Fox needs a more ethical media criticism program
Written by Matt Gertz
Published
Let's get one thing out of the way: Fox News Watch, the network's purported media criticism program, is a joke.
Its host, Jon Scott, once passed off a GOP press release as his own research, with an on-screen graphic even reproducing a typo contained in the release. When he was caught, he apologized -- for the typo. The program regularly ignores Fox News' own ethical problems in favor of bashing other news outlets. Judy Miller -- who wrote a series of articles on the now-debunked claim that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction for which The New York Times later apologized -- is a regular panelist.
Fox News appears to have virtually no standards for the program (except where covering the network's tuchus is concerned), so it's hard for anyone else to take it seriously. Still, one would expect a purported media criticism show to know something about media ethics.
Apparently not. On Saturday, Fox News Watch devoted a few minutes to discussing the criticism of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for funding millions of dollars in GOP attack ads from undisclosed donors. But somehow, the panel neglected to disclose that their network's parent company has given the chamber $1 million this year.
In fact, according to my Nexis search, the program has never discussed News Corp.'s million dollar donations to the chamber.
Again, this is Fox's media criticism show.