'America's Newsroom' Guests 'Tilt Markedly To The Right' On Fox News: Howard Kurtz

Fox News' "America's Newsroom" may be the network's first straight-news program of the day, but as the Washington Post's Howard Kurtz reports, "the bookings on the two-hour program, and sometimes the story selection, tilt markedly to the right."

Kurtz reports that from June 1 through July 2, "the first solo guest on every show but one...was a Republican or conservative" and that "a relative handful of Democratic lawmakers were given solo spots, while Democratic strategists were generally paired in debates with Republican counterparts."

Host Bill Hemmer, who Kurtz describes as taking "a generally balanced approach," defended the bookings by saying it's his job to make sure the program doesn't tilt one way or the other.

"If the booking leans one way, it's the responsibility and duty of me as the host, the presenter, the interviewer, to make sure the topic is evenly treated," Hemmer said, adding that a guest like Karl Rove "is the type of guest that not just our audience, but any audience, wants to hear from."

Hemmer also said that congressional Democrats "are welcome with open arms" on his show, and Kurtz describes him as "unfailingly polite with his guests."

Kurtz's article also contains another bit a of news: Hemmer "recently signed a multi-year, multimillion-dollar contract that has not yet been announced."

Hemmer, who joined Fox News from CNN, said that he and network chief Roger Ailes share a kinship over their Ohio heritage. And in describing the difference between his current employer and CNN, he said it's all about the numbers:

"People ask me all the time what the difference is between CNN and Fox," Hemmer said in 2007. "It's day and night. We're a business. Viewers count. Ratings count. The store has got to stay open. We need customers."

For the second quarter of 2010, Hemmer's "American Newsroom" averaged 1.171 million total viewers, easily #1 in its timeslot and the #9 program on cable news for the quarter.

Read the full Washington Post article here.

UPDATE: "As if to underscore my story about the right-leaning bookings on Fox's 'America's Newsroom,' today's leadoff guest was Eric Cantor," Kurtz tweeted Monday afternoon.

Comments

[Feisty1960]

09:53 AM on 07/16/2010

"the bookings on the two-hour program, and sometimes the story selection, tilt markedly to the right."

THIS is a story to HP? Anyone checked out the pile of libs on MSNBC?

[Slingingstones]

05:05 AM on 07/16/2010

Bait and tackle store.

Vacationer: Are the fish biting?

Store Owner: ...not so much. You should have been here last week.

[mrstu]

02:10 AM on 07/16/2010

In other news: The sky is blue, water is wet, and the pope is still catholic.

[CarolinaYankee]

05:53 PM on 07/15/2010

Who is this Dweeb?

[StephJH]

08:52 AM on 07/15/2010

Why would any democratic politician appear on the Republican news channel? I can't think of a bigger waste of time. The democrats are at least TRYING to govern.

[Feisty1960]

09:54 AM on 07/16/2010

"The democrats are at least TRYING to govern. "

Yeah, by pushing through bills that are bad for the country. How nice of them.

[Jaxy]

06:16 PM on 07/14/2010

I was a huge fan of Bill Hemmer's when he co-anchored "American Morning" with Soledad O'Brien, on CNN. Now, he seems to have sold his purported 'soul' to the reichwing propaganda machine for a few shekels. What a sad, pathetic t00l he has become.

[mgray34]

04:01 PM on 07/14/2010

"People ask me all the time what the difference is between CNN and Fox," Hemmer said in 2007. "It's day and night. We're a business. Viewers count. Ratings count. The store has got to stay open. We need customers."

That says it all in a nutshell. The focus is not about reporting accuracy, it's about ratings. That means Fox would be more inclined to sensationalize and dust up controversies for ratings (like they do on a daily basis) than report the truth. Furthermore they would put more emphasis on directing programming towards their main demographic (older, conservative whites) so they can maintain their ratings...

[Feisty1960]

09:55 AM on 07/16/2010

"That means Fox would be more inclined to sensationalize and dust up controversies for ratings (like they do on a daily basis) than report the truth."

