Chris Wallace, son of real journalist, Mike Wallace, is often considered one of the most fair and balanced of the “fair and balanced” network, but he is hardly perfect. He lied about the Shirley Sherrod firing, claiming that Fox had nothing to do with it. He lied about Scott Walker’s campaign. Still, he’s far from the worst, but I was still surprised to read that while appearing on The Mike Gallagher Show, he actually agreed with MSNBC that Pat Buchanan was a flaming bigot (my words) and that firing him was their decision to make. From Media Matters:
WALLACE: No, well I, look, I mean, I wasn’t prepared to get into a discussion about Pat Buchanan’s views –
GALLAGHER: I understand, I understand.
WALLACE: — and I don’t have them, but I do know over the years, because I remember when I was at ABC, we had him on Nightline. He has said some very incendiary things about Israel, about Jews, about blacks, about other minorities, and I — you know, look, he’s entitled to say those things. It’s a free country, but on the other hand, groups that are offended by those remarks are entitled to say it too.
GALLAGHER: I guess I am just so fascinated –
WALLACE: And let me just finish my thought. And an employer, be it Fox News or MSNBC or anybody else, is entitled to say, “you know what? We don’t want this guy.”
Audio here:
Wallace also said of Fox’s decision to fire Glenn Beck, ”My point is, in the case of Fox, it’s hardly that he was too conservative, it was that he was saying things that were hateful to people.”
There are rumors that Fox News might be edging a little further to the left. I haven’t seen much evidence of it, but as a marketing strategy, I get it. They have the oldest demographic of the three major cable news channels. Their audience will literally be dying off soon.
If this year’s batch of GOP candidates, along with the improving economy, are any indication, Fox should bunker down and get used to four more years of a Democratic President, if not a Democratic Congress, which will inevitably bring on a more liberal Supreme Court. It’s always good to make a little nice-nice with some of the powers that be, or at least occasionally have a rational point of view.
Perhaps this bit of sanity coming from the mouth of one of its anchors is an indication of things to come. Then again, as they say about the weather, wait five minutes.
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