Sounding like former President Donald Trump equating people on both sides of the white supremacist march in Charlottesville in 2017, Vincent Bzdek, the executive editor of Republican billionaire Phil Anschutz’s media outlets in Colorado, said earlier this month that he’s “not sure” he sees a distinction among CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News.
Asked by right-wing KNUS host George Brauchler April 18 if he sees a “distinction between a CNN and MSNBC and Fox,” Vincent Bdzek replied, “I’m not sure I see a distinction.”
“And I think there are, you know, activist kind of journalists on the other side of the equation, and that needs to stop as well, I think,” Bzdek explained on the radio. “And, you know, there’s a lot of like, ‘Well, it’s the truth. And we’re right. And I have moral authority.’ I don’t buy that. You know, that’s not journalists’ jobs. Journalists’ jobs are not to be activists and not to really, you know, get into the story. So I do worry about a double standard here. We’re focused on [Fox News] right now because of the [Dominion] lawsuit. But some of those other people, you know, there’s also some accountability they need as well.”
What kind of journalist isn’t sure Fox News stands alone in spreading falsehoods, lies, and conspiracy theories, and undermining journalism and democracy as we want them to be?
Bzdek is worried about a “double standard?”
Who’s the MSNBC or CNN equivalent of Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, or Laura Ingraham? MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow or Lawrence O’Donnell? CNN’s Anderson Cooper or Wolf Blitzer? It’s laughable to put them in the same paragraph.
Fox News argued to a judge that Carlson was an entertainer, not a journalist, while his colleague Sean Hannity admitted the same, after CNN broke the story of his text exchange with Congressman Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) in which he asked the Republican how he could help.
Name one story where the level of misinformation gets anywhere near what we regularly see on Fox News. Covid. Insurrection. Conspiracies. Much more.
MSNBC is progressive, and Bzdek expressed concern about its coverage of alleged collusion between Trump and Russia. He’s entitled to that criticism, but seriously? Is MSNBC anywhere near “the other side of the equation” to Fox News?
Bzdek doesn’t return my calls and emails, even though I’ve been told he doesn’t hide; he’s just busy. We once chatted at a Gazette event attended mostly by Republicans. So he knows I’m the weakest of weaklings.
Still, he didn’t return an email from me yesterday seeking comment for this article. Did he really mean to say he wasn’t sure CNN was different than Fox, I asked him.
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Bzdek was on KNUS to discuss the defamation case brought by Dominion Voting Sytems against Fox News. This was just before the case was settled, but well after we’d all read about the internal texts from Carlson and other Fox execs proving they knew the on-air election fraud claims were false.
On the radio, Bzdek was at least critical of Fox, saying he thought Fox would “probably lose” the case if it went to trial. And he expressed some intelligent thoughts about journalism.
So those of you who might be worrying that the fine journalists who work for Bzdek will be fleeing in fear of their editor as we speak can exhale.
Bzdek criticized Fox for firing its political editor who made the decision that Fox announce Biden as the winner of the 2020 presidential election in Arizona, which turned out to be the correct call. And Bzdek said Fox stars embraced the misinformation that Trump won the 2020 presidential election.
“Well, you know, to me, you have to have real journalistic principles,” Bzdek said on KNUS. “They can’t just do what the audience wants. And that’s where I think they got in trouble, you know, is you can’t just say, ‘Well, this is what our audience believes and wants. So that’s what we’re going to publish.’ There has to be some attention to the truth of these claims and vetting of these claims. And I hope, George, that’s what comes out of this is like, well, wait a minute, objectivity, truth-telling, neutral reporting. They are crucial to journalism and to just, you know, the smooth running of our democracy, right? … I hope Fox re-dedicates itself to this.”
Whew, we can agree on that.
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