Fox’s Peter Johnson Delivers 111 GOP Bullet Points
Reported by Guest Blogger - November 4, 2009 -
Guest blogged by Notveryhow
“Ho, Ho, Ho,” Doocy began a segment on yesterday's (11/3/09) Fox & Friends. “Some believe that health care reform could come to a Congressional vote around Christmas...what surprises could Americans find under their tree when Santa Pelosi comes down the chimney?” With video.
"Peter, so these are political presents from Pelosi?” Doocy asked Fox News legal analyst Peter Johnson.
Johnson, looking less Grinch-like than usual surrounded by wrapped Christmas presents, informed Doocy that “According to Congressional Republicans, there are 111 new boards, bureaucracies, commissions and programs in the Pelosi bill... Are these the gifts that keep on taking?” I think we all know his answer to that question.
In a voice just dripping with incredulity and sarcasm, Johnson continued, “...When you look at the 111 bureaucracies, commissions, programs, pilot projects, demonstrations...it’s daunting...it’s staggering.”
Then, in a rather tacky move, Johnson read a laundry list of names of the proposals off the gift tags on the wrapped presents. Each one just happened to come from the House Republican Conference. Johnson noted such proposals as:
“The Comparative Effectiveness Research Commission;”
(Now why would we need that? If bleedings and Dr Rush’s “Thunder Clappers” were good enough for George Washington, they’re good enough for Republicans - and the Fox News audience. There was nobody on to offer an alternative perspective.)
“Public Health Workforce Loan Forgiveness Program;”
(It might be a good thing to rectify the shortage of doctors to treat the uninsured but again, it was one, Republican, perspective only, being offered.)
Instead of balance, Doocy piped in with an approving, “But there’s more!”
It’s curious that he would feel the need to say that. With Johnson repeating “111" twice, and a banner reading “Bill May Create 111 New Bureaucracies," you’d think that the Fox News audience would have figured that out. Maybe math is not their strong suit.
But then Johnson lapsed into truly tortured phrasing. “Is this a Petri Dish of Policy? Is this a Greenhouse of Bureaucratic Botanicals?” Great Zeus! Who writes that stuff? That’s worse than me on a bad, bad day.
Johnson closed with “We’re going to report, you decide...”
Yes indeed. Johnson spent nearly 4 minutes reading off the Policy News from the House Republican Conference, with sarcasm, loaded questions, hyperbolic “ it’s daunting...it’s staggering," tacky Christmas presents as props, alluding to gifts to “SEIU” and “Big Pharma," and with Doocy’s enthusiastic, “But there’s more." And now they had the chutzpah to say, “We’re going to report, you decide...”
Who do they think they’re fooling? Is there one rational person on this planet who can’t see that Fox is undeniably just, as Anita Dunn described it, “...the communications arm of the Republican Party.”
