On Fox News, Rove and Ingraham Criticize MSNBC For Blurring The ‘Line Between News And Commentary’
On Fox News, Rove and Ingraham Criticize MSNBC For Blurring The ‘Line Between News And Commentary’
Last night, Karl Rove appeared on Fox News’s “The O’Reilly Factor” to discuss President Bush’s interview with NBC and accusations that the network distorted Bush’s comments. Rove and guest host Laura Ingraham quickly attacked NBC’s ethics:
INGRAHAM: Yes, well, Karl, this follows on, you know, on primary nights, big nights, when you’re with Brit and everybody here. Over at NBC, they have a couple of their, you know, commentator types Matthews and the like, sitting next to Tom Brokaw and Brian Williams. I mean, there is no line between news and commentary. It’s all blurred.
Rove added that the “journalistic standards of MSNBC, which are really no standards at all,” are now “creep[ing] into NBC.” Watch it:
No one blurs the line between commentary and news more than Rove and Fox News. It has now been 105 days and no fewer than 58 appearances since Rove first appeared as a Fox News political analyst, and the network still has not disclosed his ties to Sen. John McCain (R-AZ). ThinkProgress looks at Rove’s connections to the McCain campaign in a new Salon article:
– On Feb. 7, two days after Rove first appeared on Fox News as a contributor, he donated $2,300, the maximum legal amount, to McCain’s campaign.
– After Rove had made 14 appearances on Fox News, Politico reported that soon after donating to McCain’s campaign, Rove “had a private conversation with the senator.” A top McCain advisor also told the paper that Rove and Bush-Cheney ‘04 campaign manager Ken Mehlman were “informally advising the campaign.”
– Rove’s consulting firm has been disseminating 2008 electoral map projections to influential media outlets and party operatives. In late March, McCain media advisor Mark McKinnon participated in a public conversation about the campaign with former Bush strategist Matthew Dowd. During the talk, McKinnon displayed maps analyzing the states and their electoral votes; the maps bore the header “Karl Rove & Co.”
– At the beginning of April, McCain embarked on a biography tour to introduce himself to the public, which may have been Rove’s idea. In an April 4 blog post, the Atlantic’s Marc Ambinder noted that Rove had laid out the idea for such a tour during a Feb. 20 appearance at the University of Pennsylvania. Rove proceeded to list the very locations that McCain would eventually visit in April. (Although, McCain actually spoke in Prescott, AZ, rather than Rove’s suggested Sedona, AZ.)
– On April 22, while doing on-air coverage of the Pennsylvania primary for Fox News, Rove let slip that he “saw Senator McCain recently at a private gathering” where the general election campaign was discussed.
Fox allows Rove to appear on air and attack the Democratic candidates while posing as an independent analyst. But as The New York Times’s Frank Rich notes, Rove is nothing more than a “thinly veiled McCain surrogate.”
Transcript:
ROVE: Look, NBC has got a real problem because we’re now in a position where we are starting to see the journalistic standards of MSNBC, which are really no standards at all, creep into NBC, which is a respected news organization.
And you ask why would the president give an interview to him. Well, look, the president gives interviews to the major news networks all the time. If he were to sort of blacklist NBC, NBC would be screaming in the streets and be talking about it every night at news…
INGRAHAM: Right.
ROVE: ..every night on the news report. So it’s important for him to give them the courtesy of responding to a request for an interview.
INGRAHAM: Well, but…yes.
ROVE: But, you know what? This is an example how they miss — how they abuse those requests.
INGRAHAM: But, yes.
ROVE: I mean, this is atrocious. This is really — Richard Engel is a — was a respected journalist. For him to have edited this or allowed it to be edited by some minion at NBC so that the entire purpose of the president’s answer is lost and left on the cutting floor is pretty amazing.
INGRAHAM: Yes, well, Karl, this follows on, you know, on primary nights, big nights, when you’re with Brit and everybody here. Over at NBC, they have a couple of their, you know, commentator types Matthews and the like, sitting next to Tom Brokaw and Brian Williams. I mean, there is no line between news and commentary. It’s all blurred. And it’s always blurred against the administration, against the favor of the surge, against what progress is made in Iraq. No credit given. And this has been a consistent problem all along.
And I just think what’s the point of continuing to give interviews to news organization that seem like they’re wedded to the next presidency of Barack Obama?
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Fox News = AssKlown Central. Just saying . . .
May 20th, 2008 at 2:05 pmI would say “Pot, meet Kettle” but there is simply no comparison between an actual news organization like MSNBC and tabloid FauxNews.
PEACE
May 20th, 2008 at 2:06 pmand KKK Rove is newsworthy? Just how?
