Peterson vs. Negroponte
Reported by Chrish - June 24, 2004 -
On FNL with Shepard Smith today (June 23) the juror dismissed from the Scott Peterson trial got FAR more coverage than the new Ambassador to Iraq, John Negroponte.
In fact, the top 13 minutes of the show were devoted to this non-story within a non-story, and it was only by chance I saw the streamer across the bottom informing us that Negroponte had been sworn in today. Jane Skinner mentioned the ceremony as a headline at the bottom of the hour, giving it the full 15 or so seconds Fox deemed worthy. In contrast, we were treated to 3 more segments rehashing the juror saga, and Shep Smith announced it was "Juror #5 Day".
Shep told us he was getting emails "furious with us" for commenting about this guy. Were they angry that Fox was wasting so much time on something so unimportant, or were they confused and thinking Shep was talking about a sitting juror? He clarified it, saying "he's not on the jury anymore, he has no relevance, no bearing in this case whatsoever." Right; so why are you still talking about him???
During another segment, on the phone with Greta Van Susteren of "On the Record", they learned that the juror (JF) would be a guest on Greta's show this evening. At the end of the show, Shep told us JF was booked for O'Reilly, Greta, Gibson was still working on it, and Hannity and Colmes, "we think so too...He'll probably show up on that weird channel as well."
Comment: Talk about overkill! Are Fox viewers really satisfied with this content? Why would anyone even remotely care about this?
And calling his internationally recognized competitor "that weird channel" struck me as childish.
