Remember when Fox News inexplicably displayed terribly and offensively photoshopped photos of two Times reporters without explanation on what is ostensibly a news program? Yeah? Well Vanity Fair totally got them back! They photoshopped the hell out of some Fox people! Zing! Taste of your own medicine! That'll show 'em! [VF]
Last night, after airing footage of Jesse Jackson whispering that he wanted to "cut [Obama's] nuts off" for "talking down to black people" on faith-based federal initiatives, Bill O'Reilly said on his Fox News show that the network had further, "more damaging" footage of Jackson talking that it did not air (see the last video here). O'Reilly was, perhaps, trying to sound like he was taking the high road, but really just came off like yet another Fox News smear artist. Now, a Fox News staffer is doing some whispering of his own about what Jackson said, and it seems inevitable the cable news channel will have to back up O'Reilly's allegations with full details. Citing a coworker friend who had seen the tape, the New York-based Fox staffer tells us Jackson referred to Obama "using the n-word — [and] not 'Nilla." The source also shed light on why it took three days for Jackson's comments to emerge.
Earlier this week, Fox News began sprinkling helpful exclusives on its erstwhile enemies at the Times in an ostensible bid to atone for past smears. But the favors may also be part of a divide-and-conquer strategy to prevent the formation of an anti-Fox "posse," to use columnist David Carr's memorable phrasing. And so, perhaps, it is with Julia Allison, the shamelessly self-advancing internet fameball who so many in the New York media bubble love to hate. Why has Fox stooped — famewise, mind you — to picking a fight with Allison, telling the Daily News today that her comments against the network's vicious flack Irena Briganti are "yet another sad, relentless attempt at relevancy?" Maybe because the "rep" quoted by the News is actually Briganti herself, unable to resist swiping at someone with far less power than the Times. Or maybe the network is deploying its divide-and-conquer strategy to a much larger group of detractors than reporters at one newspaper — people who hate Julia Allison.
Bill O'Reilly just aired the much-hyped but apparently very brief video Fox News has of civil rights leader Jesse Jackson saying he wants to "cut [Barack Obama's] nuts off." It sounds like Jackson is upset over the Democratic presidential candidate's position on faith-based federal initiatives. But that's beside the point. First off, what left-wing political activist worth his salt whispers sensitive, private thoughts like these while fully mic-ed at a Fox News affiliate? More to the point, did Jackson learn absolutely nothing from the "Hymietown" fiasco in 1984, when he tried to make off-the-record remarks about Jews in New York to reporters on a campaign airplane flight? Anyway, Jackson has already apologized, and the two guests brought on by O'Reilly didn't think it was a big deal (one because Jackson already apologized, and one because he argues Jackson's not taken seriously anymore anyway) . Video of Jackson's comments and text of his apology are after the jump. UPDATE: O'Reilly also said Fox News has audio of Jackson that is "more damaging that what you heard" but won't air it because it's not relevant and the sensitive network is not out to get Jesse Jackson. Video after the jump. UPDATE 2:
Oh hey look everyone, Jesse Jackson said terrible things about Barack Obama while a microphone was on, and now, oddly, Fox News has this tape! Sean Hannity talked about it on the radio today, and Bill O'Reilly will be playing the tape tonight, on his show. OMG they are creaming themselves. Drudge already has the apology and no one has heard the tape yet! Reportedly, the Reverend is upset that Obama "talks down to black people on matters of faith," and then, more colorfully, he says he wants to rip Obama's nuts off. Maybe? "Hannity would not say 'nuts,' but based on his description (portion of the male anatomy beginning with an 'n') I believe that's the word he was going for." So this is basically great news for everyone!
Is the Fox News PR machine trying to get back in the good graces of the New York Times-and slyly drive a wedge between reporters there at the same time? The network's famously vicious media relations operation was ravaged in a David Carr column in the Times on Monday. But now that they've let Bill O'Reilly take his obligatory on-air shot at the paper, the network seems to have decided to play nice with Times reporters-at least, with some of them.
