Fox host: Obama accused Fox of 'brainwashing our troops'

by David Edwards and Muriel Kane
Published: Thursday July 24, 2008

When Barack Obama set off on his overseas tour this week, the anchors of the three major broadcast networks were invited along -- but not Chris Wallace of Fox News.

The hosts of Fox & Friends have noticed, however, that even though they may not be represented in person, Obama did refer to their network during his trip.

"Apparently on the airplane somebody asked, 'What sort of reaction are you getting from the troops you're visiting with,'" Steve Doocy noted, "and he said, 'Well, you know, wherever I go, Fox is on.'"

Gretchen Carlson then took up the story. "When Obama asked why Fox has the hookup -- he called it 'the hookup' -- he also implied that it was the commander-in-chief's choice to have Fox News there. ... Andrea Mitchell from NBC then chimed in, 'It started with this administration.' Obama smiles, and then Jake Tapper from ABC asks, 'I wonder what cable network you'll pick?'"

"I guess that's another anointing of Barack Obama as president before the election in November," Carlson commented.

"It looks like we're being accused in a fun, smiley way of brainwashing our troops overseas who have no choice and aren't given the clicker," Brian Kilmeade added sarcastically.

"I don't know exactly why Fox is seen at a lot of military installations" Doocy mused, adding, "I do know that if you look at the history of the coverage of the war in Iraq ... we were first on so many stories. ... The best coverage of the war was on Fox."

In fact, although Fox covered the opening of the war quite heavily, it was reported last year that during the first quarter of 2007, they had devoted only about half as much coverage to the war as either MSNBC or CNN.

Later in the program, Carlson asked former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani whether the troops have a free choice of what to watch.

"I'm surprised that Barack Obama is surprised about that," Giulinai replied. "If he has any understanding of how American troops think, it would be natural that a large percentage of them would watch Fox. ... A very large percentage of them believe they get a better shake on Fox than some of the other networks, some of which I believe they think are anti-military."

This video is from Fox's Fox & Friends, broadcast July 24, 2008.
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