Fox and Friends

Right-Wing, Fox & Friends Warn Girl Scouts Promote 'Liberal Agenda'

Jillian Rayfield | December 30, 2011, 5:26AM

Right-wing bloggers and Fox News have managed to squeeze in one more liberal conspiracy theory before the end of 2011.

Read more »

Fox News

Obama Called 'Skinny, Ghetto Crackhead' On Fox News

Jillian Rayfield | December 23, 2011, 9:40AM

A Fox News guest on Thursday said that "you might want to say" President Obama looks like "a skinny, ghetto crackhead."

Read more »

voter fraud

Fox Falsely Claims 'Mickey Mouse' And 'Adolf Hitler' Are On Scott Walker Recall Petition (VIDEO)

Ryan J. Reilly | December 15, 2011, 1:32PM

Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI) shakes hands with Republican legislative members after delivering his budget address to a joint session of the legislature at the state Capitol on March 1, 2011 in Madison, WI.

Fox News reporter Eric Shawn told viewers on Thursday that signatures from "Mickey Mouse" and "Adolf Hitler" were "allegedly on petitions in Wisconsin in the recall for Governor Scott Walker." Fun little story with the potential to go viral? Absolutely. True? Not so much.

In fact, the original story that Shawn evidently built his report off of is about a strictly hypothetical situation discussed by members of the Wisconsin's Government Accountability Board who were asked what would happen if someone signed the petition as Mickey Mouse. There's been no actual allegation that anyone actually signed the petition against Walker that way.

Read more »

Fox News

Fox Business Network Memo To Staff: Stop Trying To Be Like Fox News

Jillian Rayfield | October 19, 2011, 12:28PM

An executive at Fox Business Network sent a memo to staff suggesting that maybe the channel should focus more on business news and less on trying to be like its sister site, Fox News.

Read more »

Phoenix Jones

'Real Life Superhero' Phoenix Jones: Don't Be Ridiculous, Of Course I Don't Have A Tagline

Jillian Rayfield | October 14, 2011, 4:12PM

Phoenix Jones, the self-described Guardian of Seattle and "Real Life Superhero," on Friday went on Fox News in full costume to talk about his assault charges for a pepper-spraying incident, and defended himself by saying that "if I feel like someone's in danger, I know there has to be a citizen's law out there that says I can run in and help people."

Read more »

Fox News

Fox & Friends: We Should Have Clarified That Our Report On Obama Apologizing To Japan Was False

Jillian Rayfield | October 14, 2011, 2:45PM

Which is harder to believe -- that Fox News got something wrong or that they apologized for it?

Fox & Friends host Steve Doocy made a statement on the show on Friday to clarify that the show's earlier report that President Obama had planned to apologize to Japan for Hiroshima was, in fact, not true.

Read more »

Glenn Beck

Glenn Beck Targeting Children With 'Liberty Treehouse' Show

Jillian Rayfield | October 3, 2011, 5:04PM

FOX's Glenn Beck

Hide your children.

Glenn Beck's online GBTV network is launching a "Liberty Treehouse" show aimed at our nation's youth.

Read more »

Fox News

Fox News Sugarcoats News Corp Phone Hacking, Condemns Media For 'Piling On'

Jillian Rayfield | July 18, 2011, 10:36AM

Steve Doocy

Here's the Fox News coverage of the News Corp phone hacking scandal that you've been waiting for.

Read more »

Fox News

Survey: Fox News Covered News Corp Scandal Much Less Than Other Cable Nets

Jillian Rayfield | July 15, 2011, 5:50AM

A survey by Media Matters of all of the cable news coverage of the News Corp phone hacking scandal found that Fox News has devoted considerably less time to covering it than CNN and MSNBC.

Read more »

News Corp.

News Corp. To Disclose All Political Donations

Eric Lach | May 16, 2011, 9:22AM

Rupert Murdoch

News Corporation's board of directors has adopted a policy to annually disclose all the company's political donations. The media giant -- which owns Fox News, The Wall Street Journal and 20th Century Fox -- made the move quietly on April 12, but it was reported this weekend by the Associated Press. In a statement, the company founded and controlled by Rupert Murdoch said it would make the disclosures on its website.

