Fox News & Obama staff meet, after Fox anchor Shepard Smith apologized

[Cees Binkhorst]

REPLY TO: D66 at nic.surfnet.nl

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/10/29/arts/AP-US-TV-Fox-Apology.html
October 29, 2009
Fox News Channel, Obama Administration Talking
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 10:22 a.m. ET

NEW YORK (AP) -- Fox News Channel and the Obama administration are
talking.

The network confirmed a Politico report that Fox news executive Michael
Clemente met at the White House on Wednesday with Robert Gibbs,
President Barack Obama's press secretary. There were no details given
about the meeting.

Fox has been battling with the administration, which contends the
network operates more like a wing of the Republican Party than a news
organization.

The meeting came a day after Fox anchor Shepard Smith apologized for a
''lack of balance'' following a political report where the Republican
candidate for New Jersey governor was interviewed and the Democratic
incumbent wasn't.

Fox correspondent Shannon Bream had wrapped up a live interview with GOP
candidate Chris Christie on Smith's afternoon news show Tuesday when the
anchor asked, ''When will you be interviewing Jon Corzine?''

Bream replied that despite ''multiple requests,'' Corzine hadn't made
himself available for an interview.

''I didn't know that was about to happen,'' Smith then said. ''My
apologies for the lack of balance there. If I had control, it wouldn't
have happened.''

Smith is the network's chief news anchor and has even angered Fox
viewers with some of his stories, including expressions of anger at the
Bush administration's response to Hurricane Katrina.

During Smith's second newscast on Tuesday evening, a New Jersey report
included a Corzine sound bite given to the Fox broadcast network's New
York affiliate.

The race in New Jersey is one of two marquee contests in 2009, along
with the gubernatorial campaign in Virginia. Corzine trailed Christie in
the early stages of the campaign, but recent polls show the governor has
closed the gap.

Meanwhile, Fox received support Wednesday from an unlikely source: CNN's
prime-time host Campbell Brown. She interviewed Obama adviser Valerie
Jarrett and asked whether the White House considered left-leaning MSNBC
biased as well. Jarrett wouldn't speak about the network.

She ''seems loathe to admit that MSNBC has a bias,'' Brown said. ''And
that is where I think the White House loses all credibility on this
issue.''

If the White House wants to talk about bias in the media, officials
''should elevate the conversation and talk about bias on the right and
on the left,'' Brown said. ''Because when you just target one side, you
reveal your own bias -- that you are only critical of those who are
critical of you.''

------

Fox is owned by News Corp.; CNN is owned by Time Warner Inc. and MSNBC
is a unit of General Electric Co.

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