For years, FOX "News" has been employing NPR commentators as supposed "balance" to their conservative commentators. I've always wondered how this is actual balance. It would seem that merely by being NPR employees that they're automatically liberals. I don't think this is the case, and I think that their performance on FOX "News" bares this out. Finally, an NPR employee has been fired for his "balanced" statements on the fair and balanced "news" channel. It's about time.
[Excerpt]
NPR Fires Juan Williams for Comments made on ‘The O’Reilly Factor’
NPR has fired news analyst Juan Williams for comments he made on Fox News Channel earlier this week. Williams, who has been a Fox News contributor for 13 years, was on “The O’Reilly Factor” Monday night talking about the comments O’Reilly made last week on “The View” about Muslims and 9/11. On “The Factor”, Williams said, “[W]hen I get on the plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous. . .”
Gee, I wonder if I've ever used that headline before. If not word-for-word, I've at least used the same sentiment, because they just keep doing it. This morning, FOX "News" Sunday was my first choice to watch on the DVR, because for some reason the (increasingly boring) Meet the Press didn't record. I store these shows up for a little while in the morning so that I can zip through them without all the BP commercials.
Anyway, the first guest was Ted Olson, George W. Bush's Solicitor General (a job until recently filled by Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan). Olson would not be an unusual guest to have on F"N"S were it not for the fact that he recently tried and won Perry v. Schwarzenegger, the case that overturned California's Proposition 8 as un-Constitutional. Prior to that, Olson was mostly known for holding the Bush side of Bush v. Gore, Citizens United and for being the widower of Conservative writer Barbra Olson.
Chris Wallace did his level best to push the presumed "typical" FOX viewers' viewpoint on the same-sex marriage case, repeatedly hammering Olson with questions right out of the right-wing playbook. Question after question, time after time, Olson replied with cogent, logical, legal answers, not once falling into a trap or contradicting himself. I was very impressed. I'll admit to having had concerns when I'd originally heard that Olson was the lawyer trying Perry. While I'm still extremely wary of the results of the Citizens United case, it is clear that Olson is a brilliant legal mind, one that is capable of seeing logic and the law ahead of partisanship. My hope from today's interview is that he may have put a seed of rational thought into the minds of FOX "News" viewers.
The second guest was apparently a Republican dude (Mitch Daniels it turns out, whoever that is) who has aspirations to be a presidential contender. I have no idea who he was--as far as I know, I've never seen him before--because I was typing the stuff above! But the reason I started writing this post is what Wallace said when he lead into second interview: (paraphrasing) "Up next, what can Republicans do to ensure big wins in the 2010 elections? Our next guest. . ."
Of course the show's last half is nearly always filled with the ludicrously named "Power Panel," their "fair and balanced" discussion group. This week, the right is represented by extreme neocon William Kristol and Darth Cheney's daughter, Liz Cheney. The left--as usual--had Juan Williams and some lady I've never seen before. Even when FOX has equal numbers of right vs. left-leaning pundits (if you pretend that Wallace is neutral), they stack the deck with heavy weights on the right and feather weights on the left.
Now, it would be a rare thing indeed for me to recommend watching a clip from this highly-skewed program. But I'll make an exception for the Olson interview. It's kind of fun to see Wallace's tactics fail when he's up against someone who can outthink him.
I can barely stomach 5 minutes of Hannity, so I don't expect everybody to get through this video. But it is notable for something rare: a "liberal" on FOX "News" asking questions of a host that really needs to be asked. Juan Williams is one of the stable of so-called liberals and "Democratic strategists" proffered up by FOX to maintain an appearance of "balance." I don't think Juan is a bad guy, but he isn't always the best counterpoint to the conservative foghorns preferred by the station.
On a segment pompously called The Great American Panel, the discussion centered around ACORN, the seemingly demonic (according to FOX) organization. Supposedly--according to Sean Hannity--the organization gets billions of federal dollars. Williams points out that it is actually millions, and amounts to a minuscule amount in the scheme of things. He goes on to task Hannity with using his "power" to go after the really big boys, like Blackwater and defense contractors. Excellent point! Of course Hannity swats that away, because it isn't on his agenda, and he is incapable of thinking anywhere near outside the box.
So good on Juan Williams for actually fighting back, though the venue is a hopeless place for it. And who is this Ann Coulter clone, Alice Stewart? Did Coulter spawn or something?
Yes, more FOX "News"-bashing, and this time two posts in a row! The timing is sheer coincidence, however, as I've been watching the Sunday political shows this morning, and FOX "News" Sunday is the one that puts the "ick" in ridiculous.
As Media Matters has reported, these shows all tend to skew right, particularly over the last six years. But no Sunday show tries so hard to steer the ship rightward with so much effort.
Let's start with Chris Wallace. Admittedly, he does throw in a tough-to-answer question to Republican guests once in a while (one could argue not as often, and not as hard as those lobbed to Democrats). On a merely superficial personal level, he just creeps me out, I can't put my finger on why. But in the show's wrap-up segment (ludicrously called The Power Panel), Wallace often becomes an obvious and serious Democrat-basher, as he did today, out-and-out calling Democratic nominees for President "panderers."
All of the Sunday show hosts tend to treat guests with kid gloves, offering the occasional sharp jab, only to let the guest wander away from the question, or reframe it by saying, "let's talk about this," or simply go off on a totally unrelated topic. Wallace, on the other hand, sets up (in my view) Republican talking points, or nearly holds up a target of a Democrat and let's his guest shoot metaphorical arrows at it.
And finally, the afore-mentioned Power Panel. Where to start? Wallace and his obvious partisanship is number one. Second, Brit Hume, the host of FOX's alleged "hard news" show, who is such a foaming-at-the-mouth partisan, he seems like a rabid basset hound. There's William Kristol--neocon cheerleader of the Iraq War--with his perpetual inappropriate smirk and condescension. Not to mention he's a man who has been wrong about everything andis still treated like his analysis and predictions have any relevance.
Shoring up the "left" side, and presenting the illusion of "balance," are usually two people from NPR, Mara Liasson and Juan Williams. NPR is pilloried for being as liberal as Air America by wingnuts, which I'm not sure is a foregone conclusion. My theory is that right-wingers see any media that doesn't have an obvious right-wing cant as automatically left-wing biased. They seem to have a left-right, black-white, on-off approach to everything, don't they?
Anyway, Williams is pretty good at summing something up, and also can swat down some of Kristol's, Hume's and Wallace's more obvious omissions or falsehoods. But he's an Alan Colmes-style "liberal," more a moderate who only looks liberal by comparison to his colleagues. Neeson seems centrist, with a slight rightward tilt, and is in the same boat with Williams by default.
What I find by watching the Sunday shows is that if you are well-versed in a political topic, you can punch holes in any of the interviews and discussions. The whole political process starts to feel phony and slimy. It makes you lose respect for many politicians, as well as the TV personalities. But FOX "News" Sunday lost my respect a very long time ago. Only Juan Williams has any right now, as he seems the only one willing--on a regular basis--to point out uncomfortable facts for both Republicans and Democrats.
So let's sum up. You have a Wallace who's clearly conservative, Hume who's aggressively so, and Kristol, who makes both of them seem moderate. Then you have Liasson who's merely less right-wing (and she's occasionally replaced by a lady from that far-left loony FORBES Magazine) and Juan Williams who dips his toe off the fence onto the left side on occasion. Sound's "fair and balanced to me," doesn't it to you? Ha!
And I really want to smack that Cheshire Cat grin off of Kristol's face, but here I am being petty again. . .
