Fox News controversies

Former Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean has referred to the Fox News Channel as a "right-wing propaganda machine,"[8] and several Democratic Party politicians have boycotted events hosted or sponsored by the network.[9][10] In 2007, several major Democratic Party presidential candidates (Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Barack Obama, and Bill Richardson) boycotted or dropped out of Fox News-sponsored or -hosted debates,[9][11] forcing their cancellation.

Similar accusations have been levied against Fox News in response to its decision to exclude Ron Paul and Duncan Hunter from the January 5, 2008, Republican candidate debate.[12] In response, many individuals and organizations petitioned Fox News to reconsider its decision. When Fox News refused to change its position and continued to exclude Paul and Hunter, the New Hampshire Republican Party officially announced it would withdraw as a Fox News partner in the forum.[13]

While the network has been criticized for its tendency to support the Republican Party and its interests, David Frum, former speechwriter for George W. Bush, has also said, "Republicans originally thought that Fox (Fox News) worked for us and now we're discovering we work for Fox (Fox News)."[14]

Larry King said in a January 17, 2007, interview with the Chicago Sun-Times, "They're a Republican brand. They're an extension of the Republican Party with some exceptions, [like] Greta Van Susteren. But I don't begrudge them that. [Fox News CEO] Roger Ailes is an old friend. They've been nice to me. They've said some very nice things about me. Not [Bill] O'Reilly, but I don't watch him."[15]

Writing for the Los Angeles Times, Republican and conservative columnist Jonah Goldberg stated: "Look, I think liberals have reasonable gripes with Fox News. It does lean to the right, primarily in its opinion programming but also in its story selection (which is fine by me) and elsewhere. But it's worth remembering that Fox (Fox News) is less a bastion of ideological conservatism and more a populist, tabloid-like network."[5]

Former Fox News host Bill O'Reilly stated in 2004 in the context of the Iraq War that "Fox (Fox News) does tilt right", but that the network does not "actively campaign or try to help Bush-Cheney."[16][17]

Media watch dog groups such as Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR)[3] and Media Matters for America,[4] have argued that Fox News reporting contains conservative editorializing within news stories. FAIR has asserted that the ratio of conservative to non-conservative guests on Fox News Channel shows strongly favors conservatives. In a study of a 19-week period from January 2001 to May 2001 on Special Report with Brit Hume the ratio was 25:3, and FAIR obtained similar data from other Fox News Channel shows.[18][19] Accuracy in Media has claimed that there was a conflict of interest in Fox News' co-sponsorship of the May 15, 2007, Republican presidential candidates debate, pointing out that candidate, businessman and former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani's law firm had tackled copyright protection and legislation on the purchase of cable TV lineups for News Corporation, the then-parent company of Fox News, Fox Sports, Foxtel, Fox Footy, Fox Sports News, Fox Television Studios, Fox Television Stations, Foxstar Productions, 20th Television, 20th Century Fox Television, 20th Century Fox, Fox Searchlight Pictures, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment and DirecTV, and suggesting that Fox News might be biased in favor of Giuliani's candidacy for the Republican Party presidential nomination.[20]

A poll conducted by Rasmussen Reports during September 2004 found that Fox News was seen as second to the CBS television network as the most politically biased network in the public view, CBS also aired dramas and sitcoms such as JAG, NCIS, CSI: Miami, The King of Queens and Everybody Loves Raymond to name a few. 37% of respondents thought CBS, in the wake of the Memogate scandal, was trying to help elect John Kerry, while 34% of respondents said they believed that FNC's goal was to "help elect Bush." George W. Bush also won in 2004 leading to his second inauguration in 2005.[33] However, a poll conducted by Public Policy Polling in January 2010 found Fox News to be the only US television news network to receive a positive rating by the public for trustworthiness with results strongly split depending on the political affiliation of the respondents.[34] A survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press showed "a striking rise in the politicization of cable TV news audiences ... This pattern is most apparent with the fast-growing Fox News Channel."[35] Another Pew survey of news consumption found that Fox News has not suffered a decline in credibility with its audience, with one in four (25%) saying they believe all or most of what they see on Fox News Channel, virtually unchanged since Fox News not Fox Broadcasting Company or FX was first tested in 2000.[36]

According to the results of a 2006 study by the Project for Excellence in Journalism a survey of 547 journalists, found that Fox News and its cable TV realm Fox News Channel were rarely cited by surveyed journalists as an outlet taking an ideological stance in its coverage, and most identified as advocating conservative political positions.[37] In the 2004 survey, 69% of national journalists cited Fox News and Fox News Channel as being especially conservative in its coverage of news.[38]

A 2019 Pew survey found that Fox News is the fifth most trusted source in America for political and election news, with 43% of all polled voters (compared with 47% of 2nd-place CNN and 34% of 9th-place MSNBC). However, it is also the least trusted with 40% of all polled voters (compared with 32% of 2nd-place CNN and 26% of 4th-place MSNBC).[39]

