Page 12 - aruba-today-20220305

a12 people & arts
Saturday 5 March 2022

Fox News defense reporter challenges

war comments on air

adier general, Don Bolduc,
after he said that it "bog-
gles my mind" that the Unit-
ed States hadn't already
gone "all in" on Ukraine.
Griffin said Bolduc was a
politician, not a student of
history.
"To suggest that the U.S.
would put indirect fire or
special operations or CIA
on the ground to give Pu-
This image from video released by Fox News shows correspon- tin any sort of excuse to
dent Jennifer Griffin reporting on crisis in Ukraine. broaden this conflict is ex-
Associated Press tremely dangerous talk at
a time like this," Griffin said.
NEW YORK (AP) — Fox Krakauer, author of The Earlier that day, she was in-
News national security cor- Fourth Watch, a media terviewed by Trey Gowdy
respondent Jennifer Griffin newsletter with a conserva- after an appearance by
couldn't hold back when tive viewpoint. "I want them retired U.S. Army Col. Doug
following a retired U.S. Army to be in the story." Macgregor, who urged the
colonel on the air recently, Griffin knows her beat as United States to stay out of
saying she barely had time much as anyone in journal- Ukraine and not ship it any
to correct all of his "distor- ism and her real-time fact- weapons. He said the Rus-
tions." checks are a valuable pub- sians should be allowed
She tried, though. And it lic service, as long as she to annex the portion of
wasn't for the first time or doesn't get caught in the Ukraine they are most inter-
the last time. muck of partisan debating, ested in.
Griffin, who has reported he said on Thursday. When Griffin followed
for Fox News Channel since Griffin has pushed back on him, she said she needed
1996, has attracted at- comments made by Sean to correct some of what
tention over the past two Hannity, Steve Doocy, Har- Macgregor had said, "and
weeks as she has publicly ris Faulkner and Greg Gut- I'm not sure 10 minutes
corrected or contradicted feld during appearances is enough time because
several Fox analysts and on their own shows. After there are so many distor-
hosts on the air about the Hannity criticized President tions." She said that Mac-
crisis in Ukraine. When Tuck- Joe Biden on Ukraine poli- gregor sounded like an
er Carlson suggested this cy, Griffin noted that every apologist for Putin. "That
week that some reporters president since the fall of kind of projection of with-
are acting as flacks for the the Soviet Union has made drawal and weakness is
Pentagon, some interpret- mistakes there. Doocy ar- what made Putin think he
ed that as a criticism of his gued on "Fox & Friends" that could move into a sover-
colleague. sanctions haven't worked eign country," she said.
Meanwhile, former Fox host against Russia; Griffin said Macgregor, in a subse-
Bill O'Reilly singled Griffin it was too soon to say that. quent radio appearance,
out as a gutsy reporter un- When Faulkner similarly criticized Griffin for offering
afraid to challenge others. questioned whether sanc- a "standard neo-con narra-
Griffin says her efforts are tions were a sufficient step, tive" of drawing compari-
consistent with what she's Griffin said that sending son to 1930s appeasement
always tried to do for 25 troops to the area would of Adolf Hitler. He called it a
years, both on the air and have given Putin an excuse "tired trope" that had noth-
behind the scenes at Fox to invade. She said it was ing to do with the people
News. "not some wag-the-dog sit- and events of today.
"I think you want your ex- uation" when Gutfeld sug- Two days after his appear-
perts, in today's media gested on "The Five" that ance on Gowdy's show,
environment, to be pas- the Ukraine crisis had been Macgregor was brought
sionate about what they manufactured. on as lead guest by Tucker
know and what they feel This past Sunday, she took Carlson in prime time. Carl-
about the facts," said Steve on a retired U.S. Army brig- son's show is usually the
most-watched program on
Fox.
"Unlike so many of the so-
called reporters you see on
television, he is not acting
secretly as a flack for (De-
fense Secretary) Lloyd Aus-
tin at the Pentagon," Carl-
son said in his introduction.
"No, Doug Macgregor is an
honest man."q