• Variety, Friday, October 5, 2007 11 AM

Cable news nets have upped the weaponry in their wars of words as Fox News, CNN and MSNBC take aim at one another, feeding off controversies, real and imagined. One recent spat occurred just this week when "Fox and Friends" hit out at CNN's "God's Warriors" series, calling it anti-Semitic and questioning its accuracy.

"There have been a number of religious organizations who said that CNN absolutely got this story completely wrong,' said co-anchor Steve Doocy on the air. Of course, the CNN series gave the net a ratings boost as it beat Fox News all three nights it aired, averaging 2 million viewers. CNN, which airs fewer talking-head opinion shows than its rivals and usually doesn't engage opponents on the air, is also joining the fray. Rick Sanchez, who took over Paul Zahn's 8 p.m. show in August, has gone after Fox News' Bill O'Reilly after some racially-charged radio comments.

Says Victor Neufeld, executive producer of the show, when it reported on O'Reilly. "People like Bill O'Reilly, Lou Dobbs or Wolf Blitzer are household names, and they have as much stature as major political figures," he adds. "If any of these individuals say anything that's controversial, it's equal to Sen. Biden calling Barack Obama 'articulate.' "

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