Fox News never stops accusing President Obama of being soft on ISIS. But today, when Fox acknowledged United States airstrikes caused “a big setback” for the group, Fox couldn’t be bothered to do more than provide a brief report.
On Americas Newsroom this morning, cohost Leland Vittert reported that U.S. air strikes on an ISIS convoy had killed at least 250 fighters and destroyed at least 40 vehicles. Vittert called the U.S. attack “among the deadliest ever in the military campaign against the Islamic State.”
But after that brief announcement, there was no Pentagon or national security correspondent to discuss the significance of the air strikes, no panel to provide analysis, no retired colonels to praise the mission’s success.
The military also provided video of the convoy being attacked, which made for pretty compelling television, so lack of visuals were no reason to keep the report so short. But I think we can guess the reason.
America’s Newsroom airs from 9-11 AM, which is during what Fox considers its objective news programming.
Think “no spin” Bill O’Reilly will be discussing it? I doubt it. About 10 minutes later, there was a teaser for tonight’s O’Reilly Factor in which Bill said, “Will President Obama go down in history as failing to confront Islamic terrorism? Special analysis next Factor.” The video cut from O’Reilly to Obama, then to pickup trucks full of ISIS fighters.
Watch it below, from the June 30 America’s Newsroom.
(Many thanks to reader kdg for assistance with this post.)