Chris Wallace backpedals on Fox News criticism
By Steve Benen Tuesday Mar 25, 2008 4:55pm
It was probably the most-watched segment Fox News has aired in months. Last Friday, “Fox and Friends” host Steve Doocy, Brian Kilmeade, and Gretchen Carlson spent the better part of the morning demonizing Barack Obama over the “typical white person” flap, mainly by removing the quote from context.
Download | play 
Download | play
Enter “Fox News Sunday” host Chris Wallace. “Hey, listen, I love you guys but I want to take you to task, if I may, respectfully, for a moment,” Wallace said on the air. “I have been watching the show since six o’clock this morning when I got up, and it seems to me that two hours of Obama bashing on this ‘typical white person’ remark is somewhat excessive, and frankly, I think you’re somewhat distorting what Obama had to say.”
It was only a matter of time before Wallace started backpedaling.
On Monday afternoon — with clips of the confrontation having seemingly ricocheted to every far-flung corner of the Web and with everyone from official Obama bloggers to MSNBC’s Chris Matthews rushing to pat Mr. Wallace on the back — [The Observer] caught up with Mr. Wallace via phone. The longtime newsman said that in retrospect he had mixed feelings about making the remarks.
“I didn’t have any second thoughts about the substance because I still believe what I said was right,” said Mr. Wallace. “But after the fact, you do think to yourself — on a professional level with colleagues I very much like and respect — should I have done that off camera?”
“It’s a close call,” said Mr. Wallace. “I’m not sure I’d do it again.”
Oh, Chris. You’d come so far in the minds of so many.
Login or Register to post comments.
He only regrets the attention his comments brought to his asinine "colleagues".
I am NOT a typical white person. I don't think....
Hmmmm.
It is also telling that a Fox News executive admonished Wallace for making the remarks on camera. The brass came down on him because he went off the reservation. That's the kind of lock-step philosophy employed at Fox.
News Corpse, The Internet's Chronicle Of Media Decay.
Yyyeeeah, Chris; it's not about saying what's right, it's about sticking by your crazed colleagues and standing behind bad behavior. Glad to see you've returned to form. Not that I was quick to praise you anyway; I figgered it to be like a mini-stroke or a case of temporary truth-tourette's that made you say such things.
Yes, bet Rupert had a little talk with Chrissy.
Why are those lovely girls in the ad above oogling my penis?
Far be it from me to defend anything even remotely connected with fox news, but giving those three air heads a dressing down live on camera did seem like a somewhat unprofessional thing to do.
It sure did make them look foolish, even though in my opinion they always look foolish. I guess I can see where Wallace is coming from now. The better thing he could have done was let them keep going and figure out a way to get them all fired. If they are so ridiculous that he had to step in like he did, they shouldn't be working there.
“But after the fact, you do think to yourself — on a professional level with colleagues I very much like and respect — should I have done that off camera?”
Oh absolutely Chris because the main thing is that Fox's adherence to high journalistic standards and it's unblemished record of keeping things on a "professional level" be,at all costs, maintained.....*sigh*
This sycophantic boot-licker is among the worst (best?) the reich-wing propaganda machine has to offer. He's sitting right near the top of their garbage heap.
Of course he's ashamed. He temporarily got off the bus - and that was the surprise - not that he would quickly "assume the position" again for the powers-that-be.
*
Yuppers, called this one. It's cold out there, isn't it Chris? Lean over, pucker up, and get fucking used to it.
And try not to think about the logic of it all when the tide changes...when the marketeers realize that the money pendulum has swung towards "responsible government" and "fixing America first" or whatever progressive slogan will eventually unseat the bullies you've pandered to all this time.
Try not to think about the logic of it when you're suddenly calling conservatives "out of touch" and "accidentally" labeling miscreant Democrats as Republicans.
Because when your integrity is gone, what do you have left but your labilily?
So put on your white suit, your tap shoes and tails
Let's go backwards when forwards fails
No need to remember when
Because everything old...is NEWS again!
Of course he'd back away from his comments. Chrissy doesn't have the balls to contradict his colleagues, and his whole little on air t-bagging seems more like a setup than any sort of real admonishment.
