What do special favors on the taxpayer's dime look like? This: while ABC, NBC and CBS pay for their own security details, Fox News's headquarters in Manhattan is the beneficiary of free, round-the-clock protection by New York's finest.
As the Daily Beast reports:
[A]t Rupert’s News Corp. headquarters on Sixth Ave.–which has never been a terrorist or protest target of any significance–the media empire is guarded by a 24-hour-a-day New York Police Department security detail seven days a week, a patrol that one security expert estimated costs the city at least half a million dollars a year...No other news network gets comparable NYPD protection.
When the NYPD was asked to comment, its spokesperson claimed that all networks received appropriate protection based upon need. However, as The Huffington Post noted:
...the other major New York-based media outlets had no knowledge of the offered protection, and one employee at ABC commented, "I would love the special favors."
Of course, it couldn't have anything to do with the fact that police commissioner Ray Kelly's son is on-air at Fox, right?
No, there's no way that Mayor Bloomberg would allow NYC's police commissioner to provide his son with special protection while simultaneously allowing officers to beat peaceful protesters.
And it couldn't have anything to do with the fact that Mayor Bloomberg said of Rupert Murdoch, "Rupert is what God meant when he created a media executive," right?
No, there's no way that Bloomberg would allow the NYPD to give Fox News special protection while simultaneously allowing the boys in blue to constantly suppress and arrest journalists covering Occupy Wall Street.
No, there's no way.
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