Fox News' 'public option' ban: Proof of bias?

A leaked memo claims the network told its news teams to avoid the phrase when talking about health care. Is that really evidence of institutionalized bias?

If FoxNews is biased, it's a "business model that works for them," says one blogger.
(Image credit: CC BY: Gage Skidmore)

Liberal critics have renewed their attacks on Fox News, saying a leaked internal memo is a "smoking gun" proving Republican bias at the cable channel. A day after Senate Democrats put forward a health-care bill with a public-insurance option, Fox News Vice President Bill Sammon sent an email instructing his news staff to avoid the term "public option," and call it "government-run health insurance" or the "government option" instead. Earlier in the summer, Republican pollster Frank Luntz advised Sean Hannity to do the same on his show, noting that Americans react less favorably to the term "government option." Is Sammon's email firm evidence of institutionalized bias at Fox?

Yes, this is conclusive proof: Sammon's email proves Fox's Republican tilt, says Steve Benen in Washington Monthly. He sent it to the news division, not the self-acknowledged right-leaning pundits. And these supposedly nonpartisan reporters willingly "stuck to the GOP-friendly script." Fox News' "pretense of professionalism" is slowly evaporating.

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