Fox takes heat from left and right over analysts
By: CNN Political Unit

(CNN) – It's rare that two media watchdogs – one on the left and one on the right – ever agree when it comes to assessing coverage on the cable news outlets.

But both the conservative Newsbusters and liberal Media Matters are aiming fire at Fox News' Geraldo Rivera and Judge Andrew Napolitano for recently suggesting the third building to fall on September 11, 2001 – 7 World Trade Center- may have collapsed for reasons beside the widely held belief that fire from the two World Trade Center towers nearby was the ultimate cause.

In a segment that aired on his program more than two weeks ago, Rivera reported on those who claim the building's collapse was more consistent with that which would occur from explosive devices.

"I'm certainly much more open-minded about it than I was," Rivera said of the alternate possibility for the building's fall.

Days later Napolitano – a legal analyst for Fox – said of the theory:

"It's hard for me to believe that [7 World Trade Center] came down by itself. I was gratified to see Geraldo Rivera investigating it. I'm gratified to see the people across the border interested.

Will Napolitano bring radical conspiracies and praise of 9-11 Truth leaders to his new Fox show?
April 27, 2010 10:26 am ET by Eric Hananoki

http://mediamatters.org/blog/201004270016

Last week, Fox Business announced that it would begin airing senior judicial analyst Andrew Napolitano's FoxNews.com show Freedom Watch. Given the show's history, the move raises questions about whether the channel will allow Napolitano to mainstream and promote fringe guests and radical anti-government conspiracy theories.

In contrast to his Fox News colleagues, Napolitano has used his FoxNews.com show to praise and promote two of the most visible leaders of the 9-11 Truth movement, Alex Jones and Jesse Ventura. On Freedom Watch last month, Napolitano called guest Ventura a "champion of exposing government fraud and lies," and promoted Ventura's belief that the government either "participate[d]" in 9-11 or "knew it was going to happen and didn't do very much to stop it."