Mon, Jan 29, 2007 12:49pm ET

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Fox defense of Gibson's report on Obama smear missed mark

Summary: According to an ABCNews.com report, Fox News vice president Bill Shine defended John Gibson's reporting on the discredited accusation that Sen. Barack Obama attended a madrassa in his youth. But a statement from Shine, as quoted by the ABCNews.com report, never addressed Gibson's charges that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton was behind the smear.

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Posted by njguy93

These people are disgusting pigs.  Pun intended.  Gibson trying to make excuses is sad.  Then he starts changing his story about how madrassa is an ambigous term and thats why it angered many people.  His fellow FAUX whore Brian "Leslie Hochsenwader" Kilmeade was doing the same.  I see Jabba the Hut or somebody gave them the talking points.  These hypocrites were calling for Dan Rather's head on a platter after he did a story that was TRUE, except for one small memo which DID NOT EVEN AFFECT the story one way or the other.  These people are slimeballs and they know it.  Thats why they start defending their slimy actions even more when they are called out on it.  When someone is caught red-handed doing something, many times they often make even more excuses and justify their atrocious and odious actions even more.

THANK YOU.

njguy93@yahoo.com

Posted by nerzog in reply to njguy93

I'm glad you brought up Dan Rather.  Once again, we see a huge double standard at work here.  Fox "News" lies and omits facts every day, regularly repeating stories from Drudge, the Moonie Times and other sources that are openly biased.  Where are all those "truth detectors" who crucified Dan Rather?  The answer is simple;  Rather was set up and driven out by the flying monkeys because he was revealing a story which could hurt Puddinhead George's re-election.  He was targeted for termination.

Fox "News" is an absolute joke. 

Posted by mb

Correct me if I am wrong but isnt any school in the muslim world called a madrassa?  Doent it mean place of learning?  I also believe the smear might have worked several years ago, but sites such as this one are finally making a difference.  Kilmeade continues with the Clinton smears and unnamed sources.  

Posted by IRONY 101

I don't see any mention by FOX that CNN investigated the allegation that Barak Obama attended a madrassa by actually going to Indonesia and that CNN debunked the story as entirely false. I don't see where FOX has in any way affirmatively ackonwledged that the madrassa story is indeed false. On the other hand I do continually hear FOX personalities such as Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly contend that Democrats perpetually lie. True, FOX is reporting that Obama has denied the story and that Hillary Clinton has denied having any part in the false allegations. But in the context of the entire tone of FOX reporting about Democrats the subtext is always that Democrats are not worthy of belief. Accordingly, in its own subtle way FOX is leaving the door open for its viewers to conclude that the madrassa stroy could actually be true. And the longer FOX keeps the story alive the more likely some of its viewers will conclude the madrassa claims are true because they have been indoctrinated to believe the worst, no matter how outrageous or implausible, about Democrats.

Posted by steeve

The media is never wrong.

Anyone who thinks the media is wrong on an issue, rest assured.  Media members will gather to discuss the issue, and conclude that the media wasn't wrong.

For further reports on how the media is never wrong, tune in to the media.

Posted by anotheramerican

It looks to me that MMFA is criticizing  ABCNews.com for leaving out part of Shine's comments.  

I wonder how many of you realize that Insight and Fox are not making the allegations, they are simply reporting what Insight Magazine wrote. 

So who is MMFA up in arms about?  ABC or Fox?  Let me guess...

Also, if you were in Clinton's campaign would you deny it? (Gee? I think I would.)  the Insight people are standing on their reporting but haven't revealed the sources. They are using unnamed sources just as they mentioned that Bob Woodward does regularly. Are they making it up? Who knows.

Insight says it let the Obama camp know of its article beforehand and they had no comment until it was aired.  

I'd think many of you would be thankful that Insight and Fox brought this to light right now and allowed Obama to answer this charge rather than wait for an "October Suprise" supposedly by the people associated with Clinton campaign.  

Oh well, even though it got started early, it looks to me like the Democrats will have an interesting primary campaign.  I think We'll  all need flowcharts to follow all the allegations, rebuttals, "he said she said" counter chargers, let alone attacks on various news media. Hopefully it'll give us enough time to find out about each candiate.

 

"I wonder how many of you realize that Insight and Fox are not making the allegations, they are simply reporting what Insight Magazine wrote."

-----

Insight is only reporting what Insight wrote?

What are you smoking? 

And yes, Insight made the allegations.

The lying allegations. 

Posted by west1 in reply to anotheramerican

Defending Insight?   It provides news from anonymous sources by anonymous writers.  If you depend on this as a source of news, you are only fooling yourself.  Not surprisingly, Fox News used it as a source and got caught.

Posted by HuntingtonBeachLefty in reply to anotheramerican

"It looks to me that MMFA is criticizing  ABCNews.com for leaving out part of Shine's comments.  

in arms about?  ABC or Fox?  Let me guess..." (Anutteramerican)

No, nutter- MMFA is crediting ABC as its source for a statement by Shinola. A statement that doesn't address an important part of the subject that the Fox-hole is commenting on.

So, yes, the criticism is directed at Fox (shine) for weaseling on his remarks, not at ABC for reporting the weaselry.

See what years of Fox nooz does to your reading comprehension?

Posted by corkcol6005

John Gibson is always stretching the truth when it comes to Democrats.  Outside of Rush Limbaugh, I don't think there is a more evil person in broadcasting than Fox News' John Gibson.