Gawker Attacks The Fox Flack
I didn’t have a chance to read Gawker’s response yesterday to the NY Time’s latest Fox News hit piece, because I was busy writing my own response.
Several bloggers e-mailed me the link to Gawker’s article and many of them were quite incredulous that I had not read it. They were right, I should have read it. While the underlying premise of the piece is totally wrong, it’s a very entertaining article and I laughed my a*s off while reading it.
Gawker trains its sites on chief FNC flack, Irena Briganti, who Gawker labels “a mouthpiece of Fox boss Roger Ailes.” Her official title is Vice President of media relations.
According to Gawker and testimony from a terribly frightened news media, Irena wields a “bloody hatchet” the likes of which the world has never seen–not even Gawker.
The notorious gossip site goes on to list some of her most offensive and unfair statements over the years to those who’ve dared to criticize Fox.
Here’s the list of her “all time hits”as Gawker calls them:
- When Anderson Cooper chided Fox for running with a false report of Obama going to a Muslim school, Briganti responded with, “Yet another cry for attention by the Paris Hilton of television news, Anderson Cooper.”
- Briganti attributed Keith Olbermann’s attacks on Bill O’Reilly to his “personal demons, and said “In the meantime, we hope he enjoys his paranoid view from the bottom of the ratings ladder and wish him well on his inevitable trip to oblivion.”
- When Christiane Amanpour said CNN and Fox were intimidated by the Bush administration and practiced self-censorship in the run-up to the Iraq war, Briganti responded, “Given the choice, it’s better to be viewed as a foot soldier for Bush than a spokeswoman for al-Qaeda.”
I don’t think I’ve laughed that hard in a while. Those are so good, that frankly, someone have them bronzed and placed in the lobby at Fox. You just don’t hear zingers that good everyday. Clearly, Irena Briganti can pretty well neuter any FNC critic with a single sentence.
The guy who wrote the Gawker piece is named Hamilton Nolan and he used to write for PR Week. He admits that he’s still bitter about his failed attempt to write a profile of Briganti a couple of years ago. He tried to get quotes from people who’d previosly been carved up by Briganti, but most were too fearful to talk. Incredibly, one person he asked immediately called Briganti and told her about the article he was writing.
When I worked at PRWeek a couple of years ago, I tried to write a profile of Briganti. This, after several people who had dealt with her assured me that she was the single meanest flack in the entire media world (which is true). I sent emails out to a list of people in the media that Briganti had publicly insulted. And what happened? Some turned me down, citing fear of her. Some didn’t respond, out of fear. And one, in what I still consider to be the biggest bitch move I ever saw as a reporter, ran straight to Irena, telling her that a PRWeek reporter was out to smear her. This—from a reporter who had already been publicly smeared by Briganti—is akin to the kid whose response to being bullied is to grovel and try to please the bully further.
Briganti expertly strung me along for months, promising interviews in the near future and then pushing back the date continuously. Eventually the profile fell apart and never got written. She’s good at what she does. She is still quite willing to offer negative tidbits about her competitors to this day.
I recommend everyone read the entire Gawker piece as it’s quite entertaining. I think the bottom line here is that Irena Briganti is the best PR Flack in the business and it irritates the hell out of everyone that she works at Fox. If you look closely you’ll notice a trend when it comes to Fox News. They tend to have the best of everything. The best news coverage, the best anchors, the best ratings, and of course the best PR department. Oh yeah, they also have the best Bill O’Reilly–sorry MSNBC.
The media becomes more dishonest and corrupt with every passing year, and trying to damage Fox News has practically become an Olympic sport. Kudos to Roger Ailes for having the right good sense to hire someone who doesn’t take any sh*t.
The liberal media is about as vicious a beast as anything you’re likely to come across in life. They love personal attacks and they don’t take prisoners. Which is why I find it particularly amusing that a lone Fox News flack has “got’em on the run,” to borrow a line from the President.
If anything, Irena deserves a raise.
-Chris Jones
NY Times Writes Hit Piece About Fox News Defending Itself From Hit Pieces
The NY Times has yet another hit piece on Fox News this morning. This time it’s a hit piece about Fox News defending itself from hit pieces. For some reason David Carr thinks it’s inappropriate for Fox News to strike back hard when they’re smeared.
