Fox News 'Source' for UN Story Has Multiple Fox Connections
Reported by Judy - May 9, 2006
News organizations are supposed to be independent from their sources, but Fox News is notorious for ignoring that canon of journalism. Yet another example surfaced Tuesday (May 9, 2006) on "Dayside" in a report on the formation of a new human rights organization at the United Nations.
The report featured a brief interview with Anne Bayefsky of the Hudson Institute, who was griping about countries campaigning for election to the new body by giving out chocolates or pens, and distributing fliers. In interviewing Bayefsky, Fox News was interviewing an ideological cousin.
Bayefsky runs the Hudson Institute's anti-UN website, which features the work of people like Charles Krauthammer, who is a Fox News regular on "Special Report with Brit Hume," and Stephen Hayes, who works for the Weekly Standard , which is owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corps. Bayevsky also has been published in the Weekly Standard.
A little too close for comfort, especially when it's not disclosed. Couldn't Fox have found someone else to interview about the UN? Of course, but in this case, it looks like Fox News reporters wanted to know the answers to their questions before they asked them.
