Fox News omits Republican scandals in assessment of Sanford prospects
SUMMARY: In two segments over the course of four hours on June 25, Fox News' James Rosen highlighted only scandals involving Democrats during reports that purported to examine earlier political sex scandals in an effort to assess South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford's situation.
In segments airing between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. ET on June 25, Fox News Washington correspondent James Rosen highlighted only past scandals involving Democrats during reports assessing the potential political impact of South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford's extramarital affair. Specifically, Rosen's first segment, during the noon ET hour of Fox News' Happening Now, featured pictures of former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, former President Bill Clinton hugging then-White House intern Monica Lewinsky, and former Washington, D.C., Mayor Marion Barry. Rosen's second segment, during the 1 p.m. ET hour of Fox News' The Live Desk, featured Clinton-Lewinsky, Barry, and former New Jersey Gov. James McGreevey. Neither segment mentioned any of the numerous sex scandals over a similar time period that involved Republican politicians such as Sen. John Ensign (NV), Sen. David Vitter (LA), and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, among others. By contrast, during the 3 p.m. ET hour of Fox News' Studio B with Shepard Smith, Rosen's report about Sanford and prior political sex scandals featured both Democrats -- Clinton and Barry -- and Republicans -- Vitter and former Sen. Larry Craig (ID).
In addition, during Studio B, Smith and correspondent Jonathan Hunt mentioned both Republican and Democratic politicians' sex scandals while discussing other aspects of Sanford's affair. For instance, Smith said that Sanford "isn't the only political figure allegedly using money inappropriately," and Hunt then noted that Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington has "filed two complaints about [Ensign] wanting to know more about the alleged severance payments he made to the woman who was a campaign aide and with whom he admitted he had an affair." Hunt also noted that former George H.W. Bush White House chief of staff John Sununu and former Clinton Office of Administration director David Watkins inappropriately used taxpayer money.
Smith went on to note other politicians' responses to the Sanford scandal, reading statements from House Minority Whip Eric Cantor, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who Smith said "has his own problems of late." Smith then added: "We're also hearing from governors who've gone through similar scandals. The former New Jersey Democratic governor, James McGreevey, resigned after admitting that he cheated on his wife with a man."
From the noon ET hour of Fox News' Happening Now (Spitzer; Clinton and Lewinsky; Clinton; Barry):
From the 1 p.m. ET hour of Fox News' The Live Desk (Clinton and Lewinsky; Barry; McGreevey):
From Rosen's report on the June 25 edition of Fox News' Studio B with Shepard Smith (Barry; Vitter; Craig):
From the June 25 edition of Fox News' Studio B with Shepard Smith:
SMITH: Now, Governor Sanford isn't the only political figure allegedly using money inappropriately.
HUNT: That's for sure. And it's not always about sex, and it certainly isn't about one particular party. Take, for instance, most recently, Republican Senator John Ensign. The watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington has just filed two complaints about him, wanting to know more about the alleged severance payments he made to the woman who was a campaign aide and with whom he admitted he had an affair. Go back a good bit further, 1991, then-White House chief of staff in the first President Bush administration John Sununu got into hot water for using military aircraft for personal trips and for taking a White House limo and driver to a stamp auction, of all things. And then, in the first Clinton administration, David Watkins was director of the White House Office of Administration. He had to resign after taking Marine One on a golf trip. So it crosses party divides and all reasons.
[...]
SMITH: The governor's fellow Republicans are now speaking out about the affair and the future of the Republican Party. Sanford had been talked about as a possible 2012 presidential candidate. The House minority whip, Eric Cantor -- a Republican, obviously -- said, "I don't think our party has a scandal and I think we can focus on the issues." Huh. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said -- who's has his own problems of late -- he said, "I think it is a personal tragedy and I think it will be a hard time for him and his family dealing with these challenges." And the man replacing Sanford as chairman of the Republican Governors Association, the Mississippi governor, Haley Barbour, with very few words about the situation.
BARBOUR [video clip]: I've made it a policy in my career that I don't talk about people's personal problems. I don't think it's polite, I don't think it's appropriate, I don't think it advances the ball down the field.
SMITH: We're also hearing from governors who've gone through similar scandals. The former New Jersey Democratic governor, James McGreevey, resigned after admitting that he cheated on his wife with a man. So what'd he said on NBC's Today show?
McGREEVEY [video clip]: We all fail. It's how we grapple with that failure, how we grapple with that, you know, sinful nature to be able to move to the next point of our lives. And this isn't something to be ignored. This is something I believe with integrity, if the governor embraces it with honesty, he can be that much more of a better governor.
SMITH: Former Governor McGreevey and his wife divorced last year.
I should be clear-- I don't think anyone should resign from a government position because of an affair. I didn't think that should be the case for Clinton, and changing my mind on Sanford just because I think he's a nut would be kind of hypocritical.
