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Why won't Fox ask Burson-Marsteller's Perino about B-M's contract?

December 10, 2009 12:06 pm ET by MMFA Staff

Fox News just ran a segment on public relations superpower Burson-Marsteller's receipt of federal stimulus contracts for their work on a campaign to raise public awareness of the national switch from analog to digital television. During her discussion with Douglas Schoen - who used to work with B-M head and former Clinton pollster Mark Penn -- and National Review's Rich Lowry, Fox News anchor Martha MacCallum commented that "people say" "so this is a place that needs $6 million in stimulus to save three jobs?":

Luckily for MacCallum, there's someone within the Fox News family itself who may be able to answer her question: Fox News contributor Dana Perino, whose day job is Chief Issues Counselor for Burson-Marsteller. Perino has no trouble using her Fox News platform to defend her former boss, President Bush; surely she'd have no qualms about defending her current one.

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    • Author by jediknight65 (December 10, 2009 1:50 pm ET)
         
      perino is too busy being an airhead
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    • Author by rwmacdonald2091 (December 10, 2009 1:53 pm ET)
         
      Ooops, caught being stupid again!
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    • Author by MidnightBlueSix (December 10, 2009 2:35 pm ET)
         
      I'm no fan of B-M, but the premise of MacCallum's question is absurd. She poses it such that the government gave B-M $6M to cover the payroll for 3 jobs. Did she take into account at all what those jobs DO? Of course not. If you told me the government was giving somebody $400,000 annually, I'd be outraged. But if you explain that the government is paying somebody $400,000 to run the country, it puts things back in perspective.

      On a side note, they seem to have completely abandoned research at FOX. B-M is not "Pollster Mark Penn's Firm," it's a public relations firm that pulls people's butts out of the fire for a hefty sum. It's not as though this is some partisan polling outfit or something. Yeesh.
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