Fox News vs. Fred Thompson

It's always reassuring when others noticed something we thought we were the only ones to perceive.

In this case, it's that the news producers and writers at Fox News don't seem very enamoured with Fred Thompson. It's not Carl Cameron -- his reports about Republican candidates are fair and compelling -- it's in the way the network selects its stories, the language that its anchors use, and even in the way producers put together their stories.

Wonder whether Fox News veteran Jim Mills, Thompson's press secretary, agrees.

Comments

Thanks for tracking back to my post. I'm glad you noticed as well.

Posted by Tommy "Perico" Oliver | August 24, 2007 2:11 PM

Thank you for bringing this sadly,despicable fact out in the open about FOX NEWS,it has been negatively growing like a vicious cancer for several weeks, slowly at first, under the radar. But it has become very serious and there is NOTHING FAIR NOR BALANCED in any way about what is occurring daily now.

I have knowingly been an addict of FOX News for 4 years--it began to change after their 10th Anniversary, but never so blatantly nor disgusting as in the past few days. Strong individuals whom I have trusted and respected totally made me physically ill yesterday--it's not above board, but the simpering, whiny, snide and belittling remarks without fact and truth that causes me to lose faith and respect in FOX:Brit and panel, O'R and his partial poll--etc...............

Posted by j fraser | August 24, 2007 2:38 PM

Faux News is not a news channel but its just a Propoganda Machine of establishment GOP. Its just like Pravada of Soviet days.

Fox News = Pravada of Soviet days

By the way, a major media survey published last year showed that the viewers of Faux News are the most ignorant people. Like more than 70% Faux viewers believe that Saddam was responsible for 9/11.

Posted by FauxNews | August 24, 2007 3:12 PM

ambinder: "It's always reassuring when others noticed something we thought we were the only ones to perceive."

why?

what does this have to do with being a journalist?

Posted by matt | August 24, 2007 3:17 PM

So who is the GOP favorite of FNC? Can't be the heretic Mitt Romney. Is it 9/11 hero Rudy?

political radio live at 5 pm
http://political-buzz.com/2007/08/24/political-buzz-radio-live-today-at-5-pm-eastern/

Posted by matt | August 24, 2007 3:19 PM

I'm not a Thompson guy but I noticed that too. Is Fox News tanking for Rudy?

Posted by Henry Heavner | August 24, 2007 3:38 PM

Agreed

http://exposingtheleft.blogspot.com/2007/08/fair-fox-phony.html

Posted by traderrob | August 24, 2007 4:01 PM

Yes... Fox appears to be pushing Rudy... it's really Murdoch who likes Rudy... and this has apparently rubbed off on the Fox news folks... but... you have to admit... if you have both folks from the left and folks from the right claiming Fox is biased... that's a pretty good sign they are "evenly" biased... that is... angering both libs and conservatives...

But the comment yesterday that Fred had gone Negative before he even declared was pretty sad... since when is pointing out a fact "negative"? You want negative? Look at the horrible slinging going on over in the lefty tent between Edwards, Hillary and Obama. They're knee deep in the mud and buying scuba equipment to get ready for the fall...

Posted by FRedStates.com | August 24, 2007 4:14 PM

Ha, good laugh, Fox News is now biased against the Fred Thompson. Nah. Your hero isn't called de minimis for nothing.

What do you want? He has no message! He has no campaign! Federalism? Get real. Fred is a terrible candidate from his record to work ethic to communication style. He really doen't even look healthy. I doubt he has raised much money.

Is he in this next debate? I heard no?

Posted by mikeVA | August 24, 2007 4:44 PM

Hey, FauxNews, care to backup your "a major media survey published last year" claim with a source link, or is this just wishful thinking on your part? Oh, btw, a major media survey done for the last 3 years shows that 97% of liberals believe anything written that they agree with, even when they are lies. Shoot, this is fun when you don't have to prove anything you spout off with.

Posted by Ray | August 24, 2007 5:26 PM

Fred Thompson's biggest problem is Fred Thompson.

He is boring.

Posted by Dollbaby | August 24, 2007 6:23 PM

Hey Matt, just to let you know -- bloggers and journalists are not the same thing.

Bloggers are much like your many Fred, they just sit around and issue essays and opinions on things.

No offense meant to bloggers.

Posted by Dollbaby | August 24, 2007 6:27 PM

FauxNews;

What is CNN then, or MS NBC. Shills for the Donkey party. They have been so blatantly liberal for the last twenty years, only liberals don't think so. And all of the majors, NBC, CBS, ABC are blatantly pro democrat. You probably think they are smarter so its okay. Ask Dan Rather about media ethics. Trouble with liberals is that they don't care what their people do, like Bill Clinton. Fred Thompson is consistent in his views, more than I can say for anyone else running. Watch the Dems backpeddle now that they have to admit the 'surge' is working. I love watching the libs, what a bunch of crybabbies and sore losers.

