Why Fox News is so Dangerous
Reported by Melanie - October 8, 2004 -
With a straight face, a calm voice, and an extraordinarily professional demeanor, Kelly Wright delivered a cunning report about tonight's presidential debate today (October 8, 2004) on Dayside w/Linda Vester. Here's how it went.
Wright, dressed in a suit and standing in front of a stately building on the campus of Washington University in St. Louis, said Gallup selected the 140 audience members for the debate. Wright said they will be evenly divided between "soft" Bush and Kerry voters, with a small percentage of undecided voters. Charles Gibson of ABC News, the moderator, will be seated and will introduce those audience members who participate by name. Thirty small mics will be scattered around the studio. Kerry will take the first question. Kerry will be first to make a closing statement, Bush second. Gibson will try to keep the questions evenly divided between foreign and domestic affairs.
Wright said Bush and Kerry are both familiar with the town hall format as they've both conducted numerous town hall meetings during the campaign. "President Bush could have an edge in such a format. As for John Kerry, he may have to exercise some consideration about making any gaffes. During a town hall meeting in West Virginia, you may recall how Kerry made a remark that gave ammunition to his critics, claiming that he was a flip flopper when he said, quote, I actually did vote for the 87 billion dollars before I voted against it."
A preview of what Americans may see tonight, Wright said, is the sharp exchange between Bush and Kerry on the report on Iraq weapons of mass destruction.
This is the fourth time in consecutive presidential elections that debates have been held at Washington University. In 2000 the final debate between then-governor Bush and Al Gore was held there, according to Wright.
Wright said that after the debate both candidates will go to post-debate parties and that St. Louis is the birthplace of the blues and no one wants to be singing the blues after the debate, they want to make it a gateway to the west wing in the White House in Washington, D.C.
COMMENT: Surely Wright will get a pat on the back from his bosses for this report. What he said about Bush was positive. He worked in "gaffe" and "flip flopper" when speaking of Kerry, and he even repeated the 87 billion dollar vote statement which the Republicans can't repeat often enough. Amidst it all, given Wright's professional and calm demeanor, you might never know you'd been hit with a piece of propaganda. It's not only the screamers and the ranters and ravers like Bill O'Reilly or Sean Hannity who deliver the Republican goods at Fox. The calm, softer spoken ones do too, which is precisely what makes Fox News so dangerous.
