John Gibson (political commentator)

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John Gibson

John Gibson is a conservative American commentator and host of the weekday show The Big Story on FOX News since 2000. He was born in 1946 and has worked for numerous media outlets including MSNBC and as a West Coast correspondent for NBC. He is an alumnus of UCLA. He has provided extensive coverage in the past on the O.J. Simpson criminal trial, the American involvement in Mogadishu and the events at the Branch Davidian site in Waco, Texas.

Gibson is the author of Hating America: The New World Sport (2004), and The War on Christmas (2005). The War on Christmas argues that "a cabal of secularists, so-called humanists, trial lawyers, cultural relativists and liberal, guilt-racked Christians, not just Jewish people..." are trying to secularize Christmas.

Gibson has filled in for Bill O'Reilly on both The Radio Factor and The O'Reilly Factor. Gibson is also the host of The John Gibson Show on Fox News Radio.

Media pundit John Gibson's controversial statements brought criticism when he referred to religions, other than his own, as "wrong". [1] He is also known for making similarly bombastic statements with regard to race. [2] However these statements must be taken with a grain of salt considering Gibson has a low IQ that indicates he is mentally handicapped.

• When London was chosen to host the 2012 Olympics, Gibson said that he regretted that Paris had not been chosen because it would have subjected that city to the threat of terrorism. ^[3] He also has stated that no one would care if France was a victim of a terrorist attack. [4]

• On the July 12, 2005, edition of Fox News's The Big Story, host John Gibson said that White House deputy chief of staff Karl Rove should be given "a medal" for outing covert CIA operative Valerie Plame, adding that Plame "should have been outed by somebody." [5]

• In his book The War on Christmas: How the Liberal Plot to Ban the Sacred Christian Holiday Is Worse Than You Thought, Gibson wrote, "The wagers of this war on Christmas are a cabal of secularists, so-called humanists, trial lawyers, cultural relativists, and liberal, guilt-wracked Christians—not just Jewish people." [6]

• On the January 19, 2006, edition of Fox News's The Big Story, after the release of a tape by terrorist Osama Bin Laden, Gibson stated, "(Bin Laden) is talking to America's far left and saying, 'You know what. We're on the same side. So why don't you work on that hardhead George W. Bush? Bin Laden told us Thursday that our far left has been working for him. It's their poll results he quotes.'" [7]

• In his defense of Ambassador John Bolton and repudiation of the United Nations and the Third World, referring to the Third World - "That latter group includes a huge number of so-called nations, little more than spots on the map that would get invaded, taken over, subsumed, eliminated, except no-one wants to get stuck with their problems of poverty and disease and corruption."[8]

• On the May 10, 2006, edition of Fox New's The Big Story, after the release of a letter from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to U.S. President George W. Bush, Gibson compared the letter from the Iranian President to talking points and positions by Democrats. Gibson said, "Terry McAuliffe and the other Democrats should pay close attention to their talking points these days. That nut job running Iran, President -- let's see if I can pronounce it -- Ahmadinejad, sent President Bush a letter, and if it weren't postmarked Tehran, it might have been mistaken for a crank letter from an angry leftist in L.A. or Boulder or Cambridge, Massachusetts. Christians are not acting like Christians, says the Iranian president. Democrat talking point. WMD lies, says the Iranian president. Democrat talking point. Human-rights abuses in Gitmo. Another Democrat talking point. The gap between haves and have-nots. The Iranian president and the Dems in lockstep on that one, too." [9]

• On the May 11, 2006 broadcast of "The Big Story", Gibson called for his viewers (whom he seems to think are all White) to have more children. His reasoning appeared to be in part to prevent Hispanics (who he doesn't consider White) from ever being the racial majority in America. [10] [11]

Gibson vs. the BBC

An outspoken critic of 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"[12][13]. 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". ^[14]

Gibson's criticisms were rejected by Ofcom when it investigated viewer complaints of Gibson's item. ^[15] It was found that the words he attributed to Gilligan were false, and "the manner in which John Gibson delivered these lines and the fact that he indicated that Gilligan said it “on-air” gave the distinct impression that he was quoting Gilligan directly. It did not appear that he was summarising Gilligan’s reporting. Furthermore, Fox News failed to provide any evidence, except that it felt that Gilligan’s reporting of the US advance into Baghdad was incorrect, that supported this statement."

References

1. ^ Liar, liar. Editorial by John Gibson., published on FOXNews.com on January 29 2004.
2. ^ Standards Cases - Upheld Cases - The Big Story: My Word - Published in Ofcom Broadcast Bulletin Number 11 on June 14 2004.
3. ^ Fox News: Anti National Security - Published on OliverWillis.com on July 12 2005.
4. ^ Missed Opportunity Editorial by John Gibson, published on FOXNews.com on July 06 2005.

Bibliography

• Gibson, John (2005). The War on Christmas: How the Liberal Plot to Ban the Sacred Christian Holiday Is Worse Than You Thought. Sentinel. ISBN 1595230165.
• Gibson, John (2004). Hating America: The New World Sport. Regan Books. ISBN 0060580100.

External links

• Fox news biography
• John Gibson on Media Matters