Ellie Sandmeyer, of Media Matters, writes Fox Surprised Public Isn't Buying Its Efforts To Smear Clinton. Fox News is embarrassed today that it's own poll shows the American People trust Hillary Clinton than the entire group of potential presidential candidates, despite Fox New's multiyear campaign to smear Clinton with Benghazi and nearly anything else it could dream up. Elizabeth Hasselbeck and and Steve Doocy figure the only possible explanation could be the liberal media's choice to report Bridgegate and ignore Benghazi. Oh, yes, and Hasselbeck reminds us of our political systems long-standing bias in favor of women.
According to Fox News' most recent poll data, 54 percent of registered voters consider Hillary Clinton "honest and trustworthy," a higher percentage than potential Republican 2016 presidential candidates Jeb Bush and Christie Christie received. At 49 percent, her favorability rating is higher than that of the Republican Party, the Democratic Party, and all GOP 2016 contenders.
Fox hosts Elisabeth Hasselbeck and Steve Doocy addressed Clinton's poll numbers on the April 17 edition of Fox & Friends by blaming liberal bias in the mainstream media. Doocy complained that Clinton was viewed as more trustworthy than Christie because the "mainstream media [...] beat the drum" against Christie rather than report on the 2012 attacks in Benghazi, in an effort to "take him out." According to Hasselbeck, the poll could be due to a perception bias that favors women:
Transcript from Fox news.
DOOCY: You know what's interesting about that poll is -- remember it wasn't too long before the whole bridge thing hit the mainstream media fan where Chris Christie was actually leading Hillary Clinton. But then the mainstream media -- and some cynics on the right would say, well they were just trying to take Chris Christie out because he posed the greatest threat for Hillary Clinton -- nonstop coverage on all the channels about that Bridgegate thing.
And when you think about the two potential candidates, you've got Chris Christie who, you know, a while back was involved, his administration put up 25 traffic cones in Fort Lee, New Jersey, and generated hundreds of hours of mainstream media Bridgegate television. And then far screen right you've got Hillary Clinton who ran the State Department which denied extra security for Libya and four Americans wind up dying. I mean that is quite a contrast. You've got 25 orange cones versus four dead Americans -- but you've got the mainstream media and they beat the drum for Chris Christie, against him, and nobody on the other side of the channel is really covering Benghazi, unless us.
HASSELBECK: Well, perception and reality are two different things. I think it is. In the past women have polled better in terms of trust when it comes to politics. But again, as you mentioned, you know, this is a woman who has been ridden with scandal in the past particularly recently when we talk about Benghazi and four Americans dead. She is still found to be more trustworthy at this point. Go figure.
The actual truth of the matter is quite the opposite. Fox News barely reported any of the original Bridgegate scandal, and still downplays information that could hard GOP candidats. ]
Sandmeyer notes:
In particular, the network has politicized the 2012 Benghazi attacks in an attempt to skewer Clinton's credibility: baselessly accusing her of faking an illness in order to avoid testifying before Congress, fantasizing that she and the State Department colluded to mislead the American people by removing information from unclassified talking points, and promoting Republicans' claims that Clinton personally signed a cable to scale back security at the Benghazi compound prior to the attacks, despite the fact that every one of these myths have been repeatedly and thoroughly debunked by fact checkers, independent investigations, and congressional testimony.
Adding more poignancy to this "faux outrage," Sandmeyer reminds us that Fox News has repeatedly tried to revive "scandals" that never even existed, including Whitewater, Travelgate, and Filegate, as well as try to taint her with her husbands indescretions with Monica Lewinski.
I posted the details of an earlier Fox News released of 2016 election polls which I will put in the links.
Is it wrong that I am not only smiling, but LMFAO?
2:18 PM PT: It's been a slow day in terms of prosecutorial news so far. I was hoping to attach this low level news link to some other big breaking Christie news, but as I've seen none yet, I'll post it here.
Christopher Baxter, of the Star-Ledger, writes In response to bridge scandal review, Christie names Seton Hall dean as ombudsman
TRENTON — In response to the review of his office commissioned in the wake of the September lane closings at the George Washington Bridge, Gov. Chris Christie today appointed Seton Hall University Law School Dean Patrick Hobbs as a new, independent ombudsman.
The governor's office said Hobbs, who has led the law school since 1999, will be an impartial outlet for employees to raise concerns and assist in evaluating and revising policies for how employees communicate via email.
Evidence has shown the Governors staff routinely used private email for the work of the Governor's office, raising suspicions this was to evade the state "sunshine" records transparency regulations.
The governor's office said Hobbs will have "complete autonomy" over the position, which will be responsible for ensuring staffers have robust ethics training, help establish the position of chief ethics officer and create a system for employees to report wrongdoing.
2:59 PM PT: Christie, Bush, and Paul are top GOP 2016 picks, Hillary tops Biden and Warren, HRC tops CC by 8
3:01 PM PT: 'Who are the Koch brothers and what do they want?' ask Bernie Sanders