Until now, FOX News has been content to focus its efforts on fluff and political propaganda. But Newscorp's recent acquisition of Dow Jones & the WSJ means the game plan is sure to change with the launch of Fox Business News. Forgive my cynicism, but I fear that Fox will put the same spin on the financial news that they put on all other potentially political events. Not that Fox is bound to reporting the truth, in the first place.
Regular readers of the dailykos will probably share my guess as to why now? That answer is, because now is the time when they need to control the message regarding the US economy.
Since Bush's first budget, our nation has, individually and collectively, been robbing Peter to pay Paul. The National Debt ceiling has risen from $5.6 Trillion when Bush took office, to its current cap of $9 Trillion. And a recent diary by bonddad gives the eye-popping truth behind the upcoming cascade of mortgage defaults.
Personally, I'm astonished this chit has taken so long to come due; I'm a lot more pessimistic than our resident experts. Paying the piper has been postponed as long as possible, and a whole lotta pain is coming our way.
Fox Business News to the rescue
We've got the makings of a perfect storm coming. An election year, a bad economy, an unpopular war, and Republicans against the wall. Just the recipe for some spin, and just as sure as corruption follows power, Newscorp will abuse the authority they just bought as a lever to blame all negative economic news on the Democrats.
Picture this:
"Today the NASDAQ and S&P Indices continued to slip, down 22% from their highs of last summer. On a related note, a recent FBN/WSJ poll showed that the majority of Americans are pessimistic about the future as Democrat(sic) frontrunner Phillin LeBlank continues to gain ground among undecided voters in urban areas."
Or,
"... nervous traders reacted strongly to Democrat candidate Phillin LeBlank's speech at the 3rd annual YearlyKos convention, dumping stocks and fleeing to government bonds."
Or,
"... the dollar plunged against the Euro and Yuan today, as investors started to anticipate a likely win by Democrat candidate Phillin LeBlank."