Fox News Quotes Syrian Propaganda To Suggest Obama Emboldened Assad And Iran

BY IGOR VOLSKY/Think Progress

Fox News’ Chris Wallace referenced Syrian propaganda to suggest that President Obama handed a victory to the Syrian regime by asking Congress to authorize military action against President Bashar Assad’s alleged use of chemical weapons.

During his interview with Secretary of State John Kerry for Fox News Sunday, Wallace quoted “officials in Damascus” and a Syria state-run newspaper — Al-Thawra — to argue that the administration has shown weakness in failing to unilaterally strike Syria after presenting evidence that the regime carried out a chemical attack against its own people last month. “Haven’t you handed Syria and Iran at least a temporary victory,” Wallace asked:

WALLACE: You talk about this is going to make it worse for Assad. After the president announced his decision, officials in Damascus were saying that the president had flinched. Had made a joke of the American administration. A newspaper out in the streets of Damascus calls this, “the start of the historic American retreat.” Haven’t you handed Syria and Iran at least a temporary victory?

KERRY: I don’t believe so at all and that is in the hands of the Congress of the U.S. The president has made his decision. The president wants to stand up and make certain that we uphold the international norm…. I think the Assad regime needs to recognize that they have refocused the energy of the American people on him, on his regime.

Al-Thawra, “which as a government outlet reflects regime thinking, also claimed that Obama’s reluctance to take military action stems from his ‘sense of implicit defeat and the disappearance of his allies.’”

During his appearance on all five Sunday political talk shows, Kerry stressed that Obama believes that he has the “right” to launch military action against Syria, but argued that Congressional authorization would only strengthen the U.S. response. He predicted that Congress would vote in favor of military strikes.

On Sunday, the Syrian opposition issued a statement urging lawmakers to approve military action. “If the free world fails to respond to such an outrageous breach of international norms, dictators around the world will be encouraged in their efforts to follow the example set by Assad,” it said.

Fox Moderator Chris Wallace: Debates Are "Stupid," Shun Policy Issues

by Eric Hananoki/Media Matters

Though Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace has moderated four Republican debates, that doesn't mean he has a very high opinion of their value to voters. During an interview on today's The Mike Gallagher Show, Wallace denounced the nineteen debates as "stupid" and unnecessary.    

"Let's really get serious. It is ridiculous how many debates there have been," Wallace began. "This is the nineteenth debate. It is insane that there have been nineteen debates."

Wallace admitted that journalists gravitate toward questions about political horse racing at the expense of policy issues because policy questions "have been asked to death" and don't get as much headlines.

"I was a moderator on the panel of four of these debates, and they have been asked to death, 'What are you going -- What would you do to get the country working again? What would you do about Iran and the bomb? What would you do on immigration?" Wallace said.

"You're asked -- it's been asked, and answered, over and over again, so what you find yourself going to, because, one, it's new, and two, quite frankly, it'll make news, is, 'They've been saying terrible things about each other, their campaigns have been saying terrible things about each other on the trail, let's get them into a fight.'"

Wallace added: "Come on, if you were in that situation, would you really say, 'Well, tell me your tax policy?' I'm not saying it's a great moment in journalism, but on the other hand, they have been asked about almost everything a million times."

Wallace continued his criticism later, calling debates "stupid" and akin to "a car race. You really want to see if there's going to be a wreck or something like that." Wallace concluded, "They shouldn't be having these debates in the first place."

Wallace isn't alone in his feelings about the frequency of the debates. A former RNC chairman toldPolitico that the number of debates has gotten "out of hand" and Karl Rove recently wrote that "[d]ebates have nearly crippled campaigns." Conversely, The Huffington Post's Michael Calderonereported that CNN's Sam Feist and John King both "argue that numerous debates have been good for democracy."

Wallace's feelings aside, Fox News executives have used the debates as a way to highlight the purported difference between their "straight news" and opinion divisions. Fox News recently gave The New York Times -- a frequent recipient of the network's attacks -- access to its preparation for its last debate.

Fox News' Hannity Praises Gingrich's Attack On Fox News Colleague Chris Wallace

Wallace Encourages Fox Viewers To Remain Misinformed On Climate Change

by Shauna Theel

On Fox News Sunday, Chris Wallace criticized a University of Maryland study which indicated that Fox News viewers are more misinformed than the consumers of other news media. Wallace said the study labeled those who "questioned whether climate change is occurring" as misinformed, and suggested that doing so would be improper.

