Fox News' "mistakes" memo: where does the buck stop?
November 23, 2009 5:12 pm ET by Matt Gertz
As my colleague Eric Hananoki noted below, FishbowlDC posted a Fox News memo today acknowledging "a series of mistakes on FNC in recent months" and stating that in the future, "there is zero tolerance for on-screen errors" and "[m]istakes by any member of the show team that end up on air may result in immediate disciplinary action against those who played significant roles in the 'mistake chain,' and those who supervise them... up to and including termination."
I wonder how far up the "mistake chain" this "zero tolerance" policy will apply? Does it extend to the on-air "talent," or is Fox News planning to blame all the mistakes on their assistant producers? If the "talent" misleads the audience, will some kid just out of college pay for it, or is the network actually planning to disciple its hosts, anchors, correspondents, and contributors for their errors?
My guess is that the buck isn't going to stop with the moneymakers on camera. But let's imagine if it did...
After Bill Hemmer falsely claims that Department of Education official Kevin Jennings knew about a "statutory rape" case and "never reported it," he's fired.
Every time Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity smear Obama administration officials with falsehoods, they get warning letters in their personnel files.
Chris Wallace gets suspended after channeling a stream of falsehoods about the Veterans Administration's purported "death book."
That would be accountability... but I really can't see it happening. If anyone pays at Fox News, it's going to be the little fish. Joe Lieberman's party affiliation may be labeled correctly in the future, but the "mistakes" in Fox News' reporting and commentary will be permitted to live on.
In any case, if Fox News' disciplinarians are interested in finding out when their personnel are making mistakes, they should watch this space. Media Matters will continue to comprehensively document Fox News falsehoods - and we hold all levels accountable.
"Please disregard the previous memo, it was for entertainment purposes only. Continue to lie and smear Obama and Democrats as much as you wish. Your jobs are safe here no matter what you say.*"
*does not apply to liberals or Democrats employed by News Corp.
Of course those don't count, that is "opinion" journalism.
In that world, anything is OK as long as it is "my opinion".
Ut oh, you mean the right wing crackpots are using a teleprompter. I thought only those fascist, nazi, commie, presidents used a teleprompter, the tool of the devil.
I am not quite sure about MMfA's argument either. How much credit should we give the puppets for the mistakes (or lies) of their puppetmasters?
I'll resubmit my 50 strikes rule. If you host a show and you're wrong 50 times, you're out.
Since the people at Fox news continue to make the same class of mistakes then obviously there are two choices--If the process owners, the executives, know about the mistakes and do nothing, then the executives are incompetent. If the executives are unaware of the mistakes, and they also incompetent.
But then again, the executives are in control of the human resources group which hires the people who seem to have made all these mistakes. Therefore, the human resources department at Fox news also incompetent or at best they are just following orders, and apparently take no personal responsibility.
There seems to be an large group of people at Fox which should be fired for continually making the same mistakes. After all the dust settles I would expect that there are only a few secretaries left after everybody else is let go for perpetuating the stupidity of Fox news.
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