He accuses the network of using underhanded and nefarious tactics to hit back at critics and smear merchants. Considering that Fox News is pretty much attacked daily, the need for a good media relations department is obvious.
FNC has been #1 in cable news for years, and critics of every stripe have tried a variety of “kitchen sink” strategies to damage the network. So when someone like Mr. Carr writes a propaganda piece teeming with lies and innuendo about the cable channel, I’m surprised that he’s surprised they take swift action.
Among the many complaints in Mr. Carr’s latest article about Fox News is that journalists who write critical pieces are blacklisted and shut-out of future access to the network. However, since many in the “mainstream media” love to call Fox News “Fixed News” or “Fake News,” why would they care if they get access?
Many of the television-beat reporters I called had horror stories, but few were willing to be quoted. In the last several years, reporters from The Associated Press, several large newspapers and various trade publications have said they were shut out from getting their calls returned because of stories they had written. Editors do not want to hear why your calls are not being returned, they just want you to fix the problem, or perhaps they will fix it by finding someone else to do your job.
According to many newspapers across the country, rival cable channels, and that hack Olbermann, FNC is merely a mouthpiece for the Bush administration that only puts out fake stories. So it would seem to me that being blacklisted from Fox News would be a godsend to all the “real” journalists out there.
Video: Obama Henchmen Label Former Clinton Supporter Who’s Supporting McCain a “Racist”
You’re either with Barack Obama, or you’re a racist. Maybe he should add that to his is cute new seal.
Michelle Malkin: U.S. Marines vs. Haditha smear merchants
Read Michelle’s latest column which looks at how the now exonerated Marines accused in the “Haditha Massacre” were smeared by the media.
Michelle Says:
My syndicated column today recounts how the Haditha smear merchants from John Murtha to the NYSlimes to the world media hanged the Marines before a single formal charge had been filed. (And I know I don’t have to worry about the AP quoting from it, because the MSM doesn’t want you to remember its Haditha=My Lai smears.)
Sen. Rockefeller Apologizes For Smearing McCain’s Military Service
Sen. Jay Rockefeller apologized to John McCain this afternoon for smearing John McCain’s military service in an interview with a newspaper.
Rockefeller gave an interview to his hometown paper in West Virginia in which he said McCain doesn’t care about people because he was only a fighter pilot during Vietnam.
“McCain was a fighter pilot, who dropped laser-guided missiles from 35,000 feet. He was long gone when they hit. What happened when they (the missiles) get to the ground? He doesn’t know. You have to care about the lives of people. McCain never gets into those issues,” Rockefeller said.
While John McCain was having his arms and legs broken with rifle butts, Rockefeller took his Harvard education and joined the Peace Corps. Just like any America-hating progressive, Rockefeller was trying to suggest that John McCain was dropping bombs on innocent people and he should be ashamed.
That’s the typical rhetoric you hear from liberals who lack the balls to actually fight. The only thing John McCain was dropping bombs on was the enemy.
-Chris Jones
Boehner Calls on Democratic Rep. Stark to Retract Statement
From Drudge Report:
House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) today issued the following statement regarding remarks made on the House floor by Rep. Pete Stark (D-CA) during the debate on the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP):
“Our troops in Iraq are fighting against al-Qaeda and other radical jihadists hellbent on killing the people we are sent here to represent. Congressman Stark’s statement dishonors not only the Commander-in-Chief, but the thousands of courageous men and women of America’s armed forces who believe in their mission and are putting their lives on the line for our freedom and security. Congressman Stark should retract his statement and apologize to the House, our Commander-in-Chief, and the families of our soldiers and commanders fighting terror overseas.”
During debate on the SCHIP children’s health care legislation today, Rep. Stark stated: “You don’t have money to fund the war or children. But you’re going to spend it to blow up innocent people if we can get enough kids to grow old enough for you to send to Iraq to get their heads blown off for the President’s amusement.”
It’s also worth mentioning that the vote to override the President’s veto on SCHIP was a complete FAILURE.
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