Steve Doocy does not like Politico. For the second day, the Fox & Friends co-host has criticized the news outlet for their coverage of Michael Steele's plans to run for re-election as the head of the Republican National Committee. He repeatedly complained that the Politico erred in reporting that “top Republicans tell POLITICO” that Michael Steele intended to drop out of the race for RNC chair, going so far as to tweak the outlet by lecturing its CEO to “keep an eye on what's going on over there” because they aren't “get[ting] the political stories right.” Doocy could say the same to his co-host Gretchen Carlson, who on Monday reported the exact same thing that Politico did, with Doocy sitting right there next to her on the curvy couch.
On Sunday, Politico ran an article with the following line: “Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele intends to announce his reelection plans on Monday evening, and key supporters expect him to drop out of the hotly contested race, top Republicans tell POLITICO.” Nothing too shocking, a political media outlet citing anonymous sources who speculated on the future plans of a prominent public figure. It wasn't even shocking when those “top Republicans” turned out to be wrong and Steele announced that he was running for re-election.
Doocy, however, is a little obsessed with this story. On Monday, the day that Steele was expected to make his announcement, Doocy said "Politico had this story yesterday that apparently Michael Steele is planning to announce his re-election plans and Politico says insiders say he's not going to run, which is pretty amazing for a left-leaning website to know what the head of the right wing is doing. Seems a little weird."
No, Doocy, what “seems weird” is you calling Politico a “left-leaning website,” although from your perspective, everyone who doesn't constantly shill for the GOP must seem “lefty.” It wasn't even the first time he's done it.
What's really weird about this story, however, is that the one line from Politico's article was very close to this line from another media outlet: “A handful of well-placed and influential RNC insiders tell Fox News they expect Steele to announce he is not running for re-election.” Yes, Politico's reporting was almost identical to that other well-known “left-leaning” media outlet, Fox News. In fact, earlier in the show, his own co-host Gretchen Carlson announced that “sources tell Fox News that Michael Steele, chair of the Republican National Committee, will announce in a conference call tonight he is not running for re-election. Those close to Steele say he has not put together a re-election team and has not been raising any money for a campaign.”
Yet today, in a spectacular example of Fox & Friends' capability for selective memory, Doocy said “A couple of days ago, Politico had this story that said he's not going to run for re-election. Well, he is running. How'd they get that story so wrong? I even asked, how could a left wing blog like Politico know what the right wing and the head of the right wing, the RNC is doing. Well, as it turns out, they didn't know and there's a fella over there by the name of Fred Ryan, he's the CEO of Politico, better keep an eye on what's going on over there. The web site is called Politico. You better get the political stories right.”
It begs the question, why isn't Doocy warning Roger Ailes to “keep an eye on what's going on” at Fox?