POLITICO, SUCCESSFULLY SPUN

I realize it's no surprise, but right-wing spin -- or perhaps just Fox News spin -- is the lead story at Politico right now:

... when it comes to keeping the "birther" questions front and center, [CNN's Lou] Dobbs can't hold a candle to his mocking competitors at MSNBC.

On the same day that Dobbs was shushing Crowley, MSNBC was covering the "birther" issue on "Hardball," "Countdown," "The Ed Show" and "The Rachel Maddow Show." All four shows had touched on the issue the day before, too, along with dayside hosts David Shuster and Tamron Hall, who devoted about six minutes -- an eternity in TV news -- to an interview with birther movement leader Dr. Orly Taitz, beamed in by satellite from Tel Aviv.

... by giving the birthers such a platform -- even to knock them off of it -- is MSNBC giving them more legitimacy than they deserve?

... Fox News has given relatively little attention to the birthers....

Hmmm ... giving heavy coverage to fringe figures whose theories make your ideological opponents look bad.

Gosh, Fox News would never do that, would it?

You are here: THE O'REILLY FACTOR
Univ. of Colorado Professor Ward Churchill Speaks
Wednesday, February 02, 2005

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TALKING POINTS
An Update on the Ward Churchill Situation
Thursday, February 03, 2005
By Bill O'Reilly

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You are here: THE O'REILLY FACTOR
Ward Churchill's Cult of Personality
Thursday, February 10, 2005

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TALKING POINTS
Professor Ward Churchill is a Traitor
Thursday, March 03, 2005
By Bill O'Reilly

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FOXNEWS.COM HOME > THE BIG STORY W/ GIBSON AND NAUERT
University of Colorado President Wants Professor Ward Churchill Fired
Thursday, May 31, 2007

JOHN GIBSON, HOST: It is the "Big Development." University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill fired up many Americans by teaching his students to think of some of the 9/11 victims as Nazis. Now the president of the school wants him fired....

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TALKING POINTS
The Demise of Ward Churchill
Thursday, July 26, 2007
By Bill O'Reilly

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You are here: THE O'REILLY FACTOR
Dennis Miller Riffs on Ward Churchill and Lindsay Lohan
Thursday, July 26, 2007

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FOXNEWS.COM HOME > HANNITY & COLMES
Univ. of Colorado Pres. Hank Brown Defends Ward Churchill Firing
Friday, July 27, 2007

TALKING POINTS
A New Ward Churchill Using Race-Based Hatred
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
By Bill O'Reilly

That's just a partial list. More here.

(And of course Churchill is a far more marginal figure than the birthers -- there's never been a poll showing that 58% of Democrats, or even 5.8% or 0.58%, think or suspect that the victims of 9/11 were "little Eichmanns," nor has anyone shouting "Little Eichmanns!" ever led a mob to shut down a congressman's town hall meeting.)

To its credit, Politico notes that Fox News has been guilty of the same journalistic sin on occasion, specifically citing the Ward Churchill story.

... Oh, no, wait, it doesn't. There's nothing whatsoever in the Politico story about Ward Churchill, or any other historical footnote who's been a target of Fox saturation coverage simply because he can be used to try to make liberalism look bad.

Nor is there any mention of the fact that Fox's Fox Nation Web site gave the birther story front-page status on multiple occasions...




...before the folks at Fox concluded that it was better to criticize the birther story.



Well, a win for Fox -- Politico took Rupert Murdoch's talking points on this and rewrote them as, um, journalism.