FOX News Doctors NY Times Photos

Fox News has sunk to a new low. On Wednesday, the network displayed photos that its editors had doctored of two New York Times employees--reporter Jacques Steinberg, and editor Steven Reddicliffe. Media Matters has graciously provided us with the before-and-after evidence showing that Fox purposefully yellowed Steinberg's teeth, widened his nose and chin, and photo-shopped his ears stick out further.



Reddicliffe also received the yellow-teeth treatment, as well as dark circles under his eyes, and an exaggeration of his receding hairline.



Why has Rupert Murdoch's flagship television network stooped to such tactics? The Times had the audacity to run a piece about Fox's recent poor ratings performance.

From Editor & Publisher:

On Wednesday morning's edition of Fox & Friends, co-hosts Steve Doocy and Brian Kilmeade aired the photos while discussing a piece of the New York Times. The piece pointed out what the newspaper called "ominous trends" in Fox News' ratings.

"It wasn't a hit piece," Sifton [Sam, NYT Cultural Editor] told E&P. "It was straight news. This was a hit piece by Fox News. It is beneath comment. "Asked if the paper planned to respond to Fox's actions, he said no: "It is fighting with a pig, everyone gets dirty and the pig likes it."

While conservatives often have legitimate gripes with the Times on matters of policy (and, from time to time, on fact-checking matters), the willful distortion of these pictures boggles the mind. As of this writing, Fox has not released any comment on the matter, much less fired the people behind it. And with all due respect to the Times, this is one time that fighting a pig makes sense.