Occupy Wall Street Is Fox’s New Fair And Balanced Enemy
Reported by Aunty Em - October 7, 2011 -
It has become obvious to even the most myopic and politically uninvolved among us that Fox “News” is treating the organic Occupy Wall Street protests as an existential threat to its very existence. Why else would the network devote so much time to portraying the protestors as the scum of the earth? Contrast that with the breathless coverage Fox devoted to promoting the astroturfed Teabagger gatherings. Why would the coverage be so different from one protest to another? Because Fox understood instinctively that the Teabaggers were already its core audience: low information voters easily brainwashed into adopting whatever opinion the Koch Brothers and Dick Armey wanted. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED. However, the OWS protestors are decidedly NOT Fox viewers. Worse yet, for those who work at the company store in Murdochville, OWS will not be led by the nose into adopting opinions diametrically opposed to its best interests. That’s what scares the propaganda network the most. That’s why Fox “News” feels the need to do everything within its power to denigrate the Occupy movement. The same drip, drip, drip used to promote Teabaggism is now being used in an attempt to destroy the Occupy movement, at least in the minds of Fox viewers. It starts each day with those Foxy Friends on Fox and Friends, who set the ‘meme table’ for all the shows that follow on the schedule. Thursday morning’s “all hands on deck” call to trash Occupy Wall Street included—but was not limited to—such Fox personalities as Peter Johnson, Jr. and Eric Bolling. It’s worth examining both appearances in some detail. First up: Johnson, the Knight of Malta, who—at least according to Doocy’s intro—was brought on to compare this protest with other historical protests. This was not a history lesson. Johnson essentially delivered an editorial. Watch:
Video courtesy of Media Matters
In less than one minute Johnson managed to push the following agitprop: He called the protestors a “flash mob in search of a message” who are really “web cam Wobblies” displaying “all the trappings of revolution” but are really just “the Little Rascals gone camping” even though they are “not sure what the message is,” but “they are sure now that they’ve really become the unintentional dupes of a 2012 election” because [?] “there are no Democratic primaries in 2012” as “the most powerful unions in the U.S. are ginning up a message of class warfare, unfortunately, unfortunately.”
No, really. He said all that. A Sarah Palin Word Salad makes more sense than whatever Johnson attempted to spew above. It’s all a bunch of unfocused, negative non-sequitors strung together. In the end he said absolutely nothing. Meanwhile, less than an hour later Bully Boy Bolling showed up on the Curvy Couch and he was no more “fair and balanced” than Johnson, although he managed to make more sense. Take a look:
BOLLING: We’re finding more and more—I heard Michelle Malkin talk a little bit about it—finding more and more the unions are hooking into it—yannow, the very left wing, progressive groups. Move On dot org—which has been George Soros’-funded leftie organization—locking arms with Occupy Wall Street as well. [Two full seconds of stuttering] Here’s the issue: Move On dot org is very closely tied to, or—[more stuttering] ya—umm—err—Let’s put it this way: They backed Barack Obama very, very strongly in 2008—looks like they will be doing it again in 2012, so does the—does the Obama administration want to get behind left wing protesters downtown? I gotta say [if I were president], “I wanna keep my distance from them.”
The Gretch chimed in helpfully with, “Especially if it gets more violent.”
These are just 2 segments, of the many, which trashed Occupy Wall Street on Thursday’s Fox and Friends, a 3-hour show. And, that 3-hour show is just 1/8th of FNC’s broadcast day, which denigrated OWS every chance it could [with one exception]. That broadcast day is just 1/7th of this Fox Week, which continues in its attempt to demolish the Occupy movement. Here’s the silver lining: The more time Fox devotes to tearing down OWS, the less it has to promote the GOP candidate, when Fox “News” eventually chooses one on behalf of the Republican and Teabagger parties.
