Fox News

Felix Gillette talks to Griff Jenkins, Fox News' man on the mean streets of St. Paul: "Roughly a week earlier, Mr. Jenkins had waded into the protestors in Denver without the aid of a security crew. Things had gotten entertainingly ugly (YouTube-worthy ugly), and now his bosses were insisting on precautions."

Leon Neyfakh meets the staff of The National Review in St. Paul for the Republican National Convention. Jack Fowler, publisher of the magazine is planning their "post-election Caribbean cruise, an elaborate week-long fundraiser for the magazine involving 250 members of the conservative intelligentsia on a boat rubbing shoulders with such celebs as Mitt Romney, Fred Thompson, and Christopher Buckley." PLUS: Print Defender Matt Weiland Keeps 50 States in One Book.

Plus: GOOD grows up... Curl, Interrupted... Andrew Breitbart at the RNC.

ST. PAUL—The helicopters hovering over downtown St. Paul on the afternoon of Sept. 1 had long before become such a customary sound that they weren’t heard anymore, but as Griff Jenkins, the chipper and youthful-looking 37-year-old reporter for Fox News, stood outside the Xcel Energy Center contemplating his next assignment, they became relevant again.

“Apparently, they’ve confiscated the protestors’ jars of urine,” he said. “That makes me feel better.”

The air was sticky. A police officer in riot gear walked by. A German shepherd followed in his wake. Mr. Jenkins gazed to the west where, on the other side of a tall security gate, a teeming mass of bandanas, beehive beards and messenger bags was churning, chanting, shaking fists, banging drums and striding through the streets.  read more »

Last week, The Washington Post's Howard Kurtz wrote about Twitter, the kinda useful, sorta ubiquitous, sure to be short-lived new tool for journalists—and cellphone-enabled journalist-like individuals—who want to bring readers the world in 140-characters or less.

Mr. Kurtz called twittering "the digital equivalent of a sound bite, a throat-clearing, a terse observation or two for a cloistered community online."

If you're hoping to hear Fox News' Greta Van Susteren clear her throat online, you're out of luck: The On the Record host tells The Huffington Post's Danny Shea that Twittering may not be for her:

I'm not sold on it yet... I have so much going—I have a webcam, I have GretaWire, I have Greta LiveWire which is my internet show that I do every night between 9:45 and 9:50, I'm now doing the Strategy Room, I've got my pictures, my video...remember I told you it's that hairline [between being digital and being crazy]? Twitter may be it...

It also sounds mildly obscene. Am I the only one who thinks, like, Twittering... I don't know. Do you Twitter? It's like, I thought we had a don't ask, don't tell policy!  read more »

Tonight, Shepard Smith will be anchoring Fox News' coverage of Hurricane Gustav from New Orleans beginning at 7 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. Afterwards, Brit Hume will continue the hurricane coverage, anchoring from St. Paul. From 10 p.m. to midnight, Geraldo Rivera will anchor live from New Orleans. 

Fox News will continue its live hurricane coverage throughout the night until 5 a.m. with Gregg Jarrett, Julie Banderas, Todd Connor and Uma Pemmaraju anchoring the late night shift. Beginning at 5 a.m., Fox & Friends will take over the hurricane coverage live from the channel's makeshift St. Paul studio. 

Over at the Fox Business Network, Alexis Glick will be leading all day coverage of the hurricane from New Orleans.

"I have a real affinity for the folks from Guam," said Megyn Kelly.

Since Monday morning, Ms. Kelly, the 37-year-old news anchor with Fox News, has been reporting from the floor of the Democratic convention in Denver. Her channel's riser is located between the delegations from New Mexico and Guam.

"Guam in on the floor," said Ms. Kelly. "Rhode Island is in the nose bleeds. How does this happen? They told me, it's because they went for Barack Obama and Rhode Island went for Hillary."

"They are so excited to be on the floor," she added.  read more »

On Tuesday evening, inside the Pepsi Center in Denver,  the Media Mob had a moment of clumsiness, involving Karl Rove's laptop computer.

It was a few short hours before Hillary Clinton was to address the delegates. The green room of the Fox News sky box inside the arena was buzzing with activity. Energy was high. The quarters were close.

