Bret Baier has to explain again … Fox News did not mention Sherrod until after she resigned

I’ve heard from people who frequent Radio Vice Online and listen to the big radio show state Fox News commentators pushed Breitbart’s Sherrod video and suggested she had to resign immediately during the day, before she resigned. Bret Baier responds.

Former DNC chairman Howard Dean says Fox News was “pushing the story very hard all day” even though Fox never mentioned her name. Dean also says Fox News showed the video, including the audio I assume.

I did not watch Fox News during the day and have not reviewed the tapes. If someone can provide me with video from Fox on that day showing commentators or news anchors describing or discussing the Breitbart-posted video during the morning, afternoon or evening before Bill O’Reilly mentioned it late in his show, it would be appreciated.

Is Baier lying by omission or is Dean flat out lying? Was the video promoted and pushed on the Fox News website? How about a story on the Fox News website pushing for her resignation? Can someone provide links to Fox News online stories about Sherrod prior to her resignation?

Hat tip to Frank Ross at Big Journalism, who links to the video from Johnny Dollar’s Place. I’m going to add here that I swear Baier corrected the record during a previous program and this is the second time he pointed out the time line. This time, he runs the video in fast forward from the complete day.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcPdFRz3M64

UPDATE (jim): Watched Fox all day that day. No mention of Sherrod until O’Reilly’s Talking Points. Brief. Hannity spent more time and so did Dana Perino subbing on Gretta’s show. That was all after she was fired.

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Steve McGough

Steve's a part-time conservative blogger. Steve grew up in Connecticut and has lived in Washington, D.C. and the Bahamas. He resides in Connecticut, where he’s comfortable six months of the year.

18 Comments

  1. Dimsdale on July 29, 2010 at 3:33 am

    MediaMatters is pushing the Big Lie.  They include a timeline with no time for the Fox News coverage (hat tip chris-os).  Fancy that.   I thought Dean was going to step on his own tongue trying to get away from Chris Wallace calling him on that.

     

    It will go down in history along with the alleged racial epithets hurled at Pelosi et al. in their "up yours" walk through the TEA party crowd.



    • chris-os on July 30, 2010 at 5:17 am

      She had a lot of nerve walking to her office when the tea party was there!



    • Dimsdale on July 31, 2010 at 4:28 pm

      Yeah, that giant gavel she imperiously carried was a dead giveaway.  The Capitol police stated that there was no reason for her to go through the protest.  Unless of course you want to instigate something (and if that fails, make up something).



  2. chris-os on July 29, 2010 at 3:34 am

    FoxNews.com ran a story about the existence of the video, titled "Video Shows USDA Official Saying She Didn't Give 'Full Force' of Help to White Farmer" at 5:58 p.m. on Monday, an hour before the Agriculture Department announced Sherrod’s resignation.

    And Wednesday, (Fox News Senior Vice President of News Michael) Clemente told POLITICO that was a mistake.



    • Dimsdale on July 29, 2010 at 5:51 am

      Out of all those meticulously collected timestamps, MediaMatters still doesn't put a stamp on the Fox News entry.  They do place it at the beginning of the list though, insinuating that Fox started somewhere between 11:18 am and 12:15.  They just can't seem to pin it down.

       

      Wonder why?



  3. Steve McGough on July 29, 2010 at 4:03 am

    The Fox Nation post at 4:40 p.m. (ET?) and the post on the Fox News site just before 6 p.m. ET hardly meets the definition of pushing the story all day and demanding her resignation. Also, I think it was you Chris that specifically noted the show with 'three commentators' on Fox News that afternoon pushing the story? Actually, I'm certain it was you, that does not seem to be the case.

    I'm confused about the Media Matters time line, they seem to start with Pacific Time (Breitbart's release was during the 8 a.m. ET hour I thought, so they said 11:18 a.m. (PT?)) and somewhere during the time line, they switch to ET I think? They also selectively did not post a time stamp for one FN reference.

    Let's be honest, Media Matters has a left spin to it.

    Either way, Fox News certainly did nothing even close to "pushing the story all day." That said, all news organizations – including Fox News – need to do a much better job noting corrections and providing good time stamps. They should not go in and make adjustments to headlines without specifying something was done at the bottom of the post. Almost nobody does that at all that I know of.



  4. TomL on July 29, 2010 at 4:16 am

    Maybe Dean should go on Fox news with his evidence showing they pushed it hard all day so he can get his credibility back.



  5. chris-os on July 29, 2010 at 5:15 am

    And the most interesting thing about reading that timeline is how Morrisey, Jim Hoft and Ace of Spades, (you know-the blogs that are constantly quoted and recommended here) jumped right on Breitbart's distortion without vetting it.

    And the disinformation by the propaganda machine goes forward….

     



    • Dimsdale on July 29, 2010 at 5:46 am

      Isn't the truly interesting thing how both the White House, the USDA and the NAACP jumped on the clip without vetting it?

