Topic: NewsBusters
Well, here's a rarity: the Media Research Center criticizes Fox News for exhibiting bias. Not the conservative bias for which it's infamous, of course, but for not hating gays enough.
Jeffrey Mayer was indignant in a May 9 NewsBusters post:
On Wednesday’s edition of Studio B w/ Shepard Smith, anchor Smith let slip his personal political views on same-sex marriage with some condescending remarks about how being pro-traditional marriage is an outdated notion. Following the "official" announcement that Barack Obama now supports same-sex marriage, Smith opined that the President of the United States is "now in the 21st century," suggesting of course that the near half of Americans who support traditional marriage are somehow retrograde.
Smith’s true colors became more apparent in the hour during the first of two interviews he conducted with the host of Special Report, Bret Baier:
What I’m curious about whether it’s your belief in this time of rising debts and medical issues and all the rest, if Republicans would go out on a limb and try to make this a campaign issue while sitting very firmly without much question on the wrong side of history on it?
After the interview Smith furthered the liberal talking point with what seems to be a veiled reference comparing same-sex marriage to the 1960s civil rights struggles:
Of course, in reality, what really matters is what governors are saying, this makes no legal changes of any kind, this is a states issue for now, at least, which may sound familiar to a couple of generations ago, but that's where we are.
These two comments helped Smith continue his gay rights crusade later on in the show where he again spoke to Baier and commented again that, "Shades of segregation and states rights and the whole thing [are] playing itself out all over again isn’t it?"
Of course, the MRC has never criticized a Fox host for expressing their personal views when those views are conservative, as its "news" anchors regularly do.
Mayer followed up with a May 10 post bashing MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell for highlighting Shepard's comments -- or, as Mayer tells is\t, "prais[ing] him for violating FNC's central value of remaining 'fair and balanced.'" Mayer doesn't actually watch Fox News, does he?
Mayer also gave a pass to Fox News-operated website Fox Nation claiming that Obama was "declar[ing] war on marriage" with his support of same-sex marriage. That's apparently the kind of "fair and balanced" Fox coverage Mayer prefers.
