Fw: Guffaws About a Fox Guarding the White House

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Thursday, April 27, 2006 7:35 PM

Guffaws About a Fox Guarding the White House

 

 

Published on Thursday, April 27, 2006 by the Los Angeles Times

 

Guffaws About a Fox Guarding the White House

 

by Matea Gold

 

 

 

NEW YORK - The selection of Fox News host Tony Snow on Wednesday as the

next White House press secretary reignited a debate about the network's

political leanings.

 

The liberal blogosphere chortled about the choice. " Snow, like everybody

else on the payroll at Fox, is already a White House spokesman, " the blog

Reclusive Leftist read, one of many liberal sites that mocked the move. " Is

there really a need to give him an office in the West Wing and pay him a

government salary? "

 

The Democratic National Committee took a swipe at the cable network as

well, with spokeswoman Karen Finney calling Snow's hiring " an interdepartmental

move from one part of the conservative infrastructure to another. "

 

Fox News anchors responded to the chatter about the White House tapping

one of the network's own.

 

" The joke has been all along, we've been hearing it all day on the radio

and stuff, 'Tony's not really changing jobs; he's just changing buildings,' "

Shepard Smith said on-air Wednesday afternoon. " The conspiracy theories abound.

They're baseless, of course. I promise. "

 

In the decade since Fox News Channel launched and then overtook CNN as the

top-rated rated cable news network, it has contended with criticism that it

leans to the right, despite its " fair and balanced " slogan.

 

Fox News vigorously rejects that notion, saying that its format mirrors

that of many newspapers, which provide news stories as well as editorials.

Though many of its best-known personalities such as Sean Hannity and Brit Hume -

to whom Snow gave his only television interview Wednesday - offer outspoken

conservative views, straight news programming dominates much of the network's

daytime schedule.

 

Fox has taken pains to shield its news coverage from charges of bias. In

2000, network officials reprimanded Snow, then a political analyst and host of

" Fox News Sunday, " for speaking to a GOP youth group during the Republican

National Convention in Philadelphia.

 

But Snow's White House appointment reinforces for some the perception that

Fox News is the go-to network for the administration, media observers said.

 

" Much of the public will say, 'Suspicions confirmed,' " said Robert

Zelnick, chairman of Boston University's journalism department, adding that such

sentiments understandably ruffle the network. " The essence of journalism is

independence and not hewing to any particular line. "

 

Fox News said in a statement, " We're proud of the work Tony did for Fox as

a commentator, and we wish him all the best in his second stint at the White

House. " Snow previously was a speechwriter to President George H.W. Bush.

 

Network officials declined to comment further.

 

Snow's hiring comes as the cable channel, whose ratings overwhelmingly

beat CNN and MSNBC, has sought to burnish its news credentials. For example,

Smith recently spent two days in Jerusalem covering the Israeli elections, and

anchor Bill Hemmer reported from Iraq for a week in March.

 

But it hasn't helped matters that Vice President Dick Cheney - who in

February gave Hume an exclusive interview about his accidental shooting of a

hunting companion - has indicated that Fox News is his favorite news outlet, a

fact that he joked about at a recent Radio and Television Correspondents Assn.

dinner.

 

Snow's selection to replace Scott McClellan only gives critics more

fodder.

 

Weekly Standard editor and network analyst Bill Kristol acknowledged as

much, joking to Smith that " Fox News will just take over the Bush White House

now, " and quipping that " On the Record's " Greta Van Susteren could be named

White House counsel.

 

" This is what the world is going be saying, though, " Smith replied. " You

know, we're in bed with the White House, whatever. "

 

Kristol said: " That will end quickly enough - the moment we all criticize

the White House and Tony's there defending it. "

 

Copyright 2006 Los Angeles Times