Pressure on some Fox News reporters in the Washington, D.C., bureau to "slant news" and "distort" coverage has sparked some discontent in the newsroom there, according to sources with knowledge of the situation.
Since Bill Sammon assumed the role of Washington managing editor and vice president of news at the beginning of the Obama Administration, pressure from Fox management to produce stories that lean toward a conservative agenda, and distort news in some cases, has found its way into coverage, the sources said.
Sammon, who took over the post from Brit Hume in February 2009, is widely regarded as a conservative, including by Fox hosts Bill O'Reilly and Chris Wallace, who have
characterized him on the air as "conservative."
In the past, Sammon boasted of his access to President Bush and used that to write several positive books about him. He also wrote a 2001 book titled "At Any Cost: How Al Gore Tried to Steal the Election."
Sammon's job was
described at the time of his appointment as overseeing "editorial content in the Washington bureau, reporting to John Moody, Executive Vice President, News Editorial."
Sources tell
Media Matters that the situation in the Fox Washington bureau represents a dramatic change from when Hume was managing editor.
According to one source, the pressure to slant Fox's reporting is coming from Sammon himself. Another source says that directives are coming from Fox management in New York and that Sammon -- unlike Hume -- doesn't have enough sway to push back.
The allegations fly in the face of Fox's
claim that its news division is straight down the middle and not opinionated.
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http://mediamatters.org/blog/201010290023
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