The "2011 State of the News Media" Report by the Pew Center on Excellence in Journalism found that in 2010, the Fox News Channel had average daytime audience of 1.2 million and nighttime viewership of 1.1 million, higher than its cable competitors but down 11% and 9% respectively from 2009. Fox News's cumulative audience (unique viewers who watched at least 60 minutes in an average month) was 41.1 million, coming in second to CNN with 41.7 million. For 2010, CNN's digital network continued to lead Fox News's digital network online; CNN with 35.7 million unique visitors per month, compared to Fox News's 15.5 million. For the first time Fox News outspent its competitors, with a total news investment of $686 million. 72% of this investment went to program costs, reflecting their focus on high-profile hosts. They also increased their revenues 17% over 2009 to $1.5 billion, well ahead of second-place CNN at $1.2 billion.[40][41]

The Project on Excellence in Journalism report in 2006 showed that 68 percent of Fox News Channel cable stories contained personal opinions, as compared to MSNBC at 27 percent and CNN at 4 percent. The "content analysis" portion of their 2005 report also concluded that "Fox (Fox News) was measurably more one-sided than the other networks, and Fox News Channel journalists were more opinionated on the air."[42]

A 2006 University of California, Berkeley study cited that there was a correlation between the presence of the Fox News Channel in cable markets and increases in Republican votes in those markets.[43]

A 2010 study found that with respect to coverage of the Iraq War and the first war in Afghanistan in 2005, "Fox News was much more sympathetic to the [Bush] administration than NBC."[44]

In a 2006 academic content analysis of election news, Rasmussen Reports showed that the 2004 coverage on 3 of the big 4 broadcast networks ABC, CBS, and NBC was more favorable toward Kerry than Bush, while coverage at Fox News Channel were more favorable toward Bush.[45]

In a 2010 study of the news coverage of the 2004 political party conventions, Morris and Francia found that Fox News' reporting was more negative toward the Democratic Convention and gave Republicans more opportunity to voice their message than the other networks. The study also found that viewers who relied on Fox News' coverage exhibited attitude change toward both candidates, but particularly a lowering opinions toward John Kerry. In contrast the study found that CNN's coverage was more fair and balanced.[46]

A study published in November 2005 by Tim Groseclose, a professor of political science at UCLA, scoring political bias from twenty mainstream news reporting outlets, concluded that all "except Fox News' Special Report and the Washington Times, received scores to the left of the average member of Congress." In particular, Fox News' Special Report with Brit Hume had an Americans for Democratic Action rating that was right of the political center. Groseclose's model used the number of times a host cited a particular think tank on his or her program and compared it with the number of times a member of the U.S. Congress cited a think tank, correlating that with the politician's Americans for Democratic Action rating.[47][48]

Geoff Nunberg, a professor of linguistics at UC Berkeley and a National Public Radio commentator, criticized the methodology of the study and labeled its conclusions invalid.[49] He pointed to what he saw as a Groseclose's reliance on interpretations of facts and data that were taken from sources that were not, in his view, credible. Groseclose and Professor Jeff Milyo rebutted, saying Nunberg "shows a gross misunderstanding [of] our statistical method and the actual assumptions upon which it relies."[50] Mark Liberman (a professor of Computer Science and the director of Linguistic Data Consortium at the University of Pennsylvania), who helped post Groseclose and Milyo's rebuttal, later posted how the statistical methods used to calculate this bias pose faults.[51][52] Liberman concluded "that many if not most of the complaints directed against G&M are motivated in part by ideological disagreement — just as much of the praise for their work is motivated by ideological agreement. It would be nice if there were a less politically fraught body of data on which such modeling exercises could be explored."[51]

A December 2007 study/examination by Samuel R. Lichter of a self-described nonpartisan media watchdog group, the Center for Media and Public Affairs found that Fox News's evaluations of all of the 2008 Democratic presidential candidates combined was 51% positive and 49% negative, while the network's evaluations of the Republican presidential candidates 51% negative and 49% positive. The study, however, did find that Fox's coverage was less negative toward Republican candidates than the coverage of broadcast networks.[53]

A study by Media Matters for America found that between August 1 and October 1, 2013, on the Fox News Channel "69 percent of guests and 75 percent of mentions cast doubt on climate science," compared to "[half] of those quoted in The Wall Street Journal ... about 29 percent in The Los Angeles Times, about 17 percent in the Washington Post and about 12 percent in Bloomberg News."[54][55] Fox News' argument against criticism that it disproportionately represents the views of climate change deniers was to itself deny the factual figures which indicate that 97% of climate science experts worldwide hold the consensus view of human-caused global warming.[56] A 2012 report by the Union of Concerned Scientists found that, from February 2012 to July 2012, 93% of global warming coverage by the Fox News Channel was misleading. The report put the figure significantly lower—81 percent—for the Wall Street Journal. The misleading statements identified in the report included "... dismissals of human-caused climate change, disparaging comments about individual scientists, rejections of climate science as a body of knowledge, and cherry picking of data."[57][58] A similar 2013 report, also conducted by Union of Concerned Scientists, found that 28% of global warming coverage by Fox News was accurate, a nine-fold increase from the aforementioned report but still significantly behind CNN and MSNBC respectively (70% and 92%).[59]

