Comment E-mail Print Bio Archives

Rupert Murdoch, chairman of News Corporation, the parent company of Fox News, used his company's annual meeting on October 16 to announce the firing of Fox News contributor and O'Reilly Factor regular Marc Lamont Hill. This is the left-wing cop-killer apologist that we have written about for weeks. We called him the Van Jones of Fox News Channel. We said Fox News was as bad as Obama on the matter of background checks for their employees.

Interestingly, both Van Jones and Marc Lamont Hill are public supporters of convicted cop-killer Mumia Abu-Jamal. Both were also associated with the George Soros-funded Center for American Progress.

The announcement of Hill's firing was made as I was questioning Murdoch about why Hill was hired in the first place. Hill's support for cop-killers, had been highlighted on his own web pages. Hill had also spoken before a black communist group―something he had proudly listed in his official curriculum vitae.

Had Fox News examined any of this before hiring him?

If Fox News executives and personalities had done any elementary analysis, they might have discovered that back in 2007, he wrote an article, "Why I Support the Fairness Doctrine," hyping a study by the Center for American Progress on the alleged need to challenge conservative domination of talk radio. (web site) A graphic by the article depicted Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh as the targets of this effort (O'Reilly then had a radio show).

Hill wrote that "the Fairness Doctrine will provide us with a much-needed respite from the conservative media assault that has undermined democratic discourse and social justice."

Who would have thought that Hill would later regularly appear on O'Reilly's Fox News show in the name of "fair and balanced?"

All of this adds to my belief that Fox News―and O'Reilly in particular―were bullied into adding this "progressive" voice to their line-up. The problem is that they rushed into it without checking out Hill's background.

Remember that Hill wasn't just a guest; he was a paid contributor, meaning that he had special status and a contract with the channel. In addition to multiple appearances on "The O'Reilly Factor," he also appeared on "Hannity," "Huckabee," and "On the Record" with Greta Van Susteren.

I told Murdoch that I understood why Fox News wants to appear "fair and balanced," but that this was ridiculous. Murdoch must have come to the conclusion that it was ridiculous as well, and he said Hill was out. Many members of Murdoch's board were in the room of the New York Hotel where he made this announcement.

Prior to Murdoch's surprise announcement, Fox News press people had only given one statement on the controversy―about how the company disagreed with Hill's support for convicted cop-killer Assata Shakur, a terrorist member of the Black Liberation Army who fled to Cuba with the assistance of the Weather Underground. Other than that, Fox News must have thought the controversy would blow over, since David Horowitz's NewsReal Blog and Accuracy in Media seemed to be the only ones hammering the issue on a regular basis.

>> Continued -- Page 1 2 3