The Media Mob was sitting on smallish couch conducting an interview with Fox News' dynamic anchor Megyn Kelly, who is reporting from the floor of the Pepsi Center, throughout the convention. A laptop computer, the screen flipped open, rested on one arm of the couch behind me.  read more »

Earlier today we caught up with Greta Van Susteren, anchor of Fox News' 10 p.m. hour, at her makeshift desk inside Braun's Bar and Grill, the cavernous sports bar across from the Pepsi Center (and inside the convention's security perimeter) where Fox News has turned into its DNC headquarters.

"I like the blogging," she said as she clicked away at her keyboard, posting updates to GretaWire. Her counterparts were all doing the more predictable TV thing: Chris Wallace had a live shot for the nes channel, and downstairs Bill Hemmer was digging away at a late breakfast-bar buffet. At the coffee and soda bar Brit Hume shot the shit with Brian Kilmeade.  read more »

Are you better off than you were a year ago? If you're Roger Ailes, you sure are.

According to Silicon Alley Insider's Peter Kafka, the Fox News president and chairman earned an unbelievable $19.9 million in the last 12 months, according to S.E.C. filings from News Corp.

"What did he do to earn that?" Mr. Kafka asks. We wonder the same since in July, The Washington Post's Howard Kurtz reported that the Fox Business Network averaged 8,000 viewers during the day, as noted by Felix Gillette.

Per Mr. Kafka:

Primarily, he ran Fox News, which is still crushing the competition.  read more »

The New York Post reports today that former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee was in town recently to tape a pilot for a weekend variety show for Fox News, which will apparently premier sometime this fall.

The report was based on an interview that Mr. Huckabee did over the weekend with the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

From the Democrat-Gazette article:

First, the TV bit. It seems such a natural as to be a stereotype. Huck TV. What else but? Mike Huckabee is to radio, television, Internet, YouTube, multi-media and anything involving a microphone-and-camera as leaves are to trees. Sometimes it's hard to tell where one ends and the other begins.

Of his show, Huckabee offers only generalities: "I can say it's gonna be unlike anything else that's on FOX and maybe on cable." When asked if it's a talk show, Huckabee says, "yes and no. Not a talk show like you've seen. We'll have a live studio audience and some very innovative features."

Update, 12:55 PM: Politico's Michael Calderone got the following statement from Fox News:

[C]ontrary to what was reported in today’s NY Post — Mike Huckabee has not shot a pilot for Fox News. We are in discussion about developing a show with him in the future, but remain in the early planning stages.  read more »

On Wednesday, the Media Mob reported that NBC Universal, Fox News, and the Fox Television Stations group were filing a joint copyright infringement suit against Redlasso—the privately held company that provides users with a search engine targeting video and audio footage from stations and networks around the country.

Today, Redlasso executives informed their site’s users that because of the suit, they are currently suspending some services.

Redlasso posted a notice on its Web site today alerting its users to the change.  read more »

"Unfortunately, due to the legal actions taken against Redlasso by two networks, we are left with no alternative but to suspend access to our video search and clipping Beta site FOR THE IMMEDIATE FUTURE," the notice

Yesterday, The Observer's Bharat Ayyar reported on MoveOn.org and rapper Nas' protest outside of Fox News headquarters in Manhattan.

Last night, Nas appeared on The Colbert Report to explain himself. When asked by Mr. Colbert why he thinks Fox is racist, Nas (real name Nasir Jones) said, "It's obvious. Everybody that has eyes and ears can see that this guy [Bill O'Reilly] is out of control. He knows what he's doing, you know what I mean? It's out of line. The things he's saying is worse than the worst rap lyrics I ever heard."

The rapper also told the host, "I think O'Reilly's afraid of me.  read more »

The Media Mob has learned that NBC Universal, Fox News, and the Fox Television Stations group are filing a joint copyright infringement suit today in the Southern District Court of New York against Redlasso.

Redlasso is a privately held company that provides a free search engine targeting video and audio footage from stations and networks around the country and allows users to create embeddable clips of the resulting material.

Back in May, lawyers representing CBS, NBC, News Corp. and Allbritton Communications sent a cease and desist letter to Redlasso, asking the company to stop reproducing and distributing the networks' material.

