Fox News downplays Scooter Libby's sentencing
 
Date: Tue, 05 Jun 2007 20:53:03 -0400



<x-html>
<a href="http://mediamatters.org/"><img src="http://mediamatters.org/static/images/logo_email.jpg" border="0" /></a>
<p><b>Fox News downplays Scooter Libby's sentencing </b></p>
<p><a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/200706060001?src=item200706060001">http://mediamatters.org/items/200706060001</a></p>

<p>News organizations began to scramble just before noon
on June 5, when news broke that federal judge Reggie Walton had <a href="http://mediamatters.org/rd?src=item200706060001&http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/05/AR2007060500150.html">sentenced</a> I.
Lewis "Scooter" Libby to 30 months in prison and a $250,000 fine on charges of lying during the CIA leak
investigation. Libby was found guilty in March of obstructing justice and lying
to FBI agents in connection to the Valerie Plame case.
With the sentencing, Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick
Cheney, became the highest-ranking White House official to face a jail sentence
since the Iran-Contra affair nearly two decades ago.</p>

<p>The development was treated
as major news -- but not on Fox News.</p>

<p>Upon the announcement of Libby&#39;s sentence, cable news outlets
such as CNN and MSNBC quickly broke into regular programming with extended
reports about the details, while airing reaction from various experts. From
the time the story broke at approximately 11:51
a.m. ET until 1 p.m., CNN spent 22 consecutive minutes on
the Libby sentence story; MSNBC 16 minutes. Both networks returned to the story between noon and 1
p.m. ET, with CNN spending an additional four minutes on the story throughout that hour and MSNBC an additional six minutes.</p>

<p>Fox
News, meanwhile, downplayed the Libby news.
(According to the weblog <a href="http://mediamatters.org/rd?src=item200706060001&http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/top_stories/libby_sentencing_cable_coverage_60384.asp" title="http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/top_stories/libby_sentencing_cable_coverage_60384.asp">TVNewser</a>,
Fox News claims to have been first to report Libby&#39;s sentencing, seven
seconds before MSNBC and 90 seconds before CNN.) After the news broke, Fox
News devoted just nine consecutive minutes to the story up to 1 p.m. Between noon
and 1
p.m. ET,
Fox News
did not interview any legal or political experts and
not return to the story after its original report. </p>

<p>Instead, between noon and 1 p.m., here is a list of some of the
more pressing news stories that Fox News opted to cover instead of
Libby&#39;s sentencing:</p>

<ul><li class="MsoNormal" style="color: black">The abduction of a Kansas City
     teenager outside a Target discount store. (Fox News returned to this story
     several times within the hour.) </li><li class="MsoNormal" style="color: black">A plane crash into Lake Michigan.</li><li class="MsoNormal" style="color: black">Sen. Hillary Rodham
     Clinton&#39;s (D-NY) recent comments about faith in her life. </li><li class="MsoNormal" style="color: black">Casinos giving away gasoline in
     order to entice visitors. </li><li class="MsoNormal" style="color: black">Record producer Phil
     Spector&#39;s murder trial in Los Angeles.</li><li class="MsoNormal" style="color: black">Lightning striking a house in Oregon.</li><li class="MsoNormal" style="color: black">A tornado warning issued for western
     Connecticut.</li><li class="MsoNormal" style="color: black">News that the father of <a href="http://mediamatters.org/rd?src=item200706060001&http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/famous/ramsey/index_1.html">JonBenet Ramsey</a> is
     dating the mother of missing teen <a href="http://mediamatters.org/rd?src=item200706060001&http://www.courttv.com/news/holloway/">Natalee Holloway</a>.</li><li class="MsoNormal" style="color: black">R&amp;B singer R. Kelly&#39;s
     legal woes.</li><li class="MsoNormal" style="color: black">An update on the JFK
      Airport
     terror plot.</li><li class="MsoNormal" style="color: black">Cuba
     state-run television airing a new interview with Fidel Castro.</li><li class="MsoNormal">Foreign policy tension between Russia
     and the United States.</li></ul>

<p>

At the top of the 3 p.m. ET
hour, Libby&#39;s sentencing was slotted as the day&#39;s fourth most important
story on Fox News&#39; <i>Studio B with
Shepard Smith</i>.</p><table width="100%" style="background: #e8e8e8; 
border: 1px solid  #ffffff; font-size: 80%" cellpadding="1">
<tr>
<td style="border-right: 1px solid  #ffffff;" 
width="40%">
</b> Contact: <br />
<b>Fox News Channel</b></td>
<td valign="top"><a href="http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,77538,00.html">FOX News Channel</a><br />1-888-369-4762<br /><a href="mailto:Comments@foxnews.com">Comments@foxnews.com</a><br />1211 Avenue of the Americas<br />New York, NY 10036</td>
</tr>
</table>



<hr />
<p>This mail was sent by <i>Media Matters for America</i>
to 'news@energy-net.org'. Please visit us at
<a href="http://mediamatters.org">http://mediamatters.org</a></p>

<p>You can help support our work; become a 
<a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/200407200002?src=item200706060001">volunteer media
monitor</a>, or 
<a href="https://mediamatters.org/donate?source=email">donate</a>
to <i>Media Matters for America</i>.</p>


<p>To change your email subscription preferences, visit <a href="http://mediamatters.org/users/prefs.html?src=item200706060001">http://mediamatters.org/users/prefs.html</a></p>

<p>If you'd like to unsubscribe from all <i>Media Matters for America</i> emails, you can just click on <a href="http://mediamatters.org/users/unsub/_TFiSm6WIkiaci7iLu6ZtH8gu6JaPh8t_vLvpt4dfhY">http://mediamatters.org/users/unsub/_TFiSm6WIkiaci7iLu6ZtH8gu6JaPh8t_vLvpt4dfhY</a>.</p>

<p>To contact us directly, reply to this mail or visit <a href="http://mediamatters.org/contact_us?src=item200706060001">http://mediamatters.org/contact_us</a></p>
<img src="http://mediamatters.org/static/images/tracker.gif?src=item200706060001" style="display: none;" />
</x-html>