May 20th, 2008 at 2:07 pmHe a criminal, and a transparent shill for “a permanent Republic party marjority”
.
How blurred can the lines be…?
ABCNNBCBS&FOXPRAVDA…
They all fit on the same blurred line to me.
IT’S ALL CORPORATE MEDIA…
NO OPINIONS or FACTS ALLOWED!
Just spin and slant. A Tilt-o-Wheel Journalistic mentality.
Makes me want to hurl…
.
May 20th, 2008 at 2:07 pmI’d love to see the video of these two clowns after the break, as they rolled around laughing themselves sick.
May 20th, 2008 at 2:09 pmRove and Fox , you are so past tense. After Novembers meltdown, trust me, employment may be a problem for anyone working at FOX as well as for Rove. THIS PROPAGANDA WILL EXPIRE NOV.08
May 20th, 2008 at 2:09 pmFox, and the right wing, are just upset that someone seems to using their favorite tactic, disguising their version of the truth as news, for their own ends.
Of course, the difference being, the Fox version of the truth is vetted through the right wing agenda while the NBC/MSNBC version of truth is vetted through reality.
May 20th, 2008 at 2:09 pmWhat number will this be on the list of things Fox News wants American people to dislike and be afraid of?
May 20th, 2008 at 2:10 pmSomeone recently wrote something to the effect:
May 20th, 2008 at 2:12 pmGetting political advice from Rove is like getting health tips from a mortician.
BTW- NBC has party hacks such as Trannie Coulter on their programs far too often, and I have yet to see it “balanced’ out by having a Molly Ivans, Jim Hightower,…or a Noam Chomsky to counter the reich-wing.
Liberal media my ass!
May 20th, 2008 at 2:12 pmThere is no lie too big or too ridiculous for Karl Rove’s pie hole. If he thought it was in his political interests to denounce gravity as a liberal plot, he would do so.
TDS, Colbert, and Olbermann will have fun with this.
May 20th, 2008 at 2:13 pmR.I.P. Irony.
Died from severe whiplash…
May 20th, 2008 at 2:18 pmThere is no lie too big or too ridiculous for Karl Rove’s pie hole. If he thought it was in his political interests to denounce gravity as a liberal plot, he would do so.
Well, Hillary Clinton is touting Rove’s numbers as her being the most electable candidate for the dems. Mrs. Clinton seems to be drinking from the same fountain as the GOP.
May 20th, 2008 at 2:18 pmUncle Ho,
May 20th, 2008 at 2:18 pmIt would be pretty hard to have Molly Ivins on NBC seeing how she passed away Jan 31, 2007!
Seriously, though… Hasn’t Fox News, much like Bill O’Reilly, become a parody of itself? With viewship falling and any sort of “news” pretense having been dropped some time ago, isn’t this just a bit of comedy?
May 20th, 2008 at 2:19 pmUncle Ho, did you know Molly Ivins had died?
May 20th, 2008 at 2:19 pmVersus what, running everything as GOP “commentary”? No one reporting on this Story will say the obvious. This is Ailes and the board trying to mollify their prima donna. Falafel boy is throwing a tantrum between drinking jags and is making life miserable in the halls of newspeak central. His skin is so thin it is nearly transparent(except for the liver spots).
May 20th, 2008 at 2:22 pmepm Says:
Seriously, though… Hasn’t Fox News, much like Bill O’Reilly, become a parody of itself? With viewship falling and any sort of “news” pretense having been dropped some time ago, isn’t this just a bit of comedy?
May 20th, 2008 at 2:19 pm
_______
“Become?”
May 20th, 2008 at 2:22 pmSo Faux Noise commentators are accusing another cable news network of “blurring the lines between news and commentary”?
So what’s the problem? Are they claiming copyright infringement or something?
Seriously, this story is like one of our trolls complaining that a progressive commenter misspelled a bunch of words and made no sense.
May 20th, 2008 at 2:23 pmWhat exactly is their complaint about Chris Matthews and Brian Williams? Or Tim Russert (whom they didn’t mention)? Those guys are hardly liberals.
Oh wait. They just hate MSNBC, period. Because they have Keith Olbermann. Who has called Fox News what they really are — shameless shills for the right.
It’s never bothered them that they look like fools — no reason it should now.
May 20th, 2008 at 2:23 pmmakes it even more confounding how the female democratic presidential candidate can tout any benefits of a kkkarl rove “endorsement”…
but she did…
May 20th, 2008 at 2:23 pmAfter all, Faux is the paragon of fair and balanced reporting. How do I know this? Because they said so.
RTFOL!
