Fox News’ sick priorities

ThinkProgress: Fox News host Andrea Tantaros attacked MSNBC for covering the Senate military sexual assault hearings on Tuesday instead of the concurrent House IRS hearings, saying “what they consider to be priorities” is “unbelievable”.

On the June 4 edition of The Andrea Tantaros Show, Tantaros, who is a co-host of Fox News’ The Five, said:

“Sex crimes in a military, they are a real issue. There’s no doubt about that. I’m not going to poo poo it and say it’s not. What baffles me though is the way they prioritize these issues. The timing and the tone of them. If these were liberal groups targeted by George W. Bush, they would not be covering sex assault in the military. … Why is MSNBC devoting so much time to this issue when, as David Axelrod points out, there are so many other issues to deal with?”

Media Matters reports that on June 4, MSNBC devoted an hour and twenty minutes to the eight-hour sexual assault hearing, and an hour and thirteen minutes to the IRS hearing. Meanwhile, on the same day, Fox News spent four hours on the IRS hearing and a scant 14 minutes on the sexual assault hearing.

So MSNBC devotes roughly equal time to the two hearing, while Fox virtually ignores one in favor of wall-to-wall coverage of the other. Priorities!

And what a dull four hours that must’ve been, since the IRS hearings have so far resulted in almost nothing newsworthy. The health of the IRS “scandal” is so poor that Republicans are forced to put it on life support.

The idea that sexual assault in the military is a 14 minute story in a 24 hour news cycle is ridiculous. And, as you may recall, much of what little coverage they’ve given the issue has been appalling.

Huffington Post: Fox News pundit Liz Trotta made a series of incendiary statements about rape in the military during a Sunday appearance on the network.

Trotta was reacting to news that the military will allow women to work closer to the front lines. Speaking to Fox News host Eric Shawn, she alleged that feminists wanted “to be warriors and victims at the same time.”

She cited a recent Pentagon report that sex crimes committed by army personnel have increased by 64% over the past six years. Then she made a startling statement:

“I think they have actually discovered there is a difference between men and women. And the sexual abuse report says that there has been, since 2006, a 64% increase in violent sexual assaults. Now, what did they expect? These people are in close contact, the whole airing of this issue has never been done by Congress, it’s strictly been a question of pressure from the feminists.”

So really, Fox News shriekers get to STFU about media priorities and rape in the military.