Kerry Campaign Threatens Fox News

It was puzzling yesterday when there were no follow-up articles about the blowup between the Kerry campaign and Fox News concerning the new bin Laden Video tape.

Saturday morning ABCNews' "Noted Now" briefly posted this:

KERRY CAMPAIGN BLOWS UP AT FOX, THREATENS TO THROW FOX OFF THE PLANE, BACKS OFF

KERRY CAMP OBJECTS TO 4:00pm FOX NEWS SEGMENT:
ALAN COLMES: "It's not like he [Osama bin Laden] had a Kerry-Edward bumper sticker in his cave." NEIL CAVUTO: "But he's all but doing that, isn't he? I thought I saw a button."

KERRY CAMP ASKS FOR RETRACTION, DOES NOT GET ONE… JOHN SASSO BLOWS UP AT FOX PRODUCER ON PLANE: "Is that the one? Is that her? I want her off the plane tomorrow. I'm not kidding."

COMM. DIR. STEPHANIE CUTTER BACKTRACKS: "He [Sasso] was wrong to say that. We jumped all over him for it."

After unsuccessfully searching for details in other stories I again checked "Noted Now" and the above exchange had vanished. That isn't all that unusual as "Noted Now" is constantly updated. What is unusual is that there were no articles to be found about the blowup over the "button" comment.

California Yankee and Power Line posted the exchange that had appeared on "Noted Now."

This morning it all starts to make sense. The Boston Globe has a puff piece by Patrick Healy about the blowup over the "button" comment. The Globe's article casts the blowup in a very favorable light for the Kerry campaign, deftly minimizing the possible downside for the Kerry campaign.

If there had been a similar exchange between the Bush campaign and a major news organization, negative articles would have been in all the major papers. Those stories would go on about bush campaign advisors lashing out because they were losing confidence. . . .

The Kerry endorsing Globe story manages to cover all the facts that were briefly leaked by "Noted Now" and makes Fox News the villain.

The spin starts in the first sentence by focusing on "when Fox initially refused to apologize:"

John Sasso, a senior adviser to John F. Kerry's presidential campaign, threatened to ban Fox News staff from the candidate's plane Friday night when Fox initially refused to apologize for a talk show host's comment that a new videotape showed Osama bin Laden with a Kerry button.

The "initially refused to apologize" phrase is very crafty. Fox still hasn't apologized, but the sentence implies that there was one.

The next paragraghs make the "Kerry advisers" appear to be the cool headed grownups calmly diffusing an potential dispute instead of what it really was, Kerry lieutenants lashing out and their pre-election confidence vanishing because of the new bin Laden video:"

John Sasso, a senior adviser to John F. Kerry's presidential campaign, threatened to ban Fox News staff from the candidate's plane Friday night when Fox initially refused to apologize for a talk show host's comment that a new videotape showed Osama bin Laden with a Kerry button.

Kerry advisers quickly backtracked, however, concluding that an escalating conflict with a major cable channel just days before the election would do nothing to help the Democratic nominee.

"Quickly backtracked?" That depends on the meaning of "quickly." The Globe doesn't reveal exactly how long it took for the Kerry advisors to backtrack but a later paragraph implies it was after the flight was over:

The producer spent the rest of the flight talking to Fox executives by phone. Cutter said afterward that Fox would not be removed from the plane, and that Sasso had erred in making his remark, given the Fox producer's reputation as a widely respected professional.

Finally, more than half way through the article the actual "button" comment is addressed:

After the videotape of bin Laden was widely broadcast Friday afternoon, a Republican guest on Cavuto's show said the Al Qaeda leader's criticisms of President Bush amounted to ''an endorsement" of Kerry. A second guest objected, saying, ''I don't think he's going to have a Kerry-Edwards sticker in the cave."

Chimed in Cavuto: ''He's all but doing that. I thought I saw a button."

It's interesting that the article blames an unnamed "Republican guest" for starting the exchange. The article fails to note that unnamed the "second guest was" Alan Colmes, America’s most prominent broadcast liberal. The Globe also quotes Colmes differently than "Noted Now" did:

ALAN COLMES: "It's not like he [Osama bin Laden] had a Kerry-Edward bumper sticker in his cave."