       

      You really don't want to go down the "coordinated response" road, do you?



  6. chris-os on July 30, 2010 at 2:53 am

    Exactly, Dims!

    Tyvm for helping me prove my point!

    I hope the WH learns a lesson from this.

    And what is the lesson Dims, can you figure it out? Put together the hulabaloo over the Gates, Acorn, new Black Panthers, Sotomaior, Naacp…what is the message the right's growing propaganda machine pushing?



    • Dimsdale on July 30, 2010 at 6:41 am

      All those items are real issues.  Gates is nuts.  ACORN is an arm of the Democrat party and did what they did, regardless of the video patching of the people dressed as a pimp and prostitute.  Sotomayor said what she said, and did what she did regarding the fireman's exam.  NAACP is an organization that has outlived its usefulness (see Jim Webb, D-Va, in last weeks WSJ).  The New Black Panther coverup should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, just as it should if that was two skinheads outside the polling booth.

       

      What do you think the take home message is?  I am sure you have something in mind…

       

      I am still reeling from the Left Wing Propaganda machine trying to proclaim the dreaded "Bush Tax Cuts for the Rich" as really being the "Bush Tax Increases".  And the line about the Dems pushing to keep the cuts that they have spent years deriding is outright laughable.  So laughable only a Democrat will believe it.



  7. chris-os on July 30, 2010 at 8:11 am

    Can you answer the question without pontificating and going off topic?



    • Dimsdale on July 30, 2010 at 11:12 am

      Nope.  Oh look!  I just did!  🙂

       

      I don't accept your premise.



  8. chris-os on August 1, 2010 at 2:53 am

    Put together the hulabaloo over the Gates, Acorn, new Black Panthers, Sotomaior, Naacp, Sherrod…what is the message the right’s growing propaganda machine pushing?

    You don't have to accept my premise, it's startlingly clear.

     



    • Dimsdale on August 1, 2010 at 3:29 am

      Oh yes, that they have to constantly defend themselves against unfounded accusations of racism from Democrats who should practice what they preach (using race as a weapon is just as racist as burning a cross on someone's front lawn).

       

      I got it now.  Thanks.



  9. chris-os on August 1, 2010 at 3:53 am

    Put together the hulabaloo over the Gates, Acorn, new Black Panthers, Sotomaior, Naacp, Sherrod…what is the message the right’s growing propaganda machine pushing?

    Guess I have to answer my own question-*sigh-you continue to make nonsensical responses.

    In another chapter of the "take the democratic president down at all costs"-the right is now taking a new tact, when blacks or other minorities attain positions of power, they seek some sort of revenge against the white voter.

    A few examples : Beck calling Obama a "racist", Gingrich calling Sotomayor and Sherrod "racist". It ain't the left playing the race card, Dimsdale

    Making huge stories of all these incidences is designed only for one thing, to instill fear. I am so

    slow-took me a while to put these stories together.

     

     

     



    • Dimsdale on August 1, 2010 at 12:50 pm

      Now just where would the Republicans learn a tactic like "take down the XXX president at all costs"?  I just can't imagine.

       

      No, you are right, the left isn't playing the race cards, they are playing "52 pickup" with the whole deck.

       

      If Øbama makes a snap decision that the white Cambridge cops are "stupid" and the black professor is right, on what did he base that conclusion?  How about the "typical white woman" comment?  If Sotomayor says that says a "wise latina" somehow makes better decisions than a white male, what is this?  Review the case of the New Haven firemen and tell me that was not race based.  If Gingrich made said comment, then he must apologize.  Sherrod did make some interesting comments later in her speech about the Bush years (see earlier post).  Her husband drops the "Uncle Tom" bomb on radio.

       

      Why is every criticism of Øbama is labeled or insinuated as being "racist"?  When Howard Dean outright calls Fox News racist, (and is correctly called on it), with no basis in fact, what is that?  When TEA party folks are labeled as racists with now basis in fact, what is that?  When you have Democrat based groups like "crashtheteaparty.org, whose mission is "to impersonate tea party supporters and portray them as right-wing extremists in front of the news cameras in order to discredit the cause" including racism, what is that?  When Al Sharpton and the NAACP call for the heads of the Duke Lacrosse team, because the accuser was black, and the alleged assailants, excuse me, innocent players were white, what was that?  Holder's DOJ and the New Black Panter party "poll watchers".   When Emmanuel Cleaver is the only person to hear racial slurs at that TEA party rally, despite all the cameras and witnesses, and the media (et tu, Fox?) runs with it sans evidence, and NOBODY can collect on the $100K Breitbart money, what is that?  Heck, I would be there in a New York minute if I had a tape of someone calling him something!  How many more do you need?

       

      Now take all of the above, and apply the test: change the roles of the white and black people/organizations, and ask yourself if it is a racist incident.

       

      The Democrat party needs to win on the value of their ideas and not reflexive, or worse, outright false accusations.  This reliance on a bad idea bodes ill for them.



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