Fox lies about control of the Senate (Updated)

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Thursday January 04, 2007 · 7:55 AM PST

2007/01/04 · 07:55

When is the majority not the majority? When Fox News is doing the reporting, of course!

Flipping through the coverage this morning of the new day in Congress, I had the unfortunate opportunity of catching a snippet of Fox News. There, an in-studio host (E.D. Hill) was speaking to a Washington correspondent, Brian Wilson, about the Democratic control of Congress. After laughably lamenting the fact that the now-in-charge Democrats appeared to be casting bipartisanship aside, talk turned to the U.S. Senate.

Wilson repeatedly termed the state of the Senate's control at 51-50 with the Democrats in charge. Unless we've added a state while I wasn't looking, that's a flat-out lie. Even the lower-third graphic at the bottom of the screen called the Senate as it is, 51-49 Democrats. Yet that didn't stop Wilson from lying through his teeth.

Then, talk turned to the health of Democratic Sen. Tim Johnson, recovering from recent brain surgery. Like vultures, both Hill and Wilson speculated what would happen were Johnson unable to perform his duties (the correspondent went so far as to say that, as he had heard, the senator was still unable to speak). But even temporarily without Johnson, control of the Senate still rests with the Democrats, 50-49. Not, as our friends at Fox said, a 50-50 tie with Vice President Cheney casting a deciding vote.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I doubt it (and feel free to set the record straight). I mean, what's more likely? Me being wrong about who's really in charge of the Senate, or Fox lying to its viewers? All signs point to the latter.

UPDATE: It's happened again, during a new report during the 11 o'clock hour. This isn't a fluke; it's a new talking point.

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