Fox Again Hides Guest's Republican Ties

Fox News' disclosure problem just got worse.

Fox once again turned to businessman Thomas Belesis for commentary without disclosing his position as an official for the New York State Republican Party.

As Media Matters has previously documented, according to the biography on his website, Belesis “is currently Co-Chairman of the New York State Republican Finance Committee.” A 2011 press release touted Belesis as a “key backer of the State Party's efforts in the 2010 election and has also been an active supporter of the Republican National Committee over the last election cycle.”

On today's edition of Fox's Your World with Neil Cavuto, Belesis attacked the Obama administration as “anti-business” and claimed that a Romney administration, on the other hand, would be “business friendly” and help spur “a lot of economic activity and pent-up entrepreneurial demand that's been on the sidelines.” Belesis concluded his analysis by saying, “I think people are going to wait and sit on the sidelines until after or we get close to an eventual Romney win in the White House.”

During the segment, Cavuto identified Belesis' as “a CEO, just down on Wall Street” and a caption identified him as “John Thomas Financial CEO,” but his Republican ties were never disclosed.

Cavuto's failure to identify Belesis as a Republican official is part of Fox News' longstanding disclosure problem. The network has repeatedly hosted Romney advisers John Bolton, Jay Sekulow, and Walid Phares without acknowledging their participation in Romney's campaign. Fox has also heavily promoted contributor Karl Rove's anti-Obama super PAC, American Crossroads, often without identifying his connection to either American Crossroads or Fox News.