News Hounds

Is FOX Afraid Of Robert Greenwald's Wal-Mart Documentary?

FOX News Watch had a brief discussion about the Wal-Mart War Room claiming that there is a need for the corporation to answer criticism's from different sources citing a LA Times article about Wal-Mart's treatment of employees. Then Jane Hall said, "There's a documentary by this guy who brought us a few other documentaries"
Nobody on the panel would respond to Hall or encourage her to continue the thought.

Looks like Robert Greenwald and WalMart- The High Cost Of Low Price are unmentionables on FOX.

Sometimes, A Good Chuckle is the Only Response

Yesterday (October 15, 2005), during Fox News Watch's "quick takes on the media" segment, one of the topics "discussed" (it took all of 90 seconds), was whether the US media will devote much coverage to the upcoming trial of Saddam Hussein. Host Eric Burns said the "trial begins Wednesday in Baghdad, or, Jim, did I get that wrong? I mean, it doesn't begin Wednesday," but, "is this going to be a lead story or has he faded from consciousness?"

Jim Pinkerton said it has been almost two years since we saw Hussein in jail, "looking like Homer Simpson," wearing underwear, "sort of shaggy and crummy." Pinkerton said Hussein, "lacks that quality of Hitler and tyranny and murder because he's had this sort of period in jail, so we'll see what happens in terms of coverage."

Jane Wells said, "I have a feeling the United States media are not going to give this that much coverage."

Fox News Admits To Being Aligned w/Rush Limbaugh & to Being Part of a "Conservative Team" Working to Put a Radical Conservative on the Supreme Court

The first topic of discussion last night (October 8, 2005) on Fox News Watch was the media's coverage of the nomination of Harriet Miers. The discussion centered around why the "conservative rebellion" against Miers' nomination is getting so much attention.

Long time Fox employee, Cal Thomas, said, "What you have here now, particularly in the media, is a huge growth in the conservative media -- the blogs, the websites, conservative talk radio, and the magazines -- that this is the whole ball game right here. This is the seventh game in the World Series. This is what this team, this conservative team, has been fighting for for years and the conservative media says we're no longer willing to trust a Republican president. We want to see the evidence."

Fox Giggles About Bush's Potty Break Note

Saturday (September 17, 2005) night on Fox News Watch, host Eric Burns brought up the note George Bush wrote while at the UN last week about needing a potty break. Burns trivialized the issue and the panelists giggled as they discussed it.

Burns opened with, "Is this news? Doesn't it lend credence to critics who say we are so concerned with trivia?"

"No Journalist Should Respect That Order"

Saturday (September 10, 2005) on Fox News Watch, host Eric Burns raised the issue of FEMA's ban on photos of dead bodies in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. The consensus among the panelists was summarized by Cal Thomas who said, "No journalist should respect that order." It, "violates the fundamental principles of what it means to be a journalist."

Comment: Not included in the discussion was the news that CNN sued FEMA and on Friday won an injunction preventing any agency from limiting the cable news network's ability to cover any aspect of the Hurricane Katrina story. If Fox agrees with CNN (and other journalists), hopefully it will bring, or join, lawsuits like this in the future.