than
nyah nyah nyah you did it first, you do it too, you are worse than we were.
Nice job of growing up there, dude.
“it’s about the fact that Fox personally attacks the president with lies all the time.”
From a person who thinks Ubermoron, Madcow, Chris-Tingle, FathEaD, Shyster, Teabag Cooper, David Gregory, Stephie, etc., are all fair and balanced.
Confront Tena with facts..watch her roll over and say something petty.
Stop the progressives! Let’s take back our party. Let them have the green party, but get out of the party that JFK built
I agree with Bernie on this. The whole thing is so predictable.
I don’t think this little tiff with the WH will accomplish much. The real way to change Fox is for other networks to debunk their coverage. Simple tactic really.
Fvcking cowardish trolls hiding behind sockpuppets. And the best part is these stoopid wingnuts don’t even realize they’re being rickrolled by this admin. Idjits and morans.
Stupidest comment of the day, amk. Good job.
@amk and tena the terrific tart
Don’t take the bait. The insult game is a waste of time.
@Biden 2012 You said to Tena..” I always continue to love that when you get cornered on those pesky facts”
You submit an entire post totally devoid of facts simply backed up by YOUR OPINION and mix in a couple of ad hominem attacks on Tena…you guys are sooo intellectually weak…
When was the last time any MSM outlet OTHER THAN FAUX News promoted, staged and covered a political event. What do you morons not undertstand about our concession that YES K.O. &Rachel host shows with an obvious perspective…but they don’t just make stuff up like Hannity’s years old pic of a totally different rally…or Beck’s complete lie about some University(he forgets which) saying the 9/12 rally drew millions when ALL OFFICIAL ESTIMATES pegged it at less than 100,000…
Two points for you peabrains to respond…I just presented TWO examples of out and out lying…
1.) Do you nimrods understand the difference between slanting…as in any opinion show right or left choosing which facts to reports…and just plain bulllsh&t?
2.) Do you understand the difference between “commentary” or opinion shows versus “hard” news reporting?
This thread is now a hilarious exercise in collective self-parody.
Greg: “So maybe it’s worth recalling this: A few years ago, Fox News repeatedly provided an uncritical forum for Republican calls for criminal prosecution of a fellow news org — The New York Times — after the paper ran a story revealing details of the Bush administration’s secret program tracking the financial transactions of terrorist organizations.:
Tena: “I’m so sick of these childish nyah nyah nyah false equivalencies.
Grow up. The discussion isn’t about which media outlets talk about which policies -it’s about the fact that Fox personally attacks the president with lies all the time.”
amk: “Fvcking cowardish trolls hiding behind sockpuppets. And the best part is these stoopid wingnuts don’t even realize they’re being rickrolled by this admin. Idjits and morans.”
Bernie: “@amk and tena the terrific tart
Don’t take the bait. The insult game is a waste of time.”
Bernie the other day: “I’m having some trouble getting my noggin around how bag-of-hammers dumb this sentence is.”
@Chris – thanks for the link to your blog post.
But I think that the administration MUST continue to describe FOX and talk radio as extremist, as commonly fact-free and as a propaganda arm of the modern RNC. Because that describes real states of affairs.
As we talked about earlier, and as Greg details up top, this isn’t easy for a number of reasons. But unless they do so, the mechanisms and institutions propagandizing and spreading falsehoods will remain out of the spotlight and will remain relatively effective.
Greg:
Does anyone remember if the Bush administration’s assault on The Times…
How exactly did this “assault” manifest itself? Did the Bush admin refuse access to NYT reporters? Did the Bush admin isolate the NYT and treat it as a non-news organization? Did the Bush admin actually prosecute the Times, or even institute an investigation into whether its actions were prosecutable?
Again, how exactly was this “assault” manifested?
Bernie:
(to amk)
Don’t take the bait.
Right. As if it is someone else, and not amk, doing the baiting. Your ideology blinds you to so much, Bernie.
What does it tell you about this movement and party when Newt looks like a sane and prudent moderate…
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/10/26/gingrich-beck-limbaugh/
What does it tell us about the liberal movement that they elect the most radically left President in history yet within months are attacking him for insufficient radicalism?
What does it tell us that liberals are threatening primaries against insufficiently liberal incumbent Democrats?
Pete King and the rest of the right were crazy to call for an espionage prosecution of The NY Times.
But what has that got to do with the current admin asserting that Fox isn’t a legit news organization and asking other news organizations to not lend any credence to their reporting? These are two entirely different things. I don’t understand the comparison.
qb:
This thread is now a hilarious exercise in collective self-parody.
It’s not just this thread. It’s all the time. I remember weeks ago when Bernie chastised me for the lack of thought in referring to Obama as “The One”, and then almost immediately thereafter referred to Palin as the Bride of Frankenstein.
Yesterday lmsinca accused you and I of wanting to make things personal. This was several days after declaring to the board her personal hatred of me.
The cognitive dissonance of these progressives is remarkable at times.
Scott,
Perhaps I can help you out since Bernie is probably in his high-horse/ignore mode.
The good folks here claim that Bush assaulted the NYT by (1) the private “a**hole” comment about a reporter that was overheard during his campaign, and (2) supposedly never granting it an interview, which turns out to be untrue anyway. This, we are to believe, is that same as a President presuming to declare a major news network illegitimate and persona non grata, and warning other media to ignore it. All while his minions are out trying to boycott and blacklist advertisers, who also generally happen to be under assault from Obama. It’s a nasty bit of Chicaga mob politics.
http://www.thedemocraticstrategist.org/
“The issue is whether a TV network that organizes street demonstrations against a President deserves to be viewed with the same respect and treated in exactly the same way as TV networks that uphold traditional standards of journalism.”
