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".....It is the telltale sign of what the late Mr. Buckley once called the liberal “mania.” Said Buckley: “Cross a liberal on duty, and he becomes a man of hurtling irrationality.” A point perfectly illustrated by this latest from Eric Burns.How in the world does it make sense that Bill O’Reilly—quite visibly and openly not a “right-winger” — gets to be the head of a cult of right-wingers?... how in the world does Fox News get to be a cult — but not liberalism and the liberal media that marinates in said liberalism?One of the striking factors of modern American...

Discussing Rand Paul's criticism of Title II of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, John Stossel took to the air Thursday to unapologetically expound on Paul's point. "Private businesses ought to get to discriminate," Stossel said. "And I won't ever go to a place that's racist and I will tell everybody else not to and I'll speak against them. But it should be their right to be racist."This quote was included in a Friday email from Media Matters' president Eric Burns encouraging readers to rally against the Fox News network, Stossel's employer. "Enough is enough: Stop promoting racism on your...

Well, well, well look here what just popped up in my email. It's a memo from Media Matters President, Eric Burns. Yes, of course, I subscribe to Media Matters. One must always keep one's enemies close. Our boy Eric has decided that the one lone TV voice crying in the wilderness in often dissenting fashion to our Dear Leader is one lone voice too many and has decided to launch a "Fight Fox" campaign. "Dear Friend," Eric's letter begins, "Since President Obama's inauguration, Fox News has officially abandoned its already dubious standing as a news organization and is now engaging...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE July 27, 2009 Media Matters for America After CNN President Jon Klein reportedly called Lou Dobbs' coverage of conspiracy theories about President Obama's birth certificate "legitimate" on Friday, July 24, Media Matters for America President Eric Burns sent an email to its thousands of online activists today asking for their help to publicly pressure CNN to credibly address its Lou Dobbs problem. In the email, Burns writes: "Klein's caving to Dobbs raises a serious, troubling question: Who is really calling the shots at CNN?" read more

FNC has not renewed their contributor agreement with Fox News Watch host Eric Burns, which is set to expire later this spring. The program will remain focused on media criticism but will be revamped with a new host and more of an eye on the evolving new media. Fox News Watch handily beats CNN’s Reliable Sources…proving that Fox is not afraid to tweak even successful programming.

Would you take a paycheck from an organization you consider illegitimate? Neal Gabler apparently would. "I don't want to bite the hand that feeds me my Kool-Aid," claimed Gabler on this evening's "Fox News Watch." He then proceeded to do just that, claiming that Democrats pulled out of the Fox-sponsored presidential candidate debate in Nevada "for the same reason that Republicans would not go on Air America -- it doesn't make any political sense. Why in the world would you want to legitimize a network that spends hour after hour after hour after hour to, to." View video hereInterjected host...

by Mark Finkelstein October 1, 2006 - 09:39 Being a regular Fox News Watch viewer, there was nothing surprising, tuning into this evening's discussion of the Clinton-Chris Wallace dust-up, in hearing lefty panelist Neal Gabler take his employer and colleagues to task. Among his moves, Gabler: - Claimed "this network's reputation [presumably as right-leaning] precedes it." - Asserted that Chris Wallace "did not frame the question properly. He asked why didn't you do more? Which is like asking 'will you stop beating your wife?'" - Defended Wallace only at the expense of other Fox colleagues: "He is not a Hannity,...

by Mark Finkelstein September 24, 2006 - 07:02 Summer's over, but it's still way too warm for hell to freeze over. And yet . . . The usually reliably liberal Neal Gabler has lambasted Jim McGreevey for his more-than-we-needed-to-know confessions about his homosexuality. Even more shockingly, Gabler singled out Sean Hannity for praise for conducting the toughest interview of the Oprahfied former governor. On last evening's Fox News Watch, there was unanimity from right to left that McGreevey's book, 'The Confession', and his media blitz to promote it, was an unseemly undertaking in which his family paid the price while...

by Mark Finkelstein June 24, 2006 In 2000, that darn MSM elected George Bush by bashing Al Gore. And when it comes to the theological argument as to whether gays and women should be Christian clergy, well, actually, there isn't an argument. There's only one side. The liberal one, of course. Don't believe me? Ask Neal Gabler. The reliably liberal member of the Fox News Watch panel expressed those views on this evening's show. Host Eric Burns asked whether the torture and murder of two US soldiers, coupled with the charges brought against a group of Marines in the killing...

