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This week was a bit of a mixed bag for the journalistic ethics of Fox News.
On the upside, we confirmed that News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch is familiar with the idea of journalistic standards. On the downside, Murdoch appears to be completely unaware that his news network doesn't have any.
Responding to a question from Media Matters VP Ari Rabin-Havt about whether Murdoch thinks it is appropriate for a news organization to aggressively promote the tea party movement, Murdoch stated that Fox shouldn't be "supporting the Tea Party or any other party." Murdoch added, "I'd like to investigate what you are saying before I condemn anyone."
First, a point of agreement with Murdoch: It's certainly true that a news organization shouldn't be promoting political movements. However, a question arises as to whether Murdoch has taken the opportunity to flip to Fox News at any point over the last year. If he had, odds are good that he would have stumbled across evidence of Fox's incessant promotion of the tea party movement.
Since he is apparently too busy to keep an eye on his own news network, we offered some assistance with Murdoch's "investigation." Some lowlights:
* Fox Business anchor and "business journalist" Stuart Varney on April 13, 2009: "It's now my great duty to promote the tea parties. Here we go."
* In the 10 days leading up to the Tax Day Tea Parties last year, Fox News aired more than 100 commercials promoting the protests and Fox's coverage of them.
* Glenn Beck encouraged viewers to "please go" to "FNC Tax Day Tea Parties."
* Fox Nation hosted a "virtual tea party" that was promoted on-air by news anchor Megyn Kelly, news host Bill Hemmer, and Fox & Friends co-host Gretchen Carlson.
* On April 3, 2009, Hannity directed viewers to his website to "get all the details about our special 'Tax Day Tea Party.' " He later added, "We hope you'll join us."
* And if that isn't enough to convince Murdoch, Fox News explicitly branded the protests "FNC Tax Day Tea Parties," and ran this image on multiple shows:
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There's more, but you get the picture.
The only thing I might add to DiMiero's piece is that FNC isn't simply a mouthpiece for the Republican Party. Rather, just like Jerry Springer gets trailer park Bubbas to fight and profess their love for their (often) toothless and multi-tattooed love interests, FNC gets Republican politicians to come on air to rant and spew misinformation about a process and people they disdain and/or disrespect.
Or, as former Bush speech writer David Frum made clear, FNC is pulling the strings to such a degree that the Republican Party is pretty much working for them now, essentiall providing rotating cast members for their talking heads and the political confrontation they need to sustain the show (these comments essentially got Frum fired from his American Enterprise Institute gig).
- Mark
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