Croft concluded that Fox News coverage glorified the Iraq War and its reporting framed the discussion in such a way as to drown out critics.[2] He quotes Christiane Amanpour as stating that there was a culture of self-censorship created by "the administration and its foot soldiers at Fox News".[2]

A May 2017 study conducted by Harvard University's Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy examined coverage of U. S. President and businessman Donald Trump's first 100 days in office by all major mainstream media outlets and broadcast networks including CNN, HLN, Fox News Channel, MSNBC, NBC, ABC and CBS.[60] It found that, altogether, Trump received 80% negative coverage from the media, and that he received the least negative coverage on Fox – 52% negative and 48% positive.[61]

A study by the Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) at the University of Maryland School of Public Affairs, as published in the Winter 03–04 issue of the Political Science Quarterly,[62] reported that poll-based findings[63] indicated that viewers of Fox News Channel, the Fox network and local Fox affiliates, including New York and Los Angeles, were more likely than viewers of other news networks to hold three misperceptions:[62]

• 67% of Fox News Channel viewers erroneously believed that the "U.S. has found clear evidence in Iraq that Saddam Hussein was working closely with the al Qaeda terrorist organization" (compared with 56% for CBS, 49% for NBC, 48% for CNN, 45% for ABC, 16% for NPR/PBS).
• The erroneous belief that "The U.S. has found Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq" was held by 33% of Fox News Channel viewers and only 23% of CBS viewers, 19% for ABC, 20% for NBC, 20% for CNN and 11% for NPR/PBS.
• 35% of Fox News Channel viewers erroneously believed that "the majority of people [in the world] favor the U.S. having gone to war" with Iraq (compared with 28% for CBS, 27% for ABC, 24% for CNN/HLN, 20% for NBC, 5% for NPR/PBS).

In response, CBS News and Fox News frequent guest Ann Coulter characterized the PIPA findings as "misperceptions of pointless liberal factoids" and called it a "hoax poll".[64] Bill O'Reilly called the study "absolute crap".[65] Roger Ailes referred to the study as "an old push poll".[66] James Taranto, editor of OpinionJournal.com, the Wall Street Journal's online editorial page, called the poll "pure propaganda".[67] PIPA issued a clarification on October 17, 2003, stating that "The findings were not meant to and cannot be used as a basis for making broad judgments about the general accuracy of the reporting of various networks or the general accuracy of the beliefs of those who get their news from those networks. Only a substantially more comprehensive study could undertake such broad research questions," and stated "that the correlation between viewing Fox News and holding misperceptions does not prove that Fox News' presentation caused the misperceptions", inferring that causality is not necessary to prove correlation.[68][69]

PIPA also conducted a statistical study on purported misinformation evidenced by registered voters before the 2010 election. According to the results of the study, "... false or misleading information is widespread in the general information environment ..."[70] but viewers of Fox News were more likely to be misinformed on specific issues when compared to viewers of comparable media,[71] that this likelihood also increased proportionally to the frequency of viewing Fox News[71] and that these findings showed statistical significance.[72]

A 2007 Pew Research Center poll of general political knowledge ("Who is the governor of your state?", "Who is the President of Russia?") indicated that Fox News Channel viewers scored 35% in the high-knowledge area, the same as the national average. This was not significantly different than local news, network news and morning news, and was slightly lower than CNN, standing for "Cable News Network" (41%). Viewers of The O'Reilly Factor (51%) scored in the high category along with Rush Limbaugh (50%), NPR (51%), major newspapers (54%), Newshour with Jim Lehrer (53%) The Daily Show (54%) and The Colbert Report (54%).[73]

A 2010 Stanford University survey found "more exposure to Fox News was associated with more rejection of many mainstream scientists' claims about global warming, [and] with less trust in scientists".[74] A 2011 Kaiser Family Foundation survey on U.S. misperceptions about health care reform found that Fox News viewers had a poorer understanding of the new laws and were more likely to believe in falsehoods about the Affordable Care Act such as cuts to Medicare benefits and the death panel myth.[75] A 2010 Ohio State University study of public misperceptions about the so-called "Ground Zero Mosque", officially named Park51, found that viewers who relied on Fox News were 66% more likely to believe incorrect rumors than those with a "low reliance" on Fox News.[76]

In 2011, a study by Fairleigh Dickinson University found that New Jersey Fox News viewers were less well informed than people who did not watch any news at all. The study employed objective questions, such as whether Hosni Mubarak was still in power in Egypt.[77][78][79]

Fox News Channel executives exert a degree of editorial control over the content of the network's daily reporting. The channel's Vice President of News, John Moody, controls content by writing memos to the news department staff. In the documentary Outfoxed, former Fox News employees talk about the inner workings of the channel. In memos from the documentary, Moody instructs employees how to approach particular stories and on what stories to approach. Critics of Fox News claim that the instructions on many of the memos indicate a conservative bias. The Washington Post quoted Larry Johnson, a former part-time Fox News commentator, describing the Moody memos as "talking points instructing us what the themes are supposed to be, and God help you if you stray."[80]

