Ever Wonder Why Tom Adkins Deserves to Be on Bulls and Bears?
Reported by Judy - January 28, 2006
One of the frequent guests on Brenda Buttner's "Bulls and Bears" has been a long-haired conservative named Tom Adkins who specializes in saying outrageous things. He has been identified in various ways -- publisher of commonconservative.com and a real estate agent, for example. But Saturday (January 28, 2006), Brenda Buttner let the cat out of the bag on what this guy's real qualifications are. And (as they say on Fox News), the answer may surprise you.
Adkins was on the show to discuss why buying real estate is a better investment than buying stocks. The stock analysts on the show and Adkins were all talking over each other when Buttner said, "Shut up!" In response to some mock shock from the others, she said, "He's my husband. I can tell him to shut up."
Turns out, she wasn't kidding. If you google Tom Adkins and Brenda Buttner, you will find this: "CommonConservative.com: Tom Adkins- the Modern Conservative Tom Adkins will not have an article this week. He was married to the lovely Brenda Buttner on June 24th, and is on his honeymoon. The staff wishes them well." Clicking on the link doesn't take you to that message, but to a page of Listwebs.com. Perhaps Adkins tried to scrub the information from his own site.
This tidbit of information blurted out by Buttner shines a little light on the seamy ethics of Fox News reporters. What mainstream reporter would interview her spouse (and prior to that, her fiance) on national television repeatedly without disclosing the connection? Does Adkins get paid each time he's on the show? Is Buttner thus enriching herself indirectly by having her husband on? What are his other qualifications for being on the show? He writes about interest rates, real estate, and so on, on his blog, but nobody seems to be noticing. According to its Alexa traffic rank the blog has a a traffic rank of 1,732,027. You'd think it would be higher than that if Adkins' family members looked at it once in awhile.
The commonconservative.com website contains this information about Adkins:
"Founder: Tom Adkins
"Known for biting wit, Tom has left people laughing, crying, angry, but always thinking about the issues. Beneath Tom's ironic style, lies deep theoretical detail. It is not uncommon for readers to finish a Tom Adkins piece saying, 'This is what I wanted to say, but I didn't know how to say it.' Until they read it!
"Tom has been published in the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Washington Times, City Paper, Insight, The Hill, and often picked up via wire services in most major newspapers. He's also appeared on ABC's 'Politically Incorrect', Fox 'New's Beyond the News', 'Hannity & Colmes', CN8's 'It's Your Call' and numerous other shows.
"Tom resides in the Philadelphia area, taking on liberals wherever he finds them."
Biting wit? Just plain mean is more like it. In 2001, Villanova University tried to bar Adkins from introducing Charlton Heston at an event because it said Adkins had threatened violence toward someone he considered a racist, saying the person "should be attacked, smashed, and utterly defeated." A conservative site discusses the incident here. Interestingly, Adkins was chosen as MC for the event by a personal friend who was the organizer. Those personal contacts keep him employed apparently.
Other commentators have noticed Fox News' frequent use of Adkins. Media Matters noted that Adkins was on Neil Cavuto's "Your World" four weeks in a row during which he spewed "vitriolic attacks against Democrats under the guise of economic analysis. FOX News Channel offers no information about Adkins to indicate why the network thinks he is qualified to provide such analysis."
Well, now we know why Adkins was quallified to bash Kerry week in and week out during the 2004 presidential election.
What was that old saying? It's not what you know, it's who you know. And sometimes, who you sleep with.
If you think this was unethical, you might want to contact:
Ian Rae, Exec. VP News : Phone: 212-301-8552; Email: [email protected]