Fox News Watch is proving to be one of the most disappointing programs airing on the Fox News Channel. Purporting to be media critics, the show's panelists make accusations about the media that are themselves in dire need of correction. In a show during the presidential campaign, a panelist and "media writer" named Neal Gabler astonished the audience by claiming that a "secret email" proved that a New York Times reporter was actually biased against John Kerry. Despite repeated requests to provide the explosive evidence, he refused to do so. Host Eric Burns also refused to respond to several requests...

Tonight on the Fox Show "Foxwatch," its weekly show on the media itself, a letter from a Freeper was read concerning Easongate. Kristinn from the D.C. Chapter was sharp enough to catch it, and call me. Here is the entire e-mail. They read all or part of the first paragraph as being from "John in Highlands, NC." That's me. I hope I spoke for most of you in what I said: Lordy, Lordy, folks, Of course the bloggers forced Eason Jordan out. We tried to force him out years ago when he published his mealymouthed justification for slanting the CNN...

J$P Instant Transcript! Eric Burns tells Shepard Smith that he knows the identity of Deep Throat. SHEPARD SMITH [FOX NEWS]: Well it's a mystery that's gripped the nation for large periods of time over the last three decades. Who was it that tipped off the reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein about the Watergate scandal, leading to the collapse of the Nixon White House? Fox's media analyst Eric Burns says he knows. How do you know? Who is it? ERIC BURNS [FOX NEWS]: Because someone who is in a position to know, and who is fairly recently deceased, and I...

'Someone in a Position to Know Told Me' J$P Instant Transcript! Eric Burns tells Shepard Smith that he knows the identity of Deep Throat. From Studio-B with Shepard Smith, February 18 2005: SHEPARD SMITH [FOX NEWS]: Well it's a mystery that's gripped the nation for large periods of time over the last three decades. Who was it that tipped off the reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein about the Watergate scandal, leading to the collapse of the Nixon White House? Fox's media analyst Eric Burns says he knows. How do you know? Who is it? ERIC BURNS [FOX NEWS]:...

<p>It isn't always easy to be politically correct. Sometimes, in fact, it's an outright struggle.</p> <p>For instance: you hear a statement that you're sure is politically incorrect. Your nerve endings tingle. Your juices start to flow. Oh boy, you say to yourself, here's yet another example of injustice in a society absolutely riddled with the stuff. You cannot wait to tell teacher and get patted on the head.</p>

<p>Full disclosure is not what it’s cracked up to be.  A pickpocket who tells you that he is a pickpocket is still a threat to pick your pocket.</p> <p>Then again, if a pickpocket does confess his pickpocketing, the odds are that you will protect yourself against his digital dexterity by shifting your money and credit cards to a more secure position. It is for this reason that pickpockets so seldom announce their occupation to potential victims.</p>

Dear Eric, As usual, I really enjoyed last night's (2/14) program. However, I believe that there is an important media issue that could have been covered by your panel, but was not. It is apparent that the mainstream media, by and large, are reluctant to report about the allegations that John Kerry has committed adultery. Mr. Kerry went on the Don Imus radio program and "denied" these allegations (I won't get into parsing his "there's nothing to report" response) and yet this gets very little coverage outside of the non-supermarket tabloids and the British press. To their credit, CNN's Capital...

<p>A few days ago, it was time to make resolutions for the new year. Now it is time to rue, or rationalize, those already broken. Tempus fugit; resolve weakens.</p> <p>At the end of last week’s edition of Fox News Watch, I asked viewers to e-mail the program not their resolutions, but those they would like the media to make — and not break — in 2004. The response was overwhelming. People who watch television news are resolute in their conviction that journalists need to reform.</p>

A deejay made a comment to the effect that a bride would not want to walk down the aisle with a big red stain at her crotch. I changed the station. The deejay on this show suggested to his female co-host that she shave her pubic hair in the shape of a Christmas tree. I turned off the radio. Ultimately, it is my wife and I who are responsible for raising our children. We know that. Society does not have to help us. We accept that. But neither should society consciously attempt to sabotage us. My wife and I are...

I was amazed by the response I got to last week’s column. I wrote about a report on CBS’s "The Early Show" concerning a young man named Brian Simpson. Simpson had so severe a case of asthma that doctors despaired of his ever living a normal life. In fact, they despaired of his living a normal life span; they feared he would die in a few more years, and that he would be terribly incapacitated in the interim. To make the time remaining to him as pleasant as possible, Simpson turned to the oboe. It seemed a perverse idea. Oboes...

<p>This is not an insult. To the contrary; it is an acknowledgement of what seems to me the story’s fundamental truth: that the motives of a rich and famous and seemingly contented man who becomes a drug addict are better understood by people who have been trained in the workings of the mind, rather than in the workings of politicians and police officials and random occurrence.</p>