Hold for a second the vitriol that Roger Ailes usually inspires. The Fox News boss is worth watching-not so much for his abuse-inviting impersonation of a corpulent former Nixonite but as a financial indicator of a market top. The cable news network Ailes started for Australian media mogul Rupert Murdoch-though a remarkable ratings success-marked the high-water-mark of the Republican ascendancy. A month after the launch of Fox News in October 1996, Bill Clinton came back from the political dead and ascendant Congressional Republicans under Newt Gingrich suffered their first big reverse. So is there an Ailes jinx? Well, take a look at the stock market. Ailes' Fox Business News was supposed to be a news channel with less of the gloom and doom of competitors such as CNBC. Since the start of broadcasting in October last year-right at the peak of the market-the S&P stockmarket index is down more than 15% (click to enlarge graph). If Ailes threatens to launch any new channels, sell!
Fox News has been hammered with a good deal of bad publicity this week, all stemming from David Carr's takedown of the network's PR operation in Monday's New York Times. One downside to FNC's aggressive attitude toward the press is that their own stars get relatively less attention than other cable news icons like Keith Olbermann or Anderson Cooper. Rachel Sklar points out that Fox News anchor Shepard Smith is "a handsome, affable and hard-working straight-up news guy" who's been "under-covered." That's true, and also lends itself to a "straight-up" joke, considering our past coverage of him as a closeted gay man. As we enter the new, liberal age of Obama, America is ready for real diversity-and Smith's gay status has now become conventional wisdom .
"The Irena Briganti that I know is funny, hard-working and always willing to help out a colleague-no matter how busy she is," wrote Fox Television flack Erica Keane yesterday, in response to our "smear" of Briganti, Fox News boss Roger Ailes' PR attack-dog-in-chief. But Keane is in the minority in her assessment of Briganti's charm. Our post on her generated perhaps the biggest outpouring of responses we've had since Bloomberg staffers got the chance to vent about horrid boss Matthew Winkler. There was a wellspring of resentment against the Fox News flack just waiting to come out-and much of it came to us unsolicited. Everyone from journalists to Briganti's fellow News Corp. employees weighed in. "She-devil" is among the more middle-of-the-road descriptions. After the jump, all you'll need to know about Briganti's reputation-and her handful of obligatory defenders:
Howard Wolfson, the Hillary Clinton surrogate whose many television appearances were second in embarrassment only to Terry McAuliffe's, has a new job! The former communications director is taking his message of Cosby sweater-inspired victory to Fox News, where they continue to find new and inventive ways of hating the Clintons, like by parading their vanquished aides before the nation. Clinton's campaign came to believe that Fox was more fair to her during the primary campaign, mostly because they never tired of beating up on Obama and his pastor or whatever. Wolfson, recently named "the most charmless human being on the planet," is excited to bring his tireless advocacy for failure to the fair and balanced network.
In response to a Times column about Fox News uglifying a picture of reporter Jacques Steinberg and viciously smearing Tim Arango and other journalists, the cable network's chief rageaholic, Bill O'Reilly, is pretending to be pissed at the Times for caricaturing him in the illustration for a 2007 book review. The caricature, he said during his Fox show last night, even included some kind of devil horn (clip after the jump). But O'Reilly's screaming on-air hatefest is the worst sort of act, because if you actually examine the illustration, reproduced after the jump, you notice two things.