Grafman

Posted by Grafman | August 24, 2007 7:08 PM

As a Mitt Romney guy the fact that fox was in the tank for Rudy was no secret. I thought Chris Wallace was going go after Romney with a wooden stake during that interview.

Rivera was on with O'Reily last week. Rivera said "Romney been attacking our friend Rudy". They don't even try to hide it any more.

Posted by Louie P | August 24, 2007 7:52 PM

I aint voten for ole Rudy! No way. No how! Any way the news paints Rudy he is still a RINO. I would rather have in office a Democrate that I know and can attack as an enemy to my ideals than a Republican like Rudy who speaks out both sides of thier mouth acts like a moderate consevative and is basicly a liberal-progessive.
Go Fred!
HEY HILLARY! WHAT REALLY HAPPENED TO VINCE FOSTER?

Posted by Gus Burk | August 24, 2007 11:00 PM

The owner of Fox News, Ruptured Murdock is supporting Hillary. He realizes Fred will be the GOP nominee and he is pushing anyone but Fred.

Posted by Menorah | August 25, 2007 7:18 AM

TV news media have become liberal political stages for owners and management to present their own views, bias and prejudices. Thank goodness for conservative talk radio and the Internet. These are sources that will help level the playing field, not matter how much the bleeding heart liberals bastardize the news. These TV media sources use charged words and language, and it is not even masked very well any more. They present little packages of sound bites, again, with charged language and predigested for knee-jerk liberals. Print media have been able to maintain some vestiges of objective reporting. Most of the garbage news on television would appear on the opinion pages of a newspaper, it is not generally objective reporting at all. Also, thank goodness, not all citizens in our republic have been totally ruined by government education, and still have the capacity to THINK. My sense is that Fred Thompson is perceived as a serious threat to the Clinton Presidency and Clinton is perceived by conservatives as a threat to the republic. Once Fred Thompson or Rudy Guiliani gets the nod, there will be a real nasty contest of a conservative or moderate against a socialist. My bets and best wishes are with Fred Thompson. Sort of like Skywalker and Darth Vader?

Posted by curtis41 | August 25, 2007 11:24 AM

First of all, Sean Insanity has been outed as doing fundraisers for Rudy. Roger Ailes, the head of Faux Noise Channel, has admitted that their preferred candidate is Rudy.

Grafman:
How is MSNBC or CNN in the tank for the "Donkey" party? What do you call Tucker Carlson? Joe Scarborough? Wolf "Leslie" Blitzer? It was Chris "Tweety" Matthews who made the Aqua-Velca comments about Fred Thompson. The only liberal host on MSNBC or CNN is Olbermann. So your claim is absolutely false.

Posted by Joe Klein's conscience | August 25, 2007 11:50 AM

as a romney supporter i have thought the same thing about their coverage of rommney and noticed their seemingly push for rudy.

i agree, i think there is a mild bias towards guliani going on there.

Posted by chad | August 25, 2007 12:16 PM

Agreed. Fred is boring. Not too hard to take shots at him.

the best was their coverage of him in iowa as the only republican to hop on a golf cart as he rode around the fair. i thought that was priceless given the lazy narrative going around. hilarious.

Posted by chad | August 25, 2007 12:19 PM

FOX News CREATED Fred Thompson.

How on earth do you think he got so high in the polls without doing anything?

It was FOX News spreading rumors that all republican candidates are crap and Fred Thompson is the only man who can save the Republic. Oh, and he is also the second coming of Reagan.

This is all nuts. Fred Thompson looks ill and gets lost in his own speeches. FOX News probably thought he could play the role but has now decided to pull the plug on that failing pilot sitcom.

Posted by Old Friend | August 25, 2007 1:20 PM

I think it is fair to say that the reporters at Fox, who have been less than kind to Fred over the past few weeks, are doing so for a couple of reasons.

First, they are a little unhappy with Fred's delay in officially announcing. I think they are hungry for news, and Fred holding them off, is something they are not happy about.

Second, Fred has gotten as much if not more coverage as candidates who have announced. Prior to this latest turn of negativism, Fred was all over Fox and there was no criticism at all. This appears to be an attempt to counter balance that.

Third, Fox is increasingly assailed for being pro-conservative and this is just a great way for them to argue that they are "balanced". I think when the respective candidates are chosen, and it's Fred versus Hillary, Fox wants to be able to point back and say, "see, we hit away at Fred too."

Finally, I would wait to see what is said and how it is said after Fred announces. I suspect that his team is working hard on making sure all the ducks are in a line when he does announce, and we'll see how negative Fox is once the campaign is running at full steam. All this back and forth during the summer will all be forgotten by mid-October, if not sooner.

Posted by Robert L. Barney | August 25, 2007 4:01 PM

WHO is Fred Thompson? Not a viable candidate if you ask me. I agree with the last commenter. Murdoch created him because he saw Giuliani was a dud and he needed somebody else to build up. FNC makes me sick...

