Under normal circumstances, the public officials most likely to decry Fox News’ irresponsible brand of journalism are Dems who can’t help but notice that the partisan network is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Republican Party.
Yesterday, however, the network was accused of bias by a Republican.
Former Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.) suggested on Sunday that Fox News is biased against his campaign, charging that the network highlights commentators who have been critical of his run for the presidency.
In an interview on “Fox News Sunday,” host Chris Wallace pressed Thompson on how some conservatives have lambasted Thompson’s campaign and showed clips of Fox conservative commentators Charles Krauthammer and Fred Barnes criticizing the former senator.
Thompson said, “This has been a constant mantra of Fox, to tell you the truth.” He noted that other conservatives have praised his bid for the GOP nomination and took issue with a Fox promo that focused on polling in New Hampshire, where Thompson is registering in the single digits. […]
Thompson, in a firm, but measured tone, scolded Wallace: “…for you to highlight nothing but the negatives in terms of the polls and then put on your own guys who have been predicting for four months, really, that I couldn’t do it, kind of skew things a little bit. There’s a lot of other opinion out there.”
TP has the video, which is worth watching, if only to see the polite-but-agitated discussion. Wallace suggested other news outlets have been just as critical: “Do you know anybody who thinks you’ve run a great campaign, sir?” Thompson responded, “It’s not for me to come here and try to convince you that somebody else thinks I’ve run a great campaign.”
As it turns out, both Thompson and Wallace appear to have a point. Thompson recognizes that Fox News has all but endorsed Rudy Giuliani — Sean Hannity is even hosting fundraisers for the former mayor — and Wallace is right that every political observer at every news outlet has noticed that Thompson’s campaign has seen a sharp decline in recent months.
That said, seeing a conservative Republican accusing a conservative Republican network of “bias” was rather amusing.
On a more substantive point, Thompson appeared on Fox News to tout his new tax plan.
Fred Thompson announced his tax plan this morning on Fox News Sunday, consisting of proposals to make the Bush tax cuts permanent, eliminate the Alternative Minimum Tax, cut the corporate tax rate, end the estate tax, and other proposals including giving people the choice of filing under the present system or under a flatter, simpler system with no deductions.
The practical result is Thompson’s intention to find every tax Bush didn’t cut and slash it, too. The Wall Street Journal notes that the former senator’s numbers may not exactly add up.
For all of its details, Mr. Thompson’s plan is missing a few key numbers, most notably a projection about how much it might cost the Treasury in lost revenue. The campaign didn’t provide a figure, because of the difficulties of accounting for economic growth as a result of Mr. Thompson’s proposed tax cuts, an aide said.
Just one element of his plan — eliminating the alternative-minimum tax for all Americans — would cost more than $1 trillion over 10 years, according to projections by the Tax Policy Center, a joint venture of the Urban Institute and Brookings Institution.
Mr. Thompson suggested his plan would be funded, in part, by changes to the Social Security system. He has proposed limiting payments to future retirees by cutting their initial benefits. “And if you do that in conjunction with indexing the initial Social Security benefit to inflation instead of wages, at the end of the day you’re going to save Social Security,” Mr. Thompson said on Fox News Sunday.
Got that? Thompson wants to pay for more tax cuts for the wealthy by, among other things, cutting Social Security benefits.
Yeah, that ought to go over well.