Gretchen Carlson Advances Zombie Lie : Pres. Obama Disses Successful People
Part of the genius of Fox News propaganda is that it is reinforced. Once Fox gets hold of an issue, it is featured on a variety of Fox shows. What starts out as just another outrage morphs into just another right wing narrative. As I reported, Fox has taken a quote from an Obama campaign speech, cropped it, and provided a unique "interpretation" that has no basis in reality - but one that corresponds with the right wing meme that Obama is engaging in class warfare and, in this case, attacking success. It was spun on both The Five and Sunday's Fox & Friends during which Fox priest Fr. Jonathan Morris provided the requisite Fox "interpretation." On yesterday's Fox & Friends, Gretchen Carlson provided even more reinforcement of this zombie lie. Congratulations, Fox News, it's a meme.
Read moreBill O’Reilly Threatens To Quit Investing “Aggressively” If His Taxes Go Up
Remember when Bill O’Reilly threatened to quit his job if tax hikes for millionaires were enacted? And then recanted? Well, it looks like Round 2 has just begun – Ding! Ding! Ding! In tonight’s Talking Points, O’Reilly threatened to stop “aggressively putting any money in the market” if President Obama raises capital gains taxes from 15% to 30%.
Read moreThe Five Feel "Suckered" By Former Conservative Wunderkind Now Liberal Teenager
The righteous right loves to accuse liberals of being evil, vicious, mean, and nasty. They promote, especially on Fox News, the meme that liberals treat conservatives with contempt. But the phrase, pot meet kettle comes to mind in considering the conservative trashing of Jonathan Krohn who, as a 13 year old conservative, was hailed as the "second coming" by those on the right and Fox News. Now that Krohn has grown up and has abandoned his conservative principals that endeared him to the right, those same folks are attacking him. Not surprisingly the usual sweet Christians on "The Five" joined in the fun which, while not as vicious as some of the right wing bullying, was still rather mean spirited. I suspect that if Bill Maher attacked some liberal turned conservative kid, there would howls of indignation about liberal bullies.
Read moreOn Hannity: Lee Greenwood's America Blessing God Is Christian!
The America of Fox News is Christian and patriotic. And as Christian patriots they love them their Lee Greenwood whose schmaltzy, jingoistic "God Bless theUSA" is the unofficial national anthem for red state America. On Fox,Greenwood has achieved a demi-god status and any affront to his patriotic hymn is met with scathing condemnation, across the Fox media, of the offenders such as the NY City school principal who had the effrontery to eliminate Greenwood's sacred song from the kindergarten graduation. The Fox News channel paid homage to Greenwood during a recent Hannity show where polymath Greenwood lectured a rapt Hannity about the importance of God to America - in this case, revisionist - history. And for Fox, Greenwood's god is a Christian one as shown by the visual of a Christian cross on top of a "Holy Bible" on the Fox video thumbnail.
Read moreShannon Bream’s Phony Balance In Texas Voter ID Law Discussion
Shannon Bream hosted what purported to be an objective discussion about the Texas voter ID law yesterday. But instead of bringing any facts to the discussion, she allowed Texas Republican Louis Gohmert to make unsubstantiated and inflammatory accusations about Democrats and “balanced” them with brief statements from the other side, presented as opposing opinions – which she then opened the door for Gohmert to attack.
Read moreGreg Gutfeld Misrepresents Obama Speech To Accuse Him Of "Punishing Success"
How desperate is Fox News to defeat President Obama? So desperate that they have cropped a quote from an Obama speech and are totally twisting it to claim that Obama is, according to the Sunday Fox & Friends & Fr. Jonathan Morris, waging class warfare and discouraging Americans from being "successful." The meme was actually introduced on Friday's The Five during which Greg Gutfeld said that Obama is "running against success" and "waging a war against achievement." As on Fox & Friends, the video clip was cut short. As on Fox & Friends the comment was totally twisted into something that it's not. But both Fox & Friends and The Five are "opinion" shows. But what's that saying about being entitled to your opinion but not your facts? In this case, the opinion isn't supported by fact.
Read moreOn Fox & Friends: 10 Commandments Compromise Is "Win" For Christian Legal Group
As the network for persecuted Christians, Fox News is always willing to provide a platform for any and all perceived offenses to Jesus' BFF's. When a Virginia judge, presiding over a lawsuit involving the posting of the 10 Commandments in a Virginia school, suggested that the Commandments be abridged to include only those with no mention of God, America's Christian newsroom was all over it. Official Fox priest Fr. Jonathan Morris discussed it on his weekly Sunday Fox & Friends sermon. It was talked about on "The Five" where the suit was deemed to be a waste of taxpayer money. But praise the lord, the case has been resolved with a compromise. On this morning's Fox & Friends, the Christian attorney for the county chatted with Jesus' BFF's Steve Doocy and Gretchen Carlson. Not only did he misrepresent a major detail of the case, but he and the curvy couch twins claimed it was a "win" for Christians. You just can't make this stuff up.
Read moreNo Serious Debate On Biden’s Call For More Stimulus – But Lots Of Fox News Smears
Cavuto on Business yesterday attacked discussed Vice President’s Biden’s call for more stimulus. Neil Cavuto’s response? He called it an “over-the-top fix for the economy and jobs.” After playing the clip of Biden, Cavuto sneered that Biden’s audience looked like they were in a hostage tape. He added “You’ve got a government spending more than a trillion bucks on jobs, and isn’t getting any bang for those bucks, now wants to spend more of your bucks on jobs. So we’re asking this morning, what the buck?” That set the tone for the rest of the segment.
Read moreFr. Jonathan Morris "Interprets" Obama Speech As "Un-American" Class Warfare
Fox's propaganda messaging involves clever manipulation of language such as the use of incendiary words to describe what they are framing as an "outrage." They are also adept at manipulating others words in order to convey whatever agitprop meme they are advancing. A classic example would be how Obama's campaign statement about reproductive freedom was really "endorsing contraception" for kids. In Today's Sunday homily by Fox News' only full time clergy contributor (no rabbis or liberal Protestant clergy - especially icky women clergy - need apply in the America's Vatican newsroom), employed this type of propaganda in that it conveyed what seemed, ostensibly, an inspirational message but was really an attack on President Obama whose cleverly cropped words were, at the beginning of the piece, very cleverly misinterpreted manipulated dare I say twisted.
Read moreFox & Friends Guest Fights "Lies" About Christian Intolerance
In addition to being part of a network that specializes in conservative victimhood, Jesus' very own morning show, Fox & Friends specializes in the travails of persecuted Christians. This morning they ratcheted up the pity party by interviewing an author who claims that Christians are being given a bad rap in the non Fox media and popular culture. Their guest, Michael Coren, who has had a multifaceted religious journey, defended Christianity whilst working in a little snark at Islam. Jesus must be very happy.
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