Fox News is not a legitmate news agency…Let’s compare

The Obama administration, including the president himself, have come out swinging a Fox News.   They accuse Fox of pushing the Republican agenda and not being a legitimate news network.

Let’s be honest, they point to Beck and Hannity.  You will hear them mention “Let’s watch together and 5:00 and 9:00 and see what we mean.”  That is 2 hours out of a 24 hour news cycle (Hannity is repeated so 3 hours).    Beck and Hannity have their points of view and are not news programs.  They are commentary and investigative journalism.  But that is not the whole of the network.

Let’s look at a few others the White House has insulted.

Neal Cavuto:

Prior to joining FNC, Cavuto anchored and hosted more than three hours of live programming daily for CNBC, including the network’s highest rated program, Market Wrap, as well as Power Lunch and Business Insiders. While at CNBC, he also served as a contributor to NBC’s Today Show as well as NBC News at Sunrise. His 20-plus years of financial reporting include a stint at PBS’ Nightly Business Report, where he was the New York bureau chief, as well as a stint at Investment Age Magazine.

Brian Wilson:

Prior to joining the FOX News Channel, Wilson was co-anchor of “FOX Morning News” on WTTG-TV, the FOX News affiliate in Washington, D.C. Wilson also served as the station’s Capitol Hill correspondent and covered the Anita Hill/Clarence Thomas hearings and the ethics investigations into then Speaker of the House Jim Wright. Additionally, he was the WTTG-TV Pentagon correspondent during the Persian Gulf War.

Wilson was elected in 2005 and in 1991 to serve as Vice Chairman of the 2500-member Capitol Hill Radio/TV Correspondent’s Association. In 1997, Wilson earned a Master’s degree with honors in print journalism from American University, where he also served as an adjunct professor in the School of Communications.

Brit Hume:

Before joining FOX News in 1996, Hume was with ABC News for 23 years, serving as chief White House correspondent from 1989 through 1996. During his tenure, he contributed to “World News Tonight With Peter Jennings,” “Nightline” and “This Week” as well as various specials for the news division. Hume joined ABC in 1973 as a consultant for the network’s documentary division and was named a Washington correspondent in 1976. He was later promoted to Capitol Hill correspondent and reported on Congress until 1988.

Earlier, Hume reported for United Press International, beginning his career as a newspaper reporter with The Hartford Times and the Baltimore Evening Sun.

He has received numerous honors and awards, including the 2003 Sol Taishoff Award for Excellence in Broadcast Journalism from the National Press Foundation, and a 1991 Emmy Award for his coverage of the Gulf War. The author of two books, “Inside Story” and “Death and the Mines,” Hume was named “The Best in the Business” by the American Journalism Review for his extensive news coverage of the White House.

Chris Wallace:

Before joining FOX News, Wallace worked at ABC News for 15 years where he served as the senior correspondent for “Primetime Thursday” and as a substitute host for “Nightline.” During his tenure with ABC News, Wallace hosted multiple groundbreaking investigations and received numerous awards for his work, including the Dupont-Columbia Award-winning probe of the Associates, Ford Motor Company’s finance department that allegedly practiced predatory lending.

Prior to joining ABC News, Wallace was with NBC News where he served as the chief White House correspondent from 1982-1989. While at NBC, Wallace covered the 1980, 1984 and 1988 presidential campaigns as well as the Democratic and Republican conventions in those years. Wallace also anchored “Meet The Press” from 1987-1988 and anchored the Sunday edition of “NBC Nightly News” from 1982-1984 and 1986-1987. Wallace joined NBC as a reporter with WNBC-TV in New York City in 1975.

Wallace has won every major broadcast news award for his reporting, including three Emmy Awards, the Dupont-Columbia Silver Baton and the Peabody Award.

Juan Williams:

Before coming to FOX, Williams spent 23 years at The Washington Post, where he served as an editorial writer, op-ed columnist and White House correspondent. From 2000-2001, Williams hosted National Public Radio’s (NPR) national call-in show “Talk of the Nation.” In that role, he traveled to cities across America for monthly radio town hall meetings before live audiences. Williams is currently a senior national correspondent for NPR.

The recipient of an Emmy Award for television documentary writing, Williams also won widespread critical acclaim for a series of documentaries including, “Politics:The New Black Power” and “A. Philip Randolph: For Jobs and Freedom.” He is the author of the non-fiction bestseller, “Eyes on The Prize: America’s Civil Rights Years, 1954-1965″ and “Thurgood Marshall: American Revolutionary.” Williams has also written numerous articles for national magazines including Fortune, The Atlantic Monthly, Ebony, GQ and The New Republic, in addition to appearing on numerous television programs including ABC’s “Nightline,” PBS’ “Washington Week in Review” and “Oprah.”

Sounds like some pretty strong journalistic credentials.   I guess they all became Republican lackeys when the joined Fox.   Very similar, but the opposite effect,

for George Stephanopoulos :

Prior to joining ABC News, Stephanopoulos served in the Clinton administration as the senior adviser to the president for policy and strategy. He is the author of “All Too Human,” a No. 1 New York Times best-seller on President Clinton’s first term and the 1992 and 1996 Clinton/Gore campaigns.

Stephanopoulos received his Master’s degree in theology from Balliol College, Oxford University, England, where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Columbia University and graduated summa cum laude in political science.

maybe Paul Begala

Begala first entered the national political scene after the consulting firm he and fellow Democratic strategist James Carville started, Carville & Begala, helped President Bill Clinton get elected in 1992. Serving in the Clinton administration as counselor to the president, he was a close adviser to Clinton and helped define and defend the administration’s agenda, serving as a principal public spokesman.

Carville?

James Carville is a Democratic strategist who serves as a political contributor for CNN, appearing frequently on CNN’s The Situation Room as well as other programs on all CNN networks. Carville remains active in Democratic politics and is a party fundraiser.

no not quite… let’s go to the big show…Katie Couric

Couric completed a 15-year run as co-anchor of NBC News’ “Today” on May 31, 2006. While at NBC, Couric was also contributing anchor for “Dateline NBC.” She was a “Today” substitute co-anchor from February 1991 before taking over the job permanently two months later. Couric joined NBC News in 1989 as deputy Pentagon reporter before serving its first national correspondent in June 1990, which included two stints covering the Gulf War.

Couric has covered most of the major breaking news events over the past 15 years, including the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center; the Columbine tragedy in Colorado; six Olympic Games, including the 1996 Atlanta Olympic bombing; the funeral of Princess Diana; the Oklahoma City bombing; the Timothy McVeigh execution; the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings; and the end of millennium coverage, which she co-anchored with Tom Brokaw.

Couric received the George Foster Peabody Award for her March 2000 series on colon cancer, which also led to NBC News receiving the 2001 RTNDA-Edward R. Murrow Award for Overall Excellence. She also has won six Emmy Awards, the Society of Professional Journalists’ Sigma Delta Chi Award, a National Headliner Award, an Associated Press Award, a Matrix Award, two American Women in Radio and Television Gracie Awards, the Harvard University School of Public Health’s Julius B. Richmond Award and UNICEF’s Danny Kaye Humanitarian Award.

That is pretty close.. Today Show?…At least it was in the ball park.

The fact is Fox is asking the hard questions, the questions that we are all asking (or should be).   The rest of the media is still suffering from the Obama election and after-party hangover.

In either case, freedom of the press is protected speech and Obama is walking a line that even a well protected Liberal should not dare touch.