John Gibson (media host)

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John David Gibson (born July 25, 1946) is an American conservative talk show host, formerly the co-host of the weekday edition of The Big Story on the Fox News television channel and The John Gibson Show on Fox News Radio.

Contents 1 Early career 2 Career with Fox News 3 Controversies 3.1 Cleveland school shooting 3.2 Gibson vs. the BBC 3.3 "Make more babies" 3.4 "Following the wrong religion" 3.5 Heath Ledger 4 Books 5 Footnotes 6 External links

[edit] Early career

Gibson earned a BA from the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television. He began his reporting career with The Hollywood Reporter (1969-1972) and worked for Atlantic Records (1972-1974). Gibson worked for KFWB-AM (1974-1975) and KEYT-TV (1975-1977). At KCRA, he was a feature reporter on the "Weeknight" magazine show (1977-1979) and San Francisco bureau chief (1979-1989).^[1]

Beginning in 1992, Gibson worked as an NBC News as a correspondent in Burbank, California. In 1994, he became the first West coast correspondent for NBC News Channel. He covered the O.J. Simpson trial for NBC News Channel and Rivera Live on CNBC.^[2] In 1996 he was named anchor for daytime programming on MSNBC.^[1]

[edit] Career with Fox News

Further information: The Big Story

Please help improve this article or section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (February 2008)

Gibson joined the Fox News Channel in September 2000 as the host of its news program The Big Story. He also wrote the New York Times bestselling books Hating America: The New World Sport and The War on Christmas.^[2]

On March 12, 2008, Fox News Channel announced that they would be replacing The Big Story with a program more directly geared toward following the 2008 U.S. presidential election^[3]

[edit] Controversies

[edit] Cleveland school shooting

Following the 2007 SuccessTech Academy shooting in Cleveland, Ohio, on his radio show Gibson commented "I knew the shooter was white. I knew he would have shot himself. Hip-hoppers don't do that. They shoot and move on to shoot again. And I could tell right away because he killed himself. Black shooters don't do that. They shoot and move on."^[4]

Gibson's comments were heavily criticized by colleagues in the media. Keith Olbermann of MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann called Gibson a racist,^[5] Rick Sanchez of CNN called the comments "outrageous" and said Gibson "has some explaining to do",^[6] Dan Abrams of MSNBC's Live with Dan Abrams said Gibson was "out of line",^[7] and Media Matters for America criticized him as well.^[8][9]

[edit] Gibson vs. the BBC

Gibson claims that the British Broadcasting Corporation is anti-American, accusing the BBC of having "a frothing-at-the-mouth anti-Americanism that was obsessive, irrational and dishonest".^[10][11] He also claimed that reporter Andrew Gilligan, who was covering the 2003 Iraq War for BBC Radio 4 in Baghdad, had, "insisted on air that the Iraqi Army was heroically repulsing an incompetent American military".^[12]

Gibson's criticisms were rejected by Ofcom when it investigated viewer complaints of Gibson's item.^[13]

[edit] "Make more babies"

On The Big Story on May 11, 2006, Gibson responded to a Washington Post story which noted that the US Census reported "Nearly half of the nation's children under five are racial or ethnic minorities, and the percentage is increasing mainly because the Hispanic population is growing so rapidly".^[14] Gibson instructed viewers: "Do your duty. Make more babies... half of the kids in this country under five years old are minorities. By far the greatest number are Hispanic. You know what that means? Twenty-five years and the majority of the population is Hispanic. Why is that? Well, the Hispanics are having more kids than others. Notably the ones Hispanics call gabachos, white people, are having fewer."^[15]

Time wrote that Gibson's interpretation of the census data was "wildly wrong".^[16] Gibson's remarks were criticized by Keith Olbermann^[17] and Media Matters for America,^[18] which later named his remark one of the top 11 "Most outrageous comments of 2006".^[19]

[edit] "Following the wrong religion"

Gibson stated while being interviewed on Fox News, "Minorities ought to have the same sense of tolerance about the majority religion -- Christianity -- that they've been granted about their religions over the years."^[20] A few minutes later in the same interview, he said "I would think if somebody is going to be -- have to answer for following the wrong religion, they're not going to have to answer to me. We know who they're going to have to answer to." ^[21]. When reporting on the interview, Media Matters wrote that Gibson said non-Christians were "following the wrong religion."^[22] In response, Gibson said that Media Matters had misquoted him.^[23]

[edit] Heath Ledger

On January 23, 2008 following the announcement of the death of actor Heath Ledger, Gibson opened his show with funeral music and used an audio quote of Jake Gyllenhaal saying the line "I wish I knew how to quit you", taken from the movie Brokeback Mountain, and commented "Well, he found out how to quit you!" Laughing, Gibson then played another clip from Brokeback Mountain in which Ledger said, “We’re dead,” followed by his own, mocking “We’re dead” before playing the clip again. Throughout the course of the show, Gibson continued to bring up Ledger's death, jokingly claiming that current events may have caused him to commit suicide, suggesting that Ledger killed himself because he had "a serious position in the (stock) market" or perhaps "watched the Clinton-Obama debate last night. I think he was an Edwards guy, cause he saw his Edwards guy was just completely irrelevant."^[24]. He also referred to Ledger as "a weirdo" with a "serious drug problem".

The episode provoked a wave of severe criticism of Gibson. Several media sources called for Gibson to be fired, including the Catholic America Magazine, which called his comments "hateful". On MSNBC's Morning Joe, hosts Mika Brzezinski, Joe Scarborough and Willie Geist expressed disgust at Gibson's remarks. Scarborough commented "This is about as callous and harsh as anything I've heard. It is unspeakably rude. I don’t know who syndicates this guy, but that is absolutely stunning, that John Gibson would be that mean-spirited and hateful". Brzezinski stated that "I've got to tell you, that makes me nauseous...I don't know how you stay on the air after doing something like that, quite frankly".

On his January 24, 2008 radio show John Gibson responded to widespread criticism of his comments, saying that it was “a little Brokeback Mountain joke” and there is “no point in passing up a good joke.” Gibson defended his comments by claiming that “for months and months and months,” his show has consistently made fun of the line, “I wish I knew how to quit you” from Brokeback Mountain. “I’m not giving that up,” said Gibson.

On the same day, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation denounced Gibson's behavior and released a statement:

“Gibson’s remarks are vulgar and disgusting,” said Rashad Robinson, GLAAD’s Senior Director of Media Programs. “It’s sickening that Gibson would exploit Heath Ledger’s tragic death to promote such hurtful intolerance. And to do so at a time when family and friends are grieving shows a level of insensitivity that is beyond the pale.”

[edit] Books

• Gibson, John. The War on Christmas: How the Liberal Plot to Ban the Sacred Christian Holiday Is Worse Than You Thought. (Sentinel, 2005). ISBN 1-59523-016-5.
• Gibson, John (2004). Hating America: The New World Sport. (ReganBooks, 2004) ISBN 0-06-058010-0.

[edit] Footnotes

[edit] External links

• John Gibson's official website
• Fox News biography
• Stories on John Gibson from Salon.com
• Stories on John Gibson from Media Matters for America
• "He's Being as Hateful as He Can: Why can't John Gibson make the big time at Fox?", Peter Hart, Extra!, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, September/October 2005