Ex-Fox News Editor Complains of Bias

Fox News is just as biased as other broadcast media, Charlie Reina, a former FNC producer/editor, has charged.

In a letter published by the Poynter Institute on its Web site, Reina charged that "daily life at FNC is all about management politics," citing what he says is FNC chief Roger Ailes' tight control over the Fox News operation.

Fox News spokesman Rob Zimmerman told the Los Angeles Times that "these accusations are the rantings of a bitter, disgruntled former employee. It's unfortunate that Charlie's career ended the way it did, but we wish him well.”

In a letter to Poynter’s online media columnist Jim Romenesko, Reina wrote, "Not once in the 20 plus years I had worked in broadcast journalism prior to Fox - including lengthy stays at The Associated Press, CBS Radio and ABC/Good Morning America - did I feel any pressure to toe a management line."

But Reina claimed things were different at Fox.

"But at Fox, if my boss wasn't warning me to 'be careful' how I handled the writing of a special about Ronald Reagan ("You know how Roger [Fox News Chairman Ailes] feels about him."), he was telling me how the environmental special I was to produce should lean. ("You can give both sides, but make sure the pro-environmentalists don't get the last word.")

At the heart of his complaints was what he described as "executive memos distributed electronically each morning, addressing what stories will be covered and, often, suggesting how they should be covered."

The memos, he said, were considered to be the "Bible" to the "newsroom personnel responsible for the channel's daytime programming. ... If, on any given day, you notice that the Fox anchors seem to be trying to drive a particular point home, you can bet The Memo is behind it."

Reina was clearly angry with Fox News chairman Roger Ailes. Reina claims the network is "to a large extent ‘Roger's Revenge’ for what Ailes allegedly considers a liberal, pro-Democrat media establishment that has shunned him for decades."

Reina admitted to the Los Angeles Times he left Fox in a dispute over salary and workload — not politics.

So, why the sour grapes now?

Some insight for our readers:

Reina’s letter was picked up by Romenesko’s media Web page – an online meeting place for liberal journalists who complain that the media are not liberal enough. Conservatives get a fair shake on Romenesko’s page the same way they might in the New York Times.

The Reina story would have remained nothing more than a letter to the editor had it not been picked up by the Los Angeles Times.

Could it be that the Times’ coverage of this story is just payback to Fox for its coverage of how the Times tried to smear Arnold Schwarzenegger in the closing days of the recent California election?

We also find laughable Reina’s claim that in his long career he was never interfered with by management in producing news.

Anyone who has worked in journalism knows this is absurd. Ted Turner never influenced CNN coverage? Mort Zuckerman never dictated coverage at U.S. News or the Daily News? Kate Graham at the Washington Post?

Editor's note:
Former CBS reporter Bernard Goldberg makes more stunning revelations about Dan Rather - Click Here Now!

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
Media Bias