Is Fox “News” trying to make a statement? An interesting thing is happening with their website….

Denise Chaffee (my wife, who I sometimes even get to see face-to-face!) called to tell me about something she’s noticed for several days now. She said, “Try this.”

So you go to the Fox “News” website. Go to a story that does not have negative ramifiications for the Bush administration in and of itself. For example, click today that would mean clicking on the story about Condi Rice preparing to testify before the 9/11 commission. The story puts a very positive spin on her expected performance. It quotes senators saying they think she will do a very good job. It mentions that she’s taking it seriously and that it’s no laughing matter. It says she views this as an important opportunity to work with the commission. Bush says that “she’s a very smart, capable person who knows exactly what took place and will lay out the facts.”

Now use your back button to return to the main page of the Foxnews.com website. Click on any story that would appear to be politically neutral. For example, the story titled “Lawyer: Audrey’s Getting Treatment.” (I’m deliberately not linking these stories, because you need to follow the procedure I’m outlining to see what happens.) After reading that story, use your back button to return to the main page again.

Now click on a story that is either critical or potentially damaging to the Bush Administration. For example, today the story I used is “Kerry: Bush Has Driven Up Deficit.” (The actual story, once you get there, will be titled, “Kerry Unveils Economic Plan.”) Did you see what happened on the way to the story?

It also happens if you’re sitting at the Kerry story (or any other that triggers this behavior) and, after moving over to another program, you use “alt-tab” to switch back to the Fox “News” site.

At first, I thought perhaps this was related to stories about people running for the Presidency. But if you go to their “Politics” page you’ll note some confusing behavior. This little trick pops up for a story about Peter Coors making a bid for a Senate seat — the story indicates this will pit Coors against a conservative Republican (possibly doing to the Republicans what that idiot Nader does to the Democrats when he runs?). It pops up for a story about the Military Voting System problems — which starts off with a statement critical of the Pentagon. It also pops up on the way to a story about environmentalists — which, of course, are one of the scourges of the Bush Administration. It’s beyond me why it pops up for the story about Inglewood voters rejecting Wal-Mart.

On the other hand, it doesn’t pop up for a story about Air America. It doesn’t pop up for the story about the ACLU challenging the no-fly list. And it doesn’t pop up before the story about the Russian Defense Minister complaining about NATO and the West.

Perhaps it’s all just some creative trick gone awry at Fox “News”; perhaps it’s just one more behavior proving where Fox’s heart really lies — with entertainment, and not the news. Perhaps it’s not — as my wife “opines” — some kind of subliminal message.

I just wonder why this image needs to be popping up en route to “news” stories at all.