"I love ya": Huckabee promotes "dear friend" Kasich

[Joanne98]

While Fox News has countless ethically dubious relationships with GOP candidates - Christine O'Donnell saying she has Hannity in her "back pocket" springs to mind - the network's promotion of Ohio gubernatorial candidate John Kasich stands out as uniquely absurd.

As we've documented, Kasich is the former Fox News host that is currently the GOP candidate for governor in Ohio. In addition to repeatedly using his platform as a Fox host to position himself for a run, Kasich continued to appear regularly - at least 123 times - on-air as a Fox contributor from the time he announced that he was paving the way for a gubernatorial run in March of 2008 until he officially declared his candidacy on June 1, 2009. Since declaring his candidacy, Kasich has continued to reap benefits from his cozy relationship with the network, with several hosts campaigning for him and openly rooting for him.

As we noted earlier, Sean Hannity is currently under fire for allowing Kasich to promote his website and fundraise on Hannity's show on Thursday night. But Kasich's appearance on Hannity wasn't his only appearance on the network in the past few days.

On Saturday, Fox News host Mike Huckabee invited Kasich onto his show to field softballs about his modest upbringing and conservative bona fides. During the intro for the segment, Huckabee noted "in the interest of full disclosure" that he is "a friend of John and his wife Karen." He added that "as someone who has endorsed him, I am not the least bit objective." You don't say.

http://mediamatters.org/blog/201010180019