FAMILY VALUES VOTERS however, should make sure that THEY hold everyone to the same standard. (Hypocrisy is NOT a family value!) If they would call for a DEM to step down over one, then they should call for the PUBS to do so as well. And if they voted for this guy because of his "family values" they SHOULD change their vote either in the next primary or next election. (And don't give me this "forgiveness" crap. So-called "family values" voters are about as forgiving as tight yellow spandex.)
The thing is, you take a risk when you court the hard-core fundies, and motivate them by painting your opponent as immoral. You've got to WALK the WALK. Because they WILL turn on you. (Arguably rightly so, based on what you RAN on!) And they started to give up on the Pub's after Foley, and now Craig, Haggard, Ensign, Gingrich and most recently Sanford are really killing thier motivation to get to the polls. I'm not saying that the poor white trash that elected these idiots are "seeing though them" or anything, but they are getting disheartened. And that helped the dems's as much as anything in '06 and '08. The Pub's are in trouble if all they have supporting them is rich, white men and their wives. Without the trailor coalition they're are good as whigs.
I strongly suspect that we'll see a new movement to add to the "Born Agains" called "Born Again Again," and eventually we'll see some guy on a self-made pedestal accepting plaudits for being "Born" for the fifth time-- all the while casting harsh judgement on those of us who haven't "accepted Jesus" more than once or twice in their lives.
To leave the country without telling anyone and leave his state with no leadership is inexcusable. I dare you to just not bother to show up to work for a week. When you get back, you better have an extremely good excuse like "I was hit by a bus and in a coma." Anything less than that, and you would be fired minutes after you eventually walked in the door.
For job abandonment, Sanford deserves to be removed from office. As far as future office, nobody in their right mind would vote for someone with a history of such irresponsibility.
To me, where he was and what he was doing was largely irrelevant in the face of the fact that he simply disappeared for nearly a week.
I am not sure if it reflects FoxNews abilities or their viewers' stupidity. I hope it is the former.
I am pretty sure that you will find that the extreme right wing segment, that I believe you are refering to, is made up of a cross section of people, as far as age is concerned.
Let's try not to pigeon hole people based on age, since it has nothing to do with political affiliation or beliefs.
And I make it a point to say "white trash" becasue a trailer is hardly a requirement, and not all people in them are trash. (For from it. They're not even all white!) But trash is trash and white is white. And ignorant is ignorant.
You seem to have a big problem with ignorance, is your spelling an indication of your intelligence level. In your 2 posts you have missed on trailer (your spelling trailor), their ( there) and bigot (biggot). Perhaps you hate yourself?
I wonder if you would also refer to tenement trash when describing urban poor. Or is that a no no? How about black trash, is that acceptable? Latino trash maybe? Or is your bigotry limited to whites.
But you are right about one thing, trash is trash and ignorant is ignorant, you are proof of that.
You can SAY anything you want about anyONE you want. Doesn't bother me at all. In fact, I would be first in line to DEFEND your right to SAY whatever you want.
But you should be intelligent enough to realize that if you say these things while trying to justify public policy that takes rights, security, protections, etc... AWAY from said groups that no one will take you seriously.
But then... no one really takes YOU seriously anyway, so I guess it doesn't matter.
As for your crying victim on behalf of the CHRISTIANS, puh-lease. Drop the sanctimonious victim act and at least TRY to pay attention here: I, like most liberals, do not have a problem with CHRISTIANS in general - only those who try to cram their superstituioous nonsense down everyone else's thgoat via laws, legislation, ammendments and their inappropriate invasion of the science classroom. And our feelings in these matters are hardly limited to CHRISTIANS. ANY religious influence of this nature, REGARDLESS of it origin, is INHERENTLY BAD. So stop acting like you're somehow the victims of biggotry, when in fact your are, in fact, almost always the perpetrators of it. Keep your beliefs within your own life and stop trying to force them onto others and you'll find out what TOLERANCE really means, because you may finally recieve some.
But there is no reason ANYONE should tolerate the increased influence of the church (ANY church) on our government, our lives, our laws, our rights or our SCIENCE CLASSROOMS. If you can't see the inherent reason in this, then you are very part of the problem, and deserve any biggotry you percieve being perpetrated on you.
I have no objection. As long as they remove the word "news" and all references to same.
Where IS the FTC, anyway? Or the FEC, on the endless free Repukelickin' campaign commercial? Or the FCC on all the obscene hate noise they generate at NewsCorp & ClearChannel. Wake up, Obama!
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It is not random that they didn't mention any Democrats in Rosen's reports.
No. They have Air America radio and a couple other scattered radio networks.
If the "liberal media", were it to exist, advanced conservative misinformation I would fully expect it's discretions to be documented here.
You are nuts. Of course, anybody who has bit into the "liberal media" myth has already qualified for a straight jacked and padded cell somewhere.