Topic: NewsBusters
In a Feb. 14 NewsBusters post, Noel Sheppard got all huffy about former White House communications director Anita Dunn claiming "What you're seeing now with Fox is that that alternative Fox universe that they created for four years is crumbling" and that "there are not a lot of news networks that have on their payrolls as Fox did two years ago the bulk of the people who are planning to run for president in a political party."
Cue Sheppard's huffiness: "At the start of the last presidential campaign cycle, there were eleven Republican candidates. Only two - Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum - had previously worked for Fox." But Sheppard didn't mention that Fox also employed three others who were considered potential 2012 Republican candidates but who eventually decided not to run -- Mike Huckabee, Sarah Palin and John Bolton. Huckabee and Bolton remain with Fox.
But Sheppard wasn't done being huffy:
Of course, Dunn didn't say anything about her former co-worker Robert Gibbs going to work for MSNBC.
I'm sure she sees no problem with that, or with former Clinton adviser George Stephanopoulos being a prominent figure at ABC News or former Democratic presidential candidate Al Sharpton being a host of his own MSNBC program. She also failed to mention that Sharpton's colleague, Chris Matthews, very publicly discussed running for Senate in Pennsylvania as a Democrat.
Let's take these point by point:
1) Stephanopoulos was a staffer and never claimed to be a presidential candidate.
2) Sharpton's presidential candidacy was in 2004, a full eight years before he joined MSNBC, and he has not expressed any desire to run again that we know of.
3) Matthews talked about running four years ago, and ultimately decided against it. He already had his MSNBC show for several years before that.
By contrast, all of the folks linked to Fox are currently viable candidates.
And of course, Sheppard didn't say anything about Fox News' Geraldo Rivera very publicly discussing running for Senate in New Jersey as a Republican.
