In his December 22 Rocky Mountain News column, Mike Rosen asserted that “Fox's news is more fair and balanced than [CBS']” and that "[Fox News] skew[s] right of center less than [CBS], ABC and NBC skew left of center." Rosen also lauded Fox News anchor Brit Hume for his “gravitas” and made similar comments about the evening news programs on the December 21 broadcast of his Newsradio 850 KOA radio program. However, Colorado Media Matters and Media Matters for America have demonstrated that on numerous occasions Brit Hume and Fox News have eschewed fairness and balance, and that the broadcast networks Rosen criticized for being too “liberal” have at times demonstrated a conservative slant.

Rosen's column took the form of an open letter to CBS News and Sports President Sean McManus, in which Rosen advised McManus to “go conservative” as a way to boost ratings for the CBS Evening News were McManus to “finally give up on [CBS Evening News anchor Katie] Couric”:

From Rosen's December 22 Rocky Mountain News column, “CBS should take a right”:

But all is not lost. When you finally give up on Couric, I have a rescue plan if you're willing to take a chance. Really, what have you got to lose?

Here it is: go conservative. Not right wing, mind you. Just mainstream conservative. Couric's nightly audience is about 7 million. There are at least 20 million (that's the size of Rush Limbaugh's radio audience) American grown-ups who are sick and tired of the pervasive liberal bias that dominates the so-called “old” mass media. They'd also like a little more substance.

[Former CBS Evening News anchor Dan] Rather was liberal, [former NBC Nightly News anchor Tom] Brokaw was liberal, [former ABC World News Tonight anchor Peter] Jennings was liberal. Brian Williams and Charles Gibson, your current competition on ABC and NBC, are liberal. And Katie's liberal. So break the mold. Let Williams and Gibson split the liberal audience and you'll have the conservative audience all to yourself, including millions of new viewers who long ago gave up on network news. It's called product differentiation. Yes, the Fox News Channel skews conservative, but they're on cable and Brit Hume's Special Report has only 2 million viewers, which is pretty good for a cable channel. Just ask CNN and MSNBC.

As a matter of fact, Fox would be a good model for you. I know this is hard for inbred liberals to understand, but Fox's news is more fair and balanced than yours. They skew right of center less than you, ABC and NBC skew left of center. You could probably have gotten Hume for a lot less than you paid Couric, and he'd have been much better. OK, he's not as perky, but he has gravitas.

Change your agenda. Don't obsess on bad news. When you criticize institutions and public figures, don't just attack from the left. Say some good things about business and capitalism, and some critical things about labor unions. Try being more skeptical of environmental activists and global warming hype. Make fun of Cindy Sheehan and Michael Moore the way you do of conservatives.

Rosen also promoted his December 22 column during the December 21 broadcast of his radio show, stating, “Yes, the Fox News Channel skews conservative, but they're on cable and Brit Hume's Special Report has only 2 million viewers, which is pretty good for a cable channel. Just ask CNN and MSNBC.”

However, Colorado Media Matters and Media Matters for America have documented a number of examples that contradict Rosen's claims regarding Fox News, Brit Hume, and the so-called “left-of-center” broadcast networks.

FOX NEWS

As Colorado Media Matters has noted, the recent public disclosure of an internal Fox News memo cast doubt on that organization's fairness and balance. The day after the November 7 election, Fox News senior vice president for news editorial John Moody allegedly distributed a memo instructing his staff to “be on the lookout for any statements from the Iraqi insurgents, who must be thrilled at the prospect of a Dem-controlled congress.” The memo also referred to U.S. Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD) -- who will be House majority leader when Congress convenes in January -- as “a political hack.” As Colorado Media Matters noted, this instruction showed “that the network's news coverage instructions reflected hostility toward Democrats.”

The November 15 broadcast of MSNBC's Scarborough Country explored the controversy over Moody's November 8 memo, the authenticity of which Fox acknowledged in an official statement read by host Joe Scarborough:

But first, Memogate hits FOX News Channel. Critics are howling tonight after “The Huffington Post” Web site obtained this internal memo written by FOX News Vice President John Moody.

Now, part of the memo says, quote, “Let's be on the lookout for any statements from the Iraqi insurgents who must be thrilled at the prospect of a Democratic-controlled Congress.”

We called FOX News today to get their reaction to the leaked memo. They said in a statement, quote, “FOX News Senior Vice President John Moody stands by his editorial note.”

