Fox is following up their much-criticized 4-minute anti-Obama ad that kicked off their coverage of the general election by bringing back John Moody, the executive who as a network executive wrote memos - described as “marching orders” for the newsroom by a former Fox employee - sharply criticizing John Kerry during the 2004 election.

Fox announced today that Moody, who previously served as FOX News Senior Vice President, News Editorial, would return to Fox News as “Executive Editor and Executive Vice President” and work as “a senior adviser to [Fox Chairman & CEO Roger] Ailes on all editorial matters.” Fox also said Moody would “oversee all news related digital assets.”

In 2004, Media Matters obtained a series of leaked memos from Moody to Fox News staffers. Those memos presented Moody's views on the news of the day, which were often highly critical of then-Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry and favorable to President George W. Bush. Former Fox employees referred to those memos at the time as “marching orders” and “talking points instructing us what the themes are supposed to be, and God help you if you stray.”

In his memos Moody wrote of Kerry:

Kerry, starting to feel the heat for his flip-flop voting record, is in West Virginia. There's a near-meaningless primary in Illinois (3/16/04).

Ribbons or medals? Which did John Kerry throw away after he returned from Vietnam. This may become an issue for him today. His perceived disrespect for the military could be more damaging to the candidate than questions about his actions in uniform(4/26/04).

John Kerry may wish he'd taken off his microphone before trashing the GOP. Though he insists he meant republican [sic] “attack squads,” his coarse description of his opponents has cast a lurid glow over the campaign (3/12/04).

He wrote of Bush:

[Th]e president is doing something that few of his predecessors dared undertake: [pu]tting the US case for mideast peace to an Arab summit. It's a distinctly [sk]eptical crowd that Bush faces. His political courage and tactical cunning ar[e] [wo]rth noting in our reporting through the day (6/3/03).

In 2008 Moody wrote a column on FoxNews.com about the alleged “backwards B” attack on McCain supporter Ashley Todd by an Obama supporter (later proven to be a hoax). Moody wrote that “this incident could become a watershed event in the 11 days before the election” and “If Ms. Todd's allegations are proven accurate, some voters may revisit their support for Senator Obama.”

Moody also stated, “If the incident turns out to be a hoax, Senator McCain's quest for the presidency is over, forever linked to race-baiting.”

When Moody left Fox to run News Corp.'s NewsCore unit, Fox Washington managing editor Bill Sammon followed in his footsteps and directed the newsroom to slant its coverage. Leaked emails showed Sammon telling journalists to slant coverage to cast doubt on the scientific consensus on climate change and to use GOP approved language on health care reform.