If you thought Fox News was just reciting RNC talking points, well, you're correct. Tuesday night, Jon Stewart exposed this practice, after Steve Doocy stupidly read the RNC memo on the air telling pundits how to talk about the improving economy to make it still seem bad.
All right, so let me see if I get this straight. The numbers are real, but they're not good. In fact they're bad. Actually they're fake. And even if they were real and good, it wouldn't matter, because it's about how bad you feel and that's where we come in. Fox News, Rooting for America to Fail Since 2008.
But their early February pushback on the economic indicators is all over the place. You rarely see Fox this disorganized. Luckily on February 10th, the Republican National Committee sent out this "pundit prep" document, let me show it to ya. This little document here, it emphasized how to mitigate any damage that may be occurring from the improved economy.
It furnishes Republican pundits with three key areas to focus on: the national debt, unemployment, and the price of gas. Let's watch and see if the February 10th planting takes root. If you're playing at home, we're looking for the national debt, unemployment, and the price of gas.
TUCKER CARLSON (2/16/2012): The debt is the issue.
STUART VARNEY (2/17/2012): Why isn't the national debt the main issue?
SEAN HANNITY (2/20/2012): Rising unemployment and the country is deeper in debt.
BILL O'REILLY (2/23/2012): 15.6% U-6 unemployment
ERIC BOLLING (2/24/2012): At 8 1/2% unemployment and $4 for gas.
GRETCHEN CARLSON (2/14/2012): It is interesting, 'cause no one's talking about the gas prices.
GRETCHEN CARLSON (2/15/2012): Why is nobody talking about this? $3.57, and you might be asking the question, why is nobody talking about this?
BINGO!!
By the way, why is nobody talking about this? Oh my God, Gretchen Carlson is unable to hear her own voice. That is so tragic (whispers) for her.
So a lot of the pundits and news shows on Fox seem to have consolidated their negative economic spin around the same three distinct data points provided by the Republican National Committee pundit prep notes. That's not proof! You don't have one of Fox's talking heads, I don't know, reading the memo aloud, much to the chagrin of one of the other talking heads sitting next to them. Do we?
STEVE DOOCY (2/20/2012): The RNC sees trouble for the president regarding this, and apparently they sent out something according to the papers, it's called "Pundit Prep" for their talking heads to go out. They say the three best ways to define the Barack Obama economy: the national debt, which is skyrocketing; the unemployment, which is north of 8%; and gas prices.
Fascinating. And while we're here, Mr. Doocy, would you like to make the pivot from revealing the game, to playing it?
STEVE DOOCY (2/20/2012): ... and gas prices. The gas prices are impacting you. How has it affected you? What are you going without? E-mail us, we'd like to know.
What the....? You can't do that! .... And I'm not the only one who thinks Doocy wasn't supposed to do that. Watch Gretchen Carlson's laser eyes when she realizes he's giving up the game.
Video and transcript below the fold.
So it's good news, unless you work for a media organization whose job it is to make sure Obama doesn't get re-elected. You know what this means. To the returdinator!
FOX BUSINESS MAN (2/14/2012): We're bouncing back, but it's a really anemic sort of recovery.
LIZ CHENEY (2/5/2012): This is a very anemic recovery.
DICK MORRIS (2/20/2012): There ain't no recovery.
KARL ROVE (2/3/2012): About half the decline in the unemployment rate has come from people dropping out of the workforce because they got so discouraged.
TUCKER CARLSON (2/16/2012): Our real unemployment rate is well into the double digits.
DICK MORRIS (2/20/2012): The economic data that Obama is peddling is phony.
STUART VARNEY (2/7/2012): Is the government cooking the books on this one?
CLAYTON MORRIS (2/4/2012): We've talked to some political analysts who say regardless of the numbers, it's how you feel the three or four months before the election. How do you feel?
(prolonged audience laughter)
All right, so let me see if I get this straight. The numbers are real, but they're not good. In fact they're bad. Actually they're fake. And even if they were real and good, it wouldn't matter, because it's about how bad you feel and that's where we come in. Fox News, Rooting for America to Fail Since 2008.
But their early February pushback on the economic indicators is all over the place. You rarely see Fox this disorganized. Luckily on February 10th, the Republican National Committee sent out this "pundit prep" document, let me show it to ya. This little document here, it emphasized how to mitigate any damage that may be occurring from the improved economy.
It furnishes Republican pundits with three key areas to focus on: the national debt, unemployment, and the price of gas. Let's watch and see if the February 10th planting takes root. If you're playing at home, we're looking for the national debt, unemployment, and the price of gas.
TUCKER CARLSON (2/16/2012): The debt is the issue.
STUART VARNEY (2/17/2012): Why isn't the national debt the main issue?
SEAN HANNITY (2/20/2012): Rising unemployment and the country is deeper in debt.
BILL O'REILLY (2/23/2012): 15.6% U-6 unemployment
ERIC BOLLING (2/24/2012): At 8 1/2% unemployment and $4 for gas.
GRETCHEN CARLSON (2/14/2012): It is interesting, 'cause no one's talking about the gas prices.
GRETCHEN CARLSON (2/15/2012): Why is nobody talking about this? $3.57, and you might be asking the question, why is nobody talking about this?
BINGO!!
By the way, why is nobody talking about this? Oh my God, Gretchen Carlson is unable to hear her own voice. That is so tragic (whispers) for her.
So a lot of the pundits and news shows on Fox seem to have consolidated their negative economic spin around the same three distinct data points provided by the Republican National Committee pundit prep notes. That's not proof! You don't have one of Fox's talking heads, I don't know, reading the memo aloud, much to the chagrin of one of the other talking heads sitting next to them. Do we?
STEVE DOOCY (2/20/2012): The RNC sees trouble for the president regarding this, and apparently they sent out something according to the papers, it's called "Pundit Prep" for their talking heads to go out. They say the three best ways to define the Barack Obama economy: the national debt, which is skyrocketing; the unemployment, which is north of 8%; and gas prices.
Fascinating. And while we're here, Mr. Doocy, would you like to make the pivot from revealing the game, to playing it?
STEVE DOOCY (2/20/2012): ... and gas prices. The gas prices are impacting you. How has it affected you? What are you going without? E-mail us, we'd like to know.
What the....? You can't do that! That's like hosting a show with a labrador when this guy is on there! You just gave the game away! "You know they send out these talking points, which brings up a point I'd like to talk about." That ruins the game! It'd be like sending an e-mail to someone that says, "Hey, click on this". It opens up a video of Rick Astley singing "Never Gonna Give You Up", which under most circumstances, you would not expect to get.
And I'm not the only one who thinks Doocy wasn't supposed to do that. Watch Gretchen Carlson's laser eyes when she realizes he's giving up the game.
It's like she's giving the signal to the host-wrangler. It's like she just looked up and looked at the host-wrangler, "Dart him! Dart him!"
Jon also
showed the video of Mitt Romney gleefully talking about voting in the Democratic primary before to cause trouble, in light of how offended he is at the practice now.
Samantha Bee then sat down with Grover Norquist to
mock the living shit out of him.
Meanwhile, on Stephen's
1,000th show, he talked about the
rising oil prices before looking at some
right-wing state legislators who have proposed some batshit insane bills.
Jon interviewed comedian
Stephen Merchant, while Stephen interviewed economist
Ross Eisenbrey.