May 20th, 2008 at 2:26 pmyes, I know Molly passed away last year.
May 20th, 2008 at 2:26 pmWhat I meant was, up until her passing, NBC had never had her or other liberal voices appear on their programs like the way they had Coulter, Scarsborough, and other reich-wing hacks
It is so humorous to see Karl Rove get so bent out of shape when he hears the truth. These commentators actually think they can critcize others (MSNBC & NBC) about journalistic standards, when they clearly have none of their own. I don’t think Rove can remember the last time he told the truth. He protests far too much, the other news sources must be getting close to the truth. That is when he squeals the loudest..
May 20th, 2008 at 2:29 pmTHAT’s rich…Rove talking about blurring the lines of ANYTHING. Can’t keep your politics out of policy, eh Karl? You’ll politicize everything from the EPA to the Justice Department. You’ll work for McCain and call yourself a reporter. The only thing you haven’t done is actually take a torch to the Constitution, you piece of garbage, and one day they WILL take you in handcuffs to prison where you will be the belle of the ball(ers).
May 20th, 2008 at 2:34 pmThe White House and Republicans are targeting the media because they exposed the Bush Pentagon-funded “military experts”. Republicans have to shore up the myth of the media being “liberal” again, so people won’t realize who is really controlling the message through BS opinions.
May 20th, 2008 at 2:34 pmAny “newscast” where the cameras are trained on a bunch of buffed and coifed people reporting on election returns is going to contain commentary. It’s been this way since Eisenhower’s time. Why? Because there’s an incredible amount of time to fill between the numbers. What should these people do? Song and dance numbers?
I (and many other Americans) have come to expect commentary “filler” with special live news broadcasts while waiting for actual news to filter in. However, Fox has allowed their wingnut slant to spill over into their regular news broadcasts. And then they have the nerve to call another network on commentary? Now THAT’S chutzpah.
May 20th, 2008 at 2:35 pmThe fact that Rove has continued to operate some form of his direct mail and fundraising company “Karl Rove & Co” under the radar both during the Administraton (when he was a government official) as well as while he is a FOX pundit is ridiculous.
That whole story that he and GWB concocted about how Rove would be “selling his company” to devote his attention 100% to the 1999 campaign was ridiculous. Even more ridiculous was that Rove sold his company to a neophyte – on some sort of installment plan.
C’mon – why would Rove give up a company in 1999 that stood to (and did) rake in tens of millions from the RNC, the Bush Campaign and other sources?
Simply not believable.
A good (albeit dated) diary is available here:
May 20th, 2008 at 2:36 pmKarl Rove’s Unexplained Personal Wealth
Fox thinks it can bully into submission every news organization on the planet. I applaud GE for not giving into the Rupert Murdock terror network. You go MSNBC!
May 20th, 2008 at 2:36 pmWait a minute…FAUX News attacked MSNBC for “blurring the line between news and commentary” and managed to keep a straight face while doing it?!?!?!? Do I hear glass shattering?!? Oh, you betcha. I’d be laughing my ass off if I wasn’t so thoroughly disgusted. The people at FAUX have been doing far more than just blurring that line…they’ve been doing everything they possibly can to erase it completely.
These people have absolutely no shame.
May 20th, 2008 at 2:39 pmRove added that the “journalistic standards of MSNBC, which are really no standards at all,” are now “creep[ing] into NBC.”
As opposed to the professionalism and integrity always displayed by FAUX since its inception ?
It certainly must be , considering all the journalism “experts” they have on their payroll like Ollie North , Rove , Dick Morris , Tony Snow (who has since moved to CNN) and others………
May 20th, 2008 at 2:40 pmIngraham & Rove make a lovely couple…of complete jerkoffs.
She’s got a voice like fingernails on a blackboard & KKKarl’s whiter than white skin could be the blackboard.
May 20th, 2008 at 2:44 pmROVE: I mean, this is atrocious. This is really — Richard Engel is a — was a respected journalist. For him to have edited this or allowed it to be edited by some minion at NBC so that the entire purpose of the president’s answer is lost and left on the cutting floor is pretty amazing.
My oh my , Turd Blossom ; you of all people , complaining about “cherry picking” ?
The irony is simply monumental ………………..
May 20th, 2008 at 2:47 pmThis is all a payback because Murdoch and Ailes couldn’t get NBC to back off. They said they were going to start hitting them hard, and the funny thing about this is, that although the boobs Ingraham and Rover are doing what’s been asked of them, they look so pathetic and hypocritical that all one can do is laugh…laugh like there is no tomorrow. I wish someone would tell old Rupert he doesn’t own EVERYTHING and some peeps just aren’t going to go along with HIS playbook.
