NY Times: “At Tea Party Rallies, a Fox News Presence”

From an April 15 New York Times report:

More than any other major news outlet, the Fox News Channel has aligned itself with the Tea Party movement.

On Thursday, the movement is back in the news as rallies that coincide with the April 15 deadline for filing income tax forms take place across the country. Other cable news channels have reporters at the rallies, but only Fox has sent two of its biggest stars to be the hosts of hour-long programs from the event sites.

Neil Cavuto, the 4 p.m. host on Fox News and an executive at the sister network Fox Business, is in Atlanta for a rally there, and Sean Hannity, the 9 p.m. host on Fox News, is in Cincinnati for a rally and a signing of his best-selling book.

In both cases, local organizers are promoting the Fox's presence at the rallies. In Cincinnati, seats beside Mr. Hannity's stage were sold for $20 to $100. The money will be benefiting a group called the Cincinnati Tea Party.

For more than a year Fox has faced accusations that it is promoting the Tea Party movement. On April 15 last year, four of Fox's programs were broadcast from protest sites, and the Fox host Glenn Beck said that viewers could “celebrate with Fox News” by attending or tuning in. That month the liberal media watchdog Media Matters published a number of examples of what it called promotion of the Tea Party by Fox.