Greta Van Susteren and Husband: Friends With Benefits

Jeremy Peters NYT: Greta Van Susteren, the Fox News host, faced questions on Wednesday about whether she should have disclosed the friendship between her husband, a noted Washington lawyer, and Herman Cain, whose wife, Gloria, granted Ms. Van Susteren an exclusive interview. The appearance was a huge coup for Fox News, coming shortly after Mr. Cain was accused of sexually harassing several women. The friendship between Mr. Cain and Ms. Van Susteren’s husband, John Coale, came to light after NY1 reported that Mr. Coale had called Cindy Adams, The New York Post gossip columnist, to cancel a dinner with Mr. Cain and media luminaries like Barbara Walters and Matt Lauer. Ms. Van Susteren would not comment on the record on Wednesday about whether she had ever disclosed to Fox executives her husband’s friendship with Mr. Cain. And she did not answer a nother question, posed to her in an e-mail from The New York Times, about whether anyone at Fox News had pressed her to mention the friendship on her 10 p.m. Fox News Channel program. Some journalists in the news division of Fox, which has long felt that its reporting is unfairly associated with Fox’s right-leaning hosts like Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly and Ms. Van Susteren, were said to have voiced their concerns about yet another example of coziness between Republicans and the network.  Mr. Coale called The Times to say that his friendship with Mr. Cain had no influence on Ms. Van Susteren. No money or strategic advice ever changed hands, he said, just dinner and informal talk. “I didn’t advise him,” Mr. Coale said. “Why should Greta have to disclose every time I have dinner with one of my friends?”

Related:  The Daily Beast's Howard Kurtz:  "Greta Van Susteren’s Husband Defends Role Advising Herman Cain."

John Coale, Sarah Palin, Greta Van Susteren

Todd Palin, Sarah Palin, far right, John Coale.  April 30, 2011 WHCA dinner. Haddad Media

Van Susteren and Coale entered into a similar troubling symbiotic relationship with Sarah and Todd Palin.  Coale claimed he was just Palin's "friend." 

"The Protectors of the Palin Brand" Chris Cillizza Wash Post Mar. 17, 2009

Van Susteren is getting hammered for not revealing Coale's "friendship" with Herman Cain. TVNewser Huff Post

In other words, is Coale a pimp for his wife?  The larger issue is not Greta's failure to disclose Coale's friends, it is the exclusive ratings-busting interviews and access Greta enjoys as a result fueled by the popular Fox News host's unrestrained self-promotion. 

Mutually beneficial cultivation of media-source relationships are nothing unusual.  In 1992 Larry King's career shot through the stratosphere when he hitched himself and his CNN show to Ross Perot's crazy presidential wagon.  Other candidates quickly jumped on Larry's soapbox to take advantage of the new, free campaign tool reaching thousands of cable news viewers.