During the October 27 broadcast of KBDI Channel 12's Colorado Inside Out, regular panelist Dani Newsum named KDVR Fox 31 co-anchor Libby Weaver her “Disgrace of the Week” for “following demented drug addict and Viagra popper Rush Limbaugh's trashing of Michael J. Fox.”

As Colorado Media Matters noted, during the October 25 broadcast of Fox 31's News at Nine O'Clock, Weaver reported the nationally syndicated radio host's assertion that actor Michael J. Fox, who has Parkinson's disease, “either ... didn't take his medication or [was] acting” in a recent campaign advertisement for Missouri Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Claire McCaskill. In the ad, Fox visibly shakes and rocks while endorsing McCaskill and citing her support for expanding stem cell research. As Colorado Media Matters noted, after reporting Limbaugh's comments, Weaver reported without further explanation that Fox “has a history of not taking the medication to show the full effects of the disease.”

Fox wrote in his 2002 memoir, Lucky Man (Hyperion), that he testified before a September 1999 Senate appropriations subcommittee after deliberately not taking his medication to show the effect of Parkinson's. But in reporting Limbaugh's comments, Weaver failed to note that The New York Times reported on October 25 that the actor's spokesman said his tremors during the ad actually were caused by his medication. And as Kirk Montgomery reported during the October 25 broadcast of KUSA's 9News at 4 p.m., “According to the National Parkinson's Foundation, the symptoms that Fox showed in the ads are indicative of a person who is taking their medication.” Fox himself subsequently told CBS News that he was "too medicated" [emphasis in original] during the ad.

The “Disgrace of the Week” is a weekly segment on Colorado Inside Out.

From the October 25 broadcast of KDVR Fox 31's News at Nine O'Clock:

WEAVER: The controversy is heating up over stem cell research days after a political ad featuring Michael J. Fox first hit the airwaves in Missouri. A counter-ad addressing a state ballot measure is now on. Athletes and actors are featured in the spot.

It was just yesterday conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh suggested Fox was either not taking his medication or exaggerating the effects of Parkinson's. The actor has a history of not taking the medication to show the full effects of the disease.

From the October 27 broadcast of KBDI Channel 12's Colorado Inside Out:

PETER BOYLES (host): “Disgrace of the Week” --

[...]

-- yes, ma'am?"

NEWSUM: Oh, Fox anchor Libby Weaver for following demented drug addict and Viagra popper Rush Limbaugh's trashing of Michael J. Fox, who does have Parkinson's disease, whose movements in that campaign -- were in that campaign commercial -- were completely consistent with somebody who's taken Levodopa, which is the gold measure, the gold standard for Parkinson's disease.