Quick Fact: Fox News again allows Donatelli to attack health care bill without disclosing his conflict of interest

From the January 15 edition of Fox News' Special Report with Bret Baier:

BRIAN WILSON (CORRESPONDENT) And one GOP operative asked:

DONATELLI: If this bill is so good, why does everyone need an exemption in order to vote for it?

During his appearance on the January 15 edition of Fox News' Special Report with Bret Baier, Fox's chyron identified Donatelli as "GOPAC chairman":

Fact: Donatelli has a health care reform conflict of interest

Donatelli is executive vice president of public affairs shop McGuireWoods Consulting. Donatelli is "Executive Vice President and Director of Federal Public Affairs for McGuireWoods Consulting," which is "a full-service public affairs firm offering infrastructure and economic development, strategic communications & grassroots, and government relations services."

McGuireWoods Consulting clients include health insurance, health care provider, pharmaceutical firms. According to its website, a "partial list" of McGuireWoods Consulting's clients include the health insurance provider association BlueCross/BlueShield, the pharmaceutical companies Novartis and Purdue Pharma, Sherman Hospital, and the Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association.

Fact: Fox News repeatedly ignores the conflicts of interest of health care reform opponents

Happening Now previously ignored Donatelli's health care conflict of interest. During his appearance on the December 21 edition of Fox News' Happening Now, co-host Jon Scott simply identified Donatelli as "the GOPAC chairman, that's a Republican advocacy organization." Donatelli stated in that interview: "If this bill was so good, why isn't it that the Democrats wouldn't go to the country and say, 'This is the bill that we are campaigning on, vote for us because this is such a good bill.' The fact of the matter is they don't really want the American people to see what is in this bill because it is so bad."

America's Newsroom failed to identify Healthcare Leadership Council as advocacy group for health insurance, health care provider, and pharmaceutical industries. On the December 14 edition of Fox News' America's Newsroom, guest host Juliet Huddy hosted Mary Grealy, identified as "the president of the Healthcare Leadership Council," who attacked a proposal to include allowing people aged 55 to 65 to buy in to Medicare as a "nonstarter," complaining about the current "cost-shift" from government programs to private insurers and underpayments to hospitals, and advocating instead for subsidies to purchase private health insurance. At no point did either Huddy or Grealy note that the Healthcare Leadership Council is an advocacy group composed of "a coalition of chief executives from all disciplines within American healthcare" whose members include "hospitals, health plans, pharmaceutical companies, medical device manufacturers, biotech firms, health product distributors, pharmacies and academic health centers."

Special Report ignored Breaux's lobbying for PhRMA. On the November 10 edition of Fox News' Special Report, correspondent Carl Cameron failed to disclose that former Sen. John Breaux (D-LA), who Cameron said "warns Democratic leaders now that trying too much too fast could backfire and undermine achievable [health care] reforms," has lobbied Congress this year about health reform for the trade group Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.

Fox repeatedly provided Gingrich cover to attack health care reform without disclosing conflict of interest. Fox News has repeatedly provided contributor Newt Gingrich a forum to discuss his opposition to the inclusion of a public option and increased insurance regulations in health care reform legislation. During those appearances, Fox News has not noted that that his Center for Health Transformation -- a for-profit entity that Gingrich founded and reportedly profits from -- receives annual membership fees from several major health insurance companies, which have a financial interest in preventing the implementation of those policies.