Fox manipulates video to attack Obama

Media Matters has caught another Fox fabrication.

This time, Fox News 'reporter' Wendell Goler repeatedly aired a video clip in which President Obama seems to declare his support for imposing a "European-style" universal health care system on the United States. Goler used the clip to support Republican attacks on the President's spending policies and his supposedly "European" priorities.

The problem is, President Obama never said any such thing. The clip Goler used was from a March 26 online town hall event, and President Obama was paraphrasing a written question submitted by the audience. In his answer, the President said that while he does support universal health care, he doesn't support imposing a European or Canadian system on the United States.

I actually want a universal health care system; that is our goal...whether we do it exactly the way European countries do or Canada does is a different question, because there are a variety of ways to get to universal health care coverage... I don't think the best way to fix our health care system is to suddenly completely scrap what everybody is accustomed to and the vast majority of people already have. Rather, what I think we should do is to build on the system that we have and fill some of these gaps.

Despite the plain meaning of President Obama's words, Fox and Goler took them completely out of context to support the President's Republican critics.

It wasn't an accident -- Fox aired at least three different versions of Goler's hit piece. Watch the video, starting with what President Obama actually said: