FOX News Channel host John Gibson said that when voters think of Senator John Kerry, "[T]hey're going to think about the French, they're going to think about John Kerry kowtowing to allies." But as Media Matters for America has noted, Kerry has not advocated “kowtowing” to anyone; in his July 29 acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention, Kerry asserted, “I will never give any nation or international institution a veto over our national security.”

On the September 16 edition of FOX News Channel's The Big Story with John Gibson, Gibson suggested that voters might “decide they don't like” United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan's recent comment that the war in Iraq was “illegal.” After David Corn, editor of The Nation, responded, “When they [voters] think about John Kerry and George Bush, they're not going to think about Kofi Annan's argument that this violated the U.N. charter,” Gibson said, “David, they're going to think about the French, they're going to think about John Kerry kowtowing to allies, needing their support.”