Fox TV executive defends news coverage

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HONG KONG (AFP) - A Fox television executive on Wednesday rejected suggestions that the broadcaster's international brand had been dented by a high-profile battle with the White House over its news coverage.

Critics have long accused Fox News of a right-wing bias, with the latest flare-up coming last month when a top aide to US President Barack Obama said the network was waging "war" on the Democratic administration.

But Hernan Lopez, chief operating officer for Fox International Channels, said only "media savvy or left-of-centre" viewers would likely switch to a rival network in protest at news coverage.

"People are a lot more driven by whether the show they want is on one of our channels," Lopez told a cable and satellite industry conference in Hong Kong.

Remarking on his international business, he said: "It's not affecting the perception of the Fox entertainment brands as far as we can tell."

Lopez's division sells pay television, such as the National Geographic channel, to international viewers.

He was responding to questions from Stephen Sackur, host of the BBC current affairs programme HARDtalk, during a special live episode at the conference.

Lopez said there was little Fox could or should do about presenters -- such as conservative commentator Glenn Beck, who called Obama a "racist" -- because of employment contract constraints and guarantees on freedom of speech.

"The commentators have a wide scope to say what they say on air," he told Sackur, adding that people often asked him about Fox's news coverage.

"And I say 'do you think the New York Times doesn't editorialise on the front page?' That is the end of the conversation."

Last month White House communications director Anita Dunn led an outspoken administration offensive against Fox, accusing the network owned by media magnate Rupert Murdoch of biased coverage.

"We?re going to treat them the way we would treat an opponent," she said.

"As they are undertaking a war against Barack Obama and the White House, we don't need to pretend that this is the way that legitimate news organizations behave."

The unusual White House campaign came as Obama faced mounting opposition to his health care reforms, growing concern over the war in Afghanistan and the nation's economic malaise.

Murdoch, chairman of Fox's parent company News Corp., said the war of words had boosted the network's ratings "tremendously".