Former Fox News producer Charlie Reina explained, "The roots of Fox News Channel's day-to-day on-air bias are actual and direct. They come in the form of an executive memo distributed electronically each morning, addressing what stories will be covered and, often, suggesting how they should be covered. To the newsroom personnel responsible for the channel's daytime programming, The Memo is the Bible. If, on any given day, you notice that the Fox anchors seem to be trying to drive a particular point home, you can bet The Memo is behind it."[81][82]

Photocopied memos from John Moody instructed the network's on-air anchors and reporters to use positive language when discussing pro-life viewpoints, the Iraq War, and tax cuts, as well as requesting that the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal be put in context with the other violence in the area.[83] Such memos were reproduced for the film Outfoxed, which included Moody quotes such as, "The soldiers [seen on FNC in Iraq] in the foreground should be identified as 'sharpshooters,' not 'snipers,' which carries a negative connotation."[84]

Two days after the 2006 election, The Huffington Post reported that its news department had acquired a copy of a leaked internal memo from Moody that recommended the following: "... [L]et's be on the lookout for any statements from the Iraqi insurgents, who must be thrilled at the prospect of a Dem-controlled congress." Within hours of the memo's publication, Fox News Channel anchor Martha McCallum, went on-air on the program The Live Desk with reports of Iraqi insurgents cheering the firing of Donald Rumsfeld and the results of the 2006 congressional election.[85][86]

In December 2010, Media Matters for America released a leaked October 2009 e-mail between Fox News Washington managing editor Bill Sammon and the network's senior producers, which seemed to issue directives slanting Fox News' coverage of President Barack Obama's health care reform efforts. In the e-mail, Sammon instructed producers to not use the phrase "public option" when discussing a key measure of President Obama's reform bill, and instead use the terms "government option" or "government-run health insurance[,]" noting negative connotations; Sammon also suggested that the qualifier "so-called" be said before any proper mention of the public option. Another e-mail by Fox News senior vice president Michael Clemente accepted Sammon's conditions. Critics claimed that Sammon took advice from Republican pollster Frank Luntz, who appeared on Hannity shortly before the e-mail was written and made the same suggestions in identifying the public option. Critics also noticed that reporters and panelists on Special Report with Bret Baier used the term "public option" before the e-mail was sent, but used the term "government option" immediately afterwards. Sammon, in an interview with Howard Kurtz for The Daily Beast, defended the directive and denied he was trying to skew Fox News' coverage.[87]

Later that month, Media Matters released an e-mail by Sammon from December 2009, in which he pressured Fox News reporters to assert that "theories are based upon data that critics have called into question" in light of the Climatic Research Unit email controversy.[88][89]

Fox News Channel image of Steinberg superimposed on a poodle, and Reddicliffe superimposed on the man holding the poodle's leash

Left: Original photo of Jacques Steinberg. Right: Photo aired on Fox News Channel.

Left: Original photo of Steven Reddicliffe. Right: Photo aired on Fox News Channel.

On the edition of July 2, 2008 of Fox and Friends, co-hosts Brian Kilmeade and Steve Doocy aired photos of New York Times reporter Jacques Steinberg and Times television editor Steven Reddicliffe that appeared to have been crudely doctored and photoshopped, apparently in order to portray the journalists unflatteringly. This occurred during a discussion of a piece in the edition of June 28 of The New York Times, which pointed out what Steinberg called "ominous trends" in Fox News' ratings.[92]

According to Media Matters, the photos depict New York Times reporter Jacques Steinberg with yellowed teeth, "his nose and chin widened, and his ears made to protrude further." The other image, of Times television editor Steven Reddicliffe, had similar yellow teeth, as well as "dark circles ... under his eyes, and his hairline has been moved back."[93]

During the discussion, Doocy called the Times report, written by Steinberg, a "hit piece" ordered up by Reddicliffe.[92] The broadcast then showed an image of Steinberg's face superimposed over a picture of a poodle, while Reddicliffe's face was superimposed over the man holding the poodle's leash.[92]

Times culture editor Sam Sifton called the photo that was aired on the Fox News Channel "disgusting," and the criticism of the paper's reporting a "specious and meritless claim" while denying that it was a "hit piece."[92]

In June 2020, the Fox News website published digitally altered photographs of Seattle's Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone, to include a man armed with an assault rifle from earlier Seattle protests; also added to the photographs were smashed windows from other parts of Seattle. In a separate incident, the Fox News website ran articles about protests in Seattle, however the accompanying photo of a burning city was actually that of Saint Paul, Minnesota in the previous month.[94] Although the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone was peacefully occupied, "Fox's coverage contributed to the appearance of armed unrest", stated The Washington Post. The manipulated and wrongly used images were removed, with Fox News stating that it "regrets these errors."[95]

