UTTERLY UNSURPRISING HYPOCRISY

Fox now:



Which leads to a Fox story that includes this factoid:

... The deaths of seven U.S. soldiers killed in Afghanistan on Monday received just 1/20th of the network television news coverage devoted to Jackson, according to an analysis by the Media Research Center, a Virginia-based news analysis organization.

The seven deaths garnered less than one minute of coverage on ABC, CBS and NBC evening newscasts combined, including just 13 seconds on CBS, compared to more than 13 minutes of Jackson-related news. That's a 60-to-1 disparity, the analysis found.

“This is a prime example of why network television news audiences are disappearing before our eyes," Media Research Center President Brent Bozell said. "There is no justification for determining that the death of a celebrity over a week ago merits 20 times more news coverage than the tragic deaths of American soldiers in Afghanistan."

NewsBusters has more from Bozell and the MRC.

Now let's go back to the spring of 2004:

"Fox News Sunday's" Chris Wallace announced Friday that he's planning to respond to ABC "Nightline" host Ted Koppel's decision to air photos and names of GIs Killed in Iraq, calling Koppel's broadcast "a stunt."

"I think it is such a stunt," Wallace told WRKO-Boston radio host Howie Carr....

More:

Upset with the April 30 recitation of the names of U.S. military personnel killed during the current Iraq war on ABC's "Nightline," "Fox News Sunday" offered its own list Sunday: an accounting of what it called U.S. accomplishments in the war.

Fox's Chris Wallace ... first told "Fox News Sunday" viewers on May 2 that "Nightline" erred when it aired "The Fallen," in which Koppel read the names while viewers saw photos of the war dead....

And from Bozell at the time:

Brent Bozell, president of Media Research Center, said, "I think it's intellectually dishonest to deny the partisan nature of this broadcast. Of course, it's partisan! What's the purpose? There's only one goal in mind: It's to turn public opinion against the war."

MRC and Fox, of course, have no partisan motive whatsoever now, right?