The study actually asked, "Do you think that MOST SCIENTISTS believe that" 1) Climate change is occurring, 2) Views are evenly divided or 3) Climate change is not occurring. Noting that the correct answer is that most scientists believe that climate change is occurring, the study found that of those who said they watched Fox News "almost every day," 60 percent got it wrong -- significantly higher than the consumers of other news sources.

A Stanford University study similarly found that "more exposure to Fox News was associated with more rejection of many mainstream scientists' claims about global warming, [and] with less trust in scientists."

It is a fact that climate change is occurring, and anthropogenic global warming is so well-supported in peer-reviewed research that, as the Maryland study notes, the United States' National Academy of Sciences and "97% of self-identifying actively publishing climate scientists agree" that it is occurring.

Indeed, a 2010 study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that "(i) 97-98% of the climate researchers most actively publishing in the field support the tenets of ACC [anthropogenic climate change] outlined by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and (ii) the relative climate expertise and scientific prominence of the researchers unconvinced of ACC are substantially below that of the convinced researchers."

A 2009 survey published by the American Geophysical Union also found that of over 3,000 Earth scientists, 90 percent said average global temperatures have risen compared with pre-1800s levels and 82 percent said human activity is a "significant contributing factor" in that trend. The study further concluded that "as the level of active research and specialization in climate science increases, so does agreement with the two primary questions." Of those who specialize in climate science, 97.4% said human activity is contributing to rising global temperatures.

Wallace's suggestion that there is a legitimate question about whether climate change is occurring is consistent with instructions from Fox executive Bill Sammon to cast doubt on whether the planet has warmed. Sammon oversees Fox News' Washington bureau, which produces Fox News Sunday

Fox News Sunday Edits Out Jon Stewart's Criticism Of Fox Exec

by Eric Hananoki

Yesterday, Jon Stewart appeared on Fox News Sunday to discuss his sharp criticism of Fox News. But one uncomfortable reference to marching-order emails from a Fox News executive was cut from the program.   

Speaking with host Chris Wallace, Stewart referenced emails from Fox News vice president and DC managing editor Bill Sammon to bolster his case that Fox News resembles "ideological regimes" who receive "marching orders." Stewart told Wallace that Fox News "reminds me of, you know -- you know, ideological regimes. They can't understand that there is free media other places. Because they receive marching orders." Stewart then said "and if you want me to go through Bill Sammon's emails" but was cut off by Wallace.

Stewart was referencing a series of leaked emails that Media Matters released showing Sammon slanting his bureau's reporting. In one email, Sammon ordered his news staff to cast doubt on established climate science. In another, Sammon directed staff not to use the phrase "public option," but instead the GOP-friendly "government option" and similar phrases. Sammon also sent emails highlighting "Obama's references to socialism, liberalism, Marxism and Marxists" in his 1995 autobiography and slanting Fox's coverage of President Obama's 2009 Cairo speech.

But viewers watching Fox News Sunday on-air wouldn't have heard Stewart's reference to Sammon because it didn't appear on air. Stewart's reference instead appears in the "unedited" interview that Fox News posted online.

The following is a transcript of Fox News Sunday's conversation with Stewart. In bold and caps is the portion of that conversation that was cut from the portion that aired on the show.

STEWART: You can't understand because of the world you live in that there is not a designed ideological agenda on my part to affect partisan change because that's the soup you swim in. And I appreciate that. And I understand that. It reminds me of, you know -- you know, in ideological regimes, they can't understand that there is free media other places. Because they receive marching orders. AND IF YOU WANT ME TO GO THROUGH BILL SAMMON'S EMAILS AND --

WALLACE: DO YOU THINK I'VE EVER -- How do you explain me?

STEWART: OH I THINK YOU DO A NICE JOB. AND I'VE TOLD YOU THAT ON THE SHOW. I THINK YOU'RE ONE OF THE MOST INTERESTING --

WALLACE: Do you think I get marching orders?

STEWART: I think that you are here in some respects to bring a credibility and an integrity to an organization that might not otherwise have it, without your presence. So, you are here as a counterweight to Hannity, let's say, or you are here as a counterweight to Glenn Beck, because otherwise, it's just pure talk radio and it doesn't establish the type of political player it wants to be.

