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USA Today flashback: Why you can't label Steve Doocy a conservative

August 12, 2009 4:49 pm ET by Eric Hananoki

Thanks to this 2003 USA Today puff piece on the "down-to-earth" co-hosts of Fox & Friends - the "hottest show on morning cable" - we today learned that you can't label Steve Doocy a conservative because "years ago" he supported "a man who favored universal health care":

Mirroring Fox News' overall style, the talk here is blunt. But the rap against Fox -- that it leans decidedly right politically -- is hard to attach to the hosts of F&F. Hill says she's a "primary-voting Democrat"; Doocy says the only time he got involved in politics, years ago in his native Kansas, was to support a man who favored universal health care. The candidate lost.

Six years later, the eerily prescient article still rings true -- it's just so "hard to attach" the conservative label to the guy who said he "supported" a candidate "years ago":

More cut and paste: Fox's Doocy parrots Heritage talking points, claims they came "from a friend"

Doocy hosts "town hall" featuring only people "fed up" with "government's plan to take over health care"

Ignoring reality, Fox & Friends continues its health rationing scare campaign

Out of touch: Conservative media argue insured don't need health care reform

Fox at it again: Now promoting anti-health reform disruptions of town halls

Fox & Friends advances litany of health care reform falsehoods

You may also remember that "primary-voting Democrat" E.D. Hill once asked if a fist bump between Michelle and Barack Obama was "a terrorist fist jab." (Hill is no longer employed by Fox but is available to do her Helen Thomas impersonation at birthdays and weddings).

Thanks to reader BJL for the tip.

Tags: Steve Doocy

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- by bintx (August 12, 2009 5:07 pm ET)
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  Fox is NOT a conservative network, it is a network which supports the Republican party . . . two different things. If anything, it is a neo-conservative network. The only thing that neo-conservatism and conservatism have in common is the word "conservatism."
  
  Reply Report Abuse
  - by IRONY 101 (August 12, 2009 5:31 pm ET)
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    Let's first be clear that FOX News is NOT a legitimate news network. It is a propaganda machine for the Republican Party and the various right wing interests that it represents, pure and simple.
    
    Reply Report Abuse
    - by IRONY 101 (August 12, 2009 5:41 pm ET)
      4
      
      ...and it's function is to keep the Republican base sufficiently riled up so that they will vote.
      
      Reply Report Abuse
    - by bintx (August 12, 2009 6:00 pm ET)
      1
      
      I didn't call it a news network, simply a network.
      
      Reply Report Abuse
      - by SFnomad (August 12, 2009 6:47 pm ET)
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        I think of them simply as a piece of work.
        
        Reply Report Abuse
        
        by IRONY 101 (August 12, 2009 9:12 pm ET)
        2
        
        I think of them as a piece of something else...
        
        Reply Report Abuse
  - by NiceguyEddie (August 13, 2009 8:59 am ET)
    
    The problem is that, politically speaking, true conservatism is dead. The Republican's killed it once and forever when they controlled both houses of congress and the white house and spent tax revenue like drinken sailors. I think you'll agree with me there, no?
    
    And Neo-Conservatism is also dying fast as a true political force. Bleeding on one side due to the Coulters, Becks and Limbaughs of the world alienating any and all moderates, and "true-conservtives" (like yourself) who give, at best, half-hearted support (on the other. Pehaps a "lesser of two evils" type thing, assuming they don't go for a thrid party. So far from the kind of enthusiasm that got the Republicans into power in 1994 and 2000.
    
    So what to do? Throw in with the RW Crazies or throw in with the Liberals? Because there just aren't enough votes left on either side that support what you call "true conservatism." (Which I assume means something more akin to "Libertarianism"?) And if you split the Right into two parites: the Neo-Con Crazies and the Moderate, Populist/Libertarians; you can say "hello" to a permanent Left-Center Democratic majority, unless they screw everything up so bad in the next eight years that Bush looks like Churchill by comparison.
    
    Reply Report Abuse
- by smarshall1432997 (August 12, 2009 7:58 pm ET)
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  Steve Doocy and the rest of FoxNews Channel Hosts every hour are ALL right-winged, conservative, gop'ers, republicans - period. Someone once wrote how bonuses were given out at FoxNews Channel for being so loyal to the Conservative Mission, and Steve is as loyal to Conservativism as it gets. LOL
  
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- by mfinn7314 (August 13, 2009 7:31 am ET)
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  Fox is an anti-liberal/progressive and anti-Democratic Party network. F&F is a prime example. Try if you can stomach it to watch it regularly and you'll see there is no doubt based on the story selection, introductions, commentary, "panel discussions" and tone of the talk.
  
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  - by mfinn7314 (August 13, 2009 7:33 am ET)
    1
    
    IOW, Fox is defined more by what it is against than what it is for.
    
    Reply Report Abuse
- by tharri874 (August 13, 2009 9:34 am ET)
  
  I bought that issue of USA Today (a newspaper I don't regularly read) just for that story. Though the "controversy" over Fox's alleged bias had been going on for some time ("Fox appears to be very conservative" Vs. "shut up! We have Alan Colmes!"), few high profile observers had even noticed F&F, which my brother and had by then realized was the Network's most blatantly Republican, right wing show.
  
  I particularly remember the section quoted above, in which all three hosts dutifully forwarded their I'm-not-Biased cover stories.
  
  It reminded me of all those old TV Guide stories in which Paul Lynde would explain that he was just waiting to meet the right girl.
  
  In all of those stories, the writer is clearly in the know and assisting the interviewee's deception.
  
  At lease Lynde was just protecting his privacy, not covering up a a political agenda.
  
  Reply Report Abuse

County Fair is a media blog featuring links to progressive media criticism from around the Web as well as original commentary, breaking news and rapid response updates to major media events from Media Matters senior fellows and other staff.

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