I’m confused. Where are these other networks “that uphold traditional standards of journalism?”
Just because other networks aren’t willing to partake in Fox’s GOP propaganda doesn’t mean they are in the tank of the administration.
sockpuppets in mutual jerking. hilarious.
Other networks are in the tank because they are in the tank.
A decent college writing instructor would fail the authors of that demstrategist/mediamatters link from Bernie. It’s nothing but a rhetorical hit piece brimming with non sequiturs and unsupported assertions. But I applaud the continued plunge into hyperpartisan delusion. I can’t see the Chicago mob approach to the media not continuing to backfire.
“It’s unclear whether the tactic will be effective. Bill Keller, executive editor of the New York Times, said that “if someone else breaks a good story, and if — important if — our own reporting backs it up, we’ll run it. Even if it’s Fox.”
“Los Angeles Times Editor Russ Stanton took a similar stance, saying, “We would follow any news story — after confirming the facts and figuring out a way to advance it — if we believed it was important to the readers of the Los Angeles Times, regardless of the organization or individual that broke it.”
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-fox-news26-2009oct26,0,3686223.story
via hotair
You’re comparing apples and oranges when you try to claim that Fox News gave a forum for the GOP to prosecute the NYT to counter the Democratic Socialist Party–controlled MSM’s media bias against the non-in-the-tank-for-Obama news services now going on. What the NYT did was treason, and the ONLY reason they did it was to slime Bush and the GOP. They published not only our NSA’s Top Secret Rendition Program (which by the way was started by Bill Clinton and used thruout his years in office–no one made a preep about it for 8 years then), they also published our NSA’s Top Secret Terrorist Money–laundering thru International Banking Channels Program, that was used by our NSA to track illegal fundraising so bin Laden and the Al Qaeda terrorists could kill Americans. When the NYT exposed and published these NSA top secret programs, not only did the American public learn of it, but also the terrorists, who just changed their methods to other means. It also resulted in a lot of our agents and friendly informants getting killed by being exposed. The New York Times SHOULD HAVE BEEN CHARGED WITH TREASON, and only the fact that they were working for the Democratic Party to help them take down Bush and the GOP in the next election comming up, did they get away with it.
What does it say about a right wing movement that attacks a conservative centrist like Obama?
It says that the right wing movement has become so extreme and radical that it would annoint a militant demagogue like Glenn Beck and the other corporatist extremists on Fox are their new leaders.
The right wingers above are defending the illegal spying of Americans.
And instead of defending the journalists that outed the Republican’s illegal spying on American citizens, the right wingers are saying that those journalists should be tried for treason.
But god forbid you call out right wing propagandists at Fox, in the right wing Orwellian imagination, that is an assault on the press.
The right wing’s extremists are growing more radical and disconnected from reality every day.
re. Comment by 08:27 PM “…centrist like Obama”????
CENTRIST MY A**!!!
Obama is a Communist and he’s been a Communist for all of his adult life.
In college he was a member of the Communist white and America–hating cult, led by James Combs, The Black Liberation Front, that was teaching and promoting the Malcolm X philosophy. During the years 1971 to 1979 his mentors where Communists Frank Marshall Davis and Paul Robesen, both members of CPUSA (Communist Party USA). His friends, neighbors and political and business assocciates were American terrorists Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dorhn, members of the terrorist group “Weather Undergroundand” and the SDS (Students for a Democratic Society), a Communist group who later formed the “Progressives for Obama” group, whose leader included Tom Hayden and Jane Fonda. Out of college and in Chicago he joins and supports a racist white and America hating cult, laughably called ‘church’, Trinity UFC Church, and stays and supports this “church” for over 20 years. This so-called ‘church’ had close ties to the white and America–hating religion The Nation of Islam, led by Louis Farrakhan.
Obama in his short time in office has nationalized many of Americas banks and mortgage companies, insurance companies, and private companies like GM and Chrysler. He fired GM’s head honcho Wagoner, and replaced him with one of his croonies who admittedly knows nothing about cars, forced stock holders to take pennies for dollars for their stock, gave the unions 17% of the company stock as payoff for supporting him for election, forced the American taxpayers to take the hits for any future losses, forced the GM Board of Directors to seat two union reps on the board with full voting rights to any decisions made, forced Chrysler to accept a buyout from a foreign company, and now he’s trying to take over the drug and health care companies. Hugo Chavez is doing something similar in Venezuela. Obama is a Communist and not a ‘centrist’, exept he doesn’t call himself one.
An antidepressant is a medication used primarily in the treatment of depression.
Depression can occur if some of the chemicals called neurotransmitters in the brain are not functioning effectively.
There are three specific chemicals that can affect a person’s mood
Antidepressants affect one or more of these chemicals in different ways to help stabilize the chemical imbalance often seen in depression.
yes, I also believe y’all should increase your medication; suggest Ritalin perhaps to your M. D. BTW, I think Fox should have their balls cut off.
http://cheezburger.com/View.aspx?aid=2367913216
In my opinion you are mistaken. Let’s discuss it.
Dougles
I confirm. So happens.
Worker