To be clear, programs - including The Daily Show - routinely air edited versions of pre-taped interviews, mainly because of time (Stewart's unedited interview was roughly 24 minutes while the on-air version was roughly 15 minutes). But it's hard to imagine that Stewart's five-second reference to Sammon - a Fox News executive and boss at the DC bureau where Fox News Sunday is produced - was excised just because of time.

Fox News Sunday's avoidance of Sammon fits a pattern of the network publicly avoiding uncomfortable questions about the controversial Sammon while it touts the credentials of the news bureau he manages.

Here's the full exchange:

  

And here's what Fox News Sunday aired yesterday:

Previously:

Fox's Bill Sammon Problem

CRUISE SHIP CONFESSION: Top Fox News Executive Admits Lying On-Air About Obama

NY Mag: Sammon "Angered" Fox Reporters For "Pushing Coverage Further To The Right"

Fox's Jenkins Claims He "Didn't See" Sammon Admission That He Lied On-Air About Obama

Kurtz: Sammon "Privately Found" Allegations Far-Fetched, "But Kept On Raising It Anyway"

Fox's Media Criticism Show Ignores Bill Sammon's Cruise Ship Confession

Stewart: Sammon Confession Exposes Fox's "Thinnest Possible Patina of Objectivity"

Veteran D.C. Bureau Chiefs Rip Sammon: 'This Isn't Journalism'

Fox News’ Chris Wallace: You Don’t Have to Call Everyone ‘Socialists’ or ‘Fascists’

By George Zornick

On Fox and Friends yesterday, the hosts spoke with Fox News Sunday’s Chris Wallace about the tone in Washington following shocking violence against public officials in Arizona, and President Obama’s plea to “use this occasion to expand our moral imaginations, to listen to each other more carefully, to sharpen our instincts for empathy, and remind ourselves of all the ways our hopes and dreams are bound together.” Wallace said that, indeed, he was hoping for a more constructive dialogue: “You don’t have to call the other side socialists, or fascists, or whatever. And maybe the tone — maybe we can agree, or disagree, more agreeably.”

Perhaps Fox News will listen to one of its most prominent and popular hosts. But there’s a lot of work to do. Here is just a small sampling of Fox News hosts and guests freely tossing the slings and arrows of “socialist” and “fascist” at Democrats and other liberal targets:

A debate over tone, though a small-scale one, does seem to be emerging on the right. Wallace, in pleading for a more agreeable tone, may have been responding to Rush Limbaugh — who attacked Wallace and Charles Krauthammer this week for praising Obama’s speech in Tuscon. “They were slobbering over it for the predictable reasons,” Limbaugh said. “It was smart, it was articulate, it was oratorical. It was, it was all the things the educated, ruling class wants their members to be and sound like.”

Fox News actually played the clip for Krauthammer yesterday, and Krauthammer joined Wallace in gently pushing back against Limbaugh’s vitriol: “As one of the three slobberers…I find it interesting that only the ruling class wants a president who is smart articulate and oratorical in delivering a funeral oration,” he said.

Chris Wallace Calls The Perpetually Wrong Bill Kristol An ‘Expert’ On Iraq

By Matt Duss

Demonstrating again Fox News’ hilariously low standards, this morning Fox News’ Chris Wallace referred to Bill Kristol as an “expert in [the] area” of Iraq’s elections:

WALLACE: Bill, you certainly are an expert in this area. The two leading candidates seem to be the current prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, and the original prime minister [Ayad] Allawi. From the U.S. point of view, who would we rather see?

KRISTOL: I honestly don’t know. I think — the good news has been the degree of reformist parties and the new leaders who have begun to emerge in the Iraqi political system.

Watch it:

Kristol has spent the last decade proving that he doesn’t know. Here’s a classic example of Kristol’s Iraq “expertise” from 2003:

On this issue of the Shia in Iraq, I think there’s been a certain amount of, frankly, a kind of pop sociology in America that, you know, somehow the Shia can’t get along with the Sunni and the Shia in Iraq just want to establish some kind of Islamic fundamentalist regime. There’s almost no evidence of that at all. Iraq’s always been very secular.

Months later, Iraq would explode into a civil war driven by competing radical Sunni and Shia militias trying to establish some kind of Islamic fundamentalist regime.

Kristol’s propensity for error is so serious that, according to Newsweek’s Eric Margolis, Bill’s late father Irving Kristol sometimes lamented to an old family friend, “My poor son has got it wrong again.” Journalist Eric Alterman wrote in the Nation, “if one looks for a consistent pattern to Kristol’s perpetual wrongness, it’s not hard to discern. For Kristol is less interested in being correct than in advancing his side’s interests. He’s not a journalist; he’s an apparatchik working undercover as a man of the press.”

