OK, maybe I am a little late to the party. I typically dont watch Fox "News" for the simple reason that they get too many of the straight facts wrong. It has little to do with slant, I understand that the network has both political opinion programming as well as what is touted as "news" reporting. And I get that they do not like President Obama. But I do prefer that the "news" stories have some amount of accuracy to them and the "60% right" point is a little too low for me to tune in. You know, the little things, like when there is a report of a gunman in a shopping mall (illustrative) I would like them to get the where, and for how long, and numbers of hostages right generally. Fox doesnt tend to do this well, so I dont tend to watch. But here in the south, many of the local businesses that have TVs in their establishments also, quite frequently, will have those TVs tuned to Fox. So there are times when it is unavoidable. I found myself in such a situation yesterday...
The "news" flash that ran across the screen astonished me. It was a story on the second largest tax increase in U.S. history. As was dutifully pointed out by the commentator... Kelly something another, that the first largest tax increase was the ACA. But this followed close on its heels. Obama (leaving off the "president" title) was backtracking on a campaign pledge to raise the taxes on small business owners by some huge number they flashed up. A daunting number to be sure.
Now let me say that I have been paying a bit of attention to the political situation here in the U.S. over the past few years and I recall Pres. Obama's pledge to let the Bush tax cuts lapse for the over 250K'ers, but apparently FOX has only now gotten word.
There was of course the gratuitous clip of Pr. Obama talking about how tax increases were not a good idea during a recession, but as usual, the first part of that conversation was cut off, you know... the part where he clearly explains he is discussing "middle class" tax increases. Pres. Obama makes it clear he is opposing a republican led effort to raise middle class taxes if they couldnt get the Bush tax deal for the wealthiest. Indeed, it didnt take long to locate the requisite YouTube to identify where the news clip came from and what he was talking about at the time.
So - OK, they got the "pledge" wrong and the talking points were cut to make their point seem valid. So what? Well, then they carted out Lou Dobbs to "comment" on this tax increase. I guess this is the part where it suddenly switches from News to political commentary or something. Lou obligingly refers to the Imperious Obama Administration through his entire screed. What is curious, is the interaction between the "news" anchor and Dobbs, where we have a "he says this will effect only 5% of small business owners." (a number that was confirmed by the CBO and others) and Dobbs replies - "that is a lie... the number is more like 77%" I am thinking at this point WOW! 77%, I need to get into the small business game because apparently more than 3/4's of them are pulling in a cool quarter of a million a year in personal (taxable) income. Alas, everything that I have read since suggests that the Presidents numbers are closer to correct. Never mind that though, Mr. Dobbs and the anchor seem to have a right little gaggle going on about our "imperious leader." Lou spouted off a few other numbers that I also looked up while there... they too were incorrect by a large factor. For instance, they still get the concept of marginal tax rates wrong. My point is of course, that all of this is being presented as though any number quoted by the president is suspect but any number quoted by Fox (or its minions) is the truth. A sort of pseudo-fact checking.
Next story - the evils of ACA
Next story - the campaign trail and Pres. Obamas poll numbers
Next story - the evil DOJ blocking voter fraud legislation
In fact, during the entire segment I watched, nothing but stories about president Obama and his "failures" with commentator after commentator supporting the thesis that no one was to be trusted but the Fox News Network.
But I didnt see a story on Mittens. No stories on proposed policy. No stories on comparisons between foreign policy goals, economic policy goals, etc. just one long diatribe filled with inaccuracies against the president. Sure it has the trappings of "newscasting." It has the Anchor there, the headlines running across the bottom. So it looks very legitimate.
What is my point you ask? Havent we been through this before? Yes we have, but I guess I just didnt believe. I had thought that Fox had a few bad apples that cut speeches, and misquoted numbers, but generally this was a network of incompetence, not of complicity. So welcome to my awakening. The trouble is so many people watch only this network. If this is all you see, you can not help but question any government statement or number. You can not help but hate President Obama. This raises the obvious question. What happens when they are in power? How do you turn the tide of government hate into a community that wishes to be governed again? My question is rhetorical of course. We know what will happen. That hate can and will be turned against other segments of our populace. I suggest that should the GOP win control of the house, senate, and presidency the only way they can rule is by making more bad guys. This may take the form of another war in the middle east. It may take the form of targeted restriction of rights (antigay, anti-black, anti-hispanic, anti-something). To keep their hard won "victory" some devil, some enemy must be found, and find it Fox will.
So be ready, it is more than the economy that will suffer should this group of hoodlums find its way back into power. And Fox News will be there to cover the cross burnings - handing out lighters.