Gretchen Carlson in 2009

On July 6, 2016, Gretchen Carlson filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against chairman and CEO of 20th Television, Fox Television Stations and Fox News Roger Ailes in the Superior Court of New Jersey.[121] In her complaint, Carlson alleged that she was fired from her program for refusing Ailes' sexual advances.[121] After Carlson came forward, six more women spoke to Gabriel Sherman of New York magazine, alleging that Ailes had sexually harassed them and that Ailes had "spoke openly of expecting women to perform sexual favors in exchange for job opportunities."[122] New York reported that Megyn Kelly told investigators Ailes made "unwanted sexual advances toward her" at the start of her career. The magazine also reported that the Murdochs had given Ailes an ultimatum—resign by August 1 or be fired.[123]

Facing overwhelming public criticism, Ailes resigned on July 21, 2016.[124] On September 6, 21st Century Fox (the then-parent company of Fox News, Fox Searchlight Pictures and 20th Century Fox) announced that it had settled the lawsuit with Carlson. The settlement was reportedly $20 million. As part of the settlement, 21st Century Fox apologized to Carlson, saying that "We sincerely regret and apologize for the fact that Gretchen was not treated with the respect and dignity that she and all of our colleagues deserve."[125]

In August 2016, Andrea Tantaros, who had been pulled from the network in April with reported "contract issues,"[126] claimed that she approached Fox News executives about Ailes sexually harassing her in 2015. She said her allegations resulted first in her being demoted from The Five to Outnumbered, and then in her being taken off the air.[127] Tantaros filed a lawsuit against Fox News for sexual harassment, also claiming that Bill O'Reilly, Dean Cain, and Scott Brown made inappropriate comments to her, and that Brown and Cain touched her without her consent.[128][129]

In April 2017, The New York Times reported that O'Reilly and Fox News had settled five lawsuits against O'Reilly dating back to 2002, in addition to publicly acknowledged settlements to Andrea Mackris in 2004 and Juliet Huddy in 2017 were publicly reported; The Times reported that FNC hosts Rebecca Diamond and Laurie Dhue settled sexual harassment lawsuits in 2011 and 2016 respectively and junior producer Rachel Witlieb Bernstein settled with Fox News in 2002 after accusing O'Reilly of verbal abuse. The amount paid to the women filing the complaints was estimated at $13 million. The Times also reported a claim by former The O'Reilly Factor guest Wendy Walsh, who declined an offer from O'Reilly to go to his hotel suite and was subsequently denied a job as a Fox News contributor.[130] 21st Century Fox hired the law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison to conduct an investigation into Walsh's allegation; that firm also conducted an investigation into the allegations against Ailes.[131]

After the five settlements were reported, The O'Reilly Factor lost more than half its advertisers within a week;[132] almost 60 companies withdrew their television advertising from the show[133] amid a growing backlash against O'Reilly.[134][135] On April 11, 2017, O'Reilly announced he would take a two-week vacation and return to the program on April 24.[136] However, on April 19, it was reported that O'Reilly would not return to the network.[137] Co-President Bill Shine, who had been accused of covering up sexual harassment allegations, resigned on May 1.[138]

In July 2017, Fox Business suspended Charles Payne pending an investigation after a former network guest, Scottie Nell Hughes, accused him of sexual harassment. Payne denied the harassment charge but acknowledged having had a three-year-long "romantic relationship" with Hughes before the accusation was made. Hughes, who kept an apartment near 21st Century Fox's Manhattan headquarters for the duration of the affair, claimed she believed it would help her obtain a permanent position at the network.[139] Her appearances were drastically reduced after she ended the affair in 2015 and reported Payne to Fox News.[140]

In August 2017, The Huffington Post reported that Eric Bolling sent lewd text messages to two women at Fox News and one at Fox Business.[141] He was suspended pending investigation.[142] Caroline Heldman, a former Fox News guest, alleged that Bolling made numerous unwanted sexual advances towards her.[143]

In 2013, FNC's daily morning show Fox & Friends featured a segment in which contributor Dr. David B. Samadi made an appearance to discuss the cost of women's health care. In the program, Samadi argued that insurance costs more for women due to their more frequent use of health services, as opposed to men: "I just think that the whole system is not working well. I mean this is one of the examples, where men and women are totally different, there is a sex difference when it comes to the health care use, but I really think that if you pay for it, you are going to negotiate, finding out where is the best doctor, where you're going to get a better deal on all these X-rays etc., that's how you're gonna save money."[144]

Following this segment, Fox News received criticism from several online outlets.[145]

An academic study conducted by economists at the University of Chicago, Harvard University, and other institutions, found a correlation between viewership of Hannity and a greater number of COVID-19 cases and deaths, relative to viewership of Tucker Carlson Tonight on the same channel.[189]

