Fox In the Henhouse: TV Panelists Chase 'NY Times'

By: E&P Staff It was pile-on time on Fox News' weekly "Fox NewsWatch" program Saturday. The target: The New York Times.

It started innocently enough when host Eric Burns asked each of the four regular panelists to pick a Thanksgiving "Turkey" of the week. After Mary Mapes got kicked around, one of the liberal panelists, Neil Gabler, got his chance. He chose The New York Times, citing the Judy Miller episode, Washington correspondent Elizabeth Bumiller's "valentines" to President Bush, columnist David Brooks repeating Republican talking points twice a week, and more. With the Times allegedly in decline it left a serious "void" in tough-minded journalism, he said.

Then Jim Pinkerton of Newsday weighed in, charging that Publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. was doing a terrible job but can't be fired "becuase he owns the place."

Finally, columnist Cal Thomas spoke up, claiming that the Times under Sulzberger had a clear "pro-gay agenda" which it pushes all the time.

The fourth panelist, Jane Hall, held her tongue about the Times, but earlier she had given her turkey to the Republican leadership who were calling for an investigation into the Washington Post's "secret prisons" story. She said we should be debating whether we want to have secret prisons--not attacking the Post for breaking the story.