Saturday’s “Fox News Watch” steered clear of one of last week’s major media stories — News Corp. shutting down UK tabloid News of the World as a result of a hacking scandal. Or did they?
On the show’s website, Fox News posts “Behind the Breaks” videos of the panel chatting during commercial breaks. In the first break, the panel — including Judith Miller, Cal Thomas and James Pinkerton — can be heard chatting about “the subject we’re not talking about today.” Thomas asked his colleagues if anyone is willing to bring up the scandal. “Sure,” Pinkerton answered jokingly. “Go ahead, Cal.” As the panel laughs, Thomas responds, “I’m not going to touch it.”
News Corp. owns Fox News Channel, in addition to News of the World.
By comparison, CNN’s Howard Kurtz devoted the entire first segment of “Reliable Sources” — which is the only other media criticism show on cable news — to the News of the World story.
Video below (skip to the 1:55 mark to hear the above discussion):