In April 2020, the Washington League for Increased Transparency and Ethics (WASHLITE) sued Fox News under the state's Consumer Protection Act for allegedly "falsely and deceptively disseminating 'news'" that coronavirus was "not a danger to public health and safety." In response, Fox maintains that its "political commentary" amounts to "constitutionally protected opinions" and that hosts Sean Hannity and Trish Regan participated in an "intense public debate" over the predicted severity of the threat.[190][191] On May 27th, this suite was tossed out by a Seattle court that determined that WASHLITE's claim that Fox News does not have 1st amendment rights does not hold up to scrutiny.[192]

• Glenn Beck, the host of an eponymous afternoon commentary show, stated in 2009 that he believes President Obama is "a racist" and has "a deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture."[193] These remarks drew criticism, and resulted in a boycott promulgated by Color of Change.[194] The boycott resulted in 80 advertisers requesting their ads be removed from his programming, to avoid associating their brands with content that could be considered offensive by potential customers. He later apologized for the remarks, telling Fox News Sunday anchor Chris Wallace that he has a "big fat mouth" and miscast as racism what is actually, as he theorizes, Obama's belief in black theology.[194][195][196][197][198][199][200][201] Beck left Fox News in June 2011 after 29 months with the network.[202][203]
• Neil Cavuto, who is also Fox News' vice president of business news and a current member of the network's executive committee, was described as a "Bush apologist" by critics[204] after conducting an allegedly deferential interview with President George W. Bush. Democratic strategists and politicians boycotted Cavuto's show in 2004 after he claimed, on air, that Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was rooting for Senator John Kerry.[205] Cavuto has also received criticism for gratuitous footage and photos of scantily clad supermodels and adult film stars on his show, Your World with Neil Cavuto.[206][207]
• Alan Colmes, who from 1996 to 2009 was co-host of the political debate program Hannity & Colmes, was touted by FNC as "a hard-hitting liberal",[208] who was used to counter the opinions of his co-host, conservative talk radio personality Sean Hannity. However, while speaking to USA Today, he said: "I'm quite moderate." He was characterized by several newspapers as being Hannity's "sidekick."[209] Liberal commentator and future Minnesota Senator Al Franken lambasted Colmes in his book, Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them. Throughout the book, Colmes' name is printed in smaller type than all other words to emphasize Franken's belief that Colmes' role was to feebly defend liberal positions, allowing him to be bulldozed by Hannity. Franken accuses him of refusing to ask tough questions during debates and neglecting to challenge erroneous claims made by Hannity or his guests.[209]
• John Gibson, the former host of an afternoon hour of news coverage called The Big Story, was cited as an example of Fox News blurring the lines between objective reporting and opinion/editorial programming. Gibson caused a general rampage among listeners immediately after the 2000 presidential election controversy when, during the opinion segment of his show, Gibson said: "Is this a case where knowing the facts actually would be worse than not knowing? I mean, should we burn these ballots, preserve them in amber, or shred them?" and "George Bush is going to be president. And who needs to know that he's not a legitimate president?"[210] In an opinion piece on the Hutton Inquiry decision, Gibson said the BBC had "a frothing-at-the-mouth anti-Americanism that was obsessive, irrational and dishonest" and that the BBC reporter, Andrew Gilligan, "insisted on air that the Iraqi Army was heroically repulsing an incompetent American Military."[211] In reviewing viewer complaints, Ofcom (the United Kingdom's statutory broadcasting regulator) ruled that Fox News had breached the program code in three areas: "respect for truth", "opportunity to take part", and "personal opinions expressed (in an opinion slot) must not rest upon false evidence." Fox News admitted that Gilligan had not actually said the words that John Gibson appeared to attribute to him; Ofcom rejected the claim that it was intended to be a paraphrase. (See.[212]) Gibson has also called Joe Wilson a "liar", claimed that "the far left" is working for Al Qaeda[213] and stated that he wished that Paris had been host to the 2012 Olympic Games, because it would have subjected the city to the threat of terrorism instead of London.[214]
• Steven Milloy, the commentator for FoxNews.com, has been critical of the science behind global warming and secondhand smoke as a carcinogen. In a February 6, 2006, article in The New Republic, Paul D. Thacker revealed that ExxonMobil had donated $90,000 to two non-profit organizations run out of Milloy's house.[215] In addition, Milloy received almost $100,000 a year from Philip Morris during the time he was arguing that secondhand smoke was not carcinogenic.[216] Milloy's website, junkscience.com, was reviewed and revised by a public relations firm hired by RJR Tobacco.[217] In response to Thacker's disclosure of this conflict of interest, Paul Schur, director of media relations for Fox News, stated that "... Fox News was unaware of Milloy's connection with Philip Morris. Any affiliation he had should have been disclosed."[215]
• E.D. Hill introduced an upcoming discussion before a commercial break about a fist bump between Barack and Michelle Obama after the final 2008 Presidential Democratic primaries by stating that the gesture was either "A fist bump? A pound? [or] A terrorist fist jab?," but never explained the term when the segment continued after the break.[218] The incident was considered controversial among bloggers and political commentators.[219][220][221][222] Hill apologized for her comments the next day.[223]
• Dick Morris appeared several times on FNC, including one appearance on Fox & Friends two days before the 2012 presidential election, predicting that Mitt Romney would win the election in a landslide.[224] Morris was the least accurate major pundit in predicting the 2012 presidential election.[225] After the election, Morris did not appear on FNC for almost three months. Finally on February 5, 2013, FNC announced that it would not renew Morris' contract.[226]
• Karl Rove protested Fox News' calling of the 2012 presidential election for Barack Obama on November 7, 2012. Megyn Kelly then brought a camera crew to ask the off-air analysts team if they stood by their decision. After Rove continued to refuse Fox News's decision Kelly responded by asking him, "Is this just math that you do as a Republican to make yourself feel better? Or is this real?"[227][228][229]
• Megyn Kelly drew controversy after making remarks in December 2013 reacting to a Slate article that postulated that "Santa Claus should not be a white man anymore". On her Fox News segment, The Kelly File, she quipped that "For all you kids watching at home, Santa just is white, but this person is just arguing that maybe we should also have a black Santa," adding, "But Santa is what he is, and just so you know, we're just debating this because someone wrote about it." Kelly also stated that Jesus was white later in the segment.[230] Soon after, Jon Stewart,[231] Stephen Colbert,[232] Rachel Maddow,[233] and others satirized her remarks. A few days later, she made additional on-air statements and characterized her original comments as "tongue-in-cheek".[234][235][236][237][238]

