In David Folkenflik's excellent new book, Murdoch's World: The Last of the Old Media Empires, there's a very telling anecdote about Fox News refusing to admit a mistake and take responsibility for what was almost surely erroneous, if not downright deceitful, reporting by Geraldo Rivera from Afghanistan. Instead, Fox's PR machine let loose a flood of attacks on Folkenflik when he caught the error.
Politico published the following today, excerpted and adapted from Folkenflik's book:
On an early December day, (Geraldo Rivera) showed footage from Afghanistan, twice in a 24-hour period, in which he prayed over the site where he said three American soldiers and numerous allied Afghan fighters had been killed by a U.S. bombing raid in what was euphemistically called a “friendly fire” incident. He said he had seen their tattered uniforms and showed himself, on video, reciting the Lord’s Prayer.
There was a problem, however: Rivera filed his report less than a day later from Tora Bora, a cave complex in the White Mountains roughly 300 miles northeast of the site where the bombs actually fell in Kandahar. I talked to reporters in Afghanistan, people who handled logistics at rival networks, senior staffers with international relief agencies and human rights groups active there, and U.S. military officials. None of them thought the journey from Tora Bora to Kandahar and back was feasible by road in less than 24 hours, while an official at the Pentagon told me that Rivera certainly had not hitched a ride with U.S. forces or aircraft.
After some pugnacious behavior on the part of Fox News' PR department, Folkenflik was finally able to interview Rivera who said he had gotten mixed up with another incident. But when Folkenflik chased down those details, that latter incident had not happened until AFTER Geraldo's praying report.
Folkenflik continues:
I wrote a (follow up) article, a few days later, weighing whether a television news network had an obligation to acknowledge and correct an error such as the one Rivera had made. The Drudge Report picked that one up—and the second story ricocheted around the world. Fox put out a tepid statement to the AP between Christmas and New Year’s Eve—a media dead zone—stating that Rivera had made an “honest mistake.” No formal correction appeared on air. All this landed me on Fox’s blacklist.
Fox News accountability: It's what they demand from others (unless it's expedient not to) and not themselves.
By the way, I'm in the middle of reading Murdoch's World, which I highly recommend to anyone interested in Fox, Murdoch or the media. I'll have a fuller write up of it when I finish.
“DUH, LOOK OUT FOR THAT FOIST STEP — IT’S A LULU!”
:^)
“There’s enough dirt on Ruthless Rupy and News Corporation to fill 10 landfills, if more.”
Dear Antoinette: What about the Grand Canyon?
:^)
All of this comes from the top of the food chain. Or, top of the News Corporation’s horrid skyscraper in midManhattan, via Ruthless’ glass office.
Based on their actions in the U.K., the masses have learned what really goes on behind the scenes: Blackmail, hackings, bribery, adultery, payouts, etc.
Also, fault lies on these treacherous senior producers, producers and field producers, particularly three of them: One female, and two males. Amateurs who could not run a lemonade stand. These clowns call the shots, and we hold them 1,000 percent responsible for anything that airs on this wasted network.
The anchors and hosts’ only job is to look pretty in front of the camera, and read the teleprompter properly. Most of them are not the brightest streetlight on the block.
Pssst…the Fox “News” cafeteria Catholics don’t have 100 percent control of their shows.