Read more »

Keith Ellison

Keith Ellison Spars With Sean Hannity: 'Stop Making It Like Only Muslims Are The Problem'

Jillian Rayfield | April 21, 2011, 1:10PM

Sean Hannity and Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN)

Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) -- one of two Muslims currently serving in Congress -- went on Sean Hannity's show Wednesday night to discuss the controversy surrounding last month's Muslim "radicalization" hearings by Rep. Peter King, and the results were predictably charged.

Read more »

Glenn Beck

Glenn Beck To 'Transition Off' His TV Program

Eric Lach | April 6, 2011, 12:44PM

Glenn Beck

Fox News and Glenn Beck's production company have announced that Beck will "transition off" his daily television program later this year, and that the two companies plan to work together "to develop and produce a variety of television projects for air on the Fox News Channel as well as content for other platforms including Fox News' digital properties."

Read more »

Bill Sammon

Fox News Bureau Chief: I Thought It Was 'Far-Fetched' When I Speculated Obama Is A Socialist

Jillian Rayfield | March 29, 2011, 10:28AM

Reporter Bill Sammon

In 2009, current Fox News DC Bureau Chief Bill Sammon admitted that he didn't really believe charges that Obama was a "socialist" when he encouraged Fox News staff to use the term. But, he claims, he soon realized it was true.

Read more »

John Stossel

Stossel: No Group Has Had More Gov't Help Than American Indians (VIDEO)

Eric Lach | March 24, 2011, 12:17PM

Quick, which group has the U.S. government helped out the most? Wall Street, maybe? Or the unemployed? Oh, how about all those defense contractors? Wrong, says Fox News contributor John Stossel. As far as Stossel is concerned, it's Native Americans.

Read more »

Fox News

Fox News Spends 32 Seconds On Voter Fraud -- By Republican (VIDEO)

Ryan J. Reilly | March 7, 2011, 11:40AM

If you're really into fighting voter fraud, Fox News is your network. They were so gung-ho about stopping voter fraud across the country that they set up a special e-mail address to collect viewer tips.

Read more »

Robin Carnahan

Democrat Carnahan, Fox News Dismiss Suit Over Campaign Ad

Ryan J. Reilly | February 7, 2011, 10:35AM

Chris Wallace

Fox News and Robin Carnahan have settled their suit over a campaign ad that the Missouri Democrat ran against Republican Roy Blunt last year.

Read more »

'Jihad Kathie'

Right Wing Blog: Fox News Didn't Narc On 'Terror Grandma,' We Did!

Ryan J. Reilly | January 4, 2011, 12:40PM

A right-wing blog that tracks networks of Islamic extremists online says it was them, not Fox News, that brought a video of a woman the network later labeled "Terror Grandma" to the attention of authorities.

"Fox did not drop the dime, we did," writes blogger Howie on the Jawa Report. "Given the quick death of the video and its nature, which Ill elaborate on more later, we sent it along through the proper channels. Just to be sure." TPM was unable to independently verify Howie's claims.

Read more »

Fox News

Police: Fox News Flubbed 'Granny Terrorist' Story

Ryan J. Reilly | December 30, 2010, 3:48PM

FoxNews.com reporter Jana Winter published a story last week claiming that Fox News had "learned" of a federal investigation into the alleged terrorist ties of Kathie Smith, a "46-year-old, blue-eyed grandmother and U.S. citizen from Indiana." The story was quickly pulled down and scrubbed from the website, but not before TPM grabbed a copy.

FoxNews.com posted a revised version of the story on Tuesday. Fox's story glosses over the role that its own reporter had in alerting Indiana authorities to Smith and what can only be called her unique brand of "jihadism."

As for the investigation, it's unclear if the feds are probing Smith, and the Indiana State Police -- the recipient of Fox's tip -- tells TPM they have no active investigation.

Read more »

Megyn Kelly

Megyn Kelly: Calling Aliens 'Undocumented' Like Calling Rape 'Non-Consensual Sex' (VIDEO)

Ryan J. Reilly | December 29, 2010, 3:40PM

Plenty of conservatives are pretty upset over a campaign by the Society of Professional Journalists to convince reporters to stop using the terms "illegal aliens" and "illegal immigrants" in favor of "undocumented immigrant." But none are as livid as perpetually outraged Fox News host Megyn Kelly, who on Wednesday afternoon asked if journalists were going to start calling rapists "non-consensual sex partners" next.

