Dispatches from Trump's America: Fox News journalists vs. conspiracy mongers

As someone who studied journalism in high school and college, I often wonder how professional journalists feel about Rupert Murdoch's Fox News Channel, the cable news outlet he founded 21 years ago to - in part, anyway - combat what he and many conservatives saw as the liberal domination of print and broadcast media. In a 2004 interview with the Australian Associated Press, Murdoch said that Fox is "full of Democrats and Republicans, the others only have Democrats.We don't take any position there at all." Murdoch's public position on Fox News' bias - or lack thereof- is reflected in the network's slogan, Fair and Balanced.

However, given Murdoch's acknowledged support for former President George W. Bush's foreign and domestic policies and his reliance on the late Roger Ailes (who resigned in disgrace last summer as Fox News' chairman after several women at the network accused him of sexual harassment), many observers accuse Fox News of a bias toward conservative politicians and ideologies. In 2010, Business Insider published a story which revealed how management at Fox News instructed its presenters, including commentator Sean Hannity (who is not a professional journalist), how to refer to the Affordable Care Act during the heated debate in President Barack Obama's first term.  

Per Business Insider's Glynnis McNichol:

During the height of the health care debate a Fox News vice president Bill Sammon sent a memo to staff asking them to refer to the 'public option' as the 'government option.'  Media Matters, in a welcome departure from the usual nitpicking, obtained the email which directed the new division to:

Please use the term ‘government-run health insurance,’ or, when brevity is a concern, ‘government option,’ whenever possible.”

This memo came shortly after Republican pollster Frank Luntz advised Sean Hannitythusly:

“If you call it a public option, the American people are split,” he explained. “If you call it the government option, the public is overwhelmingly against it.” 

The Media Matters article cited in Business Insider was more detailed in its criticism of Sammons' instructions as to how Fox News should push its coverage of news, especially in the politics beat, to the right.

Per Media Matters' blogger Ben Dimiero:

At the height of the health care reform debate last fall, Bill Sammon, Fox News' controversial Washington managing editor, sent a memo directing his network's journalists not to use the phrase "public option."

Instead, Sammon wrote, Fox's reporters should use "government option" and similar phrases -- wording that a top Republican pollster had recommended in order to turn public opinion against the Democrats' reform efforts.

Journalists on the network's flagship news program, Special Report with Bret Baier, appear to have followed Sammon's directive in reporting on health care reform that evening.

Sources familiar with the situation in Fox's Washington bureau have told Media Matters that Sammon uses his position as managing editor to "slant" Fox's supposedly neutral news coverage to the right. Sammon's "government option" email is the clearest evidence yet that Sammon is aggressively pushing Fox's reporting to the right -- in this case by issuing written orders to his staff.

In addition, Dimiero shows us Sammon's email:

From: Sammon, Bill
Sent: Tuesday, October 27, 2009 8:23 AM
To: 054 -FNSunday; 169 -SPECIAL REPORT; 069 -Politics; 030 -Root (FoxNews.Com); 036 -FOX.WHU; 050 -Senior Producers; 051 -Producers
Subject: friendly reminder: let's not slip back into calling it the "public option"

1) Please use the term "government-run health insurance" or, when brevity is a concern, "government option," whenever possible.

2) When it is necessary to use the term "public option" (which is, after all, firmly ensconced in the nation's lexicon), use the qualifier "so-called," as in "the so-called public option."

3) Here's another way to phrase it: "The public option, which is the government-run plan."

4) When newsmakers and sources use the term "public option" in our stories, there's not a lot we can do about it, since quotes are of course sacrosanct. 

As in any news organization, Sammon has to answer to someone higher up who approves or overrules his managerial directives. In this case, Fox's senior vice president for news, Michael Clemente, could have vetoed Sammons' instructions. Did he? Nah. 

From: Clemente, Michael
To: Sammon, Bill; 054 -FNSunday; 169 -SPECIAL REPORT; 069 -Politics; 030 -Root (FoxNews.Com); 036 -FOX.WHU; 050 -Senior Producers; 051 -Producers
Sent: Tue Oct 27 08:45:29 2009
Subject: RE: friendly reminder: let's not slip back into calling it the "public option"

Thank you Bill

#3 on your list is the preferred way to say it, write it, use it.

Michael Clemente

SVP-News

212.XXX.XXXX

So, yeah. It's hard to believe that there is no conservative bias in the head office of Fox News Channel.  

That having been said, Fox News employs many reporters and editors who, unlike Mr. Hannity, went to journalism school and still believe in straightforward reporting and are alarmed by what they see as the corrosive effect of conservative conspiracies promoted by "opinion-based" presenters such as Mr. H, Newt Gingrich, and others.

According to a recent article on CNN.com, some of Fox's professional reporters are protesting what they see as a blatant attempt to disseminate unproven conspiracies and "distract from any and all Trump scandals."

Fox News staffers expressed frustration on Monday that on-air personalities at their network like prime time host Sean Hannity are continuing to peddle a conspiracy theory about the murder of Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich.

"I'm disgusted by it," one Fox News employee told CNN.

Rich was shot to death last July in the streets of Washington, DC. The Metropolitan Police Department continues to investigate the murder and police say there is evidence to suggest Rich was the victim of a botched robbery.

But for months, right-wing media outlets have floated unproven theories that Rich was the person who provided Wikileaks with thousands of internal DNC emails, and suggested his death was retribution for the supposed leak. No real evidence has been provided to support such claims.

Most of the reporters who spoke to CNN did so anonymously, but their primary concern is that their network's acquiescent attitude to Hannity's promotion of conspiracy theories damages the network's credibility as a source of reliable, unbiased news. As CNN's Oliver Darcy writes:

"It is disappointing because it drags the rest of us down," said a senior Fox News employee, who asked how Fox News leadership could continue to allow Hannity to spread an unproven theory on the network.

 That same employee added:

"It hurts those of us who are legitimately focused on journalism. We have a chance to turn the corner at Fox, and perpetuating this conspiracy theory damages our integrity."

Although many of the Fox News staffers talked to Darcy anonymously, at least two of their colleagues have gone public with their criticisms of the network. 

Democratic Fox News commentator Julie Roginsky posted a video on the Fox News Channel website in which she asked people to "please stop torturing the Rich family" with "politically motivated conspiracy theories."

And Jonah Goldberg, who writes a column for the National Review and provides commentary to Fox, had this to say:

"Shaming Hannity is my intention."

(Please watch the related video.)

Sources: http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/10/26/1098667750250.html

http://www.businessinsider.com/leaked-fox-news-memo-reveals-news-division-told-to-echo-gop-talking-point-2010-12

https://www.mediamatters.org/blog/2010/12/09/leaked-email-fox-boss-caught-slanting-news-repo/174090

http://money.cnn.com/2017/05/22/media/fox-news-staffers-seth-rich-dnc-sean-hannity/index.html?sr=twmoney052317fox-news-staffers-seth-rich-dnc-sean-hannity0203PMVODtopLink&linkId=37909381

http://video.foxnews.com/v/5443616286001/?#sp=show-clips