Fox News Hosts Reject President Obama’s Alleged Criticism

Fox News’ Bret Baier and “Fox & Friends” hosts deny calling President Obama a Muslim in response to reports from new book “Showdown”

Fox News has responded on its airwaves to a new book about President Obama in which he reportedly blames the network for some of his political troubles.

Politico published a story on Monday reporting that the book, written by Mother Jones’s D.C. bureau chief David Corn, purports that Obama told labor leaders Fox was costing him white male voters. One big reason? Obama said the network incessantly accuses him of being Muslim.

Fox’s chief news anchor Bret Baier briefly addressed the book on “Special Report” Monday night while the hosts of “Fox & Friends” discussed it this morning.

Monday night, Baier said, “For the record, we found no examples of a host saying President Obama is a Muslim.” 

While that does not account for guests, morning hosts Brian Kilmeade and Steve Doocy picked up where Baier left off Tuesday morning.

“I don’t know what channel he’s watching, but saying he’s a Muslim 24 hours a day is 99.9 percent inaccurate,” Kilmeade said.

Doocy agreed, arguing that the book was clearly biased in favor of the administration.

One of Fox’s most recognizable personalities, primetime host Sean Hannity, also addressed the claims on his radio show Monday. He said Obama sounded very angry and that his contradicts Obama’s claims that he does not watch Fox News.

All of the Fox hosts suggested that Obama is just looking for people to blame beyond his own administration for the nation’s continued economic troubles, which have kept the president’s approval ratings low in an election year.

This renewed public discussion of the Obama administration’s alleged distaste for Fox echoes Gabriel Sherman’s reporting in New York Magazine about backroom talks between Fox News heavyweights and Obama deputies.

Sherman, who is writing a book about Fox, wrote that there was discussion inside the White House about dealing with what it saw as Fox’s overwhelmingly negative coverage. While first lady Michelle Obama reportedly hates the network, Obama’s advisers “began to talk about ways to fight back.”

According to Sherman, senior Obama adviser David Axelrod met with Fox News CEO Roger Ailes while the network’s news chief Michael Clemente talked with then press secretary Robert Gibbs.

Fox felt “the war with the White House only stoked ratings” while the White House hoped it would make them look stronger or at least change the narrative.

Despite Sherman's reporting, Fox routinely dismisses any notion that it has a political agenda. Those on the right insist the liberal media is too gentle with the administration while those on the left will assert a bias.

We'll have to wait for the book to come out to see if the President agrees with his party.

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