Read more »

Fox News

Fox News Bureau Chief Told Staff To Cast Doubt On Climate Change

Ryan J. Reilly | December 15, 2010, 9:30AM

Fox News correspondent Wendell Goler and Fox vice president Bill Sammon

Fox News D.C. Bureau Chief Bill Sammon e-mailed staffers last December to instruct them not to assert that the "planet has warmed (or cooled)" without "IMMEDIATELY pointing out that such theories are based upon data that critics have called into question."

Sammon's e-mail, obtained by Media Matters, came less than 15 minutes after Fox correspondent Wendell Goler reported on-air that the World Meteorological Organization at the U.N. said 2000-2009 was "on track to be the warmest [decade] on record."

Read more »

Fox News

Carnahan Camp To Fox News: Why Single Us Out?

Ryan J. Reilly | December 6, 2010, 1:30PM

Lawyers for former Senate Candidate Robin Carnahan are arguing that the Fox News network is singling the Missouri Democrat out in its lawsuit alleging her campaign violated the network's copyrights.

To strengthen their argument, lawyers for Carnahan are pointing to Fox News clips posted on the websites of Republican candidates during the 2010 election season that the network doesn't seem to be worried about.

"Through this lawsuit, Fox News attempts to use copyright law to silence political speech. This distortion of copyright law fails," lawyers representing Carnahan wrote in a court document filed on Friday.

Read more »

Hezbollah

Huckabee Buys GOP Rep's Claim That Hezbollah Is Infiltrating The U.S. Through Mexican Border

Jillian Rayfield | November 30, 2010, 11:01AM

Mike Huckabee on Fox News

Republican Rep. Sue Myrick (R-NC) often appears on Fox News to discuss her theory that agents of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah are infiltrating the U.S. through the Mexican border by posing as illegal immigrants.

On Sunday, former (and possibly future) presidential candidate Mike Huckabee was shocked that the Obama Administration is ignoring the threat: "This porous border, where we see people running across at will, if Hezbollah, a very, very deadly terrorist organization, can use that network to get into the U.S., all of these pat-downs at the airport are meaningless."

Read more »

Robin Carnahan

Fox News Seeking Default Judgement Against Carnahan Over Ad

Ryan J. Reilly | November 23, 2010, 2:35PM

The election may be in the bag, but a lawsuit filed by Fox News against former Senate candidate Robin Carnahan (D-MO) for using their footage in a campaign ad hasn't wrapped up yet.

Fox News on Monday requested that clerk in the U.S. District Court in the Western District of Missouri enter a default judgment against Robin Carnahan for Senate, Inc. "on the ground that it has failed to answer or otherwise defend against the amended complaint in this action... within the time period prescribed by the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure."

Read more »

'Ground Zero Mosque'

Fox News, Bachmann Seize On Park51 Federal Grant Application

Rachel Slajda | November 23, 2010, 1:44PM

The site of the Cordoba House project

Park51, the proposed Islamic community center and mosque in downtown Manhattan, has applied for federally-funded grants, prompting shrill cries that the "Ground Zero mosque" is looking for a taxpayer handout.

The Daily Beast reported yesterday that Park51 had applied for $5 million worth of grants. The organization, in a statement, acknowledged applying for a grant from the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation. Park51 says it would use the money both for its construction and services it plans to offer, including domestic violence prevention and foreign language classes.

Read more »

Fox News

Fox News Discusses Return Of Gold As Everyday Currency (VIDEO)

Eric Lach | November 9, 2010, 6:04PM

This afternoon on Fox News, host Stuart Varney and the network's senior judicial analyst Andrew Napolitano had "The Gold Standard Debate."

Read more »

Oklahoma

Dana Perino: 'Sharia Law Allows For Stoning And Spousal Abuse' (VIDEO)

Rachel Slajda | November 9, 2010, 9:32AM

While guest hosting Fox and Friends this morning, former White House press secretary Dana Perino did a short news break on the Oklahoma Sharia ban, helpfully describing Islamic law for viewers:

"Sharia law allows for stoning and spousal abuse," she said.

Watch:

Read more »

Fox News

Fox News Sets Up E-Mail For Voter Fraud Complaints (VIDEO)

Ryan J. Reilly | October 28, 2010, 2:23PM

Fox News has set up an e-mail to collect viewer complaints over voter fraud ahead of the midterm elections.

In a segment on Megyn Kelly's show today, she explained that the Justice Department "has promised to be on the lookout for what it calls voter intimidation next week."