Don't stray off MESSAGE YOU IMBECILE!!!! Shee MEssage ish zee most important thing!!! Why do you think we hired you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Not to insert your own opinion MORON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! REPEAT OVER AND OVER AND OVER. . . I vill not stray off message EVER EVER EVER !!! HEIL MURDOCH!
Oh please, like anyone expected him to turn over a new leaf. His smirking face creeps me out. How did it get that way. Accident? Held that expression too long.
This is nothing but an attempt tp make FOX look fair and balanced. Wallace would NEVER take it on his own to make the degrading comments to his wingnut colleagues. This came from the top. Let's not forget it was Chris Wallace who announced the "Obama Watch" the Sunday prior. Here is a good video to put FOX and the Obama smear all into perspective:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLJ3WVKD3XU NEVER and I mean NEVER trust FOX News especially when they look as though they are pandering to a liberal candidate. FOX has had viewers threaten to boycott since this baseless smear job on Obama. For FOX and Murdoch, it's all about ratings and believable rightwing propaganda.
He got his butt chewed, so now he's being the lap dog that Faux News requires all their mercenary political propagandists to be. He said what was honestly on his mind. Now he's backtracking for forgetting that's not what he's getting paid to do! They pay him to spread corporatism and support the policies of Republicans who prey on and exploit the 98% of Americans who make much less than $200,000.00 a year.
nope i didn't think he had balls.
it was just a fluke.
Ah, it must be tough being a media whore.
What a prick. His father must be disappointed.
I SORTA get what Wallace is saying, but still, it was a brief moment of honesty that is TV gold.
something tells me he found a horsehead in his bed that night.
E_I @ 13:
Kristol, Novak . . what is with their faces? Must be chickenhawk mutation.
Well, yeah on a professional level he might regret it - people won't want to hire a guy who criticizes his coworkers or network (however justifiably) in public on their own channel.
Chris from Maine @ 19:
Better a horse head than a horse c**k!
Would someone kindly explain to me what "a typical white person" is?
Thanks.
Wallace's F&F faux tirade didn't elicit for Fixed News a call from the Obama camp that, oh heavens yes, Barak finally consents to appear on their "news" network for an interview w/the sympathetic Mr. Wallace.
For the hoped-for hatchet job.
Hence the retraction from Chrissy. He does as he's told to, make no mistake.
OT, but if the Clinton supporters swing over to McCain in November (if Obama is the Dem nominee), does that mean they're suddenly willing to let Roe v. Wade be overturned? Seems likely that would happen with another one or two GOP-appointed justices. Just wondering ...
Abbybwood @ 23:
Some one like you?
Is this really a shocking statement from him? He revealed what idiots these people are very publicly and it got a lot of coverage. But, he didn't back off the statement. Yep, company man to a very disgusting company but...I know lots of company people who wouldn't come right in the open with a righteous statement to protect their jobs......BTW - I can't stand him, I can't believe he's Mike Wallace's son and he obviously sold his soul a long time ago.
I guess it is hard maintaining those three lonely little cells of Integrity...and must have felt so unfamiliar and strange......and sad...because it was a seismic moment...too bad he could not feel that he did something "good" as a journalist.
[Deleted. Off Topic. Site Monitor]
Campaign Worker @ 25:
This Clinton primary voter will vote in a heartbeat for Obama or whichever Dem nominee.
St. John McBush- just listen to him, look @ him. It's Bush redux. He's the antithesis of what this Dem wants.
Campaign Worker @ 25:
Clinton supporters vote for McCain oh come on now they aren't THAT STUPID.
I can only imagine what the hate filled right wing Fox News executives are saying to Chris. Chris admitted Fox News is known for pushing it's far right wing talking points. One day he decided to stand up against the talking points trashing Obama because he is a Democrat. Then the very next day, he takes it back. Now he's apoligizing for not joining in the mob lynching for one day. I would have respected him it he hadn't taken it back. Chris has proven what a joke he is. He is not Mike Wallace.
