Fox Reminds DC Staff They're Journalists

Fox News reminded its staff to follow journalistic standards after a producer was caught on camera whipping up a crowd at a tea party protest, Mediaite reports. Bill Sammon, the channel's vice-president of news, sent staff at Fox's DC bureau an email warning: "We do not cheerlead for one cause or another. We do not rile up a crowd. If a crowd happens to be boisterous when we show it on TV, so be it. If it happens to be quiet, that’s fine, too. It’s not our job to affect the crowd’s behavior."

He said any effort to affect a crowd "undermines" journalists' role to be "detached" eyewitnesses. "Our viewers are counting on us to be honest brokers when it comes to reporting," Sammon added.
(More Griff Jenkins stories.)