Then we have the non-ultimatum. The Globe reports that an infuriated Campaign spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter "told Fox News executives they had three hours to issue a retraction and an apology; she did not deliver an ultimatum, she told the Globe, but simply stated that an admission of fault was expected."

Right! Giving Fox three hours to issue a retraction and an apology is not an ultimatum.

Read the whole article and see how the main stream media supports the Kerry campaign by controlling what we get to read or see about the campaign. I wonder how much pressure was exerted to have Noted Now pull the exchange about the "button" comment blowup and to keep the story out of the media until it appeared in the blogosphere and The Globe could spin it to the Kerry Campaign's liking.

Comments

[Büyü]

... why does everyone keep posting proof that the MSM treats candidacy-related news differently according to party as if it's some form of surprise?

At this point, if someone is not fairly completely convinced that the networks have gone very partisan, that someone is being 'rather' deliberately obtuse.

[CATHERIN31]

Your writing supposes to be amazing, but there are a big quantity reasons to purchase the essays for sale from the how to buy an essay service. That should give students a chance to get A+!

[Nahanni]

It took me ALL of 30 seconds to conclude that AHYTHING from pipa.org is a crock of radical leftist shite.

All you ever have to do is follow the money, honey.

From pipa.org own website.

PIPA's Foundation Sponsors

Rockefeller Foundation
Rockefeller Brothers Fund
TIDES FOUNDATION
Ford Foundation
German Marshall Fund of the United States
Compton Foundation
Carnegie Corporation
Benton Foundation
Ben and Jerry's Foundation
Americans Talk Issues Foundation
Circle Foundation

Note the name in all caps? Yes, Teresa Heinz funds pipa.org. So does Ben & Jerry.

/sarcasm on

Nope, no liberal bias there!

/sarcasm off

Nuff said.

[Dave]

Revealing the PIPA study for the spin it is:
http://www.thatliberalmedia.com/archives/002921.html#002921

I find that Fox goes deeper on stories with facts, and lets you, the viewer, come to conclusions. I don't like for my news to be edited (reference Tom Brokaw editing out Kerry's admission of military records not being public)
What the Elite don't get is that Hannity & Colmes is not news, per se, but OPINION. They didn't slander. If they did, then Chris Matthews on MSNBC should be brought up for that, too. Or that hothead who shouted down the Swiftboat veteran with LIES, LIES, etc.

[rosignol]

What I find amusing is that conservatives complain of bias at ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, MSNBC, etc.

...NYT, WaPo, LAT, etc, etc, etc.

Not Fox- Fox News- the cable-only news channel, not the Fox Network as a whole.

[shawn]

Yeah, it's amusing that conservatives complain about bias anywhere in the mainstream media when they continue to parrot Republican talking points and allow to let partisan pundits duke it out over political minutiae rather than report any real news.

But just in case you have no idea how bad Fox is, you should probably read PIPA's report that concludes:

An analysis of those who were asked all of the key three perception questions does reveal a remarkable level of variation in the presence of misperceptions according to news source. Standing out in the analysis are Fox and NPR/PBS--but for opposite reasons. Fox was the news source whose viewers had the most misperceptions.

What does it say about your news network when a non-partisan study finds that viewers that rely on you for their news are consistently uninformed (if not misinformed)? Go ahead and whine about the "liberal media" all you like, but it's hard to argue with the fact that people who listen to NPR and watch PBS have more accurate perceptions.

See also: The Separate Realities of Bush and Kerry Supporters.

[unixdude]

What I find amusing is that conservatives complain of bias at ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, MSNBC, etc.

Liberals complain of bias at Fox, Fox, Fox, Fox, and, oh yeah, Fox.

Revealing. Very revealing.

[Beshado'd]

... why does everyone keep posting proof that the MSM treats candidacy-related news differently according to party as if it's some form of surprise?

At this point, if someone is not fairly completely convinced that the networks have gone very partisan, that someone is being 'rather' deliberately obtuse.