The little twirp probably got a phone call from "the jefe". Be careful chris....you saw what they did to that hollow suit of a poor excuse of a human, gibson? You could be next. Keep playing that repug anthem, or you'll be history on the Pravda networks.
Lev @ 6:
Because it's located atop your shoulders..........
All propaganda has to be popular and has to accommodate itself to the comprehension of the least intelligent of the audience whom it seeks to reach Chris.
casper46 @ 26:
Ha, ha...
But seriously.
How could there possibly be a "typical white person"? One could hardly compare some good ol' boy in Alabama who is Caucasian to a Caucasian guy who is a raging intellectual in Manhattan.
I am serious. I wonder what Obama meant when he said that? And I really wonder what those on this thread think he meant?
I would really like to hear Obama try to explain what he thinks "a typical white person" IS. I think it would end up being one of those situations where the more he tried to explain it, the deeper the hole would become that he'd be digging for himself.
Comments?
Oh, Chris. You’d come so far in the minds of so many.
He had? Really?
Chris from Maine @ 19:
Hee hee. Or a donkey head?
And how exactly is that backpedling?
Oh Really? Naivete rules!
Two words to describe Wallace (Chicken Shit).
No Guts, No Glory, Chris. Maybe you could have gotten a job on a REAL news network if you'd stuck to your guns.
Chris Wallace has been trying to get Barack Obama on his show for literally years. Each time a Fox nutjob goes off on Obama is one more reason for Obama to avoid going into the snake pit --- and Wallace knows this. He wants to Get Obama on Fox News Sunday in the worst way ... and knows his "colleagues" are not helping.
pissed off patricia @ 7:
SIGH
Ok, that would have been the more professional thing to do and better in the long run.
;)
Campaign Worker @ 25:
Good Point........ Thats why I hate all this infighting between the Democratic/Progressive supporters.
I blame Al Gore for not running. snrk!
From the man himself.....
Site Monitor is a LIAR @ 29:
internet 1
you 0
Don't worry, Al Gore will fix everything (and I blame Edwards for dropping out to early).
Abbybwood @ 36:
My first thought was that if you saw his grammy (his grammy, right? Not his mom? I can't keep this stuff straight anymore) on the street (and if you took the time to even think this next bit), you'd think, "Look. A white lady. That noted, I am now moving on with my day." Simply that and nothing more. My accompanying thought was that "typical" can be a poor choice of words since these days, "typical" tends to pigeonhole, unfairly group people together, etc. A better word would have been "average white person" or maybe "othewise unremarkable". I dunno....but I never thought he was going with "she's Whitey".
But no doubt, if he were to revisit this, even with the best intentions he would, as you say, just dig the hole deeper. We are, as a group, pretty race sensitive I think.
Abbybwood @ 36:
I suspect that it is very similar to what many white people consider a "typical black person." Honestly, there are enough racial stereotypes to go around. As for Obama further explaining his comments, I give him credit for when he has dug himself a hole (or quite simply misspoke) that he has quit digging -- unlike GW Bush who just keeps digging us into a bigger and bigger hole in Iraq and the Middle East, with the economy, and with every other decent thing that America stands for ( like not torturing prisoners) --- why, Bush may dig us all the way to China at the rate he is going -- oh wait a minute, he's already done that ---China is already here. They hold the paper on our debt.
Abbybwood @ 23:
Someone whose skin tone is towards the lighter end of the spectrum.
zugzug @ 46:
must you always keep score?
Abbybwood @ 36:
Okeedoke, I'll give this a shot.
First, here's the whole quote:
This is certainly one of Obama's less eloquent, more clumsy statements. But what I glean from it is the following paraphrase:
The typical white person of my grandmother's generation is not someone who is a racist. However, in this country, we still fear one another, and even people who hold know intellectually racist sentiments nevertheless fear members of other races when confronted with them on the street. We're still that unfamiliar with one another, and we really need to talk about that. Fortunately, as the generations pass, that fear and lack of familiarity is steadily decreasing.
I don't think that's all that sinister a statement, though I understand why people were taken aback by the phrasing.
