Fox News likes to pretend that while its opinion programming has a conservative slant, it also has “straight news” programs that do objective reporting. Fox regularly makes a mockery of that supposed division, however, and tonight was no different.
Reporting on the American Jobs Act, a bill President Obama sent to Congress today, Special Report anchor Bret Baier refused to adopt Obama's name for the bill, saying that Obama submitted “what he calls a jobs bill.”
But just four days ago on Special Report, Fox News' chief political correspondent, Carl Cameron, referred to the Affordable Care Act as “Obamacare,” the term favored by Republicans opposed to the health care reform law.
Here's Baier tonight on “what [Obama] calls a jobs bill”:
Here's Cameron four nights ago, adopting GOP presidential candidate Michele Bachmann's rhetoric and calling the Affordable Choice Act “Obamacare”:
And here's Baier himself referring to “Obamacare” in January:
A search of the Nexis database shows that Baier and Special Report's supposedly “straight news” correspondents have referred to the Affordable Care Act as “Obamacare” 22 times since the beginning of 2011.
It's pretty clear that Fox's “straight news” division adopts GOP rhetoric as its own while acting skeptically toward Democrats' word choices.
In other words, Fox's “straight news” division is biased.