Fox, WSJ Pass Off Top Romney Campaign Official As A “Private Citizen”

Frank VanderSloot is an Idaho businessman and a prominent Mitt Romney donor. According to Fox News and The Wall Street Journal, he's also a member of Barack Obama's purported “enemies list.”

In a May 10 column, The Wall Street Journal's Kimberly Strassel complained about the scrutiny VanderSloot has come under since the Obama campaign questioned VanderSloot's background. On May 11, Fox jumped on the story, airing five separate segments that denounced attacks on a “private citizen.”

But a crucial detail was missing from Strassel's column and the half-hour of airtime that Fox devoted to the story: VanderSloot is a national co-chair for Romney's finance committee. So VanderSloot is not merely a “private citizen,” but actually a high-ranking member of Romney's campaign.

Fox's Neil Cavuto even let VanderSloot carry out his responsibilities as national finance co-chair on the air. Toward the end of an interview with Cavuto, VanderSloot said that he plans to “stand up and get more involved in this campaign, and we hope that other people will join us in that. Everybody should get out their checkbooks”:

During this segment, Fox did display a hard-to-read screenshot of an Obama campaign website that identified VanderSloot as “the national finance co-chairman of the Romney campaign” -- for about 10 seconds:

Full video of the Fox segments below the jump.

From the May 11 edition of America Live, hosted by Megyn Kelly:

From the May 11 edition of Your World with Neil Cavuto:

From the May 11 edition of On the Record with Greta Van Susteren: