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Chris Wallace: It Would Be “Poetic Justice” For Fox News To Get Helen Thomas Seat

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» 38 comments

FOX News Sunday host Chris Wallace weighed in on the possibility of Fox News getting Helen Thomas‘ seat in the White House briefing room this morning with Don Imus on FBN, and with one little comment, started the entire ‘Fox News is a right-wing news outlet’ meme.

Imus caught it – and Wallace started back-pedaling.

“They absolutely should get it,” said Wallace of FNC. But then he got to his explanation:

Obviously she was very far to the left wing and if her seat were to be taken by Fox News it would just be kind of poetic justice.

Oh really? Imus was keyed in. “But what are you suggesting about Fox News then?” he asked, and then Wallace started backing away: “Well, I just realized that’s probably not the way to go on this…we’re fair and balanced. That’s the point.”

After some more back-and-forth, Imus ended with, “By the way, say hi to Roger when he calls you.” Roger Ailes – his boss. Wallace laughed. At least he did this morning.

Check out the exchange (h/t our comments section):

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  • http://TheDividedStatesBlog.com Publius219

    If you say something loud enough and often enough, most idiots will eventually believe it. But even if you say something loud enough and often enough, the intelligent never will. It’s evident where Chris Wallace falls.

  • MichelleF

    Indeed it would. Especially after the Whitehouse waged war against Fox and lost. Poetic justice, indeed.

  • valkyrie101

    I will be glad if FOX gets the seat. They deserve it, as a major media representative of the minority party. That’s good democracy.

  • valkyrie101

    The funny thing is that the questions we will be getting out of FOX will likely be as off point as Helen Thomas’ used to be.

  • TfT

    Doubt that valkyrie – FNC is the ONLY news organization that thinks out of the box, breaks away from the group-grope mentality practiced by abccbsnbcmsnbccnn. Fair and balanced indeed. Congrats to Major, in advance of the announcement that the seat now belongs to FNC. Giving the seat to the one cable network that destroys the others in ratings, in viewership, and in straight down the middle both sides always reported network. The others should wake up and smell the coffee and start doing what FNC does.

  • Big_F-ing_Deal

    Chris, never say out loud what everyone knows except the most dense of the right wing partisan hacks.

  • Ted

    MichelleF – Not much for drama are you? “…waged war against Fox and lost.” Good God, let’s pray to Glenn.

    It is indeed poetic justice, but not at all for the reasons you believe. Go Fox “News.”.

    Buy seeds.

  • Ination

    @TfT – I think it’s rather naive to dismiss all programs on all the other networks. They aren’t all as radical as you seem to be implying. It all depends what you choose to regard and disregard.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Kam-Fet/572005492 Kam Fet

    I think poetic rubbish would be more appropriate to describe the situation. Crapp

  • TfT

    Well Ination – I don’t think it’s naive at all I think it’s factual. Group grope thinking is a problem among the networks, doesn’t matter who you watch, the bowing Brian, the perky one, or Dianne, they all same the same thing. It’s kind of like they get their talking points from Obama/dem communications office in advance. Just pick one major story and show me how any of those anchors set themselves apart from their counterparts? Doesn’t exist. They say the same things, and they ignore the same stories….anything to protect teh One and any/all democrats.

  • MichelleF

    Ted, you are just plain weird.

  • whytee

    Tft, all CNN wants is to BE Fox. Clearly the group grope is a reality, but it’s more inclined toward aping Fox to try to score its ratings. Beyond that, the networks seem utterly corporate and superficial.

  • Ination

    @Tft – I just don’t think you watch enough MSNBC / CNN (who does?). Kidding aside, I’d say they cover the same stories because most of everything else is pretty damn boring and when they already struggle with ratings, you can’t devote new hours to obscure things. What news story has Fox had an exclusive on that no one else covered? Is your point that Fox emphasizes on issues while others dismiss them?

    But I really don’t see any fundamental differences between the networks. They all have news hours and opinion shows. Some shoot from the left, some from the right, and some from left-field. While I understand where you’re coming from, I just think it’s too general of a statement to make so I will humbly disagree.

  • redleaf

    Why do people even discuss this anymore?
    FNC is a right wing news network.
    Fine. Whatever. Enjoy.
    I just find it amazing that people still debate this.

  • Grammie

    Ination says:
    June 10, 2010 at 7:48 pm

    Well, only FNC viewers were not caught mouth open catching flies when Van Jones resigned and ACORN funding was pulled by Congress.

