Despite Megyn Kelly's hilarious suggestion that Fox News had given Democrats a disproportionate amount of airtime during today's Congressional hearing on Benghazi, the truth is that Republicans got more than twice as much time on the "fair and balanced" network during the hearing. If you follow me on Twitter, you saw me tweet about it. But Media Matters did the math and confirmed my observations with hard data.
Media Matters reported:
For over an hour, Fox stayed live on the hearings without a single interruption. During this time, the network showed 32 minutes of Republican committee chairman Rep. Darrell Issa's (CA) questions and witness responses. But when Issa yielded the floor to the ranking Democratic committee member, Rep. Elijah Cummings (MD), for his turn to question witnesses, Fox cut to commercial, breaking live footage for the first time.
Rather than immediately returning live to Cummings' questions after the commercial break, Happening Now host Jon Scott instead spoke to Fox contributor John Bolton about the hearing, while a split-screen showed the hearing and Cummings' questioning continue. In total, Fox aired only two minutes of Cummings' questions and witness responses before returning to commercial break.
During America Live, Kelly talked about the "lopsided" coverage she wanted to "even" out in terms of "the same number of Democrats and Republicans," but it was clear she was suggesting Republicans had gotten the short shrift. She made a point of saying she'd get back to the questioning by Republican Congressman John Mica, then broke into the testimony of Democratic Congressman Stephen Lynch in order to chat with a Fox colleague. At the time Kelly spoke of her concerns about the lopsided coverage, Media Matters counted 46 minutes of live coverage for Republicans and 19 minutes for Democrats.
Well, I’m not getting why it’s hilarious. Per FoxNoise rules and regulations, the simple fact that the Dems got ANY airtime would be giving Dems “a disproportionate amount of airtime.”
I just wish that the Democratic Party as a whole would issue blanket instructions to its membership that they should not simply avoid, but adamantly turn down, any invitations extended by FoxNoise as the network doesn’t meet what the requirements that Democratic Party considers for a responsible, legitimate news network. And that any Dems who do agree to go on a FoxNoise program, upon being “welcomed” by the host, say “Thank you, and this is my final comment for the remainder of the program as nothing I say will be given any consideration whatsoever” and then remain mute for the rest of the show (and, if anyone wishes to make the point a bit more dramatically, pull out a roll of duct tape, pull off a strip and put it over his mouth). As noted, it’s not like the FoxNoise folks are going to respect their Democratic guests’ comments or viewpoints, so it’s a bit absurd for any Dem to go on the show without making a significant point at the very start.
Newsbusters attacks CNN and MSNBC for showing the hearing taped, while Fox started it on time-
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/scott-whitlock/2013/05/08/fox-news-carries-benghazi-hearing-wall-wall-cnn-joins-noon-and-msnbc
Six Hours later, they lie that MSNBC didn’t cover it at all:
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/scott-whitlock/2013/05/08/fox-viewers-get-see-108-minutes-live-benghazi-hearings-msnbc-nothing
The right really is running in lockstep with this. Maybe Bozell should remove the screengrab of MSNBC’s live coverage, because the last I checked, if MSNBC joined at 12:17 to Fox News’ 11:36, that’s joining in 41 minutes late.
MSNBC gave it 67 minutes live, and hardly ignored it throughout the morning. They also discussed and showed highlights from the missing 41 minutes later in the day. That’s hardly “zero coverage,” unless you go by whatever skewed standard the mentor of Mark lives by when it suits him.
But how much you want to bet at least one Fox News host will repeat this load, anyways?