Fox News Watchdog

Since White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan’s February 7 appearance on Meet the Press, in which he criticized Republicans for politicizing the Obama administration’s response to the attempted Christmas Day bombing of a Northwest Airlines flight, Fox & Friends has repeatedly hosted only conservatives and opponents of the Obama administration to discuss Brennan’s remarks and the administration’s response to the plot. Moreover — following a trend set by Fox News since the Christmas Day bombing attempt — Fox & Friends has hosted these guests, most of whom have a history of making false or outrageous statements about American foreign policy or terrorism, undermining their credibility to discuss those topics.

Fox &
Friends hosted Lt. Col. Allen West, who
pleaded guilty to assaulting an Iraqi detainee

West criticized
Obama administration’s handling of Christmas Day bombing
attempt. On February 8, Fox & Friends hosted Lt. Col. Allen West, a
Republican congressional candidate in Florida, to discuss Brennan’s Meet the Press appearance and the Obama
administration’s handling of Northwest Airlines bombing suspect Umar Farouk
Abdulmutallab. During the segment, West said, “When I look at what’s going on
right now with the Nigerian terrorist, it’s almost like a Greek tragedy of epic
proportion.” West further stated that the Obama administration has “established
a very dangerous paradigm with this Mirandizing” of terror suspects, “because
now they’re going to continue to come with more and more attacks, because we’re
– they’re coming here, and we’re giving them
lawyers.”

West reportedly resigned from Army
“after pleading guilty to assaulting an Iraqi detainee during interrogation.”
According to a December 13, 2003,
CNN.com report, West admitted that he
“threatened to kill” an Iraqi detainee in his custody, that he watched as “four
of his soldiers from the 220th Field Artillery Battalion beat the detainee on
the head and body,” and that, according to military prosecutors, he “followed up
on that threat” to kill the detainee by shooting a pistol near his head. A
December 14, 2003, Boston Globe article further noted that a
“disciplinary proceeding found that the actions by … West were serious enough
to ‘merit a court-martial.’ “

Fox &
Friends hosted Dana Perino, who has
advanced false claims about national security in attacking Obama
administration

Perino advanced
several dubious claims on Fox &
Friends, including that Abdulmutallab “bought a one-way ticket” and
that “there wasn’t a system in place” for the military to hold Richard
Reid. On the February 8 edition of Fox & Friends, Fox News contributor
and former Bush press secretary Dana Perino criticized the Obama administration
for missing “all these red flags,” claiming that Abdulmutallab “bought a one-way
ticket” to the United States. However, Obama administration officials have
stated that Abdulmutallab flew to Detroit on a roundtrip ticket. Further, Perino
attempted to rebut the Obama
administration’s comparison of its use of civilian trials for alleged terrorists
with the Bush administration’s similar treatment of shoe bomber Richard Reid by
falsely suggesting that “there wasn’t a system in place” for Bush to order Reid
to be held by the military. In fact, such a system was in place by the time Reid
pleaded guilty, as many suspects were placed in military detention before that
date.

Perino: “We did not have a terrorist
attack on our country during President Bush’s term.” On the
November 24, 2009, edition of Fox News’ Hannity, Perino
falsely claimed that “[w]e did not have a terrorist attack on our country during
President Bush’s term.”

Fox &
Friends hosted Michael Goodwin, who has
falsely claimed Bush had “a record of zero successful attacks on
America after
9/11″

Goodwin
criticized Obama administration’s handling of
Abdulmutallab. Discussing Brennan’s remarks on the
February 8 edition of Fox & Friends, New York Post columnist Michael Goodwin claimed
that the administration “leaked” details of Abdulmutallab’s interrogation
“clearly for political reasons.” He further stated that “the whole thing seems
like a giant mess now, and it all goes back to the White House’s decision to
fight the War on Terror as though it’s a criminal justice
matter.”

Goodwin has
claimed that Bush had “a record of zero successful attacks on
America after
9/11.” In a January 6 New York Post column, Goodwin advanced the false
claim that Bush had “a record of zero successful attacks on America after
9/11.” In fact, as Media Matters for
America has noted, numerous terrorist attacks
took place under Bush after 9-11.

Fox
& Friends
hosted Michael Scheuer, who has claimed “the only chance we have” is for bin
Laden to “detonate a major weapon” in U.S.

