Fox News should be studied, academically, in all high school civics classes as a way to teach students how to be critical of the media-- because, thankfully, Fox is so ridiculously overt in its lies and partisanship, even a 14 year old should be able to grasp it.
Sadly, their parents probably wouldn't.
Take this story, for example: GOP Sounds Alarm Over Obama Decision to move Census to White House.
Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, told FOX News on Tuesday that he finds it hard to believe the Obama administration felt the need to place re-evaluation of the inner workings of the Census so high atop his to-do list, just three weeks into his presidency.
"This is nothing more than a political land grab," Chaffetz said.
This is what happens, I guess, when you take all your quotes-- and, indeed, your agenda-- from just one side of the aisle. Class is in session.
Utah's congressional delegation is calling President Obama's decision to move the U.S. census into the White House a purely partisan move and potentially dangerous to congressional redistricting around the country.
In a vacuum, this passage might just seem completely straight forward and innocuous. Utah's congressional delegation disagrees with Obama's decision to move the US census into bureau into the "White House."
Only, the bureau of the census is not being removed from the Commerce Department. The director of the census (who has yet to be named) will be having a "close relationship" with top white house aids.
This is useful, considering that the census is supposed to be done next year. Making the census a priority is a good thing, right? But not if it's political, says the entirely ultra-conservative Utah congressional delegation.... we should definitely consider anything a "liberal"-- ahem-- President does as partisan. Especially with how he's treating the Stimulus package.
Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, told FOX News on Tuesday that he finds it hard to believe the Obama administration felt the need to place re-evaluation of the inner workings of the Census so high atop his to-do list, just three weeks into his presidency.
I don't know, Jason, maybe Obama reads the New York Times? The Salt Lake City Tribune is undoubtably a quality paper, but that little NYT paper seems to have a following on the coast.
"It takes something that is supposedly apolitical like the census, and gives it to a guy who is infamously political," Bishop said of Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, who would be tasked with overseeing the census at the White House.
That's just wrong, right there-- in two ways.
First, the census is VERY political-- by it's very nature, it's meant to do nothing more than remap the congressional districts and deal with taxes. Inherently political. A little disingenuous to conflate the non-partisan nature of number counting and executive agencies themselves with "not political." Then again, this report seems to toss around "census"-- the act-- with "census bureau"-- the office-- as if there's no difference.
Secondly, Rahm is chief of staff. Last I checked, he wasn't the director of the Census Bureau. Working with White House staff does not mean directed by White House Staff.
The U.S. census -- a counting of the U.S. population -- is conducted every 10 years by the Commerce Department. Its results determine the decennial redrawing of congressional districts
That's like saying the tracking of Hurricanes is done by the Commerce Department.
No, it's done by the National Weather Service, which is within the Commerce Department, but I'm sure that doesn't fit the Fox agenda-- which we will be coming to shortly....
As a matter of impact, the census has tremendous political significance. Political parties are always eager to have a hand in redrawing districts so that they can maximize their own party's clout while minimizing the opposition, often through gerrymandering.
The census also determines the composition of the Electoral College, which chooses the president. If one party were to control the census, it could arguably try to perpetuate its own hold on political power.
I thought you just said it was apolitical.
Moreover, didn't we just acknowledge it's a federal agency overseen by the executive office-- and it's headed by a political appointee?
At this point the White House doesn't seem willing to go as far as saying what actually would be Emanuel's role will be in overseeing the census, and White House officials say census managers will work closely with top-level White House staffers, but will technically remain part of the Commerce Department.
So, what you're saying is, you have no idea what's going on, you don't know what Emanuel's role will be (beyond media boogey-man), and the Census will not have actually been moved into the White House, ala your headline.
Got it. You betcha.
But opponents are more than a bit worried and critics say it can't be expected that the White House chief of staff would handle the census in a neutral manner. Emanuel ran the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in the 2006 election and was instrumental in getting Democrats elected into the majority.
Hmmm. Well, that seems to be legitimate. We know Rahm is a bit of a bulldog partisan, maybe I myself, a citizen of the United States, should be worried that he may not "handle" the census in a neutral manner....
How, exactly, can census numbers be skewed? After all, a physical count is a physical count, right? Not exactly. Democrats have long advocated using mathematical estimates, a practice known as "sampling," to count urban residents and immigrants. Republicans say the Constitution requires a physical head count, which entails going door-to-door.
And if I didn't understand statistics (that a good sample could capture the make up of a population within 2 plus or minus percentage points of accurate, or know that some populations are difficult to get to with a head count (ahem, immigrants, transients and the urban poor, strangely enough), I'd think that those damn Democrats are trying to steal more elections by accurately counting minorities! The bastards!
Can we go back to how Rahm may not be neutral in his "handling" of the "census?"
When Obama named Bill Richardson his nominee to be commerce secretary -- Richardson was later forced to withdraw -- he indicated that Richardson would be in charge of the census.
The decision to move the census into the White House was announced just days after Obama named Republican Sen. Judd Gregg to be his commerce secretary. Gregg has long opposed "sampling" by the census and has voted against funding increases for the bureau.
You mean, Judd Gregg, the conservative who voted against funding-- increases? No, I think you mean "Emergency Funding." Emergency funding of an agency within a department Judd voted to abolish. And all this, after a President who directed cuts and underfunded the Census bureau-- which should be doing it's main function in a year.
Sabato said that moving the census "in-house" will likely set up a situation where neither the Commerce Department nor the White House will know exactly what is going on in the Census Bureau. He said the process is "too critical to politics for both parties not to pay close attention."
Besides the fact that we already know the Census is "technically" within the Commerce department, and not being moved at all, it seems strange that, by having the Census bureau director bypass a political appointee with a history of anti-census activity to communicate directly with White House staff, somehow-- this means less communication with the White House?
"I've always remembered what Joseph Stalin said: 'Those who cast the votes decide nothing. Those who count the votes decide everything.'
And I've always said, "if it's a Faux News story on Obama without a reference to Stalin, Mao or Socialism, then it just isn't Faux News story at all."
This would be funny if it weren't so subtle, in it's framing, it's phrasing and it's choice of fact.
Remember: people are reading this stuff and accepting it without the batting of an eye. This is controlling their view of reality.
So while you come here and you criticize the POTUS (rightly or wrongly), remember-- keep the arguments in-house and keep your public support as vocal as possible.
Class dismissed..