Fox News host Neil Cavuto regularly claims that when he aggressively advocates for the anti-Obama “tea party” protests on air, he is simply covering them as a journalist. But Stuart Varney, Cavuto’s fill-in host, admitted this afternoon that the the network is actually promoting the right-wing protests. After telling a guest that the tea parties were in protest to President Obama’s policies, Varney closed a segment by saying, “It’s now my great duty to promote the tea parties. Here we go!” Watch it:
In a Washington Post online chat today, media critic Howard Kurtz said that “it makes me a bit uncomfortable the way the channel has turned these April 15 protests into something of a crusade, complete with the drumbeat of advance publicity and the above-named hosts planning to attend various tea parties. But it’s not fair to say that Fox’s reporters are jumping on this bandwagon.” Fox News bills Varney as a “business journalist.”
Update
On CNN yesterday, Kurtz critiqued Fox’s tea party promotion. Watch the video here.
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