Katrina Vanden Heuvel Calls Out Fox’s ‘Sycophantic’ Limbaugh Interview

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by Glynnis MacNicol | 7:26 am, November 3rd, 2009

» 11 comments

Rush Limbaugh’s interview with Fox News’ Chris Wallace on Sunday, during which he criticized President Obama’s “out of this world ego” and described the president as “immature,” “inexperienced,” and “in over his head” is still making waves.

On Joy Behar’s HLN show last night both Arianna Huffington and The Nation‘s Katrina Vanden Heuvel weighed in on the interview, which Vanden Heuvel described as ‘sycophantic’:

This was more than a softball interview, this was sycophantic. Chris Wallace was, like, lapping up every word. And it went unchallenged. Rush Limbaugh is a bully, and he has a bully pulpit on his radio show every day. And here he is getting a half hour on allegedly a news channel. And what he had to say was not really new, he’s out there to kind of cripple and delegitimize, take down the president, and this is not new.

Of course, if Rush Limbaugh is indeed somehow functioning as the defacto head of the Republican party, than perhaps giving him the entire half hour makes more sense in light of today’s elections. Video below.

Arianna Huffington, Chris Wallace, fox news, Joy Behar, Katrina vanden Heuvel, Rush Limbaugh

ChrisNH

Why doesn’t CNN do something constructive with their time and trumpet all the GOOD things Obama has done. Oh, wait…
m

It’s so funny that FNC keeps saying “there’s a separation between our commentary shows and our news shows” and then they give the leader of the conservative movement 30 minutes of pampering?
Facebook User

MIke Wallace must be so ashamed to have spawned that hack.
StewartIII

Katrina Vanden Heuvel is a far left hack. That writes for a far left magazine. She hates the fact that Rush Limbaugh wakes up in the morning. She’s just another predictable hater.
StewartIII

Now, here’s a REAL softball interview.

NewsBusters: Couric Glorifies Al Gore as ‘Godfather of Green, the King of Conservation’
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/brent-baker/2009/11/03/couric-glorifies-al-gore-godfather-green-king-conservation
ImNotBlue

So let me see if I understand this… Behar (a Liberal) has on Huffington (a far-left Liberal) and this Vanden Heuval woman (a Liberal) to discuss what Limbaugh said. Wow… what a balanced crew of people to talk it over.

Please, M and the rest… tell me more about the terrible FOX bias that was exposed by three Liberal women. Oy-vey.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Phil-Bourekas/1538058627 Phil Bourekas

Joy is attempting to attain similar success to Rush, only on the left, with her snide comments about conservatives and her choices of “sycophantic guests”. She offers neither entertainment nor insight.
Pat Doherty

Katrina Vanden Heuvel is perhaps the definitive champagne socialist. I remember a few years ago she was on Hardball (before Matthews came down with Bush Derangement Syndrome) and she said she understood the poor because she’d grown up in Harlem. To his credit, Matthews pointed out she grew up in a multi-million dollar townhouse.
m

>Wow… what a balanced crew of people to talk it over.

The Fox News Defense: It’s a prime time show. There’s no need for balance.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Phil-Bourekas/1538058627 Phil Bourekas

I suspect Fox would be ok with that defense.

– they had another network talking about their show and even airing clips
– hearing “the other guys do it too” would make their point about offering both opinion and news in a same network.

Behar is a remora living off the efforts of bigger fish.
ImNotBlue

m says:
November 3, 2009 at 3:42 pm
The Fox News Defense: It’s a prime time show. There’s no need for balance.

Which points out two things… (1) this is a perfect example of the “when we do it, it’s okay mentality that engulfs the FOX haters… it’s also known as hypocrisy. And (2) it’s not that they’re not “allowed” to be unbalanced, or that they “need” to have a counter-point… rather it’s that such a biased group, attacking someone on the other side of the spectrum, is hardly surprising or ground-breaking. A bunch of Liberals disliked something Limbaugh had to say, and dislike FOX for letting him say it. Shocking.

What would be more shocking was if they acknowledged that Rush has the right to say whatever he wants, FOX has the right to air him saying it, and not to draw goofy hypocritical conclusions based on that fact. Now that would truly be shocking…