But does it ever upset you that lib media like here and MSNBC and CNN refuse to report certain stories that makes the Dems look bad?

[mgray34]

04:23 PM on 07/16/2010

Such as?? The two shows I watch on MSNBC are the Rachel Maddow show and Keith Olbermann. They are liberal personalities, yes, however, they repeatedly back up their stories and commentaries with data, usually in the form of statements, video, and audio of the subjects they are discussing. If they make a mistake in their reporting, I have seen them time and again, retract any erroneous information from their last show. That is the main difference between Fox and MSNBC. The only personality on Fox that ever comes close to retracting anything is O'Reilly, and it's rare when he ever comes out to say when he was wrong.

Hannity, Beck, Fox and Friends etc. Put stuff out on Fox all the time that is erroneous info, and even when that info is proven false, they continue to put it out as fact, or keep insinuating that it may have happened, d.a.m.n the facts.

Finally, Keith and Rachael, don't let Democrats off the hook. I have seen time and time again both of them do pieces (special comment by Keith in particular), on Democrats from the President on down. They don't pull punches on anyone.

I think it's healthy to have a right leaning news group and a left leaning news group, however, when you skew the facts, and report unsubstantiated stories that support your position, that's propaganda, whether it's from the left or right.

[mgray34]

02:23 AM on 07/17/2010

On the Keith Olberman show, he did cover the dust up regarding the Blk Panthers, and how Fox News once again tried to pin it on the Obama adminstration when it was in fact the Bush Administration who "dropped the charges" before Obama was sworn in, and before Holder was confirmed as Attorney General. Here's the link:

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2010/07/13/olbermann_fox_news_fabricated_facts_about_black_panther_story.html

As for Rush, fine, I'll roll with your interpretation that he meant something different about the term cr@cker, however, for every occasion like that, I can name a dozen other times Rush has said something that was clearly bigoted. Where there's smoke there's fire. Just ask, and I'll send a link with all the quotes to refresh your memory.

As for the finance reform bill, please feel free to send me the link. If you send me something from Fox or some right leaning site, please make sure the link contains the actual documentation that I can look at without somebody putting their own spin on it. I read legalise very well.

[volet54]

03:39 PM on 07/14/2010

Certainly this is being reported as news, is it?

[daultman463]

04:11 PM on 07/14/2010

cc

[lindaj3884]

03:07 PM on 07/14/2010

Gosh, I wonder what genius figured that one out?

[larrykat]

01:45 PM on 07/14/2010

Thank You, Mr. Obvious!

[sachazg]

10:32 AM on 07/14/2010

There is no civil discourse or intellectual debate on fox "news"... Just big obnoxious talking heads.

[Feisty1960]

09:56 AM on 07/16/2010

Yeah, and you libs think that Media Matters and MSNBC are the only "news" sources out there

[mixpiklix]

10:07 AM on 07/14/2010

it's pretty funny in a way, We have a tv station that is the life breath of republicans and teabaggers.If fox news says it it must be true. .Now by Palins manifesto and mitt romney and the other tea party and republican elite talking to socialist countries and not willng to take russia and china to task for whatever , they sream about our foriegn policy etc. and the funny part of all of this the the king of saudi arabia is the major stock holder in fox . so fox does what the king wants and the commie ,nazi, muslim hating pundits and their followers are all doing the biding of the king . how American and right wing

[KennyFox]

09:58 AM on 07/14/2010

are you smarter than a first grader?

[skykam]

01:16 PM on 07/14/2010

I would have gone with "Are you dumber than a brick". But kudos none the less.

[Aerows]

07:43 PM on 07/14/2010

I believe you won that comment exchange, Skykam.

[cgoodie]

08:30 AM on 07/14/2010

Wow! I'm impressed that Mr. Kurtz is the one breaking the news that Fox leans right...

[skykam]

01:16 PM on 07/14/2010

And Liberace was gay?! Who could have seen that coming?

[thepill]

07:26 AM on 07/14/2010

That's a "Dog Bites Man" headline if I've ever seen one!