Fox Beginning to Paint a Picture of Sinister Democrats Trying to Buy the White House
Reported by Melanie - July 3, 2007 -
We all know it takes millions of dollars to launch a run for the presidency, no matter what your party affiliation is, but the picture Fox News is beginning to paint shows only Democrats raising huge amounts of cash and Fox's audience is beginning to translate that into Democrats trying to "buy" the presidency.
Yesterday Neil Cavuto aired a segment featuring inner sanctum conservative, Michael Barone of U.S. News & World Report, that asked, per the chyron at the bottom of the screen, "Campaign Cash: Will Most Money 'Buy' the Top Spot?"
7-3-07
Cavuto promoted the segment twice before it aired. The first promo consisted of a picture of Barack Obama and the words "Will it Pay Off?" underneath and audio of Cavuto speaking: "Well, he may be the Democrat raising the most cash but will that mean the most votes? You might just be surprised." The second promo featured another picture of Obama, the words "CASH KING!" underneath, and this audio from Cavuto in the background: "Barack Obama is the king of campaign cash, but can money buy you victory?"
During the segment with Barone (no, lots of money doesn't necessarily translate into a victory), there was no mention whatsoever of any of the Republican candidates nor did Fox air any video of any of them. Twice however, Fox showed a graphic featuring a picture of Obama, Hillary Clinton and John Edwards over the numerical amount they each raised last quarter, and a headline over all three that read, "THE MONEY TRAIL."
Meanwhile, the GOP presidential candidates announced their 2Q fundraising totals yesterday. Cavuto didn't "report" the amounts per se. There were no graphics and there was no segment. Instead, a chyron appeared at the bottom of the screen today during the "Biz Alert" that read: "Giuliani Won GOP Fundraising in Q2 at $15M, Romney 2nd at $14M."
Then, at the end of the show, during the mail segment, Cavuto read this email which revealed Fox's strategy: "Neil, I am far more offended at the raising of millions of special interest dollars to buy the presidency than I am at what is written across the back of a ball player's disgruntled wife's shirt. Where the f--- are our priorities!" (The writer is referring to this story about "A-Rod's" wife. Cavuto has aired two segments about it.)
Comment: "Some say" that behind every person who writes a letter to a politician or a news outlet there are thousands who don't so if that's true, what Fox is doing is working: Fox's audience is beginning to see the Democrats as sleazy and devious, taking "special interest money" and buying their way to the White House. I monitored Fox in 2004 during the run-up to the '04 election. It gleefully reported the huge sums George W. Bush raised and implied that the amounts proved that he was wildly popular; a obvious winner. There was never even the slightest hint that he was buying his way to the White House. The difference between then and now shows just how "fair and balanced" Fox isn't and it gives us a glimpse into what their propaganda line will be as we go forward.
