Last week, “Fox News Watch” FNC’s media criticism show was criticized for not covering the hacking scandal involving its parent company, News Corp.

On this weekend’s edition, host Jon Scott led with the scandal, revealing the latest details — or almost latest, since the show was taped before Dow Jones CEO Les Hinton resigned late yesterday — and spending two segments of the half hour show on the growing scandal.

Cal Thomas, who last week said “I’m not touching it,” blamed News Corp.’s competitors for blowing up the story in order to end News Corp’s bid to take over BSkyB… which it did last week. “The left has been out to get News Corp. and especially Fox News Channel and the Murdoch family for years,” said Thomas.

Panelist and former Fox News host Alan Colmes, said don’t blame the left.

This knee jerk, ‘let’s blame the liberals, let’s blame the left. They’re out to get the News Corporation and out to get Mr. Murdoch.’ There has to be some personal responsibility and look, Mr. Murdoch seems to be taking that and put out an apology and visited the family of [Milly Dowler]. But there has to be personal responsibility and stop blaming the left and liberal media like it’s the liberals fault this happened.

The third segment of the show focused on the results of a Judicial Watch investigation into the White House shutting out Fox News Channel. And the final block dealt with the 10-year long Harry Potter series and the media’s coverage of it.

Video after the jump…

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Saturday’s “Fox News Watch” steered clear of one of last week’s major media stories — News Corp. shutting down UK tabloid News of the World as a result of a hacking scandal. Or did they?

On the show’s website, Fox News posts “Behind the Breaks” videos of the panel chatting during commercial breaks. In the first break, the panel — including Judith Miller, Cal Thomas and James Pinkerton — can be heard chatting about “the subject we’re not talking about today.” Thomas asked his colleagues if anyone is willing to bring up the scandal. “Sure,” Pinkerton answered jokingly. “Go ahead, Cal.” As the panel laughs, Thomas responds, “I’m not going to touch it.”

News Corp. owns Fox News Channel, in addition to News of the World.

By comparison, CNN’s Howard Kurtz devoted the entire first segment of “Reliable Sources” — which is the only other media criticism show on cable news — to the News of the World story.

Video below (skip to the 1:55 mark to hear the above discussion):

Meredith Vieira sat down with Laurie Dhue this morning to talk about her now public struggle with alcoholism. Dhue spoke about her disease last week at a prayer dinner in Washington hosted by conservative syndicated columnist Cal Thomas. She said publicly to the group: “Yes, I would drag myself into work deeply hungover.”

In the “Today” interview this morning, Dhue said that she “certainly didn’t know anybody was going to be writing about it.”

FishbowlDC’s Betsy Rothstein — who reported on the dinner last week — notes that neither Dhue nor Vieira should be shocked that reporters would be there and that they would report on her coming out as an alcoholic. Dhue holds the distinction of being the only anchor to have hosted shows on all  three major U.S. cable news networks: CNN where she worked from 1990 to 1999, MSNBC (1999-2000), and Fox News (2000-2008).

Video from this morning’s “Today is after the jump…

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Bob Beckel, from the left, and Cal Thomas, from the right, are both Fox News analysts. They both also co-author an op-ed column in USA Today called Common Ground which also has a video version.

Thursday’s topic… Fox News.

“The questions I get invariably focus on Glenn Beck, Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity,” says Beckel. “It’s no secret Hannity is conservative, and O’Reilly certainly is not a liberal. Beck goes well beyond conservatism to some very strange places. Liberals focus on just these three, though, and fail to recognize superb journalists like Brit Hume and Chris Wallace, among many others,” says Beckel.

Video of the discussion after the jump…

(h/t J$P)

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From this morning’s mediabistro.com Daily Newsfeed:

Editor & Publisher’s Joe Strupp reports USA Today has picked a new team of columnists to write daily commentaries at the 2008 presidential conventions.

After a controversial pick in 2004 of Ann Coulter and Michael Moore, this cycle’s choice is Bob Beckel and Cal Thomas, who already write a joint column every other week.

The pair are familiar with the TV side as well — they both appear regularly on Fox News as commentators.

The 2004 choice led to some contentious moments, as Coulter dropped out after, “USA Today declined to run [her] first column,” reports Strupp. Moore was, “initially barred from entering the arena and later booed after delegates and other Republican attendees spotted him in the crowd.”

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