The RightWing Lie Machine

Following are examples of other FOX News "hard news" correspondents'
and anchors' engaging in falsehoods, distortions and smears:

· Major Garrett, general assignment correspondent, spun the release
of the Osama bin Laden video immediately prior to the November 2
election to favor Bush; repeated the false claim that Democrats were
perpetrating voter fraud in Philadelphia during the 2004 presidential
campaign; miscast Democratic lawyers as eager to legally challenge the
results of the November 2 election; and distorted support for Kerry
among veterans who served with him.

· Jim Angle, senior White House correspondent, repeated a Washington
Times misquote of Kerry, alleging he had supported a pre-emptive war
with Iraq in 1997; echoed White House on release of Bush's military
records; and presented a misleading explanation of an August, 2004
Congressional Budget Office report to blunt the criticism of Bush's tax
cuts.

· Greg Jarrett, anchor, falsely claimed that the House of
Representatives implemented the 9-11 Commission's recommendations on
intelligence reform in October, 2004; and repeated Republican attacks
on the Democratic National Convention, Kerry, and his running mate,
Senator John Edwards.

· Brian Wilson, FOX News correspondent, falsely referred to the
Democratic Texas district attorney investigating House Majority Leader
Tom DeLay's (R-TX) ethical violations as "intensely partisan"; and
selectively cited polls to suggest Kerry received a negative "bounce"
after the Democratic National Convention.

· Trace Gallagher, Los Angeles bureau correspondent, while gushing
over Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-CA), wrongly claimed that he had
balanced California's budget.

· Chris Wallace, FOX News Sunday host, repeated the Republican
talking point that Kerry had been inconsistent on Iraq policy;
ridiculed Kerry's wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, by comparing her to Eva
Peron; and drew a misleading comparison between the tonnage of missing
high explosives from the Al Qaqaa weapons facility in Iraq and the
tonnage of all munitions that had been secured in Iraq.

"Brit doesn't do opinion television. ... [A] hard news show really has
to have the facts."

AILES: [FOX News Channel managing editor and chief Washington
correspondent] Brit [Hume] doesn't do opinion television during his
[show]. [FOX News Channel hosts] Bill [O'Reilly] and Sean [Hannity] do
opinions. And I think that's quite clear. So my opinion of something
may not be accurate, based on facts, it is my opinion, whereas a hard
news show really has to have the facts.

Hume has often run afoul of the facts on his "hard news" program,
Special Report with Brit Hume. For example, he claimed that coalition
forces found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq; provided false cover
for Sinclair Broadcast Group after its decision not to run the
anti-Kerry documentary, Stolen Honor: Wounds that Never Heal; lied
about Kerry cutting weapons systems to defend cuts made by Vice
President *** Cheney; falsely claimed that Bush actually said that
Iraq did not pose an imminent threat; and falsely claimed (along with
other FOX personalities) that a school in Cupertino, California, had
banned the Declaration of Independence because it mentions God.

"There's an opinion segment at the end of Brit's show, where
journalists ... There is a journalistic standard for journalists."

AILES: And so there's an opinion segment at the end of Brit's show,
where journalists -- now, we don't mix journalists and spinners, you
know. Some shows do that. They'll take [CNN host and columnist] Bob
Novak and [CNN and PBS host] Tucker Carlson and put them against two
guys who can say they had lunch with Martians. There's no journalistic
standard for spinners. There is a journalistic standard for
journalists.

Special Report with Brit Hume ends with a daily "All-Star Panel," which
regularly features Weekly Standard editor Fred Barnes, Roll Call
executive editor Morton Kondracke, Washington Post staff writer Jeffrey
Birnbaum, and Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer. Following
are examples of their "journalistic standards":

· Fred Barnes selectively cited a Center for Media and Public Affairs
study to refute Kerry's post-election accusation that FOX News had
launched unwarranted attacks at him, when in fact CMPA findings
supported Kerry's charges; falsely asserted that Kerry was against a
ban on so-called "partial-birth abortion"; and wrongly denied that his
publication, The Weekly Standard, had ever alleged that gay marriage
would "destroy the institution of marriage."

· Morton Kondracke falsely accused Kerry of distorting information
about the International Atomic Energy Agency's pre-Iraq war warning
about the high explosives at the Al Qaqaa munitions facility; repeated
the false charge by the discredited Swift Boat Veterans for Truth that
Kerry did not deserve all his Purple Heart citations; and claimed that
"for all I know," the growing insurgency in Iraq was "designed ... to
help elect John Kerry."

· Charles Krauthammer claimed "we haven't had any discussion" of
Kerry's anti-Vietnam testimony, when he and many others had already
discussed it on a number of previous occasions; quoted Kerry out of
context to falsely claim that Kerry had initially supported the use of
local Afghan warlords in attempting to capture Osama bin Laden; and
repeated the unsubstantiated assertion that terrorists wanted to see
Bush defeated in the 2004 presidential election.

· Jeffrey Birnbaum wrongly attributed a belittling quote from a
"Doonesbury" comic strip to former vice president Al Gore instead of to
its original target, former President George H.W. Bush; implied that
the pre-election release of the Osama bin Laden video would aid
President Bush; and joined in with other conservatives in distorting
Kerry's record on intelligence spending.

While he was defending the distortions of his employees, Ailes made a
distortion of his own about ABC News President David Westin:

I saw David Westin the other day take a shot at FOX News. Now,
David is the process of trying to turn himself into [former CBS News
president] Fred Friendly. He's a corporate lawyer who's trying to be a
great journalist. But he has got some problems... He's the guy who had
his head of politics [ABC News political director Mark Halperin] during
the election basically come out and say they [ABC] didn't have to be
fair, they should support Kerry in the debates. I find that odd. I
think David's got a lot of work to do in house before he goes out
taking a shot at us.

Washington Post staff writer Howard Kurtz noted in a December 13
Washington Post "Media Notes" article that previewed Ailes' December 19
appearance. Kurtz wrote:

Ailes mischaracterized a memo from ABC's political director, Mark
Halperin, as arguing that "they didn't have to be fair, they should
support Kerry in the debates." Halperin wrote that while Bush and John
Kerry should be called on exaggerations and misstatements, the Bush
campaign was engaging in more distortions, and "that doesn't mean we
reflexively and artificially hold both sides 'equally' accountable when
the facts don't warrant that."

- S.S.M.

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