Beck condemns NBC for discussing royal engagement -- which Fox covered incessantly
Written by Adam Shah
Published
Today, Glenn Beck opened his Fox News show by strongly attacking the media for “going crazy” over the engagement announcement of Prince William of Great Britain and Kate Middleton. Beck singled out the “three networks” and NBC in particular for criticism. This being Glenn Beck, the monologue quickly moved to insanity, with Beck suggesting that the media should instead be covering “the New World Order.”
But here's the thing: Beck's own network heavily covered the royal engagement. Here's a sampling of what Fox did:
- Yesterday, Fox repeatedly interviewed Paul Burrell, a former butler for the royal family who is a Fox News contributor. (Do you think Burrell is paid by Fox News to do anything besides comment on the British royal family?)
- A Snapstream transcript search of Fox News Channel shows that between 6 am ET yesterday morning and 9 am today, Fox News mentioned Kate Middleton 31 times, and that's not even counting the numerous mentions on Fox's companion network Fox Business (I'm not sure what the business hook was for the story, exactly).
- Yesterday, Fox's Happening Now repeatedly cut back and forth between the story that the House ethics committee had recommended finding Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) guilty of ethics violations and “new video” the network had just received of the newly-engaged William and Kate.
- The following are headlines from FoxNews.com in the past week: "Prince William to Reportedly Tie the Knot with Kate Middleton"; "Prince William Engaged to Kate Middleton"; "Prince William Gives Kate Middleton His Mother's Engagement Ring"; "Prince William, Kate Middleton Begin Planning Royal Wedding"; "Prince William says the couple obviously want to have a family"; "Prince William says he is looking forward to spending the rest of his life with Kate Middleton"
And here's the best part: During Beck's program Fox devotes about a minute each day to hard news headlines around 5:30. Yesterday, that was enough time during this segment to mention just three stories. The first was about tax cuts. The second was ... Prince William & Kate Middleton. Only after covering William & Kate did Fox get around to mentioning that the Medal of Honor was granted that day to the first living recipient of that medal since the Vietnam War.
Video of the headlines segment during Beck's show is below the fold:
We await Beck's acknowledgment that Fox News was at least as at fault as anyone else in over-covering the royal engagement. Maybe it'll come tomorrow.