As Bolton Boosts Romney, Fox Fails To Disclose His Ties To Candidate's Campaign

Fox News turned to John Bolton to tout Romney's overseas tour and bash President Obama's foreign policy without disclosing his position as a Romney foreign policy adviser.

Today, Romney will wrap up a weeklong trip overseas that included visits to London, Israel, and Poland. During the trip, Romney has drawn criticism for saying he found some of London's Olympic preparations "disconcerting" and for suggesting that cultural differences are among the reasons the Israelis are more economically successful than the Palestinians.

Appearing yesterday on Fox News' America Live, Bolton played down Romney's Olympics gaffe, claiming that criticism over the remark was just a “tempest in a teacup” and that Romney's overseas tour had been “very successful.” And, instead of addressing criticism over Romney's comments on Palestinians, Bolton pushed the bogus narrative that Obama is anti-Israel, saying that the Obama administration views Israel as “a large source of the problems in the Middle East.”

That Bolton would try to divert attention from Romney's gaffes by attacking Obama should come as no surprise. On March 27, Bolton, a former Bush administration official and Fox contributor, signed an “open letter” to Obama in which he and others were listed as “Romney Foreign Policy Advisers.” The letter questioned “whether a new period of even greater weakness and inconstancy would lie ahead if you [Obama] are reelected.”

During the segment, host Megyn Kelly identified Bolton as a “former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and a Fox News contributor.” Bolton's ties to the Romney campaign were never disclosed.

Kelly's failure to identify Bolton as a Romney foreign policy adviser is the latest example of Fox's longstanding disclosure problem. Fox has repeatedly hosted Bolton and other Romney advisers without acknowledging their ties to Romney's campaign and has heavily promoted Karl Rove's anti-Obama super PAC, American Crossroads, frequently without identifying his connection to either American Crossroads or Fox News.