Is it typical of white people of Obama's grandmother's generation to fear black people on the street irrationally despite harboring know real racist sentiments? I suppose that's debatable. My grandmother was certainly that way, and I'm a bit younger than Obama.
Would it be fair for an interviewer to follow up with a question about whether typical members of minority races likewise fear white people or each other? Sure.
As for asking Obama what he meant, his campaign has said that he meant more to stress the generational sentiments than to say point blank, "Typical white people are such and such."
In the grand scheme of things, I don't think this statement is all that offensive.
Who would expect anything less if he wants to keep his job?
Jay @ 44:
casper46 @ 5:
At least Britney Hume talked to him... LOUDLY!!
Oh, formatting, schmormatting...... :)
Jay @ 44:
I’m wondering how many of Clinton’s supporters are swing voters or Republicans so fed up with Bush that they were willing to vote for a Democrat of Hillary Clinton’s stripes, but not another Democratic candidate. And if that number is large, what does that say about the American population at large, and where are we at this point in our political history?
And by the way, it’s not just Roe that’s in danger if McCain ascends to the presidency. It’s just about all the rights we have come to think of as basic to American liberty and equality over the last half-century.
pissed off patricia @ 7:
You know how it is when you just can't take the bullshit anymore. It just comes out. These retards (I seem to be using this word a lot lately) embarrassed him. That is how lame that newscast is. It even embarrasses Chris Wallace to the point he blew a gasket.
You realize he didn’t say that his words were wrong. It was just how he said it. On the air. I find that funnier than anything.
“I didn’t have any second thoughts about the substance because I still believe what I said was right,” said Mr. Wallace.
Methinks some little boy got taken out to the woodshed. Tell 'em you're sorry Chrissy or it's no supper for you!
Karen @ 56:
Look for an Obama/Clinton Ticket. Or maybe the other way around but Obama/Clinton because she can't win the nomination legitimately. He needs her so her voters don't go to McCan't. The Dem Party honchos (read Howard Dean and Reid and Pelosi) will demand that Obama get Clinton on the ticket.
Captain Hussein Kangaroo @ 60:
I dunno. Pelosi already said that such a ticket was "impossible." She said that she wouldn't be pushing for that ticket.
Besides, I don't know how reliable that statistic is in the first place. Maybe those Clinton supporters feel that way now, given all the acrimony of the campaign, but won't really vote for McCain come November.
I'm thinking Obama/Webb would be a good idea, personally. If we take Virginia, we're in good shape.
Karen @ 52:
It was not a sinister statement in the least. It was torn apart by Obama haters who will never vote for him. I understood exactly what he meant. It was very clear. Just like it was clear to you Karen. He just used his….. oh forget it. If somebody wants to turn the statement around it is because they hate Obama and want to divide the voters.
Sounds like someone got called into the principals office
Captain Hussein Kangaroo @ 62:
Perhaps. Though if someone politely asks about the statement, I have no problem calmly elaborating my understanding of it, and offer the basic paraphrase so that voters here unfamiliar with the context do not become divided. :)
Karen @ 61:
This will be my last comment on it because it is off topic but The Democratic Party knows we have to win this year. WE HAVE TO!! Both these candidates are very good although each has their detractors. They would probably be able to win over the other’s supporters but maybe not and if they are together they won’t have to win over at all. They will already have them. Intellectually it is the best thing to do. Who knows if Clinton will go for it. Or Obama. This is what I think Howard Dean would push. And I did hear Pelosi say what you said she said. And she did say it rather forcefully. Well maybe she won’t be pushing it but… maybe she will come around when I have a few words with her. lol
Karen @ 64:
Good enough. Nice talking to you.
Captain Hussein Kangaroo @ 65:
Hee hee. I live in Pelosi's district. Meet up with me for coffee or something, and we can head over to her local offices, and demand to speak with her. :)
We'll see, I suppose. I doubt it is "impossible" as Pelosi said that day. After all, Kennedy/Johnson made for a winning ticket, and they were bitter, bitter primary rivals.
And yeah, I guess this is all tangential to the thread about the idiot Wallace. Maybe his atonement should be to run as McCain's VeeP. (I know that makes no sense, but I thought I'd try to re-link to the thread. :) )
@49 LibertyLover says:
I suspect that it is very similar to what many white people consider a “typical black person.”
