John Gibson (political commentator)

John Gibson
Born John David Gibson
(1946-07-25) July 25, 1946
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupation Talk show host
Years active 1969–present
Spouse(s) Susan McHugh (1979–present)
Children 1

John David Gibson (born July 25, 1946) is an American radio talk show host. As of September 2008, he hosts the syndicated radio program The John Gibson Show on Fox News Radio. Gibson was formerly the co-host of the weekday edition of The Big Story on the Fox News television channel.

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 correspondent in Burbank, California. In 1994, he became the first West coast correspondent for NBC News Channel. He covered the 1995 O. J. Simpson trial for the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman for NBC News Channel and Rivera Live on CNBC.[2] In 1996 he was named anchor for daytime programming on MSNBC, where he covered the Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky scandal in 1998.[1]

Career with Fox News

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 The Big Story was being replaced with America's Election Headquarters, a program more directly geared toward following the 2008 U.S. presidential election.[3] The Big Story was not renewed after the election and was replaced with The Glenn Beck Program in January 2009. He has been a regular guest-panelist on Fox's late-night satire show Red Eye w/ Greg Gutfeld, and is often the butt of jokes on episodes in which he doesn't appear.

Gibson vs. the BBC

In 2004 Gibson said that the British Broadcasting Corporation was anti-American, accusing the BBC of having "a frothing-at-the-mouth anti-Americanism that was obsessive, irrational and dishonest".[4] He also said 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".[5]

Gibson's criticisms were rejected by Ofcom when it investigated viewer complaints of Gibson's item. Ofcom also found that Gibson's broadcast was in violation of several UK television regulations, concluding that Gibson's commentary did not display a "respect for truth", failed to offer the BBC a chance to respond to the allegations, and was based on "false evidence."[6]

Public comments

Gibson as a commentator often attracts criticism.[7][8][9][10]

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. Hip hoppers shooters don't do that. They shoot and move on."[11]

In a 2008 edition of his radio show, Gibson commented on actor Heath Ledger's death the day before. He opened the segment with funeral music and played a clip of Jake Gyllenhaal's famous line "I wish I knew how to quit you" from Ledger's film Brokeback Mountain; he then said "Well, I guess he found out how to quit you." Among other remarks, Gibson called Ledger a "weirdo" with "a serious drug problem".[12] The next day, he addressed outcry over his remarks by saying that they were in the context of jokes he had been making for months about Brokeback Mountain, and that "There's no point in passing up a good joke."[13] Gibson later apologized on his television and radio shows.[14][15]

In February 2009, Attorney General Eric Holder had given a speech to Justice Department employees as a part of the observance of Black History Month during which he described the United States as being a "nation of cowards" in its reluctance to discuss racial relations. Gibson criticized Holder's remarks as inappropriate. John Sanders, who at the time was technology reporter for WBAL-TV in Baltimore, then intentionally edited Gibson's remarks which had followed news reports of a monkey who had escaped from a Seattle zoo, making it appear that Gibson had compared Holder to a monkey "with a bright blue scrotum" on Fox. Sanders then posted the altered video on YouTube without a disclaimer that it was a joke.[16] Because of this, the video was widely publicized on news websites, including liberal The Huffington Post, as if it were authentic.[16] Sanders was fired over the video, and Gibson said that the spread of the fake video has had a "personal" impact upon him.[16]

Books

Footnotes

  1. 1 2 "John Gibson Named Anchor For Daytime Programming on MSNBC Cable", PR Newswire, April 30, 1996
  2. 1 2 "John Gibson – Bio". Fox News. September 14, 2007. Retrieved 2008-01-31.
  3. ↑ "Fox Votes Out the Big Story", New York Times, March 3, 2008. Retrieved on 2008-03-12.
  4. ↑ "Ofcom criticises Fox News Channel". 14 June 2004.
  5. ↑ Liar, liar. Editorial by John Gibson., published on FOXNews.com on January 29, 2004.
  6. ↑ Ofcom Programme complaints bulletin: Standards & Fairness and Privacy number 11 (pdf), June 14, 2004.
  7. ↑ "Gibson defended his comments about race of school shooter, attacked 'Soros-backed' Media Matters", Media Matters for America, October 12, 2007
  8. ↑ Countdown with Keith Olbermann, MSNBC, October 11, 2007: transcript
  9. ↑ McNamara, Mary. "John Gibson should lose his platform" Los Angeles Times. January 26, 2008.
  10. ↑ Morning Joe, MSNBC, January 23, 2010
  11. ↑ The John Gibson Show, October 10, 2007
  12. ↑ "Fox Host John Gibson Mocks Heath Ledger's Death" Huffington Post. January 23, 2008.
  13. ↑ The John Gibson Show, Fox News Radio, January 25, 2008.
  14. ↑ The Big Story, Fox News, January 24, 2008
  15. ↑ The John Gibson Show, Fox News Radio, January 24, 2008
  16. 1 2 3 Kurtz, Howard (February 25, 2009). "Reporter Loses Job Over Altered Video of Fox's Gibson". Washington Post. p. C1.
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