Fox Guest's Membership In Anti-Health Care Reform Group Goes Undisclosed

Fox & Friends Sunday hosted a small business owner to disparage the Affordable Care Act without disclosing his membership in the anti-health care reform group National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB).

Co-hosts Clayton Morris and Tucker Carlson identified their guest David McArthur only as a “small business owner” while interviewing him about the impact the Affordable Care Act might have on his small bakery in St. Louis. Morris asked, “Do you feel that these plans, Obamacare specifically, limit growth in this country and [are] holding back the economy, because small business owners like yourself are afraid to hire and afraid to grow?” McArthur replied, “Well, certainly it does.”

Fox News never disclosed that McArthur, who has repeatedly appeared on the network, is a member of the NFIB, a group that has spent millions to overturn the Affordable Care Act.

The NFIB was the lead plaintiff suing to overturn the Affordable Care Act before the Supreme Court. In a post titled “The Group Trying To Kill Obamacare,” Salon.com's Alex Seitz-Wald reported that the group spent at least $2.9 million in 2010 alone working to overturn the law. The Huffington Post reported that the NFIB “received 10 donations totaling more than $10 million from anonymous donors” in 2010 and 2011, in addition to $3.7 million in funding from Karl Rove's Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies. The Huffington Post also reported that the organization's "multimillion-dollar independent expenditures and campaign donations have benefited almost exclusively Republicans."

This is not the first time Fox has hosted undisclosed NFIB members to criticize the Affordable Care Act.

In July 2012, Fox & Friends hosted small business owner Mike Paine to attack the health care reform law without disclosing his membership in the organization. Prior to that, NFIB member and small business owner Joe Olivo appeared on Fox News and Fox Business at least six times to criticize the Affordable Care Act, without disclosure of his membership.