Former Fox News Reporter Comes Clean

during these david shuster host to take action news on we act radio on take action news dot com and also on you tube that you too dot com slash take action news t_v_ david idoney should probably build up to this but i just want to get right into the good stuff that i know people want to know right away so from from ninety-six the two thousand two you were of washington d_c_-based correspondent for fox news channel and then you went on to msnbc so when you were at foxnews explicit is the right wing talking point point of view in terms of the direction that that and on air staff get approx was a very different organization back and then it is now when i joined fox news i've been a local reporter little rock arkansas though i had led them on local stations covered to the whitewater investigation i really good contacts and ken starr's office with the flats news hired me to washington to essentially keep track of white water case and when anywhere and then when the monica lewinsky scandal broke a lot of the prosecutors are covered in arkansas they were then working for stars like a great contacts in the office of independent counsel and i never really had any um issue with fox outbid saying do a store display or door don't do it that way are the biggest problem and have worked with some of the on-air talent uh... some of the host to a cake that sort of carefully crafted information about the whitewater investigation for about the monica lewinsky scandal and take it out of context and use it for their own agenda but that was a sort of a constant battle charlie we would also get their memos from other head of the sort of editorial planter boxes saying here's the types of stories we're gonna be following but i didn't really think that there was a m our heavy hand or a unattractive sort of right wing hand on fox news until really uh... starting with the porter recounted two thousand and then it became or i_v_f_ and that's what i felt like wow maybe this isn't that a great place for me right said you were on the you decide to thousand i don't know if it's staffer or whatever you were part of you decide to thousands and and everything that took place around the two thousand election so at that point as things were developing with the supreme court and with the greek counts in all of the stuff was there any kind of uh... of concerted decision about what the point of view would be is it just kind of known what it would be well it became pretty obvious to me and i i had that cover the john mccain campaign and it felt like it a lot more sort of a apt word to try to get me to do negative stories about john mccain and the two thousand republican primary tend to get the guy who is covering george w_ bush to do negative stories about him so i felt like the network it management attempt was more sort of in the george w_ bush camp is enjoying the floor to recount i've got to tell happy for a for four weeks where became so apparently is that uh... you recall that on election night when all the networks got it wrong one of the talking points from the republicans with that well the network had not called the state of florida when they did thousands of voters in the panhandle forum would not have been disenfranchised and they keep in mind for the polls colton portable pathetic seven o'clock and then the panhandle which is a central time zone it actually cause of that seven o'clock central time which is eight o'clock eastern the networks called florida for gore initially hand gel until the argument was oh my god or thousands of conservative republicans in the the panhandle of florida that didn't vote at the network and that call detroit for al gore than george w_ bush would've won the vote period that was a talking point on election night in for several days afterwards what fox news there to take that one of my colleagues guy by the name of brett there right of the panhandle to flying the thousands of republican voters who had heard that al gore one quarter were disenfranchised who decided not to vote and brad couldn't find any of them pianist exhibit in advance there were no people if they were waiting in line a quarter of the vote anyway racking up by many people think even come to tallahassee tells me you know there's parking for this republican party point is wrong after all when you're gonna do the story then write your get a report that there is there were none of these you thousands of people that we're getting franchise that in fact al gore that the networks that george will be which would not have won the overall bpl regardless of the networks did he said no i'm not gonna do that story and i said whoa wind up in our job as you go a report and we've got people on the air right now saying that george will be bush would've won florida had not been for the networking to god i'm just not you know i'm just not to do this try not to rock the boat and that's when i realized that ok but did have an agenda to sort of left of talking point be out there that george will be bush would've won had it not been for network and i felt like dad brett bear is going to a very far parking is news channel because he's playing to management he's not as the third cling to journalism and that was you know there was a choice that he may tie was done but i was disturbed by a control like no that's not the truth but i would have made and when i was in florida are reported what i was finding and that is both i'd we're working like hell to try to win the recap the more shenanigans on both sides it wasn't just al gore that was you know trying to touring certain things that wasn't just george w_ bush but the network starting in the porter recant had very much a manage end of today al gore's trying to steal the thing so that's a pretty candid discussion to have with brett there who now hosts the six p_m_ news hour he's one of the main fox news guys at this point you were writing your for your prediction that he would go far with that point of view and he basically just admit it you know it's it's it's gonna it's gonna stirred things up if i report that i missed does not gonna talk about it all do you find that this kind two sites that