Fox Backtracks on Obama Attack Video

In a move that even Roger Ailes might have trouble describing as "fair and balanced' with a straight face, Fox & Friends morning show twice aired an anti-Obama video yesterday that strongly resembled a campaign ad. The 4-minute video, credited to a Fox producer and titled "Four Years of Hope and Change," mixed quotes from Obama and his critics with statistics on the national debt, the jobless rate, and gas prices. Fox execs later said the video had not been authorized at the top level and it was taken down from the Fox & Friends website, the AP reports.

Ed Morrissey at the conservative blog Hot Air says that while he agrees with the video's content, "If anyone wanted to look for evidence that the overall Fox News organization intends to campaign against Obama rather than cover the campaign, this video would be difficult to refute as evidence for that claim." The Media Matters for America watchdog group, meanwhile, accused Fox of violating its parent company News Corp's restrictions on political donations by airing an ad "virtually indistinguishable" from those aired by Republican groups. (More Fox News stories.)