If Reverend Al Sharpton didn’t exist Fox News would have to invent him.

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An examination by Mediaite, using TVEyes found Fox News mentioned Sharpton almost 400 times in the month of December — six times the rate of CNN, and seven times the rate of MSNBC, on which Sharpton hosts a show.

The fiery and irrepressible Sharpton, a civil rights activist-cum-cable news host who often figures in the midst of racially-charged news stories, has grown into an uber-villain for the right, which sees him as superhumanly influential in the culture, media, New York City politics, and even the Obama administration. Invoking his name has become a shorthand for a nasty knot of ideological grudges, and a way to spike any story with easy controversy.

Certainly Sharpton is a newsworthy individual, and he did make news in December, involved in everything from the Eric Garner protests to the Ferguson fallout to the Sony hack. CNN mentioned the ubiquitous reverend 63 times; MSNBC 52 times, excluding throws to his show.*

But Fox easily led the way with 387 mentions* of the

Reverend. Sometimes he was included with Obama’s name in passing; sometimes Eric Holder’s; sometimes Bill de Blasio’s. His name was appended to a list including Jesse Jackson, or the New Black Panthers. (“The President of the United States, Eric Holder, Al Sharpton, and their cabal” may be a classic of the genre.) Many times it was “the likes of Al Sharpton” or “Al Sharpton and others.” He was used as a marker, as in “Don’t become the Al Sharpton of the other side.” Even his absence compelled his mention: “Where’s Al Sharpton on this?” was heard a lot on Fox; when a news subject didn’t act according to presumptions, the response was, “They must not have gotten the Al Sharpton memo.”

Fox News has clearly gotten the Sharpton memo. To get a copy, just change to their channel.

* Mediaite excluded repeats, promos, and show intros, which can often goose these counts; any mentions of Sharpton’s name occurring within three minutes of each other were counted as 1. The total number of Fox mentions was 682; MSNBC 118, according to TVEyes.

[Image via screengrab]

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Tags: Al Sharpton, Fox News