In other words, the perfect Fox News journalist.

Chris Wallace on whether Palin will sit on his lap during their interview: ‘One can only hope.’

By Amanda Terkel

This week, former Alaska governor and Fox News contributor Sarah Palin will be on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace, in his first Sunday show appearance ever. This morning, Wallace spoke with Fox Business host Don Imus about how excited he is for the segment:

WALLACE: We’re going to be down in Nashville with her at the National Tea Party Convention, and I’m excited. First of all, I’m excited to finally meet and interview Sarah Palin. We’ve been interviewing her like Captain Ahab and the great white whale for the last year and a half. [...]

IMUS: When you interview her, will she be sitting on your lap? (LAUGHTER)

WALLACE: One can only hope. (LAUGHTER)

Watch it:

In September, Wallace went on Mike Gallagher’s radio show and mentioned his upcoming interview with right-wing activist James O’Keefe and said that he wished he was also going to have his partner Hannah Giles — who played the prostitute in the ACORN scheme — on the show because “she’s pretty cute.” (HT: Michael Calderone)

MCL comment: I wonder will Sarah Palin call out Chris Wallace for his sexist comment on her Facebook page? I'm guessing no but it doesn't hurt to ask.

In failed bid to salvage O'Keefe's credibility, Wallace attacks Media Matters

From Media Matters:

Wallace attacks Media Matters on conservative funding of videographers, ignores Media Matters' evidence

Wallace: O'Keefe "denies reports on left-wing blogs he got any money from conservative backers." Wallace said: "O'Keefe wants to set the record straight. He denies reports on left-wing blogs he got any money from conservative backers." During that statement, Fox displayed an image of Media Matters' home page followed by an image of a Media Matters item that documented statements by conservative media figures that they were raising money for O'Keefe's and Giles' legal defense or that they would be willing to do so in the future.

From Fox News Sunday:

Wallace ignored reported admission by conservative investor -- noted by Media Matters -- that he funded an earlier O'Keefe video released this year. In attacking Media Matters, Wallace ignored a September 22 Village Voice report -- noted by Media Matters -- that the spokesperson for conservative investor Peter Thiel acknowledged that Thiel had contributed "about $10,000" to an earlier video that O'Keefe released in February 2009. As Media Matters noted, The Village Voice reported that Thiel's spokesperson denied that Thiel had "any involvement with the ACORN videos." [The Village Voice, 9/22/09]

Wallace ignored evidence -- documented in Media Matters item Fox displayed -- of conservatives currently fundraising for videographers. As Wallace uncritically repeated O'Keefe's denial that "he got any money from conservative backers," Fox showed an image of a September 25 Media Matters item headlined, "Hannity, Breitbart lead conservative media fundraising for activist videographers sued by ACORN." Wallace completely ignored the evidence Media Matters included in the item, which consisted of the below statements -- some of them made on Fox News -- by conservatives that they were fundraising or would fundraise for O'Keefe and Giles.

• Hannity: "Hannah, if you get in trouble ... we can help you. We'll put out the word." After interviewing Giles and her attorney about the lawsuit, Sean Hannity stated, "Well, listen, Hannah, if you get in trouble and you need the lawyer, I'll tell you what, we can help you. We'll put out the word. I'm sure there's a lot of people that may want to help you with a legal defense fund. And if you get to that point, let us know, and we'll be glad to bring you back on." [Hannity, 9/24/09]
• Breitbart on O'Reilly: "We will be advertising Hannah and James' legal defense fund." After Bill O'Reilly asked, "[D]o you have lawyers helping you with it because, you know, this is expensive," Breitbart stated, "We're -- we're working on that right now. And I want everybody to know that we will be advertising Hannah and James' legal defense fund at BigGovernment.com. The amount of -- the responses so far in e-mail form are overwhelming." [The O'Reilly Factor, 9/24/09]
• HotAir's Allahpundit: "Dig deep: Hannah Giles defense fund launches." In a September 24 HotAir.com blog post titled, "Dig deep: Hannah Giles defense fund launches," Allahpundit wrote that Giles' father -- conservative activist Doug Giles -- "sent out a blast e-mail about it a little while ago and I'm told the link's posted on his Facebook page, so fire away. Not that she'll need the money: The lawsuit's weak, the jury will be on her side, and apparently Hannity's set to beam this link out to America on tonight's show, which means she'll be swimming in dough come morning." Allahpundit further promised, "I'll post the info for O'Keefe's defense fund once it's available." HotAir.com was founded by Fox News contributor Michelle Malkin. [HotAir.com, 9/24/09]
• NewsBusters: Breitbart "Reveals Defense Fund Initiative." Promoting Breitbart's O'Reilly Factor appearance, the Media Research Center's NewsBusters blog quoted Breitbart's promotion of the legal defense fund and included a link to Breitbart's BigGovernment.com. [NewsBusters, 9/24/09]

