I was about to say that you can't make this stuff up. But if you're Fox News, you can make up absolutely anything that you like. Check out this glaring headline from the Website The Fox Nation:
If you care to read the story and watch the video associated with this headline, you can find it here. Now, every single headline and image from that site has full-tilt conservative slant. But there's a difference between "slant" and "accusation of violating the territorial integrity of the United States."
The image associated with the headline is clearly designed to make you think that the entire section of Arizona in red has somehow been ceded to Mexico. That would be pretty alarming, wouldn't it! So what's the truth behind this? I'll let Media Matters take it from here. Ari Rabin-Havt, Vice-President for Research and Communications, sent a letter to Fox News demanding a correction of the record:
Dear Mr. Clemente:
I am writing to you to demand that you correct a glaring error made both on Fox News and on Fox's website The Fox Nation.
The Fox Nation used the preposterous headline "Obama Gives Back Major Strip of AZ to Mexico" to trumpet a report about a closure of land in a national wildlife refuge in Arizona. During that America Live report, guest host Shannon Bream stated: "A massive stretch of Arizona now off limits to Americans. Critics say the administration is, in effect, giving a major strip of the Southwest back to Mexico."
But according to Bonnie Swarbrick, who is the public information officer for the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge in Arizona, the "massive stretch" of land is about five miles square, it's been closed since 2006, and it obviously hasn't been given back to Mexico.
Swarbrick told Media Matters that the area in the refuge bordering Mexico was "closed in 2006 during the construction of a vehicle barrier." Work on the vehicle barrier progressed into the construction of a 12-foot fence along the part of the refuge that borders Mexico, which is about seven miles long. The area has been kept closed "to allow the Border Patrol to do their work," she said. Swarbrick added that the small strip of land that is closed makes up "less than 0.03 percent" of the refuge and said that the rest of the reserve is still open to the public.
So let's recap. In 2006, the Bush Administration closed off a five-square-mile stretch of the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge to the public to allow the Border Patrol to improve security. Owing to mission creep of sorts, this section stayed closed. And how does Fox interpret this? That President Obama is giving vast stretches of land back to Mexico.
Biased journalism is one thing. Propaganda, even, is one thing. This transcends those categories into something else altogether: blatant, intentional, pants-on-fire falsehoods designed to deliberately mislead an audience that is already primed to believe them.
It takes something extraordinary for me to characterize something this way, but this type of conduct is not just irresponsible. It is inimical to America.