Although CBS was part of the initial complaint, they are apparently not participating in the group lawsuit.  read more »

Brian Stelter of the New York Times is reporting that Brit Hume, the longtime anchor of Fox News' 6 PM show, Special Report, will be relinquishing that role after the conclusion of the current presidential election.

Citing a number of sources close to Mr. Hume, the Times reports that, at 65, Mr. Hume is seeking to reduce his role at the cable news network where he has worked since the channel launched in 1996.

More from the post:

Mr. Hume’s departure from "Special Report" would represent one of the most dramatic changes to Fox's powerhouse schedule since the channel’s inception nearly 12 years ago.

Mr. Hume did not respond to requests for comment. A Fox News spokeswoman would not discuss contractual talks.

On Saturday morning, conservative commentator and former White House press secretary Tony Snow passed away from cancer. He was 53.

Over the course of successful career in Washington, Mr. Snow toggled back and forth between journalism and politics. He began his career as an editorial page writer and columnist, eventually becoming the editorial page editor of the Washington Times. Later, he crossed over into politics, serving as a speechwriter in the administration of President George H.W. Bush.

In 1996, he returned to journalism serving as the first moderator of Fox's Sunday morning public affairs show, Fox News Sunday.  read more »

For the inside scoop on Hillary Clinton, go directly to Fox News!

Last night, Howard Wolfson, the erstwhile aide to Senator Hillary Clinton, made an appearance on Hannity & Colmes, as part of his new gig as a regular contributor to Fox News.

Sean Hannity didn’t waste much time before he started asking Mr. Wolfson to report on his former boss.

“Let me start with this simple basic question,” said Mr. Hannity. “I think everybody wants to know, the rumors have been swirling. Has Hillary been asked to participate in the process, the vetting process, for VP?”

"Not as far as I know," said Mr. Wolfson.

Mr. Wolfson was pointedly not wearing a funny-looking sweater.

Courtney Kealy, a veteran foreign correspondent for Fox News (and native New Yorker) recently told the Observer via phone from Baghdad that the mood at her bureau was "much better" than a few years ago.

"I don't wake up to a bomb in the morning," said Ms. Kealy. "I set an alarm now. It still could happen. I might hear a mortar every now and again. But in 2005 we were in the Palestine Hotel. At one time, they tried to take the whole thing down, Oklahoma-City style. That was a very scary place to be."  read more »

Beginning on Monday, June 16th, conservative radio host Laura Ingraham will be guest-hosting the 5 p.m. hour on Fox News, the cable news channel announced today.

In February, Fox News executives replaced their longtime 5 p.m. anchor John Gibson with a show called America's Election HQ, anchored by Bill Hemmer and Megyn Kelly.

According to Brian Stelter of the New York Times, Fox News is searching for a new format at 5 p.m. and will be trying out a rotating cast of personalities beginning next week with Ms. Ingraham.  read more »

Yesterday we wrote about the suit a thrice bed-bug-bitten former Fox News employee filed against the owner and maintenance company of News Corp.'s headquarters at 1211 Avenue of the Americas. We were skeptical of Joan Clark’s claim in the New York Supreme Court lawsuit that she suffered Post Traumatic Stress Disorder following three separate bed bug attacks in the network's offices, but perhaps we dismissed her case too soon.

Dr. Bob Lynn, a leading addiction recovery specialist who ran the state of New Jersey’s PTSD initiative following 9/11, told us that “the case can be made that bed bugs were responsible.  read more »

The lawyer for a bedbug-bitten Fox News employee suing the landlord and maintenance company of 1211 Avenue of the Americas today blamed his client's condition on foreign visitors to New York.

“My position is that it comes from foreigners,” Mr. Schnurman told The Observer. “Because it became so inexpensive for foreigners to travel here, I believe they brought it into our hotel system.”

His client, Joan Clark, claims in her lawsuit in New York Supreme Court that she's “suffering from emotional distress” from the bedbug attacks inside the News Corp. headquarters at 1211 Avenue of the Americas, which is owned by Beacon Capital Partners.  read more »

There's a lot to be gained when the news channels send 20-something embeds with video cameras to follow around the presidential candidates for this neverending campaign season. For example, take this dispatch from Fox's Aaron Burns posted today. There's Hillary Clinton in Puerto Rico enjoying a cool Presidente beer and getting down with Enrique Iglesias' "Be With You." Happy Memorial Day!