Wallace ignored Fox reporting that some ACORN employees "did the right thing"

Wallace: O'Keefe "says he'll release all the tapes soon to show if any ACORN offices did the right thing." Wallace reported: "O'Keefe wants to set the record straight. ... And he says he'll release all the tapes soon to show if any ACORN offices did the right thing." Wallace then added, "Why not release all the tapes at the start?" and proceeded to air video of O'Keefe saying, "We knew that they would lie and they would say, 'Oh, you've got nothing,' or 'You're dubbing your voice in.' But you release a little bit at a time, and they get caught in their lie."

Wallace ignored Fox's own reporting -- backed up by police -- that "some" ACORN "workers did the right thing." On September 22, Fox News' Megyn Kelly reported: "[I]t appears that not every ACORN worker did go along with it. ACORN had been saying that the purported pimp and prostitute had failed in certain offices to actually convince the ACORN workers for help, and police in California say one ACORN worker at one office out there did, in fact, contact them after the filmmakers approached him about this human smuggling ring, or this trafficking ring. That worker realizing several days later that the whole thing was a hoax, but as ACORN pointed out when this thing first broke, some of their workers did the right thing."

Indeed, the Associated Press reported:

Police say a worker with the activist group ACORN who was caught on video giving advice about human smuggling to a couple posing as a pimp and a prostitute had reported the incident to authorities.

National City police said Monday that Juan Carlos Vera contacted his cousin, a police detective, to get advice on what to with information on possible human smuggling.

Vera was secretly filmed on Aug. 18 as part of a young couple's high-profile expose.

Police say he contacted law enforcement two days later. The detective consulted another police official who served on a federal human smuggling task force, who said he needed more details.

The ACORN employee responded several days later and explained that the information he received was not true and he had been duped. [AP, 9/22/09]

Wallace ignored report that ACORN employee says she attempted to help videographer "prostitute" go to women's center. Los Angeles Times media critic James Rainey reported:

And visits to other ACORN offices have gone almost entirely unmentioned. Lavelle Stewart, a fair-housing coordinator in the group's Los Angeles office, told me this week that she tried to get the "prostitute," who claimed she had been beaten by her pimp, to go to a women's center.

"The fact she was not taking the help I offered her made me think something was not right," Stewart said. "It raised a red flag." [Rainey, Los Angeles Times, 9/23/09]

Wallace relayed O'Keefe's denial that Philly ACORN "called the cops" without noting ACORN released police report

Wallace: O'Keefe "denies" that Philly ACORN "called the cops." Wallace reported: "O'Keefe says in a few days he'll release video of their undercover visit to ACORN's Philadelphia office, and he denies the charge ACORN threw the two of them out of the office and called the cops. We'll see."

Wallace didn't note that ACORN released a police report naming O'Keefe. In relaying O'Keefe's denial that the Philadelphia ACORN office "called the cops," Wallace didn't mention that ACORN has publicly released a July 24, 2009, Philadelphia police report stating that an ACORN employee complained to police that O'Keefe had created a "verbal disturbance" at ACORN's office.

Other news outlets have reported on police report. On September 11, CNN's Abbie Boudreau reported that an ACORN spokesperson "told us today that the filmmakers made similar efforts in Philadelphia, and in that case, ACORN workers actually reported the filmmakers to the police. ACORN provided a copy of that police report to us." The Washington Post reported on September 17 that "[a]n ACORN spokesman said they [the videographers] were turned away in Miami, Los Angeles and Philadelphia, where workers called police and filed a report." The Post further reported on September 18 that "ACORN emailed a copy of a Philadelphia police report dated July 24 to The Post to verify its account that police were called and the couple was shown the door. O'Keefe is named on the report." The Philadelphia Daily News reported on September 16 that Philadelphia ACORN president Carol Hemingway "e-mailed copies of the incident report to the news media."