This is the problem I'm having with the whole meshuga.
In my lily white mind there is no such thing as "a typical black person".
I've met every stripe of black person in my life.
In 1959 I sat on a school bus in Florida and cried with a little black girl I'd made fast friends with that day (after moving from Ohio). A kid had said to me, "Why are you sitting with that little n*gger?"
I was thrilled by the superb athletic abilities of many black students in my high school back in Ohio and asked the best black math student in my class to tutor me. (We spent most of our time giggling and goofing off...she knew I was hopeless at math).
In my entire professional career as a nurse I had many black nursing colleagues (and got some killer recipes along the way plus learned valuable nursing tips from them) and an incredible mix of interesting, kind and appreciative black patients.
In L.A. my now grown college age sons went to school with lots of blacks and it was never unusual in Venice Beach to come home on a Saturday evening to find a few black guys, a few Latino's..(and lots of girls of course).
You go for a drink at the Peninsula in Beverly Hills and it is highly likely there will be blacks at the bar. Basketball players, actors, agents and their wives etc.
In Port Washington, New York I met many white collar black professionals.
All this brings me full circle to the problem I have with the "typical black person" comment. I only recall all the black individuals in my life as what they were. Singularly unique human beings. Just as I consider every one of you to be.
<>
The "Morons in the Morning" are his colleagues?
Wow, what a loser.
This guy is a fucking media whore and he was reminded who is signing his paycheck. Goddamn right he won't do it again. His father must be so proud!
Abbybwood @ 68:
Now wait just a minute. I want to be typically white. Because nobody knows what that means. I could be anybody (white that is. I can't change that).
notice how wallace said "we don't all follow talking points" at fox news.
Balls
No
Balls
Balls No Balls
Balls
No Balls
Reaching for crotch and finding nothing.
Look at the pretty balls
[Deleted. Off Topic. Site Monitor]
What a courageous man. He just oozes integrity.
[Deleted. Off Topic. Site Monitor]
Abbybwood @ 68:
I have no problem with your sentiments. In fact, I applaud them; I share them.
But I don't think that generalizations, or use of the word "typical," necessarily smacks of stereotypes, racism or anything insidious at all. Would it be wrong (normatively) to note that the typical black person in this country works very hard, but tends to be underpaid in comparison with white colleagues? Whether it's empirically accurate can be debated, but I don't think it indicates racism on the part of the speaker, or even undermines your sentiments that we're all individuals.
I suppose Obama would have been better off saying that it is unfortunately common for even non-racist white people to fear an unknown black person on the street, rather than call such irrational behavior "typical."
Chris likes and respects his buds on Fox News? Boy, that speaks for itself.
Chris from Maine @ 19:
You give these people too much credit. Actually it was the horse's ass.
If Chris Wallace thinks the attacks on Obama from FOX News were outrageous, wait until Wallace sees what FOX is gonna do with Rev Wright's new video in which he defecates on Italians.
sounds to me like Chris got a little trip to the woodshed. Roger Ailes' woodshed.
And it's anyone's guess what kind of kinkyness or horrors, depending on your bent, goes on in that particular setting.
Does he have split personalities, or something? Or maybe he is just gutless.
Take a stand Chris. It's not like you won't find another job.
Abbybwood @ 23:
Actually, that's a very good question, so I'll try to answer it.
A "typical white person" in the context of Obama's speech is one of a large proportion of Caucasians in America who have been conditioned to fear (and thus, resent) black people. They arrive at this phobia mostly by non-violent social indoctrination, sometimes augmented by one or more unpleasant physical encounters.
A typical white person will:
- Cringe, to some degree, when hearing a black man or woman laughing loudly.
- Feel physically endangered when passing blacks on the sidewalk, that feeling multiplied by the number and perceived health of the blacks encountered.
- Wonder if a black stranger is stealing things at a store.
- "Instinctively" feel that black people are less rational than whites, despite local exceptions.
Like other phobias, it doesn't matter if you know intellectually that these feelings are unjustified. In fact, the shame you feel at your own lack of self-control can actually amplify the phobia. Whether you are afraid of heights, snakes, or black people, it's a conditioned response that is only somewhat amenable to conscious control. You may be able to therapy your way out of it, but it's a real challenge. It takes a concerted, determined and prolonged effort to un-learn a phobia.
It's important to know that if you feel these fears, it doesn't mean you're a bad person. In fact, similar fears exist for lots of black people when it comes to sidewalk encounters with whites, especially if they're in large groups, wearing sheets, carrying nooses, shotguns, etc.
Some phobias are harder to kick than others. ;-)
I am starting to get real annoyed with CAL, web pages. They used to be fair and balance, but it has become something I am not sure of lately
Its simply bait to get Obama onto Fox News Sunday...
About the weakest "Good Cop-Bad Cop" routine I've EVER seen.
Wallace's Stunt was strictly self-serving stagecraft...
What Twits.
I think you're being a little hard on Wallace, considering he stands by his statements and opinions regarding "Fox and Friends" and their treatment of Barack Obama. He merely had to do the same thing any liberal journalist and/or pundit would do, which is to save face for his network and friends, and also because the boss(es?) came down on him hard. That's life.
Abbybwood @ 68:
Exactly. There is no such thing. Just as there is no such thing as a typical white person. People are just people.
I guess I was just a wee bit snarky there. It was off the cuff and I apologize for that. I agree with Obama that with every generation we are moving further away from those types of stereotypes. In my mind and heart and experience, there has never been a typical _____ black, white, Jew, Pollack, German, Hispanic, etc... (fill in the blank) anything. I never understood the concept of nationalities, really, although my ethnicity is Eastern European and my grandparents travelled through Ellis Island. I was never taught to think like that and I certainly do not raise my children to think that way.
I grew up during Busing/desegregation and in the smaller town in Texas where I grew up, it was a big deal. But I had already had friends that were people of color, so I never really understood any race conflicts, although I saw a few incidents in the halls at my high school.
A few years back, I decided that when I was trying to point out a person to another person, even if they were a person of color, I would not use their color as a description of them, as in.. "that black person over there with the orange shirt on." I decided that since I never said, "that white person over there with the orange shirt on" then I shouldn't use a person's color or ethnicity as a descriptor either. Bottom line is, although I was being snarky, as Karen pointed out, I don't believe that Obama meant anything specific in his choice of "typical." I think that by people dwelling on it and parsing it to see if there is any hidden meaning behind it, they are making it much bigger that it actually is, especially in the context of the meaning of the rest of his statement.
And for the record, I don't think that anyone looks good in an orange shirt. :)
Chris Wallace is lovely, though.
Bless his Heart.
To sum up, I grew a spine for a moment, and now have decided to chuck it away, because it doesn't jive with my professional ethic: the ethic of smearing everyone to the left of Ronald Raygun.
You write: "Oh, Chris. You’d come so far in the minds of so many."
Not really. Backstage, someone slipped him about 1,500 mikes of LSD.
The FOX police met his bitch ass in the ladies room. After twisting his arm for a minute or two, Chrissy changed his tune.
Wallace is a coward...but then again, I'm hardly surprised and I don't know why anyone else would be. I knew that it wouldn't take very long for someone at Fox to drop a hint to Wallace that if he chose not to take back his remarks, they would choose not to keep him employed. I still think that Wallace is a coward for backing down -- but then again, I'm inclined to think that this may be par for the course in today's mainstream media. Given that most mainstream news media outlets are owned by no more than a handful of companies, and considering that the Bush administration has shown little or no tolerance for journalists who ask probing or challenging questions and resist marching in step with their message, I wouldn't be at all surprised to learn that most mainstream journalists have backed away from asking too many questions or reporting on certain stories because they know that doing so would probably cost them their jobs. That being said, I still think that Wallace and others like him are cowards and traitors to their profession because they are allowing themselves to be bullied by corporations and politicians who think that the people only have the right to know what they want them to know.
Sorry but I never believed this ruse.
The timing smelled.
O'really and Smirky have been trying to get Obama on their "Shows"
for a while and they were communicating to Obama's people,
we're not the Douchey bags that are on Fox and Fiends.
So Wallace is climbing back on board the SS Murdoch.
On with trashing.
You would backtrack, too, if your paycheck was threatened.
Right after his moment of sanity, Chris Wallace got a phone call from Rupert Murdoch. The rest is history.
The Political Junkie @ 95:
Many would backtrack, I dare say -- and admittedly, it's said that just about everyone can eventually be bought provided that someone is willing to pay the price (some people simply set their prices much higher than others). Nevertheless, it doesn't change the fact that by backtracking, Wallace and others like him only show what little value they place on their own integrity.
Blue Stocking, anyone who shills for Fake News has no integrity and can be bought for pennies on the dollar.
Just when you thought Chris Wallace was growing a pair, Roger Ailes and company cut them off.
The Political Junkie @ 97:
I'm not challenging that at all -- indeed, I agree wholeheartedly with your opinion of Fox News employees. However, when I referred to Wallace and others like him as being cowards who lack integrity, I wasn't thinking solely of Fox News but actually the majority of mainstream news journalists. As I mentioned in my initial post, in recent years, many mainstream journalists have to all appearances been quite willing to allow corporations and politicians to decide and dictate what the American public does and does not have the right to know -- but the whole point of having freedom of the press in the first place is to serve the people at large rather than merely the select few by acting as a corporate and governmental watchdog. Granted, news outlets need to make a profit -- but when the majority of the news outlets are in the control of a handful of companies (as they are now) and when the administration in power follows a consistent pattern of marginalizing journalists who ask challenging questions (as they have done for the past six-plus years), then journalists are not fulfilling their responsibility to our society.
I'm not saying that journalists shouldn't look after their own interests, because they should -- it's only natural. However, they should be looking out for ours as well, because that's their job. Corporations and governments can't always be trusted to do the right thing -- ideally, our interests should be their interests but everybody knows that we don't live in an ideal world and sometimes their interests conflict with ours. When journalists decide, whether consciously or unconsciously, that the public's interests and their right to know are secondary at best to the interests of the corporations and the government (and indirectly, their own), then they have ceased to be watchdogs -- instead, they have become Judas Goats.
The headline of this article didn't backpedal on his criticism of Fox News, as your transcript clearly says. He just had second thoughts about doing it publicly, which is understandable given the network he works for. Your headline should have said something like: "Wallace backpedals on public criticism of colleagues" or something like that.
Excuse me: I meant to say "The headline of this article IS MISLEADING." Wallace did NOT backpedal on his FNC criticism....
Chris Wallace can back-pedal all he wants, as long as he doesn't wear any pedal-pushers.
Read the quote guys: “I didn’t have any second thoughts about the substance because I still believe what I said was right,” said Mr. Wallace. He wasn't taking back his words, he was only second guessing whether he should have said them on air.
What a weenie. Wallace says what he believes and now he backpedals so he can keep his job.
Like the Bush Admministration, Faux Noise does not want anyone to speak out who disagrees with their rightwing propaganda.
Once a puke, always a puke.
Poor chris has no choice but to take back what he said, untill he can acquire enough bribe money to last him the rest of his crappy little life he needs this job. Besides who else would hire him,except perhaps ny times
To the folks on this web site, you really have forgotten what it was that made this country great. It wasn't the tories, who sided the British King, it was the patriots that lived and died to defend the right for you to say the dumbest things I've ever read. You all have lived a life that has been to comfortable. Your time of instant gratification has been far too long.
Chris are you stupid enough to think FUX news would not take you to the woodshed for saying something they didnt tell you to say... hahahaha ... Fux news = PULE PARTY LINE CENTRAL> only idiots watch anyway... most have seen it for what it is...GOP PROPRANDA STATION
FUX news knows Obama would win... the only thing they know is dirty tricks ... why don't they cover McCains involvment in Keating 5 .. talk about a scum bag.. and all his flipflops to many to mention
hey pukes , thought you didn't like a flip flopper... GOP the new lib party
Login or Register to post comments.