As Scarborough's guest Matthew Felling of the Center for Media and Public Affairs noted, Moody's memo reflected not journalism but “advocacy and activism”:

When he is saying, “Hey, be on the lookout, because we really would love a story about how the terrorists are dancing in the streets because the Democrats won,” that's not journalism. It's advocacy and activism. And it's really uncomfortable. And it just confirms a lot of peoples' suspicions.

BRIT HUME

Media Matters for America has logged numerous instances in which Fox News anchor Brit Hume peddled conservative misinformation. Among recent misrepresentations, on the December 10 edition of Fox News Sunday, Hume falsely characterized the Iraq Study Group's (ISG) report as a “stay-the-course document” that “did not reject the president's policy on Iraq,” and said its only recommendations for change were “at the margins.” In fact, the report issued by the ISG specifically states that "[c]urrent U.S. policy is not working, as the level of violence in Iraq is rising and the government is not advancing national reconciliation." The report also stated that "[m]aking no changes in policy would simply delay the day of reckoning at a high cost."

CBS

Contrary to Rosen's characterization that CBS -- along with ABC, and NBC -- “skew[s] left of center,” Media Matters for America has identified numerous instances in which the network has skewed its news broadcast to the right of center. One example was CBS' failure to book any liberal or progressive voices for the first 10 editions of its “Free Speech” segment on the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric. Instead, the segment featured conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh, the Republican former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, and former Bush aide and speechwriter Michael Gerson.

ABC and NBC

Media Matters for America also has logged numerous instances in which the ABC and NBC networks have favored conservative viewpoints or interests. On November 6 evening news broadcasts, for example, ABC and NBC reported that, based on two polls, the mid-term election was “tightening.” Those reports ignored abundant contemporaneous polling noted by the nonpartisan Cook Political Report that showed no shift toward Republicans:

“All Monday there was considerable talk that the national picture had suddenly changed and that there was a significant tightening in the election. This was based in part on two national polls that showed the generic congressional ballot test having tightened to four (Pew) and six (ABC/Wash Post) points.” However, “there is no evidence of a trend in the generic ballot test. In chronological order of interviewing (using the midpoint of field dates), the margins were: 15 points (Time 11/1-3), 6 points (ABC/Wash Post), 4 points (Pew), 7 points (Gallup), 16 points (Newsweek), 20 points (CNN) and 13 points (Fox).”

From the December 21 broadcast of Newsradio 850 KOA's The Mike Rosen Show:

ROSEN: Since I had started to tease that Katie Couric column that you will be able to read in the Rocky tomorrow, my regular column, why don't I pick up where I left off on that -- tease it a little more, and perhaps the mayor will call shortly and I will drop it. But I was noting that CBS had declined sharply from the glory days when it sat atop the ratings in the heyday of Walter Cronkite. Now they're a distant third behind NBC and ABC. The entire sector is losing audience because of all of the alternatives -- 24/7 news services, the Internet, cable, satellite, you name it. And I recognize that -- that the marketing decision they made at CBS was to hire Katie Couric to perk up their evening newscast in the post-Dan Rather era, with Bob Schieffer filling in for a while. And I judged that this was a mistake. Yeah, she scored some good ratings during her first week, but they -- they quickly dropped off again. And in the November sweeps just concluded, she settled into a distant third -- that's the way Variety magazine termed it.

So I said, when you finally give up on Katie, I have a rescue plan if you're willing to take a chance. I mean, really, what have you got to lose? So here's the rescue plan: Go conservative. Not right wing, mind you. Just mainstream conservative. Katie's nightly audience is about 7 million. There are at least 20 million -- that's the size of Rush Limbaugh's radio audience, coincidentally -- there are at least 20 million American grown-ups who are sick and tired of the pervasive liberal bias that dominates the so-called old mass media. They'd also like a little more substance. Rather was liberal, Brokaw was liberal, Jennings was liberal. Brian Williams and Charles Gibson, your current competition on ABC and NBC, are liberal. Katie's liberal. So break the mold. Let Williams and Gibson split the liberal audience and you'll have the conservative audience all to yourself -- including millions of new viewers who long ago gave up on network news. It's called product differentiation. Yes, the Fox News Channel skews conservative, but they're on cable and Brit Hume's Special Report has only about 2 million viewers. Which is pretty good for a cable channel, just ask CNN and MSNBC. But CBS is an over-the-air broadcaster, it has more potential. And I noted that Fox would be a good model for you. I know this is hard for inbred liberals to understand but Fox -- Fox's news is more fair and balanced than yours. They skew right of center less than you, ABC, and NBC skew left of center. All right, that's a little bit of a tease on that. You can read the whole thing tomorrow.