Karl Rove's sly deal with Fox

Rove's reluctance to directly admit a relationship with the McCain campaign may be out of concern for staying on the right side of election laws. Aside from all informal advising, he may also be coordinating the efforts of independent political groups and former Bush donors in an attempt to rekindle the type of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth strategy that many analysts believe helped sink John Kerry's campaign in 2004. Rove has one of the most expansive rolodexes in Washington, which he's been putting to use for the 2008 election: According to the National Journal's Peter Stone, Rove has been calling up old friends like Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens and casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, and convincing them to spend millions of dollars on outside right-wing groups, known as 527 and 501(c)(4) entities. An unnamed GOP consultant who "has met with Rove a few times this year" told Stone that "Karl is up to his eyeballs in this." The Washington Post has also reported that Rove is working with outside groups who aim "to influence the outcome in November."

According to Federal Election Commission rules, coordination between a 527 group and a presidential campaign -- such as discussing the content or timing of political ads -- is illegal (if difficult to prove).

Fox News is not the only media outlet that has failed to disclose Rove's ties to McCain. Whenever Rove writes for the hardcore conservative Op-Ed pages of the Wall Street Journal, the paper identifies him only as "the former senior adviser and deputy chief of staff to President George W. Bush," even though he has usually written about the Democratic presidential candidates. Similarly, Newsweek, where Rove is a contributor, simply calls him a "former senior adviser for President Bush."

CNN's treatment of Begala and Carville offers a sound model for Fox News. Both Begala and Carville have donated to Clinton's presidential campaign and remain close friends and trusted confidants of the Clintons. Like Rove, neither is formally advising the Clinton campaign, although Carville sent out a fundraising e-mail in 2007.

"I have no role in her campaign, save as a donor and voter," confirmed Begala.

CNN executives initially resisted identifying their commentators' political ties, for which the network drew fire. "Would it kill CNN to disclose that James Carville is a partisan Clinton supporter when talking about the presidential race?" wrote DailyKos founder Markos Moulitsas.

Eventually, however, the network did some soul-searching and realized that its critics were right. While Begala and Carville were not on Clinton's payroll, they were "on the Hillary bandwagon, and that should be disclosed as much as we can," CNN president Jonathan Klein said. "I wasn't comfortable with it myself as I watched it." CNN now regularly identifies Begala and Carville as Clinton supporters and typically pairs them with an Obama supporter in conversation.

Fox almost never puts another talking head in with Rove, generally hosting him as a solo guest.

In 2004, it was Republicans who were raising conflict-of-interest complaints. "It seems highly irregular that CNN would tolerate two employees' openly working and advising and appearing on behalf of the John Kerry for President campaign," Steve Schmidt, then a spokesman for President Bush's reelection effort, said of Begala and Carville, according to the New York Times. (At the time, the two CNN commentators were serving as unpaid advisors to John Kerry's campaign.)

Schmidt is now working for McCain's campaign. Not surprisingly, he has not voiced any complaints about Rove's arrangement with Fox News.

Another conservative indignant over Begala and Carville's dual roles in 2004 was Fox's opinion maker Bill O'Reilly. According to MSNBC's Dan Abrams, O'Reilly complained then that their arrangement was the "collapse of CNN's ethical standards." Furthermore, O'Reilly claimed, if he had "signed on with Bush-Cheney 2004," then "the media mob would have stormed the Fox castle."

Since Super Tuesday, Rove has appeared on "The O'Reilly Factor" 13 times. Not once has O'Reilly revealed his guest's relationship to the McCain campaign.

Despite Rove's undisclosed dual role, media critics have been quick to praise his performance as a Fox News analyst. Ten days after Rove's first appearance on the network, Slate's Troy Patterson announced that on-air, Rove offers "clarity, concision, humility, good humor, good posture and dispassionate analysis." In March, after Rove had made 15 appearances on Fox, the New York Times' David Carr said the pundit is "one of the best things on television right now." Carr called him "graceful, careful and generous," adding that he is unlike "the real Karl Rove."

But it may just be the real Karl Rove dressed up for broadcast. Take, for instance, his frequently misleading recitation of Obama's reaction to controversial statements by his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

On March 13, ABC News published a 2003 video of Rev. Wright saying "God damn America" during a sermon. The network reported that earlier in the month -- before these comments had been revealed -- Obama had said, "I don't think my church is actually particularly controversial."

On at least five occasions, however, according to a Lexis-Nexis search, Rove has altered Obama's comment about his church to make it seem as though the senator was commenting specifically in response to Wright's comments as publicized by ABC. For instance, on the April 25 edition of "America's Election HQ" on Fox, Rove claimed that "on the 13th of March, [Obama] came out and said, 'There's nothing particularly controversial in Reverend Wright's statements.'"

Rove's distortion here is subtle, but in making it, he is able to imply that at one point Obama explicitly endorsed Wright's comments. In fact, Obama has said he was not present when the comments were made, and both denounced and rejected them once they became public.

Repeated attempts by Salon to contact a Fox News spokesperson about why the network refuses to identify Rove's ties to the McCain campaign brought no response. Inquiries to Rove directly also went unanswered.

Rove's conflict of interest is problematic now, but will become increasingly so in the general election. He will be commenting on McCain and his Democratic opponent, whom Rove will be working to help defeat. Still, the network has given no indication that it intends to start disclosing Rove's ties to the public at that time.