Fox's Special Report Cites NB Regarding Biased 60 Minutes Story on Congressional Insider Trading

November 14th, 2011 10:48 PM

As NewsBusters previously reported, 60 Minutes on Sunday cherry picked Peter Schweizer's book "Throw Them All Out" to give the appearance that Congressional insider trading was mainly a Republican problem.

On Fox News's Special Report Monday, host Bret Baier cited our article on this subject (video follows with transcript and commentary):

BRET BAIER, HOST: There is a strong reaction today on Capitol Hill to a report on 60 Minutes that’s alleging some members of Congress are making a killing on stocks due to insider information. Two of those mentioned in the piece are House Speaker John Boehner and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. A spokesman for Pelosi said CBS based its reporting on what he called an already discredited conservative author. Boehner said in the story that he has not made day-to-day investment decisions for years.

The conservative website NewsBusters writes that by featuring four Republicans out of the five alleged offenders, the story unfairly paints the issue as a GOP problem. It says a source that has seen the book upon which the story is based, Peter Schweizer’s “Throw Them All Out,” says up to 70 percent of those named in the book are Democrats. It cites a Newsweek reporter as saying one of those is Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, saying Kerry made profits of up to $3 million on trades relating to pharmaceuticals based on information he learned as chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Health.

It is indeed nice to see this story is getting so much coverage. Regardless of your political persuasion, there is something tremendously wrong with our elected officials living under different laws than we do.

For those interested, Schweizer's book will be released Tuesday.