Here’s an interesting story about Carl Cameron – he was covering the Nutroots Nation event and while he was there, he allegedly agreed with a Kossack on several tea-party related issues and helped promote the lie that Fox News was responsible for Shirley Sherrod’s firing.
“The Sherrod case is an example of some at Fox News trying to have more influence than it probably should,” Cameron said.
The Daily Beast tries to pass off a lie that the Washington Post, which routinely smears the right, didn’t try to pass off:
But for all the chatter — some of it from Sherrod herself — that she was done in by Fox News, the network didn’t touch the story until her forced resignation was made public Monday evening, with the exception of brief comments by O’Reilly. After a news meeting Monday afternoon, an e-mail directive was sent to the news staff in which Fox Senior Vice President Michael Clemente said: “Let’s take our time and get the facts straight on this story. Can we get confirmation and comments from Sherrod before going on-air. Let’s make sure we do this right.”
But what really happened? Way down in paragraph nine the Beast accuses Cameron of being a liar when he denied the crux of the story:
Cameron told The Daily Beast Thursday night that this report takes his remarks out of context and that he was actually defending the integrity of Fox’s news division. He insisted this reporter did not hear the entire discussion, even though it began immediately after this reporter’s interview with Daily Kos blogger Atkins had concluded.
So it’s a he said/he said. Hmmm… whom to trust? Cameron, who gave us reasonably fair election coverage on the only non-leftist network available? Or The Daily Beast, which includes in this very story several half-truths? (“Heavily edited video” – cropping the end off is hardly “heavily edited,” and inaccurate representation of Sharon Angle’s views.) Cameron does seem to lean left – though not as far as Shep Smith. Hot Air commenters provide several examples I’d forgotten about. But given the hit the leftist press is taking for Journolist, I would not be surprised if Journolist 2.0 includes a few threads on how to “get” some Fox News reporters as payback. Allegations like this would seem to be a good start on sowing discord IF you believe that all the right wants is an echo chamber instead of fair coverage. Pure speculation, of course.
Verdict: I’ll need a lot more than the word of some Kossack and the Daily Beast before I believe that Cameron is stupid enough to trash his employer at at leftist convention. And I’m a lot more concerned with whether Cameron covers stories fairly than I am with his personal beliefs.
