Monday’s Fox and Friends First stated the obvious: NBC is a liberal network. Fox News elaborated on the recent controversy, most notably between FNC’s Bill O’Reilly and several MSNBC commentators.
As some major figures at NBC denied there is any bias, co-host Brian Kilmeade asked the question "why don’t they just say they’re a liberal network?" Good question. Even far left MSNBC commentator Keith Olbermann denies he has a political agenda.
The co-hosts then played a clip of Chris Matthews stating Vice President Cheney "always wants to kill." At the end of the segment Kilmeade read one of Olbermann’s many inflammatory comments, without mentioning the MSNBC commentator’s name, that President Bush is taking the money "out of the pockets of dead soldiers in the battlefield."
The entire transcript is below.
Brian Kilmeade: "What I don't understand is, as a network, when you go off the reservation, off the chart so to speak and you have a certain ideology, like for example-"
Steve Doocy: "Who are you talking about?"
Kilmeade: "Well, if you're talking about NBC, if you watch it, if you flipping around, if you're not able to get Fox News, you wonder yourself: Wait a second why don't they just say they're a liberal network? Why don't they just come out and say it? For example, if you have election coverage, and you have commentators on, both from the Democratic party, both saying how great this is that the House and Senate now belongs (sic) to the Democrats, is that the analysis that that you usually-
Kiran Chetry: "What? Why are you laughing?"
Kilmeade: "Is that analysis that you usually get on Election Day?"
Doocy: "That is- funny picture. Well, let's think about this, look at Chris Matthews: Does he have a dog- does he lean one way or the other? Well, he did work for Tip O'Neill."
Kilmeade: "Right"
Doocy: "A Democrat in the House."
Kilmeade: "Well, he was a Democrat right?"
Doocy: "Yeah and then you've got, also you have Tim Russert. He worked for Mario Cuomo."
Kilmeade: "Right"
Doocy: "Democrat as well, so-"
Chetry: "Well, what really has people steamed, and we got a lot of e-mails about this yesterday, was the comments that Chris Matthews made when he called into Imus in the Morning, a little bit of a more laid back environment there. And he was giving his take certainly on what he, how he views the administration. Let's listen to what he said."
Chris Matthews: "And they're working through Cheney, of course, who always wants to kill, and they drag us back into that same mentality of 'we're looking for any reason to strike.' And I think that's the way it is towards Iran right now."
Doocy: "Well, there you go. You heard Chris Matthews right there-"
Kilmeade: "Looking to kill."
Doocy: "Yeah. Cheney loves to kill. You know what? Bill O'Reilly, for the last ten years, has been exposing media bias and Bernie Goldberg did the same thing with, with his book as well and-"
Kilmeade: "Especially with CBS where he experienced firsthand."
Doocy: "Absolutely, and so what is going on? Bill O'Reilly, over the last couple of weeks has been just talking about how NBC has gone sharply to the left, that they are an activist network. Irena Brigante, who is one of the spokes people here at the Fox News Channel, was called for a comment and she said, 'Bill O'Reilly has exposed media bias for the last ten years. This is nothing new. We don't know why NBC finds the label, "liberal" so insulting.' Is NBC a liberal outlet?"
Kilmeade: "Well, how about this? How weird was it that I read, and the day, out of nowhere NBC has decided to call Iraq a civil war?"
Doocy: "That's right."
Kilmeade: "And they decide as a network, it is a civil war in Iraq. What, if that isn't an activist move and they want to get publicity on it. They had publicists calling other, other outfits calling the AP saying 'NBC calls this a civil war.' Who cares what NBC calls that?"
Chetry: "They also believe on of the, one of the, the universities did a poll and they sort of analyzed positive versus negative coverage, and I believe that out of the three networks, NBC had the most negative coverage of the president in the current administration out of, out of the three when it came to their nightly news programs. They actually broke it down to minutes-"
Doocy: "I remember that and, and mentions and stuff like that. It was very thorough. So why don't you e-mail us? Do you think they're a liberal outfit or are they fair and balanced? Do they cover both sides? E-mail us, friends@foxnews.com."
Kilmeade: "And here's a quote, not to sway the public because we are fair and balanced, but here's a quote from one commentator: 'the president, his goal is to take money out of every American's pockets, even out of the pockets of dead soldiers in the battlefield.' OK."
Chetry: "Who said that?"
Kilmeade: "I rather not give a name."
Chetry: "But you're saying someone at NBC said that?"
Kilmeade: "At NBC said that. It's easy, easy to look up."
Say, could that be Keith Olbermann, January 2? Yes, it could.
