News :: GLBT
Fox News Accused of Anti-Semitismby Kilian MelloyTuesday Jul 8, 2008 In the wake of the purportedly anti-Semitic doctoring of a reporter’s photo on the Fox News program Fox and Friends, Bill O’Reilly has struck back with his own claims of having been "caricatured" by The New York Times.
The original article, titled When Fox News is the Story, ran in The New York Times in a July 7 piece written by David Carr.
Carr reported that a reporter at The New York Times, Jacques Steinberg, had written a story on cable news shows and their ratings. Carr’s article said that Steinberg had been stonewalled by Fox News PR staff, who then contacted Steinberg’s editor to ask the reason for which they had not been contacted by Steinberg for his story.
Following publication of Steinberg’s story, Fox and Friends hosts Brian Kilmeade and Steve Doocy implied that Steven Reddicliffe, Mr. Steinberg’s editor, had a grudge against Fox dating back to his time at TV Guide. The segment also suggested that Steinberg had written an unflattering story about Fox at Reddicliffe’s bidding.
The segment aired a photo of Steinberg that was so noticeably doctored that Media Matters ran a side-by-side comparison of the original photo versus the altered version.
Carr noted, "In a technique familiar to students of vintage German propaganda, [Steinberg’s] ears were pulled out, his teeth splayed apart, his forehead lowered and his nose was widened and enlarged in a way that made him look more like Fagin than the guy I work with."
Carr wrote that he had been told by a Fox spokesperson that such alterations are done for "humorous effect," but the implication of Carr’s reference to "vintage German propaganda" was unmissable.
Later in the story, Carr was more specific, writing that a New York Times reporter, Bill Carter, who had covered television stories for the newspaper, "has always had a good working relationship with Fox News, but he was appalled to see what he viewed as an anti-Semitic caricature of Mr. Steinberg, a colleague and a friend."
Carr’s story quoted Carter as saying, "I have not had a big problem with them, in part because their success has been such a great story, but this seemed over the line and really hateful."
Added Carter, "It doesn’t seem like you can deal with them professionally. You do this kind of thing to a guy who’s writing a story for a newspaper?"
Carr’s article referenced Fox News’ treatment of other reporters who had written stories that were not flattering to the media program, noting that, "working reporters have been shaking their heads for years about the nightmare of dealing with Fox News and as a result, the antagonism they believe they are fighting against seems to be on the march."
The purportedly anti-Semitic depiction of Steinberg seemingly inspired Bill O’Reilly to fire back with a claim that his own image had been "caricatured" in the media.
Reported online site Gawker O’Reilly claimed that The New York Times had run an unflattering depiction of himself in a review of one of O’Reilly’s books.
O’Reilly claimed that the illustration of him used by The New York Times included a "devil horn," Gawker reported, before noting that the alleged "horn" was, in fact, the truncated tip of a word balloon, drawn comic-book style near the image.
Gawker also noted that the illustration was not a "caricature" in the generally accepted sense of the word, in that the image did not portray O’Reilly by using any exaggerated facial or other features, but rather seemed to be a realistic depiction (though it did use "unnatural colors").
Stated the text of the Gawker article, "O’Reilly’s ginned up outrage comes from [Fox News Channel President] Roger Ailes’ mudslinging, dirty-politics playbook."
Continued Gawker, "The idea is to attack the critic, as the network did with our own Hamilton Nolan yesterday and as it has been doing with journalists and other targets for years now."
The Gawker article returned to the issue of ratings, which was the topic of Steinberg’s supposedly offending article in the first place: in an ironic twist, Gawker concluded, "But some of O’Reilly’s emotion may very well be real: emerging evidence, as reported by Arango and Steinberg, that this old routine is getting boring and driving away viewers is apparently causing some very real panic over at Fox."
Kilian Melloy reviews media, conducts interviews, and writes commentary for EDGEBoston, where he also serves as Assistant Arts Editor.
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