NYT Treats Judge Napolitano with Kid Gloves
For some reason, New York Times writer Brian Stelter goes very easy on Judge Andrew Napolitano in this article about Napolitano’s new freakshow on Fox Business; for example, there’s no mention of the fact that Napolitano has featured conspiracy nutjob and 9/11 Truther Alex Jones as a guest on “Freedom Watch” (introducing him as “the one, the only, the great Alex Jones”): Andrew Napolitano Comes to Fox Business Network.
The Web was essentially an incubator for Mr. Napolitano, who has been a legal commentator for Fox known as “the judge” for more than a decade. “Freedom Watch” started as a weekly webcast on FoxNews.com early in 2009, and later ramped up its production to several days a week.
On the webcasts, Mr. Napolitano discussed libertarian hot topics like states’ rights, excessive overseas spending and draconian drug laws.
This month, Fox confirmed that he was getting a weekly TV show, beginning on Saturday mornings and replaying in prime time on Saturdays and Sundays.
The first TV episode was billed as a “Tea Party summit,” with appearances by the Fox pundit Sarah Palin; Representative Ron Paul, Republican of Texas; and his son Rand Paul, a Republican and candidate in Kentucky for the United States Senate. (The elder Mr. Paul endorsed and wrote a forward for Mr. Napolitano’s most recent book.)
Napolitano’s show has been one of the main promoters of Alex Jones, Ron Paul, and general pseudo-libertarian neo-Confederate bad craziness; he’s not just a “libertarian,” he’s flat-out nuts and associates with very bad people. It’s puzzling why the New York Times doesn’t provide any of this context, in a curiously neutral article.