In its coverage leading up to and following President Bush's December 18 address from the Oval Office, Fox News provided 74 minutes of analysis and discussion without including a single Democrat or progressive, despite the fact that Fox News anchor Brit Hume characterized the speech as a chance for Bush to “address his critics.” No Democrats or progressives appeared during the hour of coverage leading up to the address, and it was not until 9:32 p.m. ET -- 14 minutes after Bush had finished -- that Democratic National Committee vice chairwoman Susan Turnbull appeared to discuss the speech opposite Republican strategist Brad Blakeman. In the absence of any critics of the administration's strategy for war in Iraq, it was left to Hume and correspondent Carl Cameron to interpret how critics were likely to respond to Bush's speech.

Prior to the speech, Fox News aired a special edition of The O'Reilly Factor. Guests included Fox News senior judicial analyst Andrew P. Napolitano, former White House counsel for presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush David Rivkin, former Clinton adviser Dick Morris, a re-airing of portions of Fox News host Bill O'Reilly's interview with Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, former House Speaker and Fox News political contributor Newt Gingrich, and Fox News war correspondent Geraldo Rivera.

Immediately before and after the speech, Hume moderated a panel that included Fox News' Beltway Boys host and Weekly Standard executive editor Fred Barnes, Roll Call executive editor Morton M. Kondracke, and Weekly Standard editor William Kristol.

On The O'Reilly Factor, all three of the guests who addressed the speech -- Morris, Gingrich, and Rivera -- predicted a strong and positive presentation of the Iraq war and of the administration's stance against its critics. Following the speech, Barnes, Kondracke, and Kristol all lauded the address. Without any guests to oppose them, the panel either praised Bush's remarks or attacked potential -- although absent -- critics. Some examples include:

Kondracke:

• “This is the fireside chat that he should have, I think, delivered periodically through the course of the war.”
• “He had, in it, elements of humility. ... He also, lest there be any doubt about it, though, socked it to the Democratic Party. ... He said, basically said, most Democrats are on the side of defeat.”

Barnes:

• “The White House is convinced, and I happen to agree with them, that they're winning the argument, they're winning the debate at home.”
• “Democrats we've heard so many times, whether it's [Rep.] John Murtha [D-PA], [House Democratic Leader] Nancy Pelosi [D-CA], [Sen.] John Kerry [D-MA], [Democratic National Committee chairman] Howard Dean, all keep citing this number: Eighty percent want us to leave now. And that's a phony number because that 80 percent was in a British poll which didn't even ask that question.”

Kristol:

• I think he answered the two fundamental criticisms of the war, which are “You can't win.” And he said we can win and we are winning the war in Iraq. And then the second, which is, “Isn't there sort of a third way out?” Can't we sort of muddy our way out of there, have an exit strategy which is neither victory or defeat? And that is what he's not going to permit."
• “He [Bush] said we're winning. He said we're going to win. And he's gotta win the war now.”

Fox News did not air criticism until well after the address, when Turnbull appeared on a panel with Blakeman.

In addition to offering unfettered praise, Hume and Cameron -- reporting to the panel of Barnes, Kondracke, and Kristol -- asked questions of Democrats and other opponents of the administration without any of those critics present to answer. Rather, Hume and Cameron proposed various possible criticisms, only to let the panel shoot them down. For example, Cameron uncritically reported the president's response to a “defeatist position ”and "cut and run strategy" that Cameron then claimed were “offered up” by Murtha. Similarly, Hume raised the position that “victory can best be gained by withdrawal” and then stated, “I wonder how that argument is likely to do after this wave of presidential and other speeches.”

From Fox News' special coverage of Bush's December 18 speech:

CAMERON: Making it clear that he [Bush] has heard what he described as their -- he's heard their disagreement and knows how deeply they felt it, but imploring them to stop what the administration has repeatedly called a defeatist position, a cut-and-run strategy as offered up and criticized by somebody in the White House, as offered up by John Murtha.

[...]

HUME: That gets us to what some of the Democrats have been arguing, which is that because, and they cite that poll that Fred [Barnes] has somewhat skewered here and the other realities of the fact that we are a target and so forth, that victory can best be gained by withdrawal. I wonder how that argument is likely to do after this wave of presidential and other speeches?