Independents and Republicans are free to vote in next Tuesday’s Indiana Democratic primary – the latest do-or-die test for Hillary Clinton. And Independents and Republicans – along with a healthy dose of Archie Bunker Democrats and a scattering of masochistic liberals – also constitute the core of Bill O’Reilly audience. So, in a way, her appearance on his show Wednesday night was a logical exercise in voter outreach.

But that’s only if you ignore history.  read more »

The numbers are in for the cable news networks for the first quarter of 2008. The verdict? Thanks in large part to the nation's ravenous interest in the political season, Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC all enjoyed a strong first quarter, particularly compared with the seemingly dismal news coming from much of the rest of the industry. Today, employees of the cable news networks were falling all over themselves, trying to out-tout each other's accomplishments. Herein, some of the highlights:  read more »

On the morning of Friday, March 21, Chris Wallace woke up at his home in Washington, D.C., grabbed some fruit and yogurt, and turned on the Fox News early show, Fox & Friends.  read more »

Yesterday, Media Mob heard from several Times staffers about the Fox News trucks set up outside the Times building. Even though there's presumably less reason to have B-roll of the tower today, the Fox News trucks—and a weather-resistant canopy to protect cameras and reporters—are still there! So we sent trusty intern Matthew Townsend to the scene. Here's what he found out:  read more »

On Feb. 3, a k a Super Bowl Sunday, in an original News Corp. smorgasbord, reporters from FOX News will be teaming up with reporters from FOX owned and operated stations from around the country for a three hour broadcast event, focusing on—USA! USA!—presidential politics and professional football.

Shepard Smith, of FOX News, will headline the production from Glendale, Ariz., the site of this year’s Super Bowl. FOX News anchor (and Cincinnati Bengals fanatic) Bill Hemmer will contribute from New York, along with Fox News’ Megyn Kelly.

As the anchors toggle back and forth between discussion of the Super Bowl and Super Tuesday, they will chew over political dispatches from FOX Broadcasting reporters from around the country.  read more »

Apparently, John McCain got the enmity out of his system on Saturday night, because when the Republicans—sans Ron Paul—convened for their second debate in two nights on Sunday, the Arizona Senator was relentlessly diplomatic toward his main antagonist, Mitt Romney.

Time and again on Sunday, Romney—and the debate's moderator, Chris Wallace—sought to bait McCain into the kind of heated confrontation with Romney in which he repeatedly engaged the night before. But McCain, who has opened a small but clear lead in New Hampshire polls, met each attempt with smiles and shrugs, downplaying their personal differences and seeking to play the role of confident and self-assured front-runner.  read more »

The Fox News debate is underway and Ron Paul is nowhere to be found.

The broadcast began without an explanation for his exclusion and comes after a week of stonewalling by Fox, which refused to answer questions from the news media, the Paul campaign and even the New Hampshire Republican Party, which withdrew its sponsorship of the debate yesterday when it became clear that Paul would be left out.  read more »

Last time we heard of Rachel Marsden--the sassy conservative Canadian pundit and co-host of Fox News' late night show Red Eye--she was being escorted out of the News Corp. facilities, amid rumors that she was aggressively stalking an unnamed man.

This morning, some seven months after Ms. Marsden's sudden departure from FNC, the National Post reports that Canadian officials "have decided not to charge" Ms. Marsden "with stalking a Canadian counterterrorism officer with whom she had an affair."

"Ms. Marsden, a former Republican Babe of the Week who has appeared on Fox News and CNN, has a history of criminal harassment, having pleaded guilty to stalking a Vancouver radio host in 2004," reported the Post.  read more »

This is from over the wekend, but deserves some attention nonetheless, since it's a spat that's clearly not over.

Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul said Saturday that Fox News, which has excluded him from an upcoming presidential debate, is "scared" of him.

