After creating a four-minute political video that was praised when it aired, a Fox News Channel associate producer’s career is nevertheless in flux, spurned by his current employer and by CNN, which has apparently rescinded an offer of employment.
Chris White, who produced a news video so slick and so critical of President Barack Obama that critics likened it to a political attack ad, was accused by Fox News executive vp programming Bill Shine on Wednesday of practically going rogue with the video. Insiders, though, said there weren’t repercussions against White because he had been planning to take a job at CNN.
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CNN said Thursday, though, that it would not be hiring White, and it was unknown whether he’d be allowed to keep his job at Fox News in the wake of the controversy. White didn’t respond to requests for comment.
On Wednesday, Shine said: “The package that aired on Fox & Friends was created by an associate producer who was not authorized at the senior executive level of the network. This has been addressed with the show’s producers.”
The video, embedded below, was part of a package whereby the show’s hosts, Steve Doocy, Gretchen Carlson and Brian Kilmeade, explored whether Obama delivered on promises of “hope” and “change.” The video mingles Obama campaign speeches with statistics about unemployment, inflation and the like.
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“Hats off to Chris White, one of the producers on our team. He’s been in a small editing room for the last couple of weeks, reliving the last four years,” Doocy said after the video aired Wednesday on Fox & Friends.
Bloggers on both sides have been debating whether White did anything wrong, and on Thursday Mediaite posted a slickly produced anti-Mitt Romney video from MSNBC that Chris Matthews aired without controversy. That video also is embedded below.
Email: paul.bond@thr.com