    More pertinent, however, is the montage of all the anchors and reporters that can be assembled using the exact same terminology as if the exact same thought all blossomed full grown in their heads simultaneously about political stories. Rush Limbaugh has done quite a few and they can be startling to hear.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Ruth-Gretzinger/596613915 Ruth Gretzinger

    the idea that “Fox News” is one monolithic entity is just silly. Bret Baier’s show at 6pm is straight-up center-to-center-right news with a great panel (Krauthammer) that even includes NPR commentators, fachrissake. OTOH. Hannity is a self-avowed Republican and his show is not a “news” show. most of us can tell the difference; liberals cannot.

    and what the hey: just to reduce fighting, I’ll give you Beck as the rodeo clown (although I personally love him).

    Major Garrett is one of the most capable reporters working in TV today. I defy you to actually LISTEN to one of his reports and tell me he’s a crazy right-wing hack.

  • TROLLING4LIBS

    The demonization of FOX News, is a bully/ thug tactic started by this thinned- skinned Administration top to bottom. The fact that FOX doesn’t have their heads jammed up the ass of this president, they’re looked apon as Far- right news. It’s the media’s job to investigate and question administrations , not just leg- hump at the ankles and take Obama or  WH officials ” word for it “. 

    You FOX bashers are pathetic , I don’t want Fair & Balanced , I want FOX to question every move these incompetent fools make .

  • redleaf

    Sigh.
    You don’t have to be a ‘crazy right wing hack’ to be ring wing.
    FNC’s bias comes through not only in the “opinion shows” they air (Hannity, Beck, O’Reilly), but in the stories they choose to cover during their regular “newscasts.”

    One recent example out of many: when FNC reported that the Nuclear Security Summit logo looked like an Islamic crescent (ending with the anchor saying, “You be the judge.”), why did they do that? Newsworthiness? Really? Actually, they want to float anti-Obama stories to see if they get any traction outside the network. Sometimes it does. Sometimes it doesn’t.

    Do you really think the producers of Hannity’s show didn’t know they were substituting news footage from a heavily-attended rally and passing it off as the much-lower-attended Super Bowl of Freedom? You really think an enormous network (just like ANY news organization) with extensive tape logs and video libraries didn’t know exactly what footage they were pulling?

    It’s not some sort of conspiracy. It’s out there. They’re a ring wing network. They get great ratings. They’ve done a great job. But your point that it’s only ring wing if the anchor is wearing an enormous Uncle Sam outfit and screaming anti-tax, anti-Obama rhetoric is ridiculous.

    Let’s not forget the best line in the film The Usual Suspects: “the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.” Such is Fox News as a ring wing network.

    Do I really have to explain this to people? Is Ruth that oblivious? I mean, it’s fine. Whatever. Promote ring wing causes and anti-Obama rhetoric. It’s a free country. It’s only disgusting when, for instance, Hannity’s show blatantly misrepresents crowd footage. That’s an out and out lie.

    Otherwise, good for Fox. And good for having an audience whose members are as gullible and ignorant and unquestioning as some on this board.

  • TROLLING4LIBS

    When 2012 rolls around and Obama and his cronies are run out.

    MSNBC will be leading the 4 year charge against the ( R ) , and CNN ABC CBS NYSlimes will be riding shotgun.

    You won’t see too many articles about ” fair ” news then .

    The

  • The Real Royal King

    Ted says:
    June 10, 2010 at 7:02 pm
    MichelleF – Not much for drama are you? “…waged war against Fox and lost.” Good God, let’s pray to Glenn.

    It is indeed poetic justice, but not at all for the reasons you believe. Go Fox “News.”.

    Buy seeds.

    I’d say you nailed that one.

  • The Real Royal King

    More pertinent, however, is the montage of all the anchors and reporters that can be assembled using the exact same terminology as if the exact same thought all blossomed full grown in their heads simultaneously about political stories. Rush Limbaugh has done quite a few and they can be startling to hear.

    All the Marys in Heaven, can someone rush a case of Beano to Janet before she explodes?

  • Jelperman

    Rupert Murdoch should change his news channel’s name from Fox News to Jackal News.

  • http://gordonbloyershow.com gordonbloyershow

    The poor libs are desperate, they just repeat over and over, Fox is right wing. LOL. They really think repeating the lie over and over will work.
    The key to notice is that they all hide behind phony names.. RRK is really Rahm Emauel. He may be Ted and the unReasonable Lib too. These phonys will do anything to save Obama. They must have had the Commie Cell meeting this morning. The talking points are getting old.

  • valkyrie101

    So let me get this correct, gordon, you suggest that FOX News is not right wing? Seriously, that is what you think? I mean, there is nothing wrong with that. We have plenty of left leaning media, it is only right that we have a major right leaning media outlet as well. But your position is that FOX is what? Moderate? LOL.

