Martin Bashir Slams O’Reilly, Fox News For Accusing NBC’s Andrea Mitchell Of Bias

On Thursday, Martin Bashir defended his colleague Andrea Mitchell from Fox News Channel host Bill O’Reilly who accused Mitchell of liberal bias on his program. Bashir took O’Reilly to task for a flimsy attempt to tar Mitchell and he landed a punch when he responded to a challenge by O’Reilly to point out a Fox News political reporter who had ever crossed the line and exhibited bias. Bashir proved he was up to the challenge.

RELATED: Bill O’Reilly Calls Out Andrea Mitchell For Complaining During GOP Speeches

Bashir opened the segment saying that he would like to take a moment to defend “a colleague, a friend and – in this broadcast’s opinion – one of the finest journalists in the country.”

“Andrea Mitchell has spent her career defining the odds, shattering glass ceilings, staring down presidents and dictators and all in search of the unvarnished truth,” Bashir continued. He said he was “taken aback” when he watched a segment in which O’Reilly led a panel discussion to determine whether Mitchell was exhibiting liberal bias in her Tuesday night report on the five Northeastern GOP primary races.

After former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s simultaneous speeches on Tuesday night, Mitchell said she had the “advantage or disadvantage, as the case may be, of watching Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich at the same time on side-by-side screens. It’s my job, someone has to do it.”

Bashir summarized the Wednesday night segment on O’Reilly and also defended the whole of Mitchell’s long and accomplished career as a reporter for NBC. “But none of that registers with Mr. O’Reilly who presents himself and Fox News as maintaining the highest values in journalism – even as he falsely attacks Andrea Mitchell,” said Bashir.

In the O’Reilly segment, the host of The O’Reilly Factor asserts that he has never heard one of Fox News’ straight political reporters delivering opinion or exposing their bias as nakedly as he believes Mitchell was in the segment in question. O’Reilly mentioned Fox News political reporter Carl Cameron as one example of a stellar and unbiased political reporter.

However, as Bashir notes, in October 2004 Cameron published an erroneous report online in which he claimed that Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry had “gloated to reporters about his beautiful manicure and his wonderful metrosexual appearance.”

Bashir quotes Cameron as reporting Kerry saying “didn’t my nails and cuticles look great? What a good debate,” and, “women should like me! I do manicures.” Fox News retracted the report and later said the article was “written in jest and should not have been posted or broadcast.”

O’Reilly and his panel – with the exception of Washington Post reporter Sally Quinn – were stretching to convict Mitchell of bias for simply her lamenting having to watch and listen to two speeches at once. As a political reporter covering simultaneous events, surely many of the reporters at Fox have been in a similarly lamentable position. But Bashir got both ears and the tail with this critique of Cameron – albeit an eight-year-old critique.

I believe there is subtle and overt progressive bias at both NBC and MSNBC. Mitchell, who reports for both networks, often deftly straddles the line between straight reporting and commentary. In those moments of commentary, there is a legitimate argument that Mitchell can display a left-leaning bias (Recall the erroneous report in which Mitchell teased false information that she was certain would prove Romney’s family had entered the U.S. from Mexico illegally or when she reported Iowa was “too white” to be an indicator of American political thought?). However, Tuesday night was not one of those times.

When there is legitimate bias to highlight, it is a shame that O’Reilly and his producers thought to make a mountain out of this molehill.

Watch the Bashir segment below via MSNBC:

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!