Zurawik vs. Van Susteren…
This has been going on for a while now, but the latest shot was fired by David Zurawik. It probably won’t be the last…
Memo to Fox News management: Get Greta Van Susteren some anger management help before she does serious damage to someone, herself or your news channel’s brand identity.
Van Susteren, who has bared her attack dog teeth more than once against me and this blog since I dared to criticize her cotton-candy interview of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin last fall, is out of control on the Web once again. Following her online attack on me for saying she was “overly friendly” in her first Palin interview, she followed up with a post attacking Howard Kurtz, media critic at the Washington Post, because he dared to quote me. But then, she tried to take the post down before anyone noticed. Only someone already had.
This time, she is railing against Politico for reporting that her husband, John Coale, helped Palin set up a political action committee.
Inside Cable News 
March 31, 2009 at 5:59 am
Ya gotta love that out of control woman getting ripped! But, will her rebuttal get yanked? Or will FNC allow Greta to further embarrass herself and the brand?
March 31, 2009 at 6:21 am
Why does responding to a false attack make one “out of control”? Zurawik for some reason completely omitted the issue that caused Greta to write her piece: Politico reported that BOTH SHE and her husband were giving advice to Palin. Greta pushed back on that very strongly because she insists that she never did any such thing. Zurawik bizarrely claims that Greta confirmed everything in the Politico story–but of course to make that claim he had to leave out the key charge against Greta that led to her writing a response. Something is very strange there.
And on a side note: now odd that Greta’s husband has suddenly become such a big issue. When he advised and supported and raised money for Democrats (he was a big backer of Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Nancy Pelosi, and many others) I didn’t see all this outrage and concern. Greta interviewed Hillary again last week, and there was a surprising paucity of outraged columns over her husband’s Hillary support. Apparently it’s only newsworthy, and only a conflict of interest, when Mr Coale helps a Republican.
March 31, 2009 at 6:42 am
because the greta/palin thing is just weird. period. it’s definitely different from those others. just watch them. it’s obvious to me, but wth do i know.
besides, didn’t politco and fnc have some working agreement awhile back? or is that thing off now? i used to see the politico people on fnc all the time. do they still appear? i havent seen as much of them (fnc) post-election.
March 31, 2009 at 1:39 pm
The difference is nobody remembers Greta doing weird newsless cooking segments with those Democrats. The problem isn’t with a reporter’s husband supporting politicians – spouses are allowed to have their own lives – it’s when the support bleeds over into the reporter’s coverage. All of the Greta segments had the appearance of pre-agreed limits in return for access.
March 31, 2009 at 8:40 pm
The difference is Governor Palin was the only person since well before the primary season ended who was able to knock Barack Obama off as the lead story, and that was immediately following his historic nomination. She’s seen as a major threat to be attacked at all costs and so is any public figure who recognises the unfairness and defends her.
Greta Van Susteren is a FNC anchor and that makes her a double target. That her husband actively supported many Dems in the past is merely an inconvenient detail that won’t get him a “pass”. For fair and logical thinkers, though, what her husband does one way or the other really shouldn’t matter.
April 1, 2009 at 7:56 am
You completely glossed over my point, Al. All of Greta’s Palin segments were puff pieces. Sarah Cooks! We Go Snow Machine Riding with Todd & Sarah! The underlying story isn’t that John Coale is a Palin supporter. It’s the implication – by his involvement, coupled with her fawning interviews – that SHE is. The impression left is that Greta’s Sarah Palin segments were campaign spots.
April 1, 2009 at 9:04 am
Fair enough, joe. You have a valid criticism. I’ll have to ponder that awhile to decide for myself if what Van Susteren reported from Alaska were puff pieces or merely standard Greta-style version of field reporting. My impression at the time was that those had the same flavour of reporting as did the ones from Aruba or whatever else she covered.