O'Reilly: FOX News Is Fair
Reported by Marie Therese - October 5, 2004 -
(Begin excerpt.) BILL O'REILLY, HOST: In the "Factor Follow-Up" segment tonight, the investigation into exactly what happened at the CBS document gate situation is in motion right now. There's no question Dan Rather and CBS News have taken a pounding. And over the weekend, Tom Brokaw and Peter Jennings stood up for Mr. Rather at a conference sponsored by "New Yorker" magazine.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TOM BROKAW, NBC ANCHOR : What is I think is highly inappropriate is what's going on across the Internet, a kind of political jihad against Dan Rather and CBS News that is quite outrageous.
PETER JENNINGS, ABC ANCHOR : We have no idea what the independent investigation is going to produce, but the one thing I feel quite strongly about and I've said this to Dan and I say it to everybody else, I don't think you ever judge a man by one event in his career.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'REILLY: All right, with us now is "New Yorker" magazine media writer Ken Auletta, who moderated the event.
You know, I got criticized here because I wouldn't come down on Rather and tear him to pieces. And you know, although the evidence is over the years that Dan Rather favors the Democratic party or at least the left spectrum. I just didn't want to get in on tearing a guy to pieces. And I think that was in play here with Rather and Brokaw, because it's kinds of a club, right?
KEN AULETTA, "THE NEW YORKER": Well, there's no question. These are not friends. They don't come together that often except on panels, but Dan Rather was clearly down. And he walked in very tense. And I think there was a natural human reaction on the part of both Brokaw and Jennings to kind of lift him up.
O'REILLY: Yes, they just felt sorry for him because all of us in the public eye broadcasting every day are under intense media scrutiny, intense pressure, criticized all day long. And I was happy to see Brokaw and Jennings stick up for Rather. And I think it was a good thing to do.
Brokaw took it a little bit farther in saying it was a right wing deal and they're pounding him on the right, correct?
AULETTA: He blamed the bloggers. He said the bloggers were going after him. And he said they had a jihad against Rather and he disagreed with that.
O'REILLY: The conservative people, though...
AULETTA: Yes, he...
O'REILLY: ...he particularly singled them out.
AULETTA: He did single out the conservatives.
Later in the interview:
O'REILLY: Hey, I'm standing on a platform for the debate in Miami on Friday. And Brokaw's right next to me, OK? And you know how he opens his show? On a day when there's chaos, and destruction, and death in Iraq, we are having the debate in Miami. You know, you can frame anything you want, but I'm looking over at him going did you have to frame it that way? That's the kind of stuff that these guys do all the time. And that's why people watch Fox because we try to stay away from that.
AULETTA: Wait. Wait.
O'REILLY: Go ahead. You can reply.
AULETTA: Fox stays away from this?
O'REILLY: I don't think we frame -- in fact, if you watch the Shepard Smith broadcast, and I hope you do, I don't think you'll ever find framing like that on the introduction to an important news story.
AULETTA: Well, I'm not arguing your framing point...
O'REILLY: Right.
AULETTA: But I mean, I've seen Fox -- I've watched Fox News. And they frame things the way you accuse NBC of doing.
O'REILLY: How, give me an example?
AULETTA: Well, they talk -- when mission accomplished, last May 1...
O'REILLY: Right.
AULETTA: ...or a year ago May, I mean, that was treated on Fox News as if -- as a celebratory event.
O'REILLY: Yes, because the forces -- you know, I think this has been misinterpreted as a political pep rally. It was we were complimenting and acknowledging the great work done by our armed forces. So -- and I think that was in context.
AULETTA: There was actually a breathless quality to the coverage of the president.
O'REILLY: Right, well, we can discuss that all day long. But I'll always say that I think that we try to be fair here. In fact, you know, the orders have come down, be as fair as you possibly can be. And I -- you know, as an analyst, I don't have to be fair. And I try to be. (End of excerpt.)
Excerpts from the transcript of O'Reilly's interview with Ken Auletta aired on The O'Reilly Factor. To view the entire transcript go to The O'Reilly Factor.
Comment
I suggest that Mr. O'Reilly read through the News Hounds' postings. He will soon be disabused of his misguided belief that FOX News does not "frame" its reports to favor a political POV.
I love the qualifiers used in his sentence "In fact, you know, the orders have come down, be as fair as you possibly can be."
"As you possibly can be"? That leaves the FOX News guys (and gals) off the hook - they can always argue "But, your honor, it wasn't possible for me to be fair and balanced. After all, I HATE these people and their pinhead, liberal, anti-American viewpoint. As a good opinion journalist I simply HAD to be biased because, you see, the elite media is NEVER fair to my side of the argument."
