Fox News Becomes GOP Tool, Helps Meg

18 August 2010 |permalink | email article

THE network no longer need pretend that it is a “fair and balanced” news organization, or defend itself against accusations that it is an agent of the Republican Party. Home to conservative commentators Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck and with former Bush administration officials, past and potentially future presidential candidates, and Fox contributors like Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich on the payroll, the proof is clear – no need for a fair and independent media.

Bloomberg News reported Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, the media giant which owns Fox News and the Wall Street Journal, has donated $1 million to the Republican Governor’s Association, the GOP organization that helps coordinate Republican gubernatorial campaigns and pays for independent ads in support of their candidates.

Politico got a compelling quote from a News Corp. spokesman: “News Corporation believes in the power of the free market, and the RGA’s pro-business agenda supports our priorities at this most crucial time in our economy.”

Media Matters, long a leading watchdog group, was told sixteen months ago by a senior Fox News executive that the network “sees itself as the voice of the opposition.“ Last April, for example, Media Matters showed how Fox News hosts and contributors have raised millions of dollars for GOP candidates and causes in the 2010 election cycle.

With Fox News on the Republican team it will be interesting to observe its role in promoting billionaire Meg Whitman’s quest to become California governor. Look for heavy network spending, and Meg to become a ubiquitous guest.

What they said

“But let’s be clear about one thing: The tea party movement is not seeking a junior partnership with the Republican Party, but a hostile takeover of it.” – Dick Armey, a former House Republican majority leader, and Freedomworks chairman.

“People can differ on whether, as a matter of policy, states should allow same-sex marriage. The robust debate on that topic should not be short-circuited by judicial fiat.” – Edwin Meese III, former U.S. attorney general, who said the Prop. 8 ruling ignores precedent, evidence and common sense.

“Now the story ends…The art of fiction is dead…Only the utterly impossible, the inexpressibly fantastic, can ever be plausible again.” – Legendary sportswriter Red Smith describing the epic home run by Bobby Thomson for the New York Giants against the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1951 to climax baseball’s most memorable pennant drive, and the most dramatic play in baseball history. Thomson, 86, died Tuesday. 

322