Calls for Brit Hume to Resign

Dan Rather was tricked into using what were presumably fake memos to support a story which was otherwise factual. This was a mistake, and Rather appolgized (and most likely stepped down as anchor as a result of this). CBS had a full investigation.

If we are to call for news anchors to resign for misinformation, intentionally deceiving viewers on a regular basis is far worse than an isolated error. Anchors on Fox News (as well as some elsewhere, such as Judy Woodruff at CNN) regularly distort the news to support their viewpoint.

Media Matters for American has pointed out how Brit Hume has distorted the news:

James Roosevelt Jr: Hume's "outrageous distortion" of FDR "calls for a retraction, an apology, maybe even a resignation"

MSNBC host Keith Olbermann and former Social Security associate commissioner James Roosevelt Jr. examined how FOX News Washington managing editor Brit Hume and other pundits distorted a quote by Roosevelt Jr.'s grandfather, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, in order to claim that the former president would have supported privatizing Social Security.

During their discussion, Olbermann referenced the distortions by Hume, nationally syndicated radio host and former Reagan administration official William J. Bennett, and Wall Street Journal columnist John Fund -- which Media Matters for America has documented. Roosevelt Jr. echoed Air America Radio host Al Franken's call for Hume to resign, saying that "he rearranged those sentences in an outrageous distortion, one that really calls for a retraction, an apology, maybe even a resignation."

More information

While the same arguments could be made against many other right wing anchors, many bloggers have joined the call for Hume's resignation, such as in this post from Oliver Willis.