Barnes Calls Sheehan “Crackpot,” Rues Media Focus on Her

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During the panel segment on tonight's (Thursday) Special Report with Brit Hume on FNC, Fred Barnes recalled Joe Wilson and Bill Burkett as he wondered, "is there any left-wing publicity hound who the media won't build up?” Zeroing in on Cindy Sheehan, Barnes criticized both her and the media's treatment of her:

“This woman wants to go in and tell the President that the war is about oil because the President wants to pay off his buddies. She's a crackpot, and yet the press treats her as some important protestor.”

(Tonight's NBC Nightly News devoted a full story to Sheehan, ABC's World News Tonight ran a segment on her handled by anchor Bob Woodruff and the CBS Evening News provided a very short item centered around Bush's comments about her claims. Full details to come in Friday's MRC CyberAlert.)

Chris Wallace hosted tonight's Special Report and to set up comments on Sheehan he showed video of a row of video cameras pointed at Sheehan's chair. Fred Barnes, Executive Editor of the Weekly Standard, then observed:
“You pointed to that picture of all of the cameras are there, that's why those people are there. That's why Cindy Sheehan is there. She'd go home if you didn't have all the cameras and people. I read this long story in the L.A. Times by two otherwise serious reporters about her. I mean it was crazy. My view is, is there any left-wing publicity hound who the media won't build up? You have Joe Wilson, you have Bill Burkett, you know the guy that sold CBS on the story about Bush last fall and now you have this woman. This woman wants to go in and tell the President that the war is about oil because the President wants to pay off his buddies. She's a crackpot, and yet the press treats her as some important protestor.”

To listen to an MP3 audio clip of Barnes making his comments, check the MRC posting of this item.