Kelly explained it this way: "When you have a Republican president, a Republican administration they are very, very concerned with voter suppression -- I'm sorry, yeah with voter -- with the voter -- voter fraud, thank you."

Read more »

Sharia

Fox's Pro-Williams Muslim 'Expert' Believes Most Muslims Want To Impose Sharia

Rachel Slajda | October 22, 2010, 12:55PM

Fox News, as part of their extensive coverage of the Juan Williams controversy, today lamented that "so much of this debate has excluded the opinion of the Muslim community" before turning to a Muslim --who publicly accuses 80 percent of American mosques of being radical and anti-American -- to respond.

M. Zuhdi Jasser, a Muslim physician who advocates the de-politicization of Islam, said he wasn't offended by Williams' remarks that he gets nervous whenever he sees Muslims on a plane. NPR fired Williams for the comment and Fox News immediately hired him to a $2 million contract, touching off a debate over whether what Williams said is bigoted and therefore a fireable offense.

Read more »

Fox News

Fox News' Five-Minute Terrorist Attack (VIDEO)

Evan McMorris-Santoro and Jon Terbush | October 15, 2010, 1:26PM

In the space of about five minutes this morning, Fox News turned a shutdown of the Brooklyn Bridge over a suspicious flashlight into an international terrorist threat before dismissing the whole thing like it never happened. It's a classic example of Fox News fear-mongering -- in this case, based on Fox's own fear-mongery "scoop" that's been a central narrative of the network's broadcast day.

Here's what actually happened, according to reports. The bridge was closed around 9:40 AM after a pedestrian notified police of a flashlight with copper wire sticking out of it on the pedestrian walkway. (The iconic landmark is currently undergoing renovations, which may explain the construction equipment lying around.)

Both sides of the bridge and the walkway were shut down for about an hour while police investigated. The suspicious flashlight turned out to be just a normal flashlight.

On Fox, however, you can go from zero to "be afraid, be very afraid" to zero again in the space of seconds.

Read more »

Fox News

Carnahan Lawyer: Fox News' Lawsuit Is Attempt To 'Stifle Core Political Speech'

Ryan J. Reilly | October 13, 2010, 10:17AM

Fox News and television host Chris Wallace are "attempting to use intellectual property and Missouri tort laws to stifle core political speech in the heat of this election season," a lawyer for the campaign of Missouri Democratic Senate candidate Robin Carnahan said in a recent court filing.

The network filed suit against the campaign last month, alleging that a campaign ad (removed from YouTube, but described here) attacking Republican Roy Blunt as a Washington insider violated copyright laws. One copyright lawyer told TPMMuckraker that the network took a "dramatic step" in filing suit against the campaign, since such disputes between media companies and campaigns rarely make it to the courtroom.

Read more »

Fox News

Fox News Took 'Dramatic Step' In Suing Political Campaign, Says Copyright Expert

Ryan J. Reilly | September 16, 2010, 4:54PM

Fox News' decision to sue a Democratic candidate over her campaign's use of footage first aired on the network in an ad is an apparent escalation of such fair use battles -- bringing disputes between media companies and campaigns from YouTube to the courtroom.

The suit the network filed against the campaign of Robin Carnahan, a Democrat challenging Rep. Roy Blunt (R) for a Senate seat in Missouri, appears to be the first time such a fair use fight between a media company and a political campaign has been taken to court. It is much more common for media companies to flag the videos to YouTube and assert their copyright.

Read more »

Fox News

Fox News Sues Over Carnahan Commercial, Says It Implies Network Endorsed Democrat

Ryan J. Reilly | September 16, 2010, 12:45PM

Fox News wants to make this much perfectly clear to their viewers: their network didn't endorse a Democrat.

The network and anchor Christopher Wallace have sued Robin Carnahan, the Democratic candidate for Senate in Missouri, in federal court, alleging the politician used footage of Wallace's interview of Rep. Roy Blunt (R) in a campaign ad which made it look as though the network was endorsing her.

Read more »

Democratic Governors Association

Democrats Accuse Fox News Of Illegal Support To Ohio Republican Candidate

Ryan J. Reilly | September 2, 2010, 4:06PM

Former Rep. and current candidate for Governor John Kasich (R-OH)

Democrats allege in a legal filing that, by plugging an Ohio gubernatorial candidate's website in a chyron, Fox News illegally contributed to the Republican's campaign.