we saw the bills salmon memos were they say faces how we're gonna talk about health care and that's like a very proactive way to push basically republican talking points but you're talking about a different thing which is just the exclusion of certain stories that might conflict with the party lines so so it's really it's like a two-sided approach absolutely and it's just i mean by then apply them perfectly the one side would be the holes who you know that the people who hold certain shows soon they will express whatever opinion a bill famine or somebody for management and in a memo they will we need that into their commentary to their discussion and in effect inside is involve the people who consider themselves to be reporters and that is they will report uncertain stories and they will not touch other stories and felt you know folks like a breath there are other people who considered themselves journalist they will do an admirable job with the story that they are prepared under the story they are asked to cover but there's a whole range of stories that these reports even they make their hey we should go cover this story over here apart his mental state not knowing racket cover that's where we're not going to talk about that in some time the absolute of covering stories particularly ones that kichu in the face that's where the bias and show up so let's talk a little bit about msnbc because we get out beyond the on the progress of side of independent media myself i hear tooth to kind of opinions about msnbc what is people who really like it and they like rachel maddow and uh... and they like everything that's going on on the channel and others who say you know the keith olbermann thing is really just kind of an example keith olbermann uh... the controversy over his political donations and and eventually leaving the channel is really an example that msnbc has chosen as a profit product to have editorially more progressive uh... commentator's but really that it's indistinguishable for from fox news in the sense that they both urges corporate media putting out the product they think will make them the most money rachel maddow has come back and said now you know these are both for-profit companies but there's a huge difference between the kind of of decidedly right wing talking points that purveyed the supposedly news coverage on fox and msnbc having liberal opinion programming having worked for both what's your take how do you compare them well well have a great question in a greater an electrician and that is i would play a couple of things yes bearer is a uh... there if the buyer from both died in once upon a time i would have had foxnews far more conservative than m_f_n_ if you could ever be quotable old liberal these however i would think that it started to doubt that a little bit more that put that them a permit to become much more sort of progressive liberal uh... than before and then certainly when i started their but a couple of things i would also argue though that the rachel maddow things that people remains uh... and shold though i prefer rapid it's much more money fact-based approach and i think that's also been something the progress of the loan thing tivoli tell you that progress is tell me look we don't want the parliament the out but we simply want that fact-based affiant based discussion of these issues and therefore i think you know they have a committee commentators do a better job in five pin that yes you may think will reach a battle at the point of view or lord of da doran chilled but they tend to be they can do it here to fax and basic much more than a strict spectra fashion and you get on the opposite side over at fox news and that frankly the differences that you could and i think that the funding of programs of local say of court progressive i think most progresses we'll tell you if you have it backbase discussion progresses again win seventy percent of the time and i think that seems to be what i hear from put my former colleagues at msnbc they just want to have a arduous arg of very arduous uh... on point discussion that in fact based and and they believe that their progress in point of view will win lastname we saw after the twenty twelve election results viewers tuning out allot from fox news their ratings have while they're still very good in the kind of aggregate sens in in the key demographics in prime time they've been lower than they they were since before tonight eleven in fact what do you think this is a response to is this just some fifty dash they're losing an election or could this be kind of the start of a longer term shift away from that type of program i think it's part of a longer term ship i mean the credibility gap and fox news had been there for a long time and i think it is finally catching up with them but but the drone tm beat of criticism legitimate criticism the big apple organization to pay attention to fax with their pay fox news gets it wrong or they got it wrong or jon stewart for example perhaps the most effective at that i mean boxes of credibility simply doesn't exist anymore cutesiness as they republican health oregon of g_o_p_ propaganda and even want box build a straight new story added nell viewed through the prism of will distribute the food eating done to further a particular republican agenda and i think americans realized even from moderates and conservatives hoping that burned in the last election by all the predictions on fox news about mit romney winning the election and it can be a landslide at all that of course turned out to be wrong and i think people are realizing that it might be an age when you want to have accurate information randy regardless of your pre-existing political views you wanna accurate information and i think more more american deal that what they're getting from pocket simply is not accurate and cannot be trusted all right david shuster host to take action news and we act radio check it out to take action news dot com also youtube dot com slash take actions tv i can't say you have anything back david this is great to have a lot of opportunity erode welcome david congradulations and all your success okay we'll take a break more after this