February 2, 2007: Hey Fox! Back Off the Anderson Ads or We Will Cut You

OK, Fox, you want a fight. Bring it!

You've been angling for one for years; you with the most biased coverage ever, spoke-shills for the right like Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, Chris Wallace, and terrifying-baby-faced-right-winger Neil Cavuto, acting like they are fair and balanced, inciting fights with former Presidents Clinton and Carter, and, worst of all, being media-bitches for Dick Cheney, whenever he feels the need to justify his evil.

It all started after Anderson Cooper knocked Fox News for its shoddy, incorrect report that Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama once attended a radical Islamic school as a child in Indonesia.

"Others are reporting the heat. We are sticking to the facts," Cooper said.

Schoolyard bully Fox couldn't take that heat, so they went on the offensive. Fox spokesgal Irena Briganti called Cooper's move "yet another cry for attention by the Paris Hilton of television news, Anderson Cooper."

Then Fox ran the ad you see before you-a print farce with Anderson facing cameras, the Paris crack, and an overly airbrushed and nip-tucked Greta Van Susteren (we miss your old, wise eyes, honey). She is Cooper's rival, at least in the 10 P.M. timeslot. The ad also says that "Anderson" is "style over substance" and a "media darling." Anyone else picking up on a little covert homophobic taunting against Anderson?

The ad boasts that Greta - who got plastic surgery reportedly at the behest of Fox higher ups before joining their team and then plastered her stretched-burn-victim newness on the cover of People - beats him in the ratings. Now this. You've got to love irony.

CNN pointed out that, as usual, Fox can't get the facts quite right. Anderson just beat Greta Thursday night. CNN says Anderson beat Greta 40 times in the demo last year, and three times in January. CNN also points to awards -- A Peabody, DuPont, and three Emmys for 360 in 2006. Greta Van Susteren? Zero.

Fox News has been going after Anderson Cooper, who happens to be the son of wealthy Gloria Vanderbilt, for a long time. When any of their overly made up, nip-tucked, hyperbolic, conservative talking heads want to move from the comfort of Foxland and dip their fat asses into the New Orleans post-Katrina watery morass, then put an ad out.

Maybe today's celebri-spiral is in defense of a guy from wealth and privilege who's chosen to make a difference in the world through an admittedly personal, journalistic take on world events. Maybe I take these media wars, and celebrity-anything, a little too personally, thus this blog. And maybe there's a shared orientation (OK, allegedly) that makes me defend Anderson against covert-but-obvious homophobic taunting from right-wingers, since we know that's what they love to do. But any chance to put a hypocritical media bully like Fox in it's place in any format at any time is worth it.