The Fox Drill Word Is “Drill”
Reported by Priscilla - July 19, 2008 -
Propaganda involves the repetition of words and phrases which serve to underscore the message that the purveyor of the propaganda wishes to communicate. Fox’s candidate, John McCain (along with many – not all – in the Republican Party) want off shore drilling in order to, they claim, reduce the price of fuel. As the reinforcer of whatever is trendy in republican circles, Fox is now reinforcing the message of offshore drilling as evidenced by Monday’s, Wednesday’s and last night’s (July 18th) Hannity and Colmes, all of which worked in the pro drilling meme.
Michael Steele substituted for Sean Hannity last night and his rational and calm demeanor was far superior to the usual right wing zealotry and histrionics accompanied by the pudgy finger pointing that are an essential part of the Hannity persona. Colmes actually had equal time!!!! The discussions were actually “fair and balanced.” Although Brent Bozell got to whine about Obama getting more press coverage than McCain, Colmes was able to ask pertinent questions. There was one segment, however, that served to get the perfunctory Fox drilling point across, in addition to reinforcing the Al Gore as hypopcrite meme that is also a popular Fox talking point.
The piece concerned a recent ad, done by Americans For Prosperity, which was an attempt to show that Al Gore doesn’t practice what he preaches. The group describes itself as committed to “educating citizens about economic policy and mobilizing those citizens as advocates in the public policy process.” Taking a page out of Bill O’Reilly’s production book, the group harangued those who were getting out of cars and taxis at an Al Gore speech, basically accusing them (and Gore) of being environmentally hypocritical because they didn’t take mass transit. When some of the attendees talked about how high oil prices will force us to look at energy alternatives, the prosperity advocates accused them of supporting high oil prices. The video is available here. Steele and Colmes interviewed AFP’s Ed Frank, who (not noted) was recently employed by President Bush as director of media relations for the US Department of Labor. Frank, who was in the video, denied the suggestion, by Colmes, that he was harassing people.
Frank went through the usual republican talking points about how we need to look at all sources of energy, including off shore drilling. Steele used that as a springboard from which to say that Obama doesn’t want offshore drilling and that is “the one thing that gets us on the road to energy independence and that’s drill, baby, drill.”
Comment: Once again, Fox gets to promote offshore drilling and slam Barack Obama without noting the reasons for Obama’s position as noted in a recent campaign statement: “If offshore drilling would provide short-term relief at the pump or a long-term strategy for energy independence, it would be worthy of our consideration, regardless of the risks. But most experts, even within the Bush Administration, concede it would do neither. It would merely prolong the failed energy policies we have seen from Washington for thirty years,” But why bother with a “fair and balanced” analysis when it might undermine the propaganda!
