FishbowlDC, ‘where politics and DC media mesh’, has a post today about Diane Sawyer’s interview with Marvin Kalb, the distinguished ‘veteran CBS journalist’. The National Press Club event was another installment of The Kalb Report. It was aired by C-SPAN; Fishbowl writer Alec Jacobs ticked off the high points, and this was one of them:

Marvin Kalb hates Fox News, but Sawyer does not. “I watch Fox News…I think you can learn so much from the excitement of the people on Fox.” Kalb went on his usual diatribe about opinion journalism (it seems he does this on just about every edition of the program), to which Sawyer replied: “I think people can make their minds up. Don’t you think people know when they’re getting opinion?”

We weren’t aware that Mr Kalb hates Fox News, so we took a look at the video. You can watch the relevant portion here, where Mr Kalb expresses his ‘hate’ for Fox News by saying things like:

I was just wondering what you thought of Fox News.
What I’m getting at is not really so much Fox News as it is opinion in the world of news.

Marvin Kalb may have some reservations about ‘opinion journalism’, but there is more to FNC than the opinionators. If FishbowlDC wants to claim this conversation shows Marvin Kalb ‘hates’ Fox News’, fine. But still, there’s a catch, something Mr Jacobs omitted from his post.

Marvin Kalb, the man who ‘hates Fox News’, happens to be an employee of...Fox News! Yes, Mr Kalb is a Fox News contributor, and has been since 2006. This isn’t exactly a state secret. Just look at the website for The Kalb Report and what do you see?

Marvin Kalb is a James Clark Welling Presidential Fellow at The George Washington University and Edward R. Murrow Professor Emeritus at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. He is also a contributing news analyst for National Public Radio and Fox News Channel.

Pretty astounding that he’s spent five years working for an organization that he ‘hates’. Over to you, Mr Jacobs.

UPDATE:
Approximately 90 minutes after this post appeared, Mr Jacobs amended his text to read:

Marvin Kalb hates (okay hates is strong, he just doesn’t like opinion mixed with news and he uses Fox News as an example) but Sawyer did not.