Friday Fox Follies – And, They’re Off And Running

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Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 06:06 pm

During a week when both Tea Party darling Marco Rubio and Fox “News” nemesis Hillary “Benghazi” Clinton announced they are running to be the next President of the United States, it’s instructive to contrast the stark difference in how the two candidates are covered on the Fox “News” Channel. Nothing puts the LIE in FaIr and BaLancEd more than an election season, as fair-minded media note every cycle.

Media Matters has, as an ongoing series from one campaign to another, The Fox Primary Continues: New York Times Exposes GOP Presidential Candidates’ Strategy To Reach Fox Viewers. GOP candidates get softballs lobbed over the plate with absolutely no pushback: Rubio on Harry Reid Calling Him a ‘Loser’: Personal Insults ‘Much More Common on the Left,’ because only the left has haters. Meanwhile, Rand Paul’s Wife, Kelley Paul, Tells ‘Fox & Friends’ Her Husband Isn’t At All Sexist, but what’s she gonna say?

Contrast that with the treatment the candidates get in less friendly [read: slavish] forums:

Jorge Ramos Corners Rubio:
Would You Attend a Gay Wedding?

Jake Tapper Presses Marco Rubio:
‘Do You Still Believe in Amnesty?

Tapper to Rubio: ‘You’re the
Candidate of Yesterday’ on Gay Marriage

Lauer to Rubio: How Can GOP Elect You
After ‘One-Term Senator’ Obama Criticisms?

The real contrast from the big wet kiss given Marco Rubio is apparent once Fox “News” goes into Anti-Hillary Mode:

In Hannity Gets Ready For Hillary – Fox News Style from NewsHound Ellen points out:

To make sure Clinton really got trashed, Hannity opened a panel discussion with discredited Hillary-hater, Ed Klein. The other guests were Washington Examiner’s Rebecca Berg, whose Twitter page is headlined, “Berghazi,” and Democratic wanker Doug Schoen.

Hannity’s first question, whether Clinton’s attempts to distance herself from the Obama administration would prompt a backlash from them, was little more than a prompt for Klein to promote his laughable conspiracy theory that the Clinton email story was leaked to the media by the Obama administration. “More is yet to come from the Obamas,” he said ominously.

No blow is too low for Fox “News” to disseminate, as this compendium of headlines prove:

‘Private Jet’ Hannity Complains About Hillary Clinton’s Elitism • Fox’s Tantaros Speculates That Hillary Clinton Went To Chipotle For “Hispanic Outreach” • Fox’s Outnumbered Instructs GOP On How To Attack Hillary Clinton In 2016 – Andrea Tantaros: Republicans Can Deliver A Message To Take Down “That Selfish, Power-Hungry, Insincere, Self-Obsessed Maniac” • O’Reilly: “Hillary Clinton Has An Advantage” Because “It’s Open Season” On White Men In The U.S. • Fox’s Doocy Demands Other Networks Cover Clinton Story They’re Already Covering • Fox Guest Responds To Hillary Clinton Campaign Event By Comparing Her To Karl Marx And Voldemort • Fox Guest: Hillary Event Is as Awkward as Voldemort Hugging Malfoy • Fox’s Bernie Goldberg: Media Won’t Slobber Over Hillary Clinton Like They Did Obama Because “Race Trumps Gender” For Liberals – Goldberg: Media “Will Treat Her Better Than They Treat The Republican Candidate, And That’s What Matters”

Goldberg is wrong because all the media jumped on Chipotlegate. As Mediaite’s Evan McMurray writes in Chipotle, Gay Marriage, and the Partisan Divide in Cable News Hillary Coverage:

[Y]ou’ll be happy to know that the cable news networks did actually devote more time, and more substance, to Clinton’s position on gay marriage, though it was a close call. (Briefly: as revealed by the Washington Blade yesterday morning, Clinton called upon the Supreme Court to declare a nationwide right to same-sex marriage, a shift from her previous statement that its legality should be decided on a state basis; she also ordered a burrito bowl.)

More interesting was the partisan divide of the coverage. CNN and MSNBC had largely gotten over Chipotleghazi by yesterday afternoon; it received only cursory mention on CNN Thursday morning. Both networks devoted segments, whether news or commentary, to Clinton’s position on same-sex marriage, with the lion’s share of the coverage coming from MSNBC evening shows, including Rachel Maddow, All In, and Crossfire.

