The Difference Between Fox And A Real News Network
Written by Jeremy Holden
Published
MSNBC host Ed Schultz will be placed on unpaid administrative leave for a week after he made sexist comments on his radio show directed at conservative commentator and Fox News contributor Laura Ingraham. Schultz issued an apology for the comments Wednesday night.
Holding employees accountable when they make unacceptable comments as Schultz did, is how a news organization behaves. Indeed, it's the way that any responsible organization behaves.
But accountability for unacceptable rhetoric has no apparent place at Fox.
Fox News' Glenn Beck has twice called Sen. Mary Landrieu a prostitute - including once on Fox News itself - without any evident accountability.
Beck infamously accused President Obama of being a “racist” with a "deep-seated hatred for white people, or the white culture." Beck faced no demonstrable accountability at Fox for this statement.
Just this week, Fox's Eric Bolling criticized Obama for traveling to Europe for the G-8 summit, outrageously claiming that Obama was "chugging a few 40s" rather than attending to tragic tornadoes in Missouri. (Local officials have praised the White House for its response to the disaster.) Bolling has been widely criticized for making "racially tinged" comments, but to date there has been no accountability for his comments at Fox.
There was no apparent accountability for Sean Hannity when in 2009 he refused to criticize “friend and frequent guest of the program” Ted Nugent for calling Secretary of State Hillary Clinton a "worthless bitch."
Or when Glenn Beck accused George Soros of helping to “send the Jews” to "death camps," and repeatedly invoked anti-Semitic stereotypes in attacking Soros, leading to condemnation from several Jewish groups.
Or when Fox's Brian Kilmeade referred to women as “babes,” “chicks,” and “skirts” during a discussion of consumer car preferences.
Or when Kilmeade -- twice in one day -- said that “all terrorists are Muslim.” He later claimed to have “misspoke” -- apparently both times.
Or when Fox's Dave Briggs said that women in Congress might secure more “pork” for their home districts because they are "more irrational," and that men in Congress “are thinking through this more.”
Or when Kilmeade discussed sanctuary spaces created in homes for men and women and asked co-host Gretchen Carlson, “Didn't men give you the kitchen?”
Accountability is what happens at a real news network. But Fox isn't news.