According to The Boston Globe, Mr. Paul told a crowd at a New Hampshire diner: "They are scared of me and don't want my message to get out, but it will. They are propagandists for this war and I challenge them on the notion that they are conservative."  read more »

A propos of the friendly argument I had last week with Portfolio's Jeff Bercovici over whether it's in Democrats' interests to appear on Fox News, I should note that Hillary Clinton was on Fox and Friends -- along with all the other major morning shows -- this morning.

So in this case at least, her campaign appears to agree with Jeff.

I have to politely take issue with Portfolio.com's Jeff Bercovici, who agrees with Chris Wallace that Democrats are wrong not to go on Fox News. Jeff writes:

Democrats don't avoid Fox as some kind of sop to the MoveOn.org crowd. They do it for the same reason they limit their press availability in general: because they're afraid of getting tripped up, caught in a flip-flop or a contradiction.

But this isn't quite right, in my view. It's true that, as Jeff says, Democrats are more likely to get tripped up during an interview on Fox News than on other networks. But they didn't start consistently snubbing Fox until liberal activists, led by watchdog groups like Media Matters, made it into an issue...  read more »

Fox News' Chris Wallace unloads to The Politico about the Democratic presidential candidates' refusal to appear on debates moderated by his network:

"Just imagine if the Republicans, under pressure from right-to-life groups, refused to appear on CNN or MSNBC. I think there would be holy unshirted hell. I think there would be such talk about these people being captives of the extreme right wing and why are they afraid to answer questions. And I think the absence of that is very telling.

"At this point, it has become kind of a loyalty test inside the Democratic Party, ... pandering to the far-left-wing. And we live with it."  read more »

Curious about how Fox News has covered this week's blockbuster news that, according to a National Intelligence Estimate prepared by the CIA, Iran shut down its nuclear-weapons program in 2003? This blogger has the run-down.

Short unsurprising story: They've hardly covered it at all, and when they have, it's been to question the report's accuracy.

Fox’s Ex-CNN-er has the last laugh.  read more »

Here's an interesting, insiderish theory from MediaBistro.com as to why Fox News may have turned on Fred Thompson, after appearing favorable toward the Law and Order star earlier this year.

Of course, this could have something to do with it, too.

Fox News' Shepard Smith -- who has offended some of the channel's conservative viewers by accepting that global warming exists, and expressing compassion for victims of Hurricane Katrina, among other apostasies -- has signed a new contract worth $7 million to $8 million a year, according to The Times. 

Roger Ailes calls Mr. Smith his "go-to guy" whenever big news breaks.  read more »

Is Mitt Romney deliberately trying to make an enemy out of Roger Ailes?

First, his campaign says it will defy a cease-and-desist letter from Fox ordering it to stop using footage from a Fox debate in its campaign commericals. Now comes the news that Mr. Romney won't participate in a planned GOP debate on Fox in Iowa, effectively killing the event.

Sure, everyone seems to think that Fox is in the tank for Giuliani. But it's strange that the Romney campaign seems to want to encourage the alliance.

It's no secret that Rupert Murdoch believes sex sells. Since buying the British tabloid The Sun almost 40 years ago, he's turned the Page Three girl into a cultural icon. And it's not hard to figure out how he plans to make a success of the Fox Business Network

Regular old Fox News, though, likes to present itself as an oasis of family values in an otherwise depraved media landscape. But a new online video makes a pretty compelling case that, while running stories that bemoan the increasing sexualization of our culture, Fox is taking the opportunity to show stuff—mostly girls dancing in bikinis, I watched it—that alot of parents would deem inappropriate for basic cable.  read more »

Chris Wallace, the host of Fox News Sunday, conducted a lengthy, exclusive interview with the former President that left every relevant question unasked.  read more »

When Rupert Murdoch’s visited the Wall Street Journal’s headquarters on Tuesday, not only were union flyers torn down in his honor, but there was another welcome surprise.

The flat-panel televisions on the 11th floor, where executives (and perhaps soon Mr. Murdoch) have offices, were tuned to Fox News.

“I had this sickening in my stomach,” said the staffer, “that the work we do would be attached to the work that they do.”

Typically, a Journal staffer said, the screens display either rotating shots from WSJ.com or the type of info-network (with news, weather, etc.) found in many Manhattan office buildings.

And while the televisions in the newsroom may still be airing CNBC, the launch of the Fox Business Channel is just over a month away.