Politico reported this week that Fox News commentator Jim Pinkerton is a paid co-author of GOP presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann’s new book.
This sort of collaboration would be a problem for any journalist who failed to fully disclose the relationship. But the problem is compounded by the fact that Pinkerton is a regular on Fox’s Media Watch, a program whose purpose is to monitor malfeasance in the media. It is precisely this sort of affair that a program like Media Watch would expose, instead they are accomplices.
As if this wasn’t bad enough, Pinkerton told Media Matters that he does not regret his failure to disclose the relationship and that he had cleared it with his bosses at Fox who approved the deal. This is further evidence that the unethical behavior of anchors and commentators on Fox is not restricted to the whims of the on-air personnel. The editors and executives at Fox are fully involved in this perversion of journalistic standards. It’s just the way they do business.
Media Matters has compiled comments from a variety of press veterans and academics condemning Pinkerton’s actions. What do you think the adds are that Fox’s Media Watch will cover this story next Saturday?
So what else is new? Have you read Rick Perry’s “F’ed Up”(or even protions thereof)? It sounds to me like a David Barton missive, revisionist history and all. I highly doubt that any of the banana Republicans in the tea party are actually authoring the books they spit out on a regular basis.