Posted by Peter | August 25, 2007 5:13 PM

Always amazes me that FNC, the only station that I feel represents the conservative side at all gets such hate mail...must be a lot of moveon.org people unemployed that haven't the time to do anything but wave the flag of "its all amount me". So far...Obama and Thompson are leading the pact in blogs and middle class Americans that would love to see some people that are moderates. Personally I'm sick of both sides and the same ole same ole running for government...not to mention the shameless billions spent when they all tout the need for healtcare and election reform blah,blah, blah.....none of you nor I would ever have a chance in winning a seat and sadly, we may never see the greatest president and congress persons this country could proudly hold up to the rest of the world. Shame on "US" for allowing it to happen. What about maybe doing equal time for anyone interested through public announcements? Short and sweet and no war chests...hmmmmmmmmm I think I like it:) It there such a thing as a stateman any more? I think not.

Posted by Unruleyone | August 25, 2007 10:35 PM

http://thinkonthesethings.wordpress.com/

This is a pro-Obama site I check out regularly -- its relatively new and usually sees only a few comments posted. The main purpose of the blog is to present interesting news items about Obama, and also to provide commentary about mainstream media bias. A Fox News clip that was unflattering to Fred Thompson was posted in which the reception to his speech at the VFW was contrasted with Obama's reception. The blogger, sagereader, made a statement that this negative report was evidence that Fox News was broadcasting to its minions that Thompson would not be the GOP's nominee.

Well, this item got linked somewhere and all of a sudden a slew of emotional, hostile comments were issued by Fred's supporters -- all decrying their disappointment at the bias of their formerly respected Fox News.

What struck me after going back and forth with a couple of commenters was that they simply could not see the bias of Fox News beyond how it affected their beloved candidate. Further, they were convinced the fault belonged to the employees of Fox News -- no mention of Rupert Murdoch or the republican establishment. I brought up the issue of media consolidation and suggested that there was common cause between grassroots republicans and democrats on this important issue of who controls information and how that affects our democracy. Surprisingly (or not?) that was the post that managed to shut them up!

Posted by donna | August 25, 2007 11:14 PM

Unruleyone,

There's a lot of difference between representing the conservative side, than representing the country-club Republican side like FNC does, which explains their constant shilling for Rudy and Fred, and their ignoring of guys who are real conservatives like Huckabee, Paul, and Tancredo.

Posted by Peter | August 26, 2007 12:42 PM

I'm another fan of Romney. The interview Chris Wallace did with Romney was strangely antagonistic. It had a slide that said at the top "lack luster performance as Governor, with bullet points listed below." I was surprised to see the word "lackluster" along with Romney, given that he is an unusually accomplished person. Wallace also attacked Romney because Romney treated the family dog like, well, a dog.

I haven't noticed Fox news attacking Fred Thompson, but it wouldn't surprise me. Fox News appears to be trying to be the Republican kingmaker, pushing Rudy as much as they can.

I personally also like Rudy, so this isn't a big deal to me, but it is odd to see Fox news doing this.

Posted by Ben | August 26, 2007 7:14 PM

Joe Klian' conscience,

How can you suggest that Blitzer, Mathews are not liberal. How about Larry King, and avowed Democrat and liberal. Because they are soft on Thompson you think they are conservative. Scarbarough has been a mostly conservative, but the others you mentioned aren't.I may give you Carlson. The panel for MS NBC during the elections was so pro Kerry it was scary> Fox news is clearly conservative in focus, yet Gerald Rivers is among their biggest pundits, and he is quite liberal. You must be a liberal, probably, A Dem, or you would clearly not try to sell Mathews as anything but a liberal and Dem appologist. He has openly stated his lib views. And I notice you didn't touch the three major networks, go on, try to explain how Dan Rather, Peter Jennings and Tom Brokaw represented fair views. I realize two are no onger there, but the networks continue to show a liberal bent. And finally, Tim Russert shows up as everybodies darling, but he is clearly more liberal.

Nice try, but no one is going to buy the idea that the other networks are conservative. Liberals only complain about Fox, and that is prof in itself. If any other network were not liberal shills, Hillary, Bill and Kerry would let us know it.

Grafman

Posted by grafman | August 28, 2007 5:10 PM

It scares the hell out of me to see the percentage of Americans that do not have a clue. First of all, FNC has never supported Fred there man is clearly Gulliani, a blind man could see that. What is it people want from Fred maybe to ride a unicycle with a dog standing on his head, perform a few backflips maybe play the piano or something? It is sad that people are to ignorant to see this is the only man that understands the serious problems this country is facing. A man that is honest and not only has the ablity to make a diffrence but also has the true convictions to get the job done. People no longer care to hear the truth, they listen to people like Hillary who wants to punish all those nasty acheivers and reward the nondoers. Thats a brilliant plan. The roll of the federal goverment is to uphold the constitution and give people the freedoms they need to acheive great things. So many do not get it and never will, meanwhile the country is going to hell!!

Man is not free unless goverment is limited.
Ronald Reagan

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