FOXLEAKS: How Bill Sammon Slanted Fox's Cairo Speech Coverage

[meegbear]

On June 4, 2009, a couple of hours after President Obama delivered his much-anticipated speech in Cairo regarding America's relationship with the Muslim world, Fox News Washington managing editor Bill Sammon sent an email to Fox staff pointing out that Obama did not use "the words 'terror,' 'terrorist' or 'terrorism.' "

The email, which did not include any text beyond the subject line, read as follows:

From: Sammon, Bill
Sent: Thursday, June 04, 2009 9:23 AM
To: 169 -SPECIAL REPORT; 069 -Politics; 036 -FOX.WHU; 030 -Root (FoxNews.Com); 050 -Senior Producers; 051 -Producers
Cc: Clemente, Michael; Stack, John; Wallace, Jay
Subject: FYI: My cursory check of Obama's 6,000-word speech to the Muslim world did not turn up the words "terror," "terrorist" or "terrorism"

Sammon's "cursory check" quickly became the editorial focus for Fox News journalists covering Obama's speech, and was repeated (in some instances almost verbatim) by the network's hosts. Sammon himself appeared on Fox shortly after sending the email and claimed that Obama, in not using "terrorism" or any of its variants, showed that "he has taken us off a war footing as a nation."

Sammon's criticism, however, was misleading. Obama devoted a significant section of his remarks to denouncing and confronting Al Qaeda and other "violent extremists who pose a grave threat to our security." Sammon's criticism also disregarded the analyses of Middle East and terrorism experts who viewed Obama's word choice as an effort to remove as a source of tension terms that, through overuse and misuse, have become incendiary in the Muslim world.

The New York Times noted the rationale behind Obama's word choice in a June 4, 2009, article:

But while he spoke uncompromisingly of the American fight against Al Qaeda, Mr. Obama never mentioned the words "terrorism" or "terrorist." That was a departure from the language used by the Bush administration, but one that some Middle East experts suggested reflected a belief by the new administration that overuse had made the words inflammatory.

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http://mediamatters.org/blog/201102080014

[calimary]

1. Eat shit, sammon.

I just hope I live long enough to see the pendulum swing back. At the moment it doesn't look so good though. CONS just seem to be locking up everything.

[SpiralHawk]

2. Sammon's scammin America

Typical RW RepubliBagger propaganda horseshit.

No wonder honorable Americans think Fox is nest of overpaid, blow-dry chickenhawk RepubliWankers...It's true.

[spanone]

3. faux is a scourge to journalism....

they don't like anything that is a departure from the bu$h* administration

[Frustratedlady]

4. You have to realize their vocabulary is limited.

Terrorist, terrorism, flag, waving, Muslim/Muslin, 911, 9-11, Reagan, Palin, FOX, O'Reilly,Beck, Rush...get the picture?

Obama used words they don't normally run across. He needs to get down to their level. His speechwriters could take a break from coming up with that fancy stuff. It's wasted on the Pugs.

Just sayin'.

[Doctor_J]

5. Fox "News" - a clear and present danger to the US