• The New York Times ran an article entitled "At Fox News, the Colonel Who Wasn't" by Jim Rutenberg,[239] revealing that Joseph A. Cafasso, whom Fox had employed for four months as a Military and Counterterrorism Editor, had bogus military credentials.[240]

• Outfoxed, a documentary film on Fox News by activist Robert Greenwald, made assertions of bias in Fox News by interviewing a number of former employees who discuss the network's practices. For example, Frank O'Donnell, identified as a Fox News producer, says: "We were stunned, because up until that point, we were allowed to do legitimate news. Suddenly, we were ordered from the top to carry ... Republican, right-wing propaganda[,]" including being told what to say about Ronald Reagan. The network made an official response[241] and claimed that four of the individuals identified as employees of Fox News either were not employees (O'Donnell, e.g., worked for an affiliate over which Fox News claims to have no editorial authority) or had their titles inflated.[242]
• Fox Attacks was a 2007–08 viral video campaign[243][244][245] designed to expose Fox News' alleged right-wing bias.[246][247][248][249][250] It was produced by Robert Greenwald and Brave New Films after the production of Outfoxed. Greenwald continued his anti-Fox campaign with more than 25 short videos on YouTube concerning Fox News' negative treatment of Barack Obama during the 2008 election cycle.[245][247][249][251] As part of the Fox Attacks campaign, BNF also released "open letters" to other media outlets, and circulated anti-Fox petitions which garnered hundreds of thousands of signatures.[244][248][252][253]
• CNN and Turner Network Television founder Ted Turner accused Fox News of being "dumbed down" and "propaganda" and equated the network's popularity to Adolf Hitler's rise to power in 1930s Germany, during a speech to the National Association of Television Program Executives.[254] In response, a Fox News spokesperson said "Ted is understandably bitter having lost his ratings, his network, and now his mind. We wish him well." The Anti-Defamation League, to whom Turner had apologized in the past for a similar comparison, said Turner is "a recidivist who hasn't learned from his past mistakes."[255]
• Fox News, while covering a car chase, inadvertently broadcast the suspect shooting himself and quickly apologized as being a mistake.[256] Al Tompkins of the Poynter Institute, stipulated by e-mail; "There is simply no excuse for this. It is sensationalism to carry it in the first place."[256]
• Fox apologized for fabricated quotes attributed to John Kerry in an article on its website during the 2004 presidential campaign,[257] stating that the piece was a joke which accidentally appeared on the website.[258]
• Fox News, while covering the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone, was found to have manipulated images to make the protesters look threatening.[259]

• Media Matters, which has since announced a campaign of "guerrilla warfare and sabotage"[260] against Fox, contends that Fox specializes in "political sabotage" by putting up moderate-to-conservative "Democrats" as token liberals against more staunchly conservative Republicans. It cites the following people as examples of this:
  • Pat Caddell[261] – called the Democratic party a "confederacy of gangsters" and defended conservative writer Ann Coulter when she said she could not talk about former Senator and presidential candidate John Edwards if a homophobic epithet she used was off-limits.[262]
  • Susan Estrich[263] – known for her support for the defunct Democratic Leadership Council and once told Sean Hannity that she was his "biggest liberal friend."
  • Zell Miller[264] – a frequent guest on Fox News and a major critic of the Democratic Party. Miller spoke at the 2004 Republican National Convention. Zell Miller is a retired Democratic governor and Democratic senator. Serving from July 2000 to 2005. Appointed by Democratic governor, Roy Barnes, to a U.S. Senate seat following the death of Republican Sen. Paul Coverdell in July 2000.
• Another allegation of Fox's critics is that it sometimes ridicules protesters, especially ones for liberal causes. For example, during the 2004 Republican National Convention, Bill O'Reilly referred to some of the protesters as "terrorists" (though he added, "most protesters are peaceful").[265][266] Fox News online columnist Mike Straka referred to anti-war protesters at the September 24, 2005, march in Washington, D.C. as "jobless, anti-American, clueless, smelly, stupid traitors" and "protesters from hell."[267][268]'

The Fox News report on Malmö was replayed on Swedish television, here on SVT1.

