Today’s Fox and Friends Pushes Yesterday’s Debunked Story To Attack POTUS
Reported by Aunty Em - September 28, 2011 -
I’ll often poke around the Media Matters to see what I’ve missed when I’m not watching Fox News. Yesterday I couldn’t help but run across an article titled, “Wash. Post's Sargent Deflates Story That White House Pressured Ford Over Ads,” quoting a Greg Sargent article. That’s why I was so surprised to hear FBN reporter Charles Gasparino [who looks a lot older on-air than his FBN bio page. Who is he trying to kid?] say the exact opposite on Fox and Friends this morning. Here’s Sargent yesterday, who did that thing called “reporting:”
That would be quite a story indeed -- the latest example of heavy handed White House bullying of the private sector, all in service of its hated auto bailout. Except there's a small problem: Ford and the White House are both denying the tale, and the original report that is the basis for all the chatter today is not even sourced at all.
And here was Gasparino today, aided and abetted by the Foxy Friends on the Curvy Couch, doing that thing called “making shit up.” Gasparino likened the non-existent, bogus, now debunked White House pressure as, “… kind of like the call you get from Don Corleone.” The Foxes and all their Foxy Friends laughed. Watch:
Video courtesy of Media Matters
When those same Foxy Friends asked why Ford Motors would play along with the government, Gasparino just pulled more stuff out of his ass:
“Let’s face it. The government is huge. It regulates them on a lotta things. Even if they didn’t take bailout money they’re regulated by the EPA and God knows what else. Um, yeah. When government gets this big—it gets this powerful—and it has the power to pull ads. This is not unprecedented. I’ve seen it—I’ve covered state and local governments for years. If state governments didn’t like something a business was doing, call them up and—particularly a Wall Street firm that needs to underwrite bond business from that state government—they would do exactly what the governor’s office said. So, this happens all the time.”
See? It happens all the time. It’s so ubiquitous Fox “News” and Charles Gasparino can’t be bothered to prove a single word of it and just make it up as they go along. Forgive me if I now think of him as Gasbagarino.
