Fox management asserts that its official "news" programming lives up to the Fox News logo of being "fair & balanced." Fox also uses the phrase "real journalism" to describe the reporting that is done during the official "news" shows. That these claims are ludicrous was demonstrated by a July propaganda blast of three "news" shows that not only baselessly smeared an abortion provider, but used video, from the radical anti-choice group, Operation Rescue, which even the Fox reporter had to finally admit had not been verified. That the "news" programming is clearly in the service of an anti-choice agenda was also shown in a subsequent "news" show which, in it coverage of alleged clinic malfeasance, included a Fox reporter's ufnounded accusation about the clinic. But what was even more interesting is that the phrase used was straight out of the playbook of the radical, anti-abortion movement. Words matter, especially if you're claiming to be "real journalism, fair and balanced."

Last month, during a three "news" program propaganda blast aimed at smearing a Maryland abortion provider, the claim was made that he had previously performed a "botched abortion" - a claim not supported by reality, given that the woman suffered from rare complications that also occur during childbirth. In a Bret Baier news piece, later in the month, Fox reporter Molly Henneberg reported on accusations of clinic malfeasance made by former employees of a Delaware Planned Parenthood. She made the statement, as Fox fact, that "this is the same Delaware clinic that made headlines [only on anti-choice blogs] earlier this year when five women were rushed to the hospital after botched abortions."

This crack "real journalism" is based on information presented to anti-choice groups by Operation Rescue clinic harassers who claimed that they intercepted 911 phone calls which requested emergency transportation for a patient, to a local hospital, with medical complications. These complications morphed, in the anti-choice propaganda world, into "botched abortions," despite there being absolutely no evidence that this was the case, given that "complications" can arise in any medical procedure. That these problems do exist doesn't mean that the procedure was "botched," but this is how the anti-choicers roll and Fox obviously is rolling with them.

 Fox News is "fair & balanced?" You be the judge.