May 20th, 2008 at 2:49 pmIf the Republican ‘brand’ was dog food, people would be returning it. -Tom Davis (R) VA
If Karl Rove were a journalist, people would quit watching the news.
May 20th, 2008 at 2:53 pmSome folks claim to be worried about Bush declaring “martial law” before the November 2008 Presidential Election. Actually, for all practical purposes we have already been living under corporate media/martial law for the last 7.321 years. It just hasn’t been formally “declared.”
May 20th, 2008 at 2:56 pmOh this is rich coming from a “News” Channel that sued in the state of Florida to be able to lie to the American people based on thier First Amendment Rights.
Rove, just go away, please.
May 20th, 2008 at 3:01 pmHe ain’t going away…which is fine…because the more people see of him, the more they are repulsed by everything he stands for. Keep going, Karl! You’ll start polling negative ratings any time now!
May 20th, 2008 at 3:04 pmYes, the former political chief hack and hatchet man for President Bush certainly works for a network which is so fair and balanced.
I am sick and tired with these fu**ing bastards. Would it not be nice if some real deranged people burnt down their headquarters and bashed a few of their heads in. A fantasy, but nice to contemplate.
May 20th, 2008 at 3:04 pmThat batsh*t crazy beeyotch Ingraham actually said that she considered Brett Hume and KKKarl Rove to be non-biased, objective reporters — !!!
Well, gee, I consider myself to be 6 feet tall, 129 pounds, a size 4, a Nobel Prize winner AND Miss America — but that sure as hell don’t make it true.
May 20th, 2008 at 3:08 pmHow about these two pasty white faux nuze common taters blur this line between FU(K / YOU!
May 20th, 2008 at 3:08 pmYou’re probably right, but I don’t get why making themselves look like whiny, petulant fourth-graders is “payback”.
May 20th, 2008 at 3:08 pmBut seriously, looks like Roger WhatAilesYou is not only ‘unleashing’ O’Doggy, but sending the second string mutts in as well.
May 20th, 2008 at 3:09 pmIt’s true as far as I’m concerned, Annie.
But then, I’m probably a crazy moonbat, so there ya go.
May 20th, 2008 at 3:10 pmGee, how can I put this? There isn’t any people more irrelevant than Laura and Karl! I have no respect for either of them, and they are bumps on the Bush administration. Any thoughts or opinions either of them have, don’t mean “shit”! How pathetic that anyone would think they matter!
May 20th, 2008 at 3:11 pmBush’s Brain is starting to hemorrhage and Dr. Inghram can’t seem to stop the bleeding.
RIP GOP
May 20th, 2008 at 3:15 pmThe funniest thing about this exchange was Laura asking Karl why the Chimperor should even bother granting interviews to such an unfair network as NBC, home of Tim Russert.
After the “Obama Clock” on Faux Snooze!!!! How quickly Rethuglicans forget their own transgressions.
May 20th, 2008 at 3:16 pmNow, now. JMohr…we’re above that. Just PUT HIM IN JAIL WHERE HE BELONGS.
May 20th, 2008 at 3:17 pmStephen Colbert is going to have to kick it up a notch because these guys are making him look “normal”.
Oh and Hillary, with friends like this good luck getting reelected to the senate.
May 20th, 2008 at 3:20 pmOn Greta Van Cistern (sorry) they took a survey on whether the GOP should leave Michelle Obama alone and 2% of their respondents said yes, the rest of the chuckleheads said she was fair game.
I guess it’s open season on Cindy.
May 20th, 2008 at 3:23 pmWonder Llama – It’s the only ‘payback’ they know how to do. Whiny, self-defeating, pussy-assed wet noodle flailing. You’d think that after Karl got his lips to pucker up after the 2006 elections, he’d keep his trap shut. But the stench of a Turd Blossom always flowers forth.
May 20th, 2008 at 3:24 pmDon’t you get it…….the favorite right wingnut tactic is to attack you on you strongest points….then they say there is no difference……they keep on the subject incessantly….until it sort of becomes conventional wisdom.
May 20th, 2008 at 3:25 pmSo you ask “where are the WMD” they say everyone knows, everyone thought that there WERE WMD….til you are both on the same level……part of the “everyone” who knew there were WMD.
It’s a logic trick.
Where are the WMD…..??? Get it…..
We simply MUST leave Cindy alone! She has nothing to hide, that’s why she’ll never release her tax returns. Karl sure wanted Teresa Heinz Kerry to do it, but she was a…DEMOCRAT! And we all know Democrats have so much to hide.