Fox bossman Roger Ailes is the best teacher any media attack flack could have. He's been screwing with the media for decades. Ailes is the man who perfected the art of hammering the media with charges of bias in order to deflect negative coverage from oneself. Kerwin Swint's new biography of him, Dark Genius, has plenty of examples from throughout his entire career. And you have to hand it to Ailes: his clients-all the way up to the President-got the best media haranguing tactics money can buy:
A Fox colleague has written in to defend Irena Briganti, who we dubbed The Most Vindictive Flack In The Media World in an item earlier today. Erica Keane, VP of media relations for Fox Television Stations, "strongly disagrees" with us, as well as the "cowardly anonymous individuals" who were sources for our "hate filled hit-piece." Her full letter, after the jump:
So, David Carr has gone and pulled the curtain back a bit on Fox PR-the single most vicious PR operation in all the media. Good for him. So let's do our part by zeroing in on the one flack who is the face of Fox's feared, vengeful media relations operation. Her name is Irena Briganti. She's the female alter ego and mouthpiece of Fox boss Roger Ailes (pictured). She's been described as bubbly and charming in person. But she's the one holding the bloody hatchet that Fox regularly brings down right on reporters' heads. Here's everything you need to know about the scariest flack in mediadom:
The New York Times' David Carr sounds off today about the Fox News PR machine and its longstanding practice of bashing critics with rumor and innuendo: "Roger Ailes, Fox News and its public relations apparatus have waged a permanent campaign on behalf of the channel that borrows its methodology from his days as a senior political adviser to Richard M. Nixon, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush." [NYT]
As a member of two vindictive cults - Fox News and Scientology - cable news anchor Greta Van Susteren is an absolute pro at channeling rage. Witness the blog post she typed up on the 4th of July holiday. The executive producer of CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 last week called Susteren's On The Record "not a news program. It's missing-person of the day." Hoo-boy. Susteren's 1000-word response swiftly pinned blame for the comments on Cooper, since he should be able to control his producer, then basically called the silver-haired anchor a coddled, commercialized, Katrina-exploiting, polygamy-obsessed pretty boy. Susteren, meanwhile, has a magical law degree that obviates the need for a teleprompter, ever. A breakdown (and partial refutation) of her rant, after the jump.
Look what happens when journalists report about a ratings dip at Fox News: their photos become ghoulishly caricatured on Fox & Friends. According to the show's co-hosts Steve Doocy and Brian Kilmeade, New York Times television editor Steven Reddicliffe, who just so happens to be a fired and disgruntled Fox employee, assigned reporter Jacques Steinberg to write a "hit piece" on how fewer viewers were tuning in to the fair and balanced news network. It was a form of aggression that would not stand, and so the nasty liberal "attack dogs" got their comeuppance by having their facial features distorted and exaggerated with the magic of Photoshop. As you can see above, Steinberg became a chain-smoking Dick Tracy villain, and Reddicliffe became Lionel Trilling.
Rupert Murdoch's News Corp owns Fox News and the New York Post's Page Six, so there's often a bit of corporate synergy in the targets those two outlets decide to attack. Like NBC, for example. MSNBC competes directly with Fox News and NBC with the Fox network, so it's only good business to undermine them at every turn. But it's become an all-out a war, lately, waged both in print and on television. Let's go back to the beginning!
So the Post has posted the Page Six item Keith Olbermann was so worked up about yesterday, and it does indeed say Hardball host Chris Matthews "seemed" to be talking about a strategy for landing Tim Russert's job at a memorial event for the NBC personality, and that Olbermann is threatening to quit if he doesn't get Russert's Meet The Press job. (On Countdown, Olbermann denied issuing an ultimatum for Meet The Press and said Matthews shut down talk of him replacing Russert when an acquaintance brought it up.) But the gossip item also quotes a source, ostensibly from the traditional broadcast side of NBC News, who claims that Russert himself wanted NBC News political director Chuck Todd as his own replacement, and that the network will never install someone from MSNBC on the show:
Keith Olbermann's feud with Rupert Murdoch and his News Corp. media properties reached a bitter new milestone today when the MSNBC Countdown host smacked Murdoch's Post for a forthcoming gossip item that will, he said, allege that fellow MSNBC-er Chris Matthews was jockeying to succeed Tim Russert as host of Meet The Press at a memorial event for Russert yesterday. The item will also reportedly say that Olbermann has threatened to quit if he doesn't get Russert's job himself. Olbermann leapt to sometime-rival Matthews' defense, saying the Hardball host was asked by an acquaintance at the event about succession and immediately shut the conversation down. As for himself, Olbermann denied he had demanded to replace Russert and said he was, in any case, unqualified (though any savvy and honest successor would attach that caveat). The Page Six reporter working on the item, Paula Froelich, was awarded Countdown's "Worst Person In The World" title for the night, which will teach her a very important lesson: Do not call TV people for comment until after their shows have aired. Clip after the jump.
