On Wednesday night, Fox News hosts Megyn Kelly and Howard Kurtz took the Washington Post to task after its “Fact Checker” blog gave Carly Fiorina 3 Pinocchios for her secretary-to-CEO career story,
Kelly seemed shocked that the Post would accuse Fiorina of distorting her professional credentials and for the paper to lecture the Republican presidential candidate that “she can’t say she went from secretary to CEO is downright obnoxious Washington Post. Do better than that.”
MediaBuzz host Howard Kurtz agreed with Kelly’s assessment but argued that Fiorina “has a much bigger problem” given that many prominent liberal women object to her pro-life values:
What this means is, you’re out of this sisterhood sister if you don’t agree with our position being pro-choice on abortion. Kind of a ignoring the fact that millions of women in this country happen to be pro- life.
Kelly called it “absurd” for women to automatically reject Fiorina simply because she is pro-life and “to deny her, her accomplishments as a strong female professional, and to say she’s not one of us, if us as strong women is absurd.” Kurtz went even further and suggested that much of the criticism directed at Fiorina is a result of her being the only female conservative running for president:
But so much of this seems to be either that she’s a conservative or, being the only GOP female candidate, I mean the Washington Post "Style" section the other day did a profile which said, oh, you know, she’s so intense, she doesn’t tell him any jokes, does she have a Mitt Romney problem? I’m sorry, I don’t remember reading any pieces about, is Ted Cruz too intense? It’s the kind of thing that would not be said about a male candidate.
Kelly wrapped up her criticism by complaining that the paper has so far refused to amend the 3 Pinocchios they gave her despite the Post admitting it has received significant blow back for its flawed analysis:
They’re making it sound like she was trying to mislead us to believe that there she was, answering the phones and one day they said, you have a lovely speaking voice. Would you like to be the CEO of Hewlett- Packard? She never implied that and they need to get their act together over there. They wrote sort of a follow-up saying, gee, people are angry but they didn’t take away any of their Pinocchios.
See relevant transcript below.
Fox News’ The Kelly File
September 30, 2015
MEGYN KELLY: Joining us now, Howard Kurtz, host of FOX News’ MediaBuzz. So, let’s just start with that. She gets three Pinocchios which they say is, that means significant factual error and/or obvious contradictions, it means her story was mostly false about going from secretary to CEO. And, yet, her first job really was as a secretary for a real estate firm. And she did become the only woman CEO of a Fortune 20 company at the time. Where’s the lie? Where’s the dishonesty?
HOWARD KURTZ: That is exactly the problem. I called out this Washington Post fact check in our “After the Buzz” segment because essentially, to accuse a presidential candidate of lying and not be able to find a single untruth. All of those things happened. Most of the information was drawn from her own books and interviews. I gave that segment four Pinocchios.KELLY: But it is so dishonest. They talked about how, you know, they thought, the suggestion that a character starts at the lowest ranks of an industry polls themselves up by their bootstraps and against all odds reaches the top position in the industry. They reject that because they felt that she glossed over the only for Fiorina opportunities that she had. That the proverbial mail room worker had. She was a secretary. She worked hard and she became a CEO. You know what? Washington Post fact-checkers -- hmm.
KURTZ: She never said that she grew up in a log cabin in a poor family. That’s not the issue. But I’ll tell you what, Carly Fiorina has a much bigger problem. The New York Times the other day interviewing a number of women including influential feminist author Jennifer Weiner who’s quoted as saying about Carly Fiorina “It’s so weird. She looks like one of us, but she’s not. What does that mean? You’re on the bus with her until she starts talking about Planned Parenthood.” So, what this means is, you’re out of this sisterhood sister if you don’t agree with our position being pro-choice on abortion. Kind of a ignoring the fact that millions of women in this country happen to be pro- life.
KELLY: I know, it’s so tiring. People are so -- they’re just dogmatic in their believes. And it’s fine. You can not want to support Carly because you’re pro-choice and she isn’t. But to deny her, her accomplishments as a strong female professional, and to say she’s not one of us, if us as strong women is absurd, Howie. It’s absurd. And you tell me whether the attacks on her are based, in large part, on the fact that not that she’s a woman, she’s a conservative woman.
KURTZ: Right. I mean, obviously, the coverage of Hillary Clinton is very different. And look, Carly Fiorina, I knew this five minutes after she won that CNN debate, you know, is going to get intensified media scrutiny and she should as a presidential candidate and she has to be able to handle it. But so much of this seems to be either that she’s a conservative or, being the only GOP female candidate, I mean the Washington Post "Style" section the other day did a profile which said, oh, you know, she’s so intense, she doesn’t tell him any jokes, does she have a Mitt Romney problem? I’m sorry, I don’t remember reading any pieces about, is Ted Cruz too intense? It’s the kind of thing that would not be said about a male candidate.
KELLY: He is intense. That is true. But I think Rand Paul is more intense than Ted Cruz. Ted Cruz, he’ll laugh every once in a while. But let me just say this. The abortion controversy in the tape, you tell me, that seems legitimate. You can probe into whether she was misrepresenting what was on there or wasn’t misrepresenting. That doesn’t smack of media bias. But to challenge her story because her dad was the dean of Duke Law School so therefore she can’t say she went from secretary to CEO is downright obnoxious Washington Post. Do better than that.
KURTZ: She worked there a number of secretarial attempt jobs. And when she was hired at AT&T, it was as a sales rep. So, this is a woman who climbed the ladder even though she did come from middle class family. And so, to use that and essentially call her a liar, I just think is a complete journalistic misfire.
KELLY: They’re making it sound like she was trying to mislead us to believe that there she was, answering the phones and one day they said, you have a lovely speaking voice. Would you like to be the CEO of Hewlett- Packard? She never implied that and they need to get their act together over there. They wrote sort of a follow-up saying, gee, people are angry but they didn’t take away any of their Pinocchios.