May 20th, 2008 at 3:28 pmROVE: “The entire purpose of the presidents answer is lost”
Rove is absolutely correct. I just watched Bushs entire unedited answer and its clear the whole purpose of his answer was not to answer the question.
In fact msnbc did Bush a huge favor cutting his embarrassing nonsensical sidestep
May 20th, 2008 at 3:35 pmAfter watching Countdown last night, I went to the MSNBC website and watched the whole interview, which makes the dirty little chimp seem even more spoon fed and out of touch than the edited version.
At long last we cannot underestimate the effects of being a dry drunk have had on his mind. Chimpy continues to believe all the delusions and illusions that perpetuate the madness. He talks of governments as if they are all that matter and democracy as if they really exist. But I guess if he really understood that what he’s been fed is utter nonsense and has expanded suffering and antipathy, all his internal constructs would collapse. Then nothing could stop him from getting to Step 4: “Make a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves”, and that just isn’t gonna happen.
As for TurdBlossom, we await the FrogMarch!
May 20th, 2008 at 3:48 pmRove’s disapproval rating just surpassed Herr Bush.
Last weekend he was explaining how ‘at least 3 Presidents had lower approval ratings’ than the Chimpster. Of course, he didn’t want to discuss the disapproval ratings.
KKKarl, you’re the worst kind of chickenshit. Most are liars, cheaters and morons, but you’re a chickenshit and a pussy.
May 20th, 2008 at 3:52 pmOn Fox News, Rove and Ingraham Criticize MSNBC For Blurring The ‘Line Between News And Commentary’….
Is this a joke????!!!!
May 20th, 2008 at 3:54 pmRoves/FOX are up tp their old [yawm] tricks: Blame your opponent for your [FoX/Rove weakness [in this case blurring things]
May 20th, 2008 at 4:34 pmIt never ceases to amaze me the insanity that comes out of these people’s mouths.
Sociopaths, the lot of them!
May 20th, 2008 at 4:37 pmI’m sure it will come as no surprise that Cindy McCain may have adopted her Banglaseshi child in 1991 while drugged out. (At the time she was stealing copious amounts of pills from her medical charity).
She came back with two kids, but one of her husband’s aides adopted one. Thsis incident has to date not been explained.
May 20th, 2008 at 4:43 pmThe only entity I’m aware of, which still separates news and commentary, is PBS. No wonder the Republicriminals constantly seek to defund it. It must drive them nuts to sign the bills to an entity they can’t, as of yet, corrupt.
May 20th, 2008 at 5:50 pmNotice how Ingraham pretty much say Obama will be the next president at the end of the clip?
May 20th, 2008 at 6:15 pmI meant says. Damn it. I hate typos, especially mine.
May 20th, 2008 at 6:16 pmIt is strange to hear Fox network calling for a ‘Journalistic Standards…’.!!
May 20th, 2008 at 6:40 pmI love the smell of hypocrisy in the morning.
May 20th, 2008 at 7:27 pmTurd.
May 20th, 2008 at 9:36 pmHey, Laura, open you damned eyes and ears and watch a few episodes of Fox and Friends, and then come back and tell us about blurring the lines between news and commentary.
Besides, dear, that’s what I expect when I tune into NBC or any other station on primary or election night. And here’s a news flash for you: it’s been that way since long before your idiotic and ignorant “news” channel ever went on the air.
While I may not like, nor agree, with everything that is said, I still like to hear what others are thinking. That is, except for you and Rove.
May 20th, 2008 at 10:19 pmUmmm…”your.”
May 20th, 2008 at 10:21 pmLaura, Rove and FOX and all its ditto heads are entitled to their delusions and imaginary grandure.
Yet the world understands FOX isn’t news it is Tabloid at its best.
Face it, Laura and Rove aren’t News. They are extremist ideologues of Republican brand that is in the toilet. As their own republicans have stated.
How about this,
If Hitler were a republican today, Laura, Rove and their ilk would be supporting him over McCain, Obama or anyone.
May 21st, 2008 at 3:25 amPoor Laura, doesn’t she know these are the same people who call her a “dyke” once she leaves the set, and view her “lifestyle” as nothing more than a wedge issue? Nothing worse than a self-loathing homosexual who prostitutes themselves.
May 21st, 2008 at 6:04 amFox news wouldn`t a real story if it was right in front of them, they have the worst repoters they aren`t even considered journalist by most peole, just talking heads and trolls.
May 21st, 2008 at 8:29 am…And irony convulsed twice, and died.
May 21st, 2008 at 3:13 pmSatire .. right? This cannot possibly be a serious report, can it?
May 21st, 2008 at 4:01 pm