• Iranian-Swedish newspaper commentator, author and legal professional Behrang Kianzad [269] wrote in the Expressen newspaper that "there are lies, damned lies and Fox News",[270] in response to a Fox News story about allegedly Muslim violence in the city of Malmö, Sweden. The report focused on the borough of Rosengård where two out of 1,000 school students were ethnic Swedes.[271] Kianzad wrote that rock throwing against police, firefighters and ambulance personnel happened not just in Rosengård and not as a Muslim custom. He also pointed out that the Fox News segment had false facts, namely that the city of Malmö has about 7% immigrants from Muslim countries and not 25%. Furthermore, Kianzad pointed out the rhetorics used by Fox News to imply that the city of Malmö had reached some sort of breaking point due to Muslim immigrants and that these immigrants were potential terrorists. "[270]
• In August 2006, two Jordanian-Arab freelancers who were working for Fox News as producers, resigned from the network, citing its coverage that month of Israel's conflict with the militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon. Their resignation letter read in part: "We can no longer work with a news organization that claims to be fair and balanced when you are so far from that ... Not only are you Fox News an instrument of the Bush White House, and Israeli propaganda, you are war mongers with no sense of decency, nor professionalism."[272]
• On January 19, 2007, reports and commentary by Fox News personalities featured an anonymously sourced article in the conservative web magazine Insight that claimed that associates of Democratic Senator Hillary Clinton had discovered that Senator Barack Obama had attended a "Muslim seminary" as a child in Indonesia. The term "Muslim seminary" refers to a specifically religious form of madrassa (school). It was determined within days that Obama had instead, as he had said in his memoirs, attended first a Catholic and then a modern public elementary school. The latter was, as Obama had written, "predominantly Muslim" (as Indonesia is predominantly Muslim), and not a seminary of any kind.[273] On January 31, 2007, the Washington Post suggested that because of FNC's reporting of the Insight article, Obama had "frozen out" the network's reporters and producers while giving interviews to every other major network. After the incident John Moody, a vice president at Fox, wrote to staff: "For the record: seeing an item on a website does not mean it is right. Nor does it mean it is ready for air on FNC. The urgent queue is our way of communicating information that is air-worthy. Please adhere to this."[274]

• In March 2007, the Nevada Democratic Party pulled out of a planned debate to be hosted by Fox. Its spokesmen cited a joke by Fox News CEO Roger Ailes, which hinged on President George W. Bush confusing the names of Barack Obama and Osama bin Laden, as evidence that Fox News is biased against the party. Fox News chairman David Rhodes responded to the cancellation by saying that the Democratic Party is "owned by MoveOn.org" (which had created a petition against the debate).[275]
• On May 25, 2008, Fox News political contributor Liz Trotta stated on the air, while talking about the presidential election, "And now we have what some are reading as a suggestion that somebody knock off Osama, uh Obama. Well, both, if we could"; she then laughed. She apologized for the remark on-air on Fox News the next day, saying, "I am so sorry about what happened yesterday and the lame attempt at humor."[276] Trotta and Fox News were criticized for the remark by The New York Times editorial board and others.[277]
• In June 2007, when Louisiana Democratic Congressman William J. Jefferson was indicted on corruption, racketeering, and bribery charges, Fox News ran a video of Michigan Democratic Congressman John Conyers, also black. Conyers criticized the network for "a history of inappropriate on-air mistakes" and the network's "lackluster" apology (which did not name him),[278] and a second, more specific apology was issued.[279] In November 2006 Fox News had aired footage of then-Rep. Harold Ford, Jr. (also black) while talking about Sen. Barack Obama.[280]
• On September 5, 2011, Fox News criticized a speech by James P. Hoffa in Detroit calling for an "army of voters" to "take the SOBs out" and "give America back to Americans". But Fox edited out the mention of voters to make the speech sound like a call for violence.[281][282]
• On January 11, 2015, Fox News commentator Steven Emerson, who had been criticized for inaccuracies in the past,[283][284][285][286] reported that Birmingham, a city of over 1 million people in the United Kingdom, is a Muslim only city: "In Britain, it's not just no-go zones, there are actual cities like Birmingham that are totally Muslim where non-Muslims just simply don't go in".[287] The UK Prime Minister, David Cameron, commented "When I heard this, frankly, I choked on my porridge and I thought it must be April Fools' Day. This guy's clearly a complete idiot."[288] Emerson, said to be an expert of Islamic terrorism, later apologized for what he called a "terrible", "inexcusable", "reckless" and "irresponsible" error,[289] and made a donation of £500 to the Birmingham Children's Hospital.[290]