By contrast, Fox News did not mention Clinton’s position switch on same-sex marriage at all. Its commentary hosts on The Five and Hannity continued to reference the Chipotle stop, though they did not devote full segments to it. Instead, “Chipotle,” now a phenomenological event, was quickly woven into the anti-Clinton narrative as a metonym for either her inauthenticity or her lack of transparency.

As always, the hot take is Stewart Can Barely Take Media Stupidity over Hillary’s Chipotle Visit. Watch:

Meanwhile, Megyn Kelly Grills Bill Burton on Hillary’s Press Availability: ‘Why Don’t They Want to Put Her Out There?’ and Fox’s Ed Henry: When Will Hillary Start Talking to the Press?, hoping to snag that all-important “get.” However, only one of them started to lobby for it as Megyn Kelly Thinks She Should Interview Hillary Clinton – For Clinton’s Own Good. Creating internal tension Megyn Kelly Argues She Would Do a Better Hillary Interview than O’Reilly. That’s got to leave a mark. This as O’Reilly Warns Hillary to Stay Away from Media Matters.

DUMP TRUMP: Fox “News” has Trump Troubles, whether it admits it or not. Whenever a Foxite would start making noises about running for office, Fox “News” would kick them to the curb — appropriately so. Even Mike Huckleberry Hound gave up his Fox perch after he fixed his blank stare on the Oval Office. But, those Foxy Friends, on Fox and Friends, continue to make a regular Monday morning phone call to TheRealDonald, who claims to have formed an exploratory committee. This weekly phone call allows him to attack President Obama, as well as take pot shots at the current and potential GOP field, from the comfort of his own pajamas:

Phony Candidate Donald Trump Complains
About Politicians Being All ‘Talk, Talk, Talk’

BONUS TRUMP: On Cavuto Fox Uses Tax Day To Promote Donald Trump’s Bogus Presidential Candidacy

NOW, THAT’S COMEDY: Fox Entertainment Group’s Simpsons Showrunner to Ted Cruz: We Don’t Love You Back

NOW THAT’S HAGIOGRAPHY: Like Father, Like Son; For Fox News personalities Steve and Peter Doocy, Bergen County was the perfect spot to anchor.

NOW THAT’S FOX “NEWS” RACE RELATIONS: Fox “News” regularly embarrasses itself whenever it talks about issues of race. This week was no exception.

Fox’s Charles Payne Predicts Obama May
Issue Reparations For Slavery In 2016

Sean Hannity Whitesplains To Black Congressman
About Police Shootings And Black-On-Black Crime

Bill O’Reilly Uses Dept. Of Defense Course
To Lament End Of White, Male Privilege

Fox Guest Argues That African Americans
Are Treated Better Than Whites By Police

THE WAR ON ~~CHRISTMAS~~ CHRISTIANS STARTS EARLIER EVERY YEAR: An interesting back and forth as Stossel Schools ‘Crybaby’ O’Reilly Over ‘War On Christianity’ and O’Reilly to Stossel: Christians Are ‘Verbally Being Killed’ in America. While Fox’s John Stossel Debunks O’Reilly’s War On Religion Canard, To Bill O’Reilly, White Christians Are Under Attack But Not African Americans Actually Killed By The Police.

Meanwhile, Bill O’Reilly Blames Bad ‘Killing Jesus’ Reviews On War On Christians, as opposed to understanding “It’s just God’s will.” Besides, if God really existed, She wouldn’t have needed Fox “News” to come to Her defense again this week:

Todd Starnes Crops Obama Quote To
Advance Obama Hates Christians Meme

Fox & Friends Pimps Another
Heavenly Journey Story

Anti-Gay Hate Group Will Bring Fox
News, GOP Hopefuls On A Trip To Israel

FOX BYTES: Fox News Asks If It’s “Time To Revisit” Voter Literacy Test Requirements • Fox & Friends Outraged That Students are Learning about Islam • Steve Doocy And Guest Whine About “Illegals” Getting In State Tuition • Fox & Friends Communist Flag Outrage Story Is Totally Bogus • Fox’s Martha MacCallum On Move To Put Women On U.S. Currency: “I Don’t Like It Being A Women Thing” • Tucker Carlson Thinks It Was Just Awesome That A Toddler Fell Into A Cheetah Pen

FULL DISCLOSURE: Headly Westerfield once wrote for NewsHounds under the nom de plume of Aunty Em. This week he looked Outside The Circus Tent At The Marco Rubio Campaign Kick-Off for PoliticusUSA and described the Three Stooges In The GOP Clown Car for the Not Now Silly Newsroom.