A seven-page complaint filed Thursday by the Democratic Governors Association with the Ohio Elections Commission accuses Fox News of making an illegal in-kind contributions to gubernatorial candidate John Kasich (R-OH), reports Sam Stein.

Read more »

Stephen Jin-Woo Kim

Ex-Federal Contractor Indicted For Leaks To Fox News

Ryan J. Reilly | August 30, 2010, 2:45PM

A typical U.S. classified document. Credit: Wikimedia

A former contractor for the State Department has been indicted on charges he leaked national defense information to a national news organization, according to an indictment unsealed late Friday.

Stephen Jin-Woo Kim -- a former senior adviser for intelligence who was on a detail to the arms control compliance bureau in the State Department -- allegedly gave national defense information to a reporter. The news organization is believed to be Fox News, and the information was about North Korea, according to news reports.

Read more »

Fox News

Fox's Parent Company Not The Only News Outlet Funding Gov Races

Ryan J. Reilly | August 19, 2010, 1:35PM

CBS, GE, Walk Disney, News Corporation.

News Corp's $1 million donation to the Republican Governors Association was one of the largest single donations to any American political party this campaign season.

The company, headed by chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch, owns the Fox News Channel, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Post, the Fox Business Network and more than two dozen local television stations.

In a statement, News Corp. said it "believes in the power of free markets, and the RGA's pro-business agenda supports our priorities at this most critical time for our economy."

But it's not the only news company that has delved into financing campaigns.

Read more »

Department of Justice

Admin Responds To Military Voters Smear Made By John Cornyn, J. Christian Adams

Rachel Slajda | August 2, 2010, 12:08PM

J. Christian Adams, former Department of Justice attorney

The Department of Justice has responded to claims made by Fox News, J. Christian Adams and Republican Sen. John Cornyn that it's intentionally trying to disenfranchise military voters.

In a letter to Cornyn, (via Greg Sargent) the DOJ says the accusations are "simply untrue."

Read more »

Glenn Beck

Glenn Beck: I Stand By Criticism Of Tides -- It's Not My Fault CA Gunman Targeted Them (VIDEO)

Jillian Rayfield | July 30, 2010, 1:58PM

Glenn Beck

Glenn Beck denied yesterday that his long history of criticizing the Tides Foundation had anything to do with the alleged targeting of the group by Byron Williams, the anti-government gunman suspected of engaging in a shootout with police in Oakland, California, possibly while he was on his way to targeting Tides and the ACLU.

"I expose the Tides Foundation and show you what it is, and I am now responsible for terrorists attacks?" Beck asked.

As we've reported, the fairly obscure Tides Foundation has been brought up several times on Beck's show, characterized as part of what Beck sees as a conspiracy by President Obama and other left-wing people and organizations to spread socialism.

Read more »

Fox News

Fox News: 'Big Mexican Women' Are Helping Afghan Soldiers Go AWOL In U.S.!

Eric Lach | July 23, 2010, 8:32AM

So some Afghan soldiers studying English at an Air Force Base in Texas and a "loose network" of possibly illegal and maybe overweight Mexican women walk into a bar. Stop me if you've heard this one.

(And if you have, you've been reading FoxNews.com.)

Read more »

Glenn Beck

Glenn Beck Defends Shirley Sherrod: It's Possible 'This Woman Deserves Her Job Back' (VIDEO)

Jillian Rayfield | July 20, 2010, 6:44PM

Shirley Sherrod may have found an unlikely ally: Glenn Beck.

Beck defended the USDA appointee, who resigned after Big Government posted a controversial video clip of a speech she gave to the NAACP earlier this year. In the clip, she described an incident when she debated how much to help a white farmer in need of assistance, though she has said that her remarks were taken out of context.

Beck said today that it's possible she "deserves her job back."

Read more »

NAACP

NAACP Backs Off After Watching Full Tape: 'We Were Snookered'

Rachel Slajda | July 20, 2010, 6:21PM

Former USDA employee Shirley Sherrod

In a new statement, NAACP president Ben Jealous has backed off his original criticism of Shirley Sherrod after watching the full tape of her remarks.

Jealous, who originally called Sherrod's actions "shameful," now says the whole thing a "teachable moment."

Jealous said that, after reviewing the full tape (which we still haven't seen) and speaking to Sherrod and the white farmers in question, the NAACP has realized it was "snookered by Fox News and Tea Party Activist Andrew Breitbart into believing she had harmed white farmers because of racial bias."

Read more »