David Folkenflik, the former Herald-Sun reporter who is now an NPR media reporter, is concerned that Brett Baier’s “Special Report” panel of “Fox All-Stars” is not predominantly liberal:
And indeed, Baier’s Special Report relies heavily on reported segments — but half the show is a nightly discussion he moderates among pundits dubbed the Fox News All-Stars.
Stephen Hayes of the conservative Weekly Standard is a regular.
“To me the single best thing about the panel is the conversation — and it’s a real conversation,” says Hayes, who was a junior fraternity brother of Baier’s at DePauw University in Indiana. (Baier played varsity golf under the same DePauw coach as former Vice President Dan Quayle, but they were separated by more than 20 years.)
On one recent show, in addition to Hayes, the Fox All-Star panel included Peter Wehner, a conservative columnist who is a former aide to President George W. Bush, and Karen Tumulty, a national political correspondent for The Washington Post.
I asked Baier how that lineup reflected the fairness he promises.
So, Folkenflik would have Baier add another liberal to the three-person panel? Maybe two? That would make it as liberal as your standard NPR panel. Somehow I don’t think that’s the key to success for Fox.
I hope Baier doesn’t listen to people like Folkenflik crying crocodile tears at the lack of “fairness.” To paraphrase Rush Limbaugh, Fox IS the balance for the rest of the predominantly left-wing news outlets. Adding another liberal or two to satisfy Folkenflik would make it as unbalanced to the left as every other talk show on CNN or the networks.
I think Robert Ailes knows what he’s doing, and he certainly doesn’t need advice from NPR on fairness.
