Responses to David Carr’s column from around the blogosphere:
• Politico’s Michael Calderone recognizes the “aggressive” nature in his dealings with Fox PR, but also looks admirably at it. “Like Carr, I agree there is something reporters often admire in Fox’s tenacity,” he writes. “For me, Fox’s PR staff — even when the network is ahead — continues to push as an underdog in a way that’s similar to how its boss, Rupert Murdoch, has done business for the past half-century.”
• New York Magazine’s Daily Intelligencer brings up their own recent dealings with Fox News. “Last month we actually felt moved to send an e-mail to Fox News publicists to ask them to stop sending us relentless (sometimes baseless) negative items about CNBC, MSNBC, and their on-air talent,” they write. “Plus, we know for a fact that other blogs, similar to ours, get exactly the same kind of tips from Fox News.”
• HuffPost’s Rachel Sklar expands on the “what FNC loses” angle. “Not that O’Reilly suffers from lack of coverage, but there isn’t a ‘hero’ of Fox in the same way — a promotional ‘face’ of the network to inspire fans and bloggers and Google hits,” she writes. “As a handsome, affable and hard-working straight-up news guy — logging plenty of TV hours and with a big-leagues paycheck — Shep [Smith] has been relatively under-covered.”
• And then there’s Broadcasting & Cable’s Mike Malone, who thinks Carr needs new metaphors (Carr described himself in the column as having “a face made out of potatoes”): “It’s a funny metaphor, but unfortunately one Carr used three weeks ago to eulogize Tim Russert.”
TVNewser’s take, after the jump…
We have almost daily contact with Fox News public relations, as we do with every other news network. It can certainly be said that Fox News PR is aggressive and unique in their approach. And there have been rocky periods in the relations between TVNewser and Fox News which have been documented on this site….
Here, in July 2006, or here in Sept. 2007.
Still overall, TVNewser has a good working relationship with FNC PR as it does with every network, because, to borrow a familiar phrase, we work to provide fair and balanced coverage of the industry as a whole.