Scheuer: Holder “should
resign.” On the
February 9 edition of Fox & Friends, Michael Scheuer said
that he thinks Attorney General Eric Holder “should resign” and further stated,
“We’re in the 14^th year of this war, and Mr. Brennan and his folks
are trying to dismantle what little defense we have against these
people.”

Scheuer: “The only chance we have as
a country right now is” for bin Laden to “detonate a major weapon” in U.S.
Scheuer, whom Fox News hosted on
December 28, 2009, and January 7 to discuss the attempted bombing of the
Northwest Airlines flight and the response of the Obama administration,
previously said during an appearance on
Glenn
Beck, “The only chance we have as a country right now is
for Osama bin Laden to deploy and detonate a major weapon in the United States.”
[Glenn
Beck, 6/30/09]

Scheuer has repeatedly made
outrageous comments about the Obama
administration. Scheuer previously suggested that President Obama is
guilty of treason, stated that White House chief of
staff Rahm Emanuel wants terrorists to attack the United States, and asserted that the Obama
administration is “pro-terrorist.”

Fox &
Friends hosted Gary Berntsen, who has said Obama’s response to Iran “detonating
nuclear devices” would be to talk “about sanctions”

Berntsen
criticized Obama administration over handling of terror
suspects. Appearing with Scheuer on the
February 9 edition of Fox &
Friends, Gary Berntsen said of terror suspects who are “perceived
member[s] of Al Qaeda”: “[L]et’s direct them into a channel which allows us to
have military trials on these people. They are enemy combatants that have
declared war on the United
States. And I just can’t understand why the
administration hasn’t figured this out.”

Berntsen: “[Obama's] performance has
been weak in national security, and therefore, his speech was
weak.” On January 28, Fox &
Friends hosted Berntsen to discuss Obama’s
efforts on terrorism and whether the president had “sa[id] enough” about
national security in his State of the Union speech. Berntsen said that “his
performance has been weak in national security, and therefore, his speech was
weak”; that Obama’s statements on North
Korea and Iran were “ridiculous”; and he criticized Obama’s
withdrawal plan for Afghanistan as premature. Berntsen
gave Obama a “D” for national security. Berntsen opined that Obama had been on a “charm offensive”
regarding national security and foreign policy, adding, “[T]he Iranians will be detonating nuclear devices, and he’ll
still be talking about sanctions.”

Fox &
Friends hosted Marc Thiessen, who dubiously
claimed that harsh interrogation techniques on KSM thwarted L.A.
attack

Thiessen:
“Dumbest thing we could possibly do” was Mirandize
Abdulmutallab. Discussing Brennan’s remarks on the
February 9 edition of Fox &
Friends, former Bush speechwriter Marc Thiessen claimed that the
“absolutely dumbest thing we could possibly do” was to “tell [Abdulmutallab]
that he has the right to remain silent.” Thiessen further claimed that the Obama
administration is “politicizing” the handling of
Abdulmutallab.

Thiessen
dubiously claimed that the use of harsh interrogation techniques on KSM thwarted
attack in Los
Angeles. On April 17, 2009, Thiessen claimed that the use of harsh
interrogation techniques — including waterboarding — on Khalid Shaikh Mohammed
“stopped an attack on the Library
Tower in Los Angeles.” But that claim conflicts with the
chronology of events put forth on multiple occasions by the Bush administration,
as Slate.com’s Timothy Noah has noted. Indeed, the Bush
administration said that the Library Tower attack was thwarted in February 2002
– more than a year before Mohammed was captured in March
2003.

Fox &
Friends further widens Fox News’
credibility gap with its terrorism experts

Since Christmas
Day bombing attempt, Fox has repeatedly hosted guests who have made false or
outrageous statements about foreign policy or terrorism. Following
the Christmas Day bombing attempt, Fox News has repeatedly discussed terrorism with
analysts who have proved themselves not credible to discuss American foreign
policy by making false or outrageous statements about foreign policy or
terrorism. For example, Fox hosted Scheuer; Stephen Hayes, whose false comments
about a connection between Iraq and Al Qaeda had to be corrected by the
Pentagon; Ralph Peters, who previously said on Fox News that if the soldier the
Taliban captured had deserted his post, then “the Taliban can save us a lot of
legal hassles”; and Judith Miller, who reported a series of stories on Saddam
Hussein’s ability to produce weapons of mass destruction that the Times later
corrected in an editor’s note.

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