  • me1ranger

    Being conservative by definition means being balanced..conserve the truth. The other networks try to get ratings by promoting an activisim agenda, they try to sell you the ‘conventional wisdom’ view of issues that they choose to make important. Fox’s mandate is to show you the facts and let ‘you decide’. I watch more of the other guys so I can see what they’re trying to sell us. They hardly ever have people from opposing sides on together to debate the issues, Fox almost always does. Why is that? Do you want to hear an honest debate, or would you rather watch someone blathering on in an echo chamber..you decide.

  • valkyrie101

    No. Conservative means defend the status quo. Human progress happens as a function of the interaction between progressive ideas and the past notions represented by the conservatives. Without progressive views, as I have mentioned before, many of the human advancements we take for granted, and which were fully opposed by the conservatives of the day, would include: virtually all civil rights laws or advancements since the 1600s, opposition to regulation of corporations, including opposition to both slave labor laws and laws regulating work by children, laws regulating inhuman work place conditions, the woman’s right to vote, the black man’s right to vote, the laws regulating lead in gasoline or any other regulation of industrial waste product, etc, and to name only a few things out of a long list.

    In the overall scheme of things, conservatives oppose change, and seek a return to old, that is, good old family values of the past. Conservatives ultimately have a role: to oppose change. Progressives have a role too, their’s is to seek change. Eventually the progressives must win some of the various skirmishes along the way, because without that there would be no change whatsoever.

    Only a fool worships the past in a changing world.

  • valkyrie101

    Progress will never cease advancing, conservatives, so you will always be backing up.

  • me1ranger

    Consevatives don’t waste their time and efforts to try and fix what aint broke. You need to study up on your history, friend. Dr.King was a republican..and the southern democrats were the ones who stood in the way of civil rights reform..got that? Sen. Byrd ring a bell for you?

  • me1ranger

    Progressives never met someone elses dollar they didn’t want to spend..

  • The Real Royal King

    gordonbloyershow says:
    June 11, 2010 at 1:03 am

    The poor libs are desperate, they just repeat over and over, Fox is right wing. LOL. They really think repeating the lie over and over will work.
    The key to notice is that they all hide behind phony names.. RRK is really Rahm Emauel. He may be Ted and the unReasonable Lib too. These phonys will do anything to save Obama. They must have had the Commie Cell meeting this morning. The talking points are getting old.

    Let me repeat a very simple question I have asked repeatedly, Gordon Blower Show: On what channel may I find your television show, and at what time? I’m in US CDST time zone, but I can convert.

  • valkyrie101

    Ranger,
    A “conservative” is not a particular political party, my friend, rather, it is a philosophy. Currently, Republicans tend to be conservative and Democrats liberals, but it has not always been that cut and dry, with, for example, the conservative south being aligned mostly with the Democrats during much of the sixties and seventies.

    And yes, progress usually requires the expenditure of money or resources. Fortunately, the owners of everything, the corporate people, have lots of money, to spend.

  • me1ranger

    Valkyrie, I know what a conservative is..I am one. Not much of a partier so I don’t like to be lumped into one. You saying that civil rights reforms are the product of progressive Republicans? That don’t wash..you can’t just keep screwing a new adjective on to someone whose work you want to take credit for. Sorry..

  • The_Reasonable_Lib

    gordonbloyershow says:
    June 11, 2010 at 1:03 am
    You’d like that, wouldn’t you, Bloyer. Although it would really say something about the mental capapbilities of you and the other conservatives here if one person is trouncing you on multiple occasions.

  • albaby

    What the libs need to replace the corpse is someone who will make Chris Matthews legs tingle.

  • valkyrie101

    Ranger,
    Conservatives tend to defend the status quo, and progressives tend to promote change. Would you agree with that statement? If not, why not?

  • albaby

    If by defend the status quo, you mean Conservatives tend to defend the Constitution and the principles this nation was built on and that “liberals tend to promote change” means that we alter the Constitution by judicial fiat to satisfy the whim of the day and have no principles to guide them, -then yes, I agree

  • albaby

    Now here’s a stupid statement:

    “Progress will never cease advancing, conservatives, so you will always be backing up”

    LOL Yep, Progressives are progressing in the wrong direction, that’s why they depend so much on ‘hope’,.
    They have no plans, just hope that the people will not wake up and realize they are no longer a free people.

  • valkyrie101

    albaby,
    Here is the thing, the people who wrote the Constitution were liberals, and fully revolutionary.

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