Carl Cameron

You can view this video right here by getting the latest version of Flash Player!
DOWNLOADS: (1418)
Download WMV Download Quicktime
PLAYS: (2420)
Play WMV Play Quicktime

As we mentioned, the folks at Fox News were all up in arms yesterday about Anita Dunn's scathing commentary in which she pointed out the cold truth: Fox News has become a propaganda arm of the Republican Party. In fact, the outraged howls could be heard on every Fox program yesterday (except Shep Smith's).

Fox's chief defense is that the White House is confusing its opinion shows with its news coverage. It ran one such "news story" outlining the "attacks" by the White House on Fox, which included the following fine whine from Fox News Senior Vice President Michael Clemente:

"It's astounding the White House cannot distinguish between news and opinion programming. It seems self-serving on their part."

Actually, the White House is not alone. Indeed, anyone watching Fox News throughout the day will suffer much of the same confusion.

Fox is trying to pretend that only on its "opinion shows" such as Glenn Beck, The O'Reilly Factor, and Hannity is there free-ranging criticism of President Obama and his administration. But that's a load of hooey.

If you watch Fox's daytime "news" programs -- from Fox & Friends to Happening Now to Special Report with Bret Baier (where this report aired) -- you'll find that, while they lack the viciousness of the "opinion" programs, they nonetheless are heavily slanted with an anti-administration bias. "Reporters" like Carl Cameron and James Rosen constantly bring on Republican spokespeople and reliably transmit GOP talking points as though they represent fact (when in reality they usually have an estranged relationship with the truth). Anchors like Gretchen Carlson and Trace Gallagher regularly comment on the news they're reporting with an unmistakable right-wing slant.

A classic case, in fact, is this very "news" story that ran both on Baier's segment and earlier on Happening Now: It is wholly a defensive piece of propaganda that reliably gives the Fox News line -- comparing Obama's recognition of cold reality with Richard Nixon's paranoid "enemies list" -- with no attempt whatsoever to explain the White House's point of view.

If you wanted to see why the White House might confuse Fox's "news" programming with its "opinion" shows, one need look no further than this "news report" itself. Speaking of "self-serving."

Of course, there is a mountain of such examples already plunked in the middle of our national discourse. The most notorious recent such case was Fox's ardent promotion of the anti-Obama Tea Parties, beginning back in April and continuing through the "Tea Party Express, which produced such "news" segments as the one where Griff Jenkins was openly cheerleading the tea parties, and a Fox producer was caught working up the crowd to cheer. Then, of course, there was the whole 9-12 event, which Fox not only avidly promoted (it was, after all, wholly the creation of Fox's Glenn Beck) but actually attacked other networks for ostensibly failing to cover it as avidly as they did.

But that's just scratching the surface. Everyone knows it -- and Fox just wants to pretend it all away.



FOX News reacted quite differently to McCain's speech last night in stark contrast to what Harold Ford thought. While he said it was McCain's most powerful speech, Carl Cameron, Hume, Rove, Wallace and William the bloody Kristol thought it was awful. Will right wingers and the Bush administration attack Carl for sounding just like a left wing blog for pointing out McCain's deficiencies as a public speaker? Remember what Rove and Co. said about McClellan? He reads off the teleprompter, uses a weird smile when he looks at the audience and stumbles mightily.

icon Download | play   icon Download | play

Cameron: ...he's just not as glitzy. Sen. McCain is working off a teleprompter, he's stumbles with it. Occasionally you'll see what looks to be an awkward smile as he tries to sort of connect to the audience, but it sometimes feels a little bit off. He recognizes it, the campaign recognizes it, the audience recognizes it.

Wallace: ...and I have to say sometimes when you're reading the speech along, the speech reads better than it sounds, sometimes it sounds better than it reads. I think we would agree this is a speech that was better on the printed page than it was coming from John McCain's mouth.

Rove: Yea, content better than delivery tonight.

Kristol: I've got to say however watching that speech, I don't think it was a successful speech by Sen. McCain and I think he  came off as just snipping at Obama...