It's Crazy-Making
Reported by Melanie - January 12, 2005
Imagine you know nothing about the recount in the race for the governorship of the state of Washington. Imagine turning on the Fox News Channel and hearing the following "news" report. After you read the report, ask yourself what the "news" report told you and what sort of picture you have about what happened.
Shepard Smith today (January 12, 2005) at the end of Studio B:
"Well, that's it, that's all for Studio B, except for one item that's just coming in to us. Christine Gregoire, out in the state of Washington, has just been, ah, signed into office. And you know there is, there was, all kinds of, man, all kinds of trouble out there. It was just so close. It's a decidedly Democratic state. Gregoire has been sworn in and Republicans are vowing to fight it. They're like, look, there were a lot of dead people voting. And there were voting irregularities and all the rest. That's why it was separated by like a vote and a half, plus the cat. [Yes, Smith said "plus the cat."] It was really close in Washington state. So the Republicans are going to push for a revote since they didn't win and the Democrats want to keep this since they won. That's how it works, isn't it? Oh, there is [sic] live pictures now. But we're out of time now."
COMMENT: I just made a post titled False Advertising, about a new ad Fox is running to promote itself. The ad says Fox has "reporters who uncover the truth" and correspondents who "get the story right." ("Right" is right.) It says you can find "real journalism" on Fox News. Compare Smith's "news" report above to the claims made in Fox's new ad and you'll know why I think the ad can only be seen as propaganda.
(By the way, if the Democrats were challenging a vote count, after it had been certified and the Republican candidate sworn in, you can be sure Fox would be all over it. Democrats would be sore losers, whiners, UnAmerican and probably worse. To live up to its "fair